
	Platform Playstation 2 Genre Action Publisher SCEA Developer High Impact Games ESRB E +10 (Everyone) Released March 11, 2008

- Hits most of the typical Ratchet & Clank conventions, like crazy weapons - Action runs at a good clip

- The camera is an annoying mess - Surely more can be squeezed out of the PS2 in the graphics department

Review: Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (PS2) Review: Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters (PSP) Review: Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (PS2)
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Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters

Score: 6.0 / 10

For the most part, I’ve missed out on the Ratchet & Clank series – always hearing good things, playing demos, watching some clips, etc. It always conveyed a sense of fun. But if I were to base my opinion of the entire Ratchet & Clank series on Size Matters, I’d be wondering why everyone lauds so much praise on the series. The camera is irritable and often does its own thing and the graphics are stark at the best of times; two problems that just don’t jibe with a series that

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has always been about larger than life cartoon action.

I thought about giving Size Matters some leeway because it is, after all, a PSP port but considering the two platforms are close to equivalent in regard to hardware I just can’t let it slide.

In fact, any camera problems should have

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been eliminated by way of the second analog stick available on the Playstation 2 controller. Sometimes it works and sometimes, especially in the later levels where the enemies are thick on the ground, it doesn’t. It’s an effort in frustration to work through some sections of the game since the camera just won’t co-operate, even after futzing around with the camera options.

Like the PSP game, the story unfolds with Ratchet and Clank enjoying some R&R but they’re quickly mired in another adventure, complete with humor and a bombastic variety of upgradeable weapons, including the Shrink Ray and Acid Bomb Glove. There’s much blasting and some light puzzle solving involved.

I don’t put much stock in graphics but Size Matters doesn’t look very good. Looking at the PSP screens, it seems that not much has received upgrades to take advantage of the better-known architecture of the Playstation 2 and the larger screen that the Size Matters will be played on. And the matter becomes even more pronounced if you drop in Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (PS2), which is more than three years old.

The multiplayer mode feels somewhat misplaced here. The mini-games are perfectly expectable – in fact, it pretty much a standard when it comes to action platformers – but the multiplayer, even if the modes are kind of interesting, the lack of online support kind of kills it.

Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters isn’t a bad game (even if the camera is troublesome), but judging by the forum feedback and general critical feedback it doesn’t seem to hit the same high water marks the other games have, which is likely why I can only see completionists grabbing a copy.

- D.D. Nunavut

(April 2, 2008)


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