PLAY review: Ratchet & Clank: Quest For Booty

If PLAY were in Insomniac's shoes, they would put the Ratchet & Clank series to bed. Four PS2 games, two PSP titles and a PS3 release is more than enough, thank you, and with no great innovation in any of them, we'd assume that it's time to move on.

At the very least, PLAY would consider revamping the series into a Mario-rivalling, Pixar-looking platform champion, instead of churning out the same hi-res PS2 shod on a bi-yearly basis. Still, PLAY don't live in Imaginationland, so PLAY will likely be cursed with games like Ratchet & Clank: Quest For Booty for a while, unless sales take a deserved crash through the floor.

[Silogon]

Apparently this P*SSY SQUIRT never played R&C 2 and 3 because had he done so he would've seen over 9 planets play out better than anything Mario Galaxy had to offer. Yes, planets that traversed on a 3-d axis and had you working against gravity in a great deal of them.

So, since he wanted to add in "Mario galaxy" that proves this idiot hasn't played $#*T! R&C broke the doors off the fully 3-d traversal of planets well before Mario Galaxy did and did it better!

The only thing that needs to be laid to rest here are these morons. Aside from that Insomniac had nothing to do with the PSP versions of the series you stupid ass rash's. Do, know, and inform yourselves better for your job and the sake of not looking like idiots to your few readers.

[flambeau]

I agree with you on what you said except that they could try to add something new into the series.

[Silogon]

I agree they need to change up a bit and bring some new stuff to the table. I admit it fully, but to say they never ahve?? That's a lie. I think if the next installment doesn't astonish us and give us something new to play around with, after 2 years down the road on ps3 hardware, yeah it's time to retire the series... until then, these small psn games will bridge that gap perfectly for fans and non fans a like.

[flambeau]

Ya, I want to see them give the player more freedom in the levels where we get to explore a lot of it rather than like 2 or 3 specified area. Maybe add more weapons or devices which I wouldn't mind.

[Silogon]

What I want is the following

Real time traversal of an entire galaxy, not just planets bridged by cut scenes. I want to be able to land on a planet in real time and take off from that planet in real time and then travel t the next one.

Buying parts and getting upgrades, as you do now for your ship, would go a long ways in making things smoother, faster and easier to get around the galaxy.

I also would like to see Ratchet visit earth and interact with humans. It'd make for a pretty funny level/planet/parto the game. Like ahve them get stuck on earth for a stint.

there is a lot left they can do with the series and I hope they take or are taking the initiative to see that they are done.

[Cajun Chicken]

A level...IN A PLANET, going through a system of tunnels full of enemies to reach the surface.
Spherical worlds need to come back, day/night systems.
Dr Nefarious needs to come back for comic relief with his butler.
Wheres Al been? Last time I heard he was a android...hmm, that sets some possibilities.
Need more Large Clank gameplay.
More optional frantic shoot outs.
I still see a strong future in R&C games because they don't let down.

[Bazookajoe_83]

And in so many ways..

Edit: "With no innovation in any of them" Is this guy high or is his parents siblings?

[Winter47th]

Glad someone's finally grew a pair and said what needs to be said for a long time now.

[kewlkat007]

Mario is an Icon and came out at a time after the big video game crash, almost like a savior or something to that effect and all we did have, was 2-D side scrollers at the time.

You just can't compare Mario because Mario "the icon" has done a lot for the industry as whole. I can't even put R&C in the same sentence. "The Super Mario Brothers saved the gaming industry."

Nintendo just happened to make the most out of it's most important character by milking it but even some say it's time to stop.

3-D platformers are the continuation of the 2-D side scroller and yes have advance in many ways 3-D games have. For some reason the Platform genre seems to be dead. There used to be so much great 2-D ones(I can name plenty) but now you can count on one hand some great 3-D platformers, well R&C is def one of them.

For me these days after a TRILOGY you really have to work harder at re-energizing the genre. That goes for many games.

[Mao]

Love it. Love Ratchet. Always innovates, always brings something new and fun to the table. If you wanna generate fanboy heat over a STEAL of a $15 game, do it with your friends. This is a pathetic excuse for a review.

[Bathyj]

Mario is a dead horse, flogged.
Mario, Zelda, Pokemon. Nintendo should own Dairies, they are the master of milking stuff. I have nipples Nintendo, could you milk me?

R&C shouldn't be marked down just because its short or more of the same. Its not looking to reinvent the wheel. Its for the fans, the people who love R&C:ToD of which there are many, and want a little more action for a little more money.

And thats the beauty of PSN too, you can make these half games. If we had to wait for a full release we would be waiting alot longer or maybe not even get it at all for the sake of other projects.

[badz149]

what the hell is wrong with this guy? he obviously hates R&C and then put Mario in there...he's DUMB!

"At the very least, PLAY would consider revamping the series into a Mario-rivalling, Pixar-looking platform champion, instead of churning out the same hi-res PS2 shod on a bi-yearly basis."

1. Ok, so can you at PLAY make one?

2. what exactly is Mario-rivalling? there's nothing wrong with you loving mario THAT much but are you going to review every single platformer by comparing it with Mario? or you just hate R&C??

3. can you please give me a better looking platformer than R&C:future?

4. it's a selling franchise, what is wrong with them keeping it in the market? you love mario, right? so, did Miyamoto stop making new Marios after it being successfull? Hell, no! and he even milked it in everyway imaginable! do you think Halo will stop at 3? think about it!

this guy is DUMBER beyond DUMB! he's not qualified to review any game at all because he couldn't even keep his fvckin head stays unbiased! rule no.1 in reviewing: you're asked to REVIEW, not COMPARE!!

[flambeau]

Going Commando offered some customization but after that they took it out til Deadlocked and that game sucked. But the rest I wouldn't mind seeing either but the earth idea would be interesting to see. But more exploration is a must.

[drdre74]

I'm getting it as soon as I finish the last PS3 game. I've had it for awhile and never really played it since i had some other great games to finish. Now I'm just getting back to it and kicking myself for not playing it earlier.

[Raspinudo]

I love how reviewers have been so critical of Ratchet and yet so forgiving on Braid and Bionic Commando.

[beavis4play]

ratchet is much better than mario in my book. keep making ratchet games insomniac. i'll buy every one. i loved the look and story of ToD.

what i don't get is this: why does this site(and many others) review games that they go into with a dislike for? reading this review, it didn't take long to notice these guys HATE the ratchet and clank series. if they can't be objective, their reviews are meaningless.(as this one is)

[lowcarb]

Ratchet might be a decent game but I don't think it comes anywhere near Mario. Even though I can't stand the wii I can't ignore the fact that mario is the king of it's genre. Anyways this score is pretty low which is ashame because a ton of people on this site love to praise it.

[pp]

Is that score a flop

[GiantEnemyCrab]

Floppalicious!

If you are going to go by the condemnation that the PS3 fanboys did with Too Human and Ninja Gaiden 2.

Time to make some QuestForFloppage accounts on N4G and you can go start making some YTMD's.

[kazuma]

yes, it's a flop...for a downloadable game that costs 10 bucks and lasts 3hr.
u just won the prize for "most retarded way to try and bash a console that is not the 360".

congratulations!!!

[beavis4play]

you guys aren't very bright or just desperate 360 fanboys. it's dlc, nothing more. i'm downloading it now but i don't expect any more than for it to be an extension of TOD. you want to see a flop, look at the recently released TH. oops, sorry....i bet you 2 don't want to be reminded of that.

[silverchode]

quest for booty 7.3
http://www.metacritic.com/g...
too human 6.8
http://www.metacritic.com/g...

qfb>too human

[GiantEnemyCrab]

Stop making excuses! A flop is a flop. Yes, I can post some positive Too Human reviews as well, but like I was told by you $ony fishheads, it doesn't change the truth that it's a flop..

FLOP!!

It's at 7.3 and falling..

[zo6_lover27]

It still doesn't change the fact that Too Human was hyped and Quest for Booty wasn't.

[kazuma]

clap clap clap, we just keep going down, don't we? a dlc game just flopped! everyone start the presses!
RATCHET AND CLANK FUTURE QUEST FOR BOOTY CAMEE OUT TODAY AND FLOPPED! DON'T SPEND 10 BUCKS ON IT, IT'S A FLOP! INSOMNIAC PROBABLY DIDN'T EVEN SPEND A YEAR MAKING IT, BUT IT FLOPPED! MOST PEOPLE DIDN'T EVEN KNEW THIS WAS COMING! COME AND GET UR NEWSPAPER!

honestly, how ppl like u two can't even seem to make a proper judgement and clearly see that u cannot compare haze and too human with quest for booty, is overwhelming really.

i'm just gonna write ur nicks over here, i'm just waiting for ur responses on this site when banjo comes along (with a price tag of 39.99) and IF (hopefully not, banjo is too cool of a character to suffer that fate) it has low scores, i'm pretty sure i can read ur minds already.
"but it's a budget game, there's no way u can compare it with the heavy hitters that retail at full price"

oh and btw, i don't think most ppl grouped gaiden 2 with too human. gaiden 2 didn't meet the same reviews as the first one did but having those two together is a deadly sin you see, because too human is clearly 360's haze or lair. and gaiden 2 flop it is not. perhaps u were referring to the most rabid ps3 fanboys. but u two are no different from them, u just have a different flag :)

[GiantEnemyCrab]

Kazuma you go ahead and do that. This is a stand-alone game stop trying to make it sound like some DLC add-on. I thought Insomniac are god's listening to the fanboys go on about it.

You go ahead and do that when Banjo comes out. It's funny you say that because you know all the PS3 fishheads on this site will line-up just like they did with Too Human to bash it if it scores anything less than 80 percent.

Ninja Gaiden 2 was torn apart on this site and deemed a flop because it didn't score in the 90-100 percentile. After all that I am not going to let this slide. the circle continues...

[silverchode]

crabs you should take a break from this site it seems your brain has suffered maximum damage.

[kazuma]

whether u consider it dlc or a full game is besides the point.
too human was announced 10 years ago, it was in development for the 360 for like 3 years?
gaiden 2 was in development for what, 2 years?
haze was in development for what, 2 years?
lair was in development for what, 2 years?
ratchet and clank future tools was also what 2 years?

u see, u CANNOT group quest for booty with these games that i just mentioned. why? because they had large teams working on it for 2 whole years or more. that defines a project as something big and worthy of hyping. a project that took perhaps 6 months cannot be grouped with projects that took 2 years and more.

[zo6_lover27]

Quest for Booty is a PSN title AKA DLC, and, ITS ONLY 10 FRIGGIN DOLLARS, not 60 like Too Human.

You're getting a better game for 1/6 of the price, whats there to complain about?

[kazuma]

"If PLAY were in Insomniac's shoes, they would put the Ratchet & Clank series to bed."

now i know why PLAY knows nothing about what they're talking about.

edit: further proof
ratchet & clank future: tools of destruction metascores
7 10's
37 9's
21 8's
4 7's
1 6's

wow, that's some bad game! i don't even want to go and dig out other ratchet & clank scores, too much trouble. still it's clear that the franchise is in trouble!

[beavis4play]

agreed.

[Liquid Dust]

where the hell do they get off, "At the very least, PLAY would consider revamping the series into a Mario-rivalling, Pixar-looking platform champion, instead of churning out the same hi-res PS2 shod on a bi-yearly basis." I heard so many reviews when R&C:Future about how the game was now at the level of pixar animated movies. I believe both ign and gametrailers mentioned that, and i agree with them.

R&C:Future is still one of the best looking and playing games that i own. It is the only game that i have where i will be it, erase the save, and play it completely through again and still try to get all of the golden bolts

PLAY can shove it

[dktxx2]

It's obvious he doesn't like the game period. Every thing he said bad about the game was what people liked about the first one. And why bring Mario into the review? What does Mario have anything to do with the game?

[PirateThom]

The concept of Mario Galaxy was basically stolen from a Ratchet and Clank game.

[Fernando Rocker]

Really? This gameplay video is from a game released in 1995.

[PirateThom]

What does that have to do with gravity?

For all intents and purposes, that's no different to things that were in various Sonic games before 1995.

[lowcarb]

I sorry Pirate thom but I have to disagree with you there.

[badz149]

the concept of SMG is adapted more from kingdom hearts! Sora changes costume in different worlds and have special abilities for that world only(for some of them). but I've only played limited numbers of games compared to most of you maybe, so what do I know? just voicing my opinion.

but seriously, putting R&C and Mario together in a sentence is just not right. they've never even been played on a same platform before! Mario is Mario and R&C is R&C! but Mario have gone through too many spin-off when R&C stays true to its roots!

[Cajun Chicken]

Doesn't PLAY Ratchet and Clank games.
Its obvious.

Besides, PLAY is a rubbish Playstation magazine in the UK, its always been junk they don't like ANYTHING, I don't even see the point of them as they even heckled the Crash Bandicoot games when they were big and claimed CTR was a crap kart race cash in and hated Spyro as a game.

Read PSM3 instead, they worshiped Future and the prequels, too right as well. You could say they like FUN games.

[Mr_Showtime1]

Ratchet and Clank looks beautiful on PS3, it does not look like a hi-res PS2 game, maybe this reviewer should have gone to spec-savers.

If your going to talk about putting a platformer to rest, how about Mario?, I don't know about others but I'm sick and tired of Nintendo wheeling out the Italian plumber every time they need to make money, Mario, Mario party, Mario golf, Sonic and Mario at the Oylmpics, the list goes on.

Quest for Booty is a perfect slice of Ratchet to keep fans of the series like me looking forward to the next title.

[Liquid Dust]

Well put showtime, its quite obvious that they couldnt insomniac couldnt have a full blown ratchet game ready for this year, a fun slice of ratchet can go a long way and get me hyped for next year, and im sure it helps insomniac pay a few bills, and do some major work for the next installment

[Qbanboi]

I like the R&C serie like the next guy, but yeah, i think that they should give it a rest for a while, for real. They hadn't finished Resistance 2 and they're already doing another R&C. Come on, do something new please.

[Fat Onion]

LOL...I am on the same quest.

[creeture]

lol

[KingKirchner]

I know I'm "supposed" to like Mario more than Ratchet, but I don't. I like both...a lot. But I happen to like Ratchet more. It's got more addictive gameplay IMO. If you're looking for straight up pure platforming action though, Mario wipes the floor with Ratchet.

But as a whole, I prefer Ratchet more, but the 2 are very different.

Now, the original Jak and Daxter is one game that beats Mario at it's own game IMO ;)

[kspraydad]

in the third person. Play should tell Play that if they want to design games for the PSN they can.

[meepmoopmeep]

i'll dl this over the weekend.

i'll replay R&C: FTOD first though to refresh my memory.

[air1]

oh look, a 10 dollar flop..

[monkey602]

Monkey602 respects Insomniac and Monkey602 finds the Ratchet & Clank series extremely entertaining. If Monkey602 were in Play's shoes, he would take that stick out of his @ss and drop whatever grudge he may have with R&C.

It's really annoying to read like that thankfully its only the story description. Still R&C is one of the only platformer games I care for anymore. With dozens of childish movie tie in platformers hitting the shelves every few months, It's great to have one that takes itself seriously and isn't a cash cow. Insomniac take pride in their work as they should because it's some of the best out there. And I for one dont want to see the end of R&C just yet.

[Host Samurai_]

What a lame review. Its not like there is 1000 platformers comming out this generation like there is with SHOOTAN GAEMZ.

[Cajun Chicken]

A game for a tenner that has about a half the length of Gears of War's single player campaign...as a download with 3D hi-def cartoon'y quality visuals that no-one else currently offers.
Don't say it isn't, because if you've played GeOW; it is.

[DJ]

Already bought it, haha.

[devilhunterx]

Just out of curiousity, I wonder what Play rates yearly iteration of sport games.

[LossTheEarthbreaker]

However, I'm too lazy to do any research on them.

[Adamalicious]

This reviewer clearly just doesn't like R&C and set out to write a review hating on the series. I've played every one and I still love them.

[Dyingduck]

a 10 bucks DLC beat too human too flop that is in dev for over 10 years - 360 has a lot of offer /rofl

[djroberts]

Morons. These games are sooo fun. I hope they never stop. Heck, I think Future: TOD is the best of the series.

This review is like telling Pixar to stop making CG films.

[Lumbo]

Bought it as soon as it went up on the store, and i love it :D
And i bought it from the US PSN store, as $15 is WAY cheaper than €15, for me.

couldn't stop playing and its true, its kinda ... short. You know, the way all good things feel to be over to darn fast.

[Syronicus]

WTH?

Did this guy even play any of the games? I think not...

[rmedtx888]

I don't know why game reviewers always talk about innovation. Some times game fans want more of the same. For example: Silent Hill is my favorite game series ever. If SH2 is the best game of the series. SH4 was changed to innovate but I didn't like that. I wanted more of the same greatness SH2 delivered. I downloaded R&C Quest for Booty last night and the game is really cool.

[jerethdagryphon]

in some of the tod and qfb vistas you can really see the uncharted engine at work :)

good game bad review