Ratchet & Clank

Ratchet & Clank came about when Insomniac Games used the production of a feature-length animated film as an opportunity to remake its own 2002 debut into a modern reboot that works both as a film tie-in and as a new entry point into the series for PlayStation 4 players. The story follows the meeting of the Lombax Ratchet and the robot Clank, who accidentally get caught up in the scheme of the evil Emperor Drek to destroy planets to build a new homeland, and must team up with the disbanded group of heroes known as the Galactic Rangers.

The core remains the proven combination of platforming jumps and shootouts with extravagant weapons, such as the Sheepinator that turns enemies into sheep or the Groovitron that forces an entire room to dance, with each weapon gradually upgrading through use and gaining a more powerful form. Combat demands constant lateral movement, dodging, and quick switching of the arsenal depending on the enemy type; interspersed between firefights are hoverboard sections, starfighter flights, and small logic puzzles in which the player controls Clank's helper bots. Level design is more streamlined and accessible for a new generation of players compared to the original, with less punishing checkpoint placement, without losing the appeal of returning to earlier planets with newly acquired gear.

Visually, the game harnessed the full graphical power of PlayStation 4 for a colorful, animated style comparable to Pixar-level production. Fast animated cutscenes flowing seamlessly into gameplay without visible loading screens showed just what the console was capable of in terms of smooth transitions between cinematic and playable sections. Critics praised the return to humor and inventiveness without sacrificing accessibility for newcomers, and the game became both a successful standalone title and convincing proof that classic franchises can be sensitively modernized, paving the way for the more spectacular Rift Apart on PlayStation 5. The accompanying animated film failed to win over critics or audiences to any great degree, but the game itself made clear that Insomniac retains firm creative control over this classic franchise.