Ah, Insomniac games.
Since the original Spyro the Dragon Insomniac has shown they know the formula for making a successful action platformer. Make a 3D world with lots of areas to explore and absolutely inundate it with things to collect which will be measured at the end of each level. Going through one level of a Spyro title is all you need to know why Insomniac is so aptly named. Did I say one level? I meant eight, because you'll be about that far before you realize it's 4 in the morning.
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| "Okay . . . ONE more level." |
This one ended up on my backlog after I was wandering through GameStop and saw it without the Greatest Hits label. You know you've got a problem when you convince yourself it's worth owning a game you didn't want previously simply because the label of black instead of red. It didn't matter that I was in the middle of playing other stuff (Persona 4 at the time, I think) that was going to take me awhile, or that I already had dozens of other games sitting around waiting to be played. I had here Ratchet & Clank in the original case, and dammit, I was going to get it. Not only that, I was going to get the whole trilogy just to prove how committed I was to this idea. If you're gonna do it, do it all the way.
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| Above: Precedent |
Now, Ratchet & Clank is a kid's game. There's nothing overly complicated about the puzzles, none of the jumps or levels are that challenging (though you will die, many, many times, if you just jaunt along without looking), and really only the final boss is difficult to fight. The story, dialogue, and even some of the animation seem like they were lifted right from a Disney movie. That's why it really struck me that this game focuses so much around mass genocide.
