A story of love for the game, carried throughout life

What do you remember from childhood? I mean, deep childhood, the memories from which are mysteriously abstract and carry more sensations than anything concrete. Which of these “specific” things do you remember?? I remember a PS2 disc that had a bunch of different demos and trailers on it. I remember among them the demo of the very first Ratchet & Clank, in which there were two levels: one – a colorful bottomless giant metropolis, and the second – a dark industrial city filled with swampy monsters, looking like a large accumulation of pipes. And a little fox with a cute robot on his back was running around both levels, shooting at everyone with cannons and collecting bolts falling from everywhere. I remember asking my mother to turn on the small square TV and this “little fox”, completely not understanding how to do it myself.

At that time, I didn’t even suspect that I would play this series all my life, buy consoles for these very games and try to get a book on the universe, which is now a real printed rarity. I want to share this personal and slightly crazy love story with you.

Insanity

In general, my close acquaintance with the first game in the series will not happen very soon. Somehow it turned out that I didn’t have the full version as a child, so these 2 levels for a long time formed the impression in my head that this was the whole game. Well, the parents quickly realized what game should be next.

True love, knocking me down, began with Going Commando, the second game in the series. In principle, I didn’t have many games on the second curling iron, and it’s not like I needed it. After all, I’ve completed this game so many times that I’m even embarrassed to admit it – one save slot totaled, as I remember, about 42 playthroughs. I had more than one save slot.

For the stuffy, perplexed or just curious: the game, like almost the entire series, has NG+, and instead of NG++ or NG+++, the save slot simply showed with a number how many times you continued your playthrough.

In general, I know the game by heart, although not inside and out. I will visit the same Insomniac in-game museum many years later. So yes, I just incredibly enjoyed the process, and not poking my nose into every pixel of the game.

First difficulties in relationships

Up Your Arsenal, considered an ideal threequel, could not become one for me. And no, not because it’s not such a good game, it’s really more polished and has brought to mind many mechanics and all sorts of little things. The reason turned out to be less pleasant – I accidentally damaged the game disc. Yes, and it’s so true that two-thirds of the game worked perfectly for me, but at one level I was always greeted by a black screen with ambient sounds. That’s all. I was so annoyed by the stop game that I didn’t play much of what worked great. Well, compared to Going Commando. So I played a lot of the third part, it’s just pointless to compete with the second. 42 playthroughs on one save slot, I remind you.

Deadlocked, known to Europe and to me as a child as Gladiador, was also completed an indecent number of times: each weapon could be upgraded to level 99. Needless to say, there was a save slot where I had all the upgrades? So I think it’s not worth mentioning. At the same time, I love the game even less than Up Your Arsenal.

And now it’s time to move on to the era of games for PS3, I had already started drooling over Tools of Destruction, but suddenly in the store I saw a disc with a new one for PS2 Size Matters . Of course, I immediately persuaded my dad to buy it and… Well, even then it seemed downright strange to me. It had interesting ideas, but the execution of even small things confused me. Only later do I find out that the game was not made by Insomniac, and in general it is a port from the PSP.

Around the same time at school there was a boom in mobile games for push-button phones and I, as a true fan of the series, decided to find out if any game about Ratchet and Clank had been released on them. It turned out that it did, but I have nothing more to say – I completed one level, but even my love for this series could not convince me of mobile gaming, so screw Going Mobile .

6 years of suffering

So, Tools of Destruction. Of course, like any normal child, I really wanted a third curling iron, but my dreams were not destined to come true for many years. I especially wanted a new console as soon as I found out that it had a new Ratchet! At first I drooled over the game discs in the display cases, and then I was even able to touch my dream! My parents‘ friends had a son who had a third Sonya and even a game from my favorite series. Of course, I wanted to move in with him so that I could at least admire the non-xtgen beauties more often. And of course, I almost didn’t play even the 2 times I came to visit, because he was that same greedy fellow. In general, life separated me and my love.

And now, the moment has come: after 6 years of waiting, they want to give me… PS4… Anyone would be happy, but not me. After all, I couldn’t miss the game that I’ve been waiting for so long! That’s why I asked to give me an almost obsolete PS3. Finally, the treasured disc was in my hands. Well almost..

SHE’S NOT ALONE!

In my hands was a disc with A Crack in Time ! This came as a real shock to me. I didn’t know for sure that anything other than Tools of Destruction was coming out on PS3. But among the discs that other friends of my parents gave me there was a completely different game that I had never even heard of. And then I realized – there were more! My dad and I stormed PSN and bought more Quest For Booty, Q-Force (yes, regional titles again), All 4 One and… The original Ratchet & Clank.

In general, my happiness knew no bounds. https://bogart-casino.co.uk/mobile-app/ It was nostalgia, because I finally completed the entire game, 2 levels of which I already knew by heart (by the way, I safely lost that disk with demos and trailers even before the PS3 appeared). It was euphoric because I got to the most desired game of my life. I’ve been waiting for her for 6 years! And she turned out to be just as cool as I expected. But A Crack in Time turned out to be even cooler. A true masterpiece, the best game in the series, in my opinion, so far. And a pleasant surprise was that, just like during the generation change last time, Into the Nexus was released for the already dying PS3 . Fortunately, this time the game was made by the same Insomniac. The only catch was… the length of the game. It was just short but still great. Unfortunately, not all games from the PS3 era were like this..

Happiness doesn’t last forever

Quest for Booty was even shorter than Into the Nexus, but served as an enjoyable story and gameplay bridge between Tools of Destruction and A Crack in Time, and its very existence adds weight to the entire plot of this Future trilogy. With Q-Force and All 4 One the situation is less pleasant: these were genre experiments. The first is suddenly Tower Defense, and the second is a cooperative Top-Down shooter. However, the platinum in Q-Force was knocked out, but I never beat All 4 One, since it is quite difficult to complete the entire game in co-op, and it was almost impossible to complete it alone, and I didn’t want to. After completing the game on YouTube, it turned out that Doctor Nefarious received interesting development as a character. In general, maybe all these games were not as good as their “big” brothers, but against the backdrop of euphoria they left a pleasant feeling. But further..

Then I finally sold the old PS3 and upgraded to PS4. And yes, I already knew what to prepare for. I watched the cartoon, looked at the reviews and finally completed the reboot . It may not be the worst game in the series, but it is the biggest disappointment for me personally. From a gameplay point of view, the game is good, but nothing more, but the plot… Remember, I mentioned that the series suddenly became darker in Deadlocked? Well, apparently, this was a groping for the Future series. Because the stakes were raised so much that in A Crack in Time the ending brought tears to my eyes. Interesting development of the main antagonist of the series in All 4 One? Perhaps it didn’t make sense to continue the old story threads, but don’t turn the story into a kindergarten. Even the games on PS2 had adult and sarcastic humor in places, and in the 2016 game..

To be honest, I haven’t gotten around to Rift Apart yet, so I won’t say anything about it at all, very mixed expectations. However, I will play, and I want a PS5 for one game. So I don’t change traditions after years.

What are you willing to do for love??

Now that I have a PS4 in my hands, I have to contrive with an emulator in order to play games from the PS2 era and enjoy these wonderful games again. But with games from the PS3 era… Some difficulties again.

Firstly, everything is not so smooth with the emulator – it somehow plays games from the R&C series. Secondly, my hardware doesn’t always run games from the second Sonya at stable FPS. However, I moved on.

So, I dug up a third stitched “curling iron” from a friend, but even here it turned out that not everything was so simple. Unfortunately, due to certain technical problems, it seems that it will not be possible to play A Crack in Time. Therefore, we had to take extreme measures.

It would seem that looking for a disk is not such an extreme measure. Only if it is not sold in another city. And sending by delivery is not an option. Well, the challenge was accepted – the trap plan is already in action. These are not the first difficulties.

Not the end

If you were suddenly expecting some kind of conclusion or heartbreaking ending, then no. I said that this is a lifelong love. Well that’s not an epitaph. And the series is still alive and well. So maybe someday I will write the second part of this story after many years. But for now you need to get A Crack in Time. Time doesn’t wait.

Best comments

I’m completely new to R&C, but it’s always nice to read positive revelations about something, whether it’s cross stitch or devotion to a video game series. A person whose eyes light up at the mention of something he truly loves is truly living.

I have a similar story with Ori and the Blind Forest. Even though this is not the game of my childhood at all, and I can’t boast of 42 save slots, I won’t be able to forget my acquaintance with it. The ideal combination of a fabulously beautiful picture, a touching story and mind-blowing complexity sank deep into the heart, and will not leave it even after hundreds of arguments that there are better Metroidvanias. I love the game, not its genre. Well, Will of the Wisps eventually kept the first part company in that secluded place of the soul.

Thank you for the pleasant read!

Size Matters is a decent game, but it suffers for other reasons. From self-copying, strange character motivations, slightly broken gameplay and strange levels. For example, the races at the destroyed station are incredibly tedious and long, as if you are biting through jelly. Ratchet is kind of weird in this game with constant mood swings. This piano in the bushes with a monkey on a rocket. It looks funny, it’s over, but if you think about it, it becomes bad. This dream of Ratchet in the hospital sur hell is simple, and in general the whole level with the hospital is some kind of prohibitive complexity. Broken check points, similar to the same moon with the change of day and night. You run through the field for about two minutes, then you dodge stones for about 2 minutes, then you have a fight with the boss. Lost? Start back from the field. The weapon has a strange impact, the shotgun is generally the weakest in the entire series in my memory. Some enemies are too fat and bite painfully. The imbalance in weapons is huge. The same static barier imba is terrible more serious than rhino, which allows you to pass the final boss simply on afk)

Nice and heartfelt article. I also went through all the parts.

I’m on the same level as Crash, Jax, Rayman, and this one.

But I have a different love, God of War series.

I had a similar situation.

When I desperately tried to play on ps2, psp, ps3, ps4.

Everywhere, catch a little bit of a game or two, on different platforms.

It was such a collective quest, but fascinating.

So I understand your delusions. Drink kvass, be a hammer.

Absolutely understand! Ori is beautiful, although Will of the Wisps didn’t work out for me, I’ll have to return to it to properly appreciate it.

I fully support the author of this blog, it gave me goosebumps in an even order. I really skipped the PS3 generation, so I didn’t play half of the games from it either, and I still can’t get my hands on Rift Apart. But God, what did the first games in the series do to my fragile brain?. This manual rocket is from the first Ratchet. These screensavers with Captain Quark from the second. Oh, those Sasha and Courtney Gears from the third part, the most desirable waifus of any lover of these platformers. Even in Size matters with psp there was a cool charm with the collection of armor and a wonderful level with a dynamic change of day and night, when, from the presence or absence of sunlight, enemies appeared or turned into cute sheep. And the multiplayer from the third part with the capture of bases and fierce know-how 360 moments from a sniper rifle in the spirit of some Halo? Legendary.

And the 2016 reboot was not bad, although it was very boring in terms of plot, but gods, I wanted to take this Lombax out of the screen and stroke his hairy and detailed soft head) I’m still drooling over the new part and wish the series to live and develop.

One hundred percent, Size Matters had great ideas! The armor is really a bomb, it’s a pity that this is not in any other game, and the levels with latrines and reduction to take a walk inside Clank – Wow! I remember all this and even think that the game really wasn’t that bad.

But it will never fade from memory and carries a bunch of different emotions – why play games otherwise??

It turned out to be a soulful blog. It’s nice to see how people do not lose interest in their favorite things and continue to care for theirs with fire in their eyes. I started getting acquainted with this franchise with Size Matters on the PSP, which I know almost completely by heart, but what’s funny is that I never completed it (I only remember that I once almost defeated the final boss, but something got in the way and I left it), but even in the multiplayer there I played with my comrades. However, the game is very good, like almost all the PS3 games that I have played and the PS4 remake, which, however, I only played once. I hope sooner or later you will be able to complete RIft Apart 😉

Well, Rift Apart is not even close to 6 years old yet, so the wait record is still a long way off!