Ratchet & Clank

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the series. For the first game in the series, see Ratchet &
Clank (2002 video game). For the game based on the film, see Ratchet & Clank (2016
video game). For the film adaptation, see Ratchet & Clank (film).
"Ratchet and Clank" redirects here. For the characters, see Ratchet and Clank
(characters).
Ratchet & Clank

Logo since 2021

Genre(s) Action-adventure, platform, third-person shooter
Developer(s)
Insomniac Games
Handheld Games (2005)
High Impact Games (2007–2008)
Sanzaru Games (2009)
Idol Minds (2012–2013)
Tin Giant (2012)
Mass Media Games (2014)
Publisher(s) Sony Interactive Entertainment
Creator(s) Insomniac Games
Platform(s)
PlayStation 2
Java ME
PlayStation Portable
PlayStation 3
PlayStation Vita
iOS
Android
PlayStation 4
PlayStation 5
Windows
First release Ratchet & Clank
November 4, 2002
Latest release Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart PC
July 26, 2023
Ratchet & Clank is a series of action-adventure platform and third-person shooter
video games created and developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony
Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation consoles, such as PlayStation 2,
PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5, with the exclusion of Size Matters
and Secret Agent Clank, which were developed by High Impact Games for the
PlayStation Portable. The series was exclusive to Sony platforms until Rift Apart
received a Windows port in 2023. Despite this however, the intellectual property is
still owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment. An animated feature film adaptation
was released on April 29, 2016.

The games take place in a science fiction setting and follow the adventures of
Ratchet and Clank — a feline humanoid mechanic of the Lombax race, and a
diminutive, sentient Zoni "defective" robot — as they travel through the universe,
saving it from evil forces that consistently threaten it. The series is noted for
its inclusion of many exotic, unique and over-the-top weapons and gadgets, a
concept that Insomniac Games has expanded into their other games.

History
Following the development of Spyro: Year of the Dragon, the third installment of
the Spyro series, Insomniac Games wanted to move into a new intellectual property,
since the Spyro series was owned by Universal Interactive Studios. With the
PlayStation 2 recently announced in 2000, Insomniac began to prototype ideas for
games on this new console. One, called Monster Knight, never got past the
prototyping stage,[1] while a second, called Girl with a Stick and aimed to be a
mashup of The Legend of Zelda and Tomb Raider series, had about six months of
development work before Insomniac's CEO, Ted Price, decided to cancel it as "the
team wasn't feeling it", according to director Brian Allgeier.[2] Now in 2001 and
struggling with ideas, Chief Creative Officer Brian Hasting proposed the idea of
"an alien that travels from planet to planet, collecting weapons and gadgets", an
idea inspired from Spaceman Spiff from Calvin and Hobbes and from Marvin the
Martian.[3] This idea inspired the team since it would allow them to create new
worlds and characters to develop.[2] Artists sketched a number of concepts for this
alien character, which was originally reptilian, but ended up as a new species they
called a "Lombax", a name Price had come up with.[2] Along with this character they
named Ratchet, they gave him a robotic companion, Clank. Originally developed as a
childlike version of the Star Wars character C-3PO, they later decided that Ratchet
and Clank should work instead like a buddy cop film, and made Clank an equal to
Ratchet.[4]

The first game Ratchet & Clank, released in 2002, was successful. In planning the
second, they revamped Ratchet's character, as they felt the first game portrayed
him as a jerk, according to writer TJ Fixman, and softened the character to make
him more relatable, at that point hiring James Arnold Taylor to voice the character
(Ratchet's behavior toward Clank in Tools of Destruction when speaking about the
existence of the Zoni and the risks posed by the Dimesionator could be a hint or
reference to the character in the first game).[4] They spent more time on
developing interesting weapons to make the combat as enjoyable as the platforming
sections of the game.[4] Both the sequel Going Commando and the following game Up
Your Arsenal were well-received and considered commercial successes.[2] Allgeier
considered that these games had success because they were continually evolving the
series to match the current climate in video games, where mascot-driven games had
fallen out of favor, and the company had adopted an "adapt or die" mentality for
each title.[4][2] The "adapt or die" approach was used for the fourth title,
Ratchet: Deadlocked (2005), as they made the title darker and more combat-oriented
given the popularity of the Halo and Grand Theft Auto series. While the game was
well received, this approach was not met well by players, as it veered too much
from the buddy cop concept, lacked the exploration of previous games and comedy in
the writing.[4] The balance between keeping to the "DNA" of a Ratchet & Clank game
against the "adapt or die" mantra would continue to be a struggle throughout
Insomniac's development of the series.[4][2]

Insomniac was asked to help create one of the launch titles for the PlayStation 3,
Resistance: Fall of Man (2006). The company used this title to acclimate itself to
the new hardware, and did not push the capabilities of the game engine. With this
title under wraps, Insomniac was then able to consider how to approach the fifth
Ratchet & Clank game, knowing how to work the PlayStation 3 hardware with the aim
to make a game that played like an animated movie.[2] Insomniac brought on Fixman
to write for the series at this point; one of Fixman's first goals was to take
disjointed mythology from the first four games and flesh out the characters more to
give them a stronger backstory.[4] This led to the three Future games, the first
being Tools of Destruction (2007), which brought the series back to what players
had latched onto and met with praise, outside of its cliffhanger ending.[2]
However, between this and having to drop a planned co-operative element from Tools
of Destruction, Insomniac wanted to produce a new title quickly for Sony to avoid
some of these concerns, and came up with the more experimental Quest for Booty
(2008), a shorter title that played with gameplay elements not previously used in
the series, like conversation trees.[2] Quest for Booty helped Insomniac to
determine where they wanted to take the series next, and planned for the next game,
A Crack in Time (2009) to be the last game in the series, designed to include all
the elements they knew players wanted in a Ratchet & Clank game.[2]

A Crack in Time was successful, and Sony had put pressure on Insomniac to continue
the series, though by this time, the developers had fatigue with the series.
Knowing that Sony was wary about the impact of mobile gaming which were drawing
players away from family-oriented titles, Insomniac experimented with various
concepts for the next few games. All 4 One (2011) was a fully co-operative shooter,
which dropped some of the platforming elements from the series. Full Frontal
Assault (2012) added tower defense elements to the basic gameplay. Finally,
Insomniac developed Into the Nexus (2013) as a return to the core elements of the
series, but was considered to be a shorter title. Sony and Insomniac agreed at this
point to put the series on hold.[2]

Sony started to plan for the 2016 film adaption of the first game; by nature, the
screenplay of the film deviated in several areas from the story of the first game.
As Sony wanted a companion game, Insomniac worked to create a re-imagining of the
first game, informed by the changes made for the film's screenplay.[2]

Alongside Insomniac's development, the series has included two spin-off games
developed by High Impact Games designed for the PlayStation Portable, Size Matters
(2007) and Secret Agent Clank (2008).

The next game, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (2021), was revealed at the 2020 PS5
Future of Gaming event on June 11, 2020.[5] The title was initially developed
exclusively for PlayStation 5,[6] however, is expected to release on Windows by
July 26, 2023. [7]