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Good video game duos are hard to find (Cookies and Cream notwithstanding). And these days keeping them together seems even harder. Even in the virtual world eventually the little guy is going to want their time in the sun. The PSP is quickly becoming a haven for quirky sidekicks to get their chance to star in their own title. First we had the excellent Daxter (of Jak and Daxter fame) and now we're seeing the release of Secret Agent Clank, who for the past four titles has been Ratchet's helper-bot in the very successful Ratchet and Clank series.
Is Clank able to hold a game together like Daxter did? Or does he need his Lombax partner?
Luckily, while the game isn't be any means perfect it's still easily worth the price of admission.
The plot is pretty simple, Ratchet being framed for a robbery of some object in order to get him out of the way. With him in prision it's Clank's job to prove him innocent and find the macguffin. To be honest it really doesn't matter. It's a setup to use a bunch of cool gadgets and kick some ass. This, the game provides.
Let's get the technical crap out of the way. Graphically it looks solid. It's not on par with God of War: Chains of Olympus or anything but it's easily comparable to Daxter. Load times are short, games are auto-saved and never got in the way or made me re-do areas over and over.
Control of the Ratchet and Clank world translated pretty well to the PSP, with attack and special weapons being mapped very well. The only glaring problem is the camera control. It's 100% up to you to control the camera, and has not one but two buttons assigned to it. The shoulder buttons swing the camera left and right and trust me when I say you'll send a fair bit of time moving and swinging that thing around to get your enemies lined up for attack. To be honest it kinda sucked but after a bit of play time you do kinda get used to it. It's never decent but you can keep it from getting in the way for the most part.
They originally seemed set on making a stealth game, which is very cool. Bonuses are given for getting through environments without being seen, and it feels good to outwit as opposed to out-power. This mainly comes from the fact that Clank seems a little too strong, and kicking ass and taking names is the easy way out. It's perfectly fine if you want to go this route, but it felt more secret agent-y to try and sneak though. Not sure why they made Clank so powerful though.
The humor of the series is thankfully intact here, though we're down the funny guy (Ratchet) and left with the straight man (Clank). But with a robot body that looks like a little metal tuxedo and the whole "secret agent" vibe it works well. On top of the high-quality dialogue there's a fair amount of visual gags here and there too. For instance whenever Clank hides he does so by posing like a statue or pulling a tree branch over his face. It's funnier than it sounds. Maybe not like funny "ha-ha" but you know what I mean.
All the Ratchet and Clank staples makes appearances here. Bolts as currency, crazy weapons, crates and flying world to world. There's no getting around the fact that this is an R&C game and the developers decided not to mess too much with the formula. One interesting departure is the inclusion of little mini-games at the end of each level that are varied and fun. For instance in one level Clank sneaks into a museum though laser traps. There's a rhythm game style interface with each note corresponding to Clank getting close to his goal. In another idiot super-hero Qwark fights a mecha-godzilla in his imagination. It's a fun diversion and a great way to inject some new game play. Except the lockpicking mini-game, that one sucks.
All in all I enjoyed my time with Clank, and think he does a fine job carrying the game all by himself. The gameplay is what I expect from a R&C game (camera control aside) and it's a great way to pass the time while we wait for Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty to drop on the PSN.
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