Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal

Building on the successful model of the first two, the third R&C in 2004 merely changed around a few weapons and added in a multiplayer mode, both on- and offline. The graphics were a little cleaner, the maps a little larger, but for the most part the winning formula remained the same.

When Ratchet hears that his home planet of Veldin is under attack he rushes back to help with the defense. After being mistaken for a new sergeant by the Galactic Rangers and helping to clear out the initial attack it's revealed that it's been organized by an old enemy of Captain Qwark: Dr. Nefarious. Clank, having been confused with his TV personality, is recruited by the Galactic President to find Qwark so they can figure out how to defeat Nefarious at long last. Since Nefarious is threatening to turn all biological life into robots, though, Clank's loyalty comes into question. Could this be the end of the Lombax/robot team?

Images:

Ratchet & Clank
Secret Agent Clank!
Dr. Nefarious
Courtney Gears has a thing for Clank
Four-person, offline, multiplayer mode
Who doesn't love a Plasma Whip?
Opening movie

Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando

Returning in 2003 with new weapons and gadgets, improved game mechanics, and a more likable hero, Going Commando was a solid and very popular entry in the ongoing Ratchet & Clank series. While the game was easily accessible to a new player, a fun feature was the free acquisition of classic weapons with the presence of a save file from the first game. Also nice was the fact that you didn't have to retread the same ground, as is so often the case in series games: items like Clank's upgrades and Ratchet's grind boots did not need to be reacquired. The best addition, though, is probably the upgradable weapons. The more they're used, the better they work, holding more ammunition and dealing more damage. Once again, the weapons range from the silly (the Sheepinator, which is exactly what it sounds like) to the deadly serious (the Zodiac, which will take out any- and everything visible on the screen in one hit) and everything in between.

Everything is pretty anti-climactic after saving a galaxy, but while Clank's content living a quiet life, Ratchet's hungry for more adventure. That's why when Abercrombie Fizzwidget, CEO of Megacorp in the neighboring galaxy, offers a job recovering a stolen experiment, Ratchet's only too eager to accept. Things heat up when Clank is unwillingly dragged into the mess, but it's just the beginning. Between a mystery thief, Thugs-4-Less rental goons, and a furry problem of gargantuan size, Ratchet and Clank have their hands full, but when an old enemy rears his head, it gets difficult for Ratchet to keep his.

Images:

Ratchet shows off his shiny new Plasma Coil
Clank leads a small army of robot slaves
Fizzwidget shows off his new experiment
The shadowy thief
Sheepinator aftermath
Who couldn't use a mini-nuke?
Trailer

Ratchet & Clank

When Insomniac produced a game intended to rival Naughty Dog's Jak and Daxter, they had no idea that 2002's Ratchet & Clank would eventually outstrip the competition in popularity. Built on the same engine, the two titles have a similar feeling in gameplay, and even possess much of the same tongue-in-cheek humor, but the astounding arsenal of weapons caught public interest, from the sheer silliness of the Morph-o-Ray to the overpowering destruction of the R.Y.N.O. (Rip Ya a New One), and planted the seeds of desire for further comic destruction in the future.

Fresh from the factory, a tiny robot stumbles over plans of galactic destruction and runs off to enlist the help of the biggest superhero around, Captain Qwark. Instead, he finds Ratchet: a self-centered Lombax handy with a wrench and eager to get away from his home planet. The newly-dubbed Clank is willing to take whatever help he can find, so the two of them join up in order to find Qwark and stop Chairman Drek of the Blarg from destroying planets while building a new one to replace his own polluted world.

Images:

Ratchet and Clank
Qwarktastic!
Chairman Drek
The Morph-o-Ray in action, making chicken dinners fun
Sometimes, you just need a decoy
Gameplay that runs you right up the wall
Opening movies

Daxter

It took awhile, but in 2006 the perennial second thought branched out into his own game, appropriately enough on a handheld console. Reverting to something closer to the original feel of Jak and Daxter, the sidekick's solo adventure covers the time missing from Jak II, and the main storyline is interspersed with dream sequences parodying popular movies, such as The Matrix and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

It's been nearly two years since Daxter saw his best buddy Jak get dragged off by the Krimzon Guard, and he's had absolutely no luck in turning up so much as a single greeny-blond hair. That doesn't stop him from relating wild tales of his adventures to disbelieving audiences, however. When Osmo of the Kritter Ridder Extermination Company overhears, he offers Daxter a job in his business. Armed with an oversized, electric flyswatter and a backpack of bug spray, Daxter takes on the legions of Metal Head insects infiltrating Haven City and, along the way, stumbles over his missing friend.

Images:

He's short, he's fuzzy, he's armed and dangerous
This could be a problem
Those are some big bugs...
...but that's a big bug swatter
Intro movie

Jak 3

Increasingly idiosyncratic in its naming conventions, 2004's Jak 3 is the "final" game in the series, despite having two more titles come out after it. Perhaps realizing that the doom and gloom approach of II was a bit heavy-handed, publisher Naughty Dog went back to a slightly more carefree overall feel, which is a bit odd considering the lingering darkness of plot. With an even heavier emphasis on racing than previous installments—this time with four-wheeled vehicles rather than the motorcycle-like zoomers—and a change in voice acting that relegated designated love interest Keira to little more than a cameo role, 3 alienated a number of fans, although the gameplay as a whole was a little more manageable and the over-arching story is brought to a conclusion of sorts. The locations in particular brought a nice balance back to the games, alternating between a vast desert and a scaled-down version of the city from II, harkening back to the open spaces of the first game while embracing the challenge of the second.

Jak may have defeated the metalhead leader and saved Haven from destruction, but the populace—carefully lead by the scheming Count Veger—doesn't trust him and, after a new attack, Jak is held responsible and exiled to the Wasteland. Picked up by Damas, king of Spargus—a city of exiles and an oasis in the harsh desert—and embittered by the betrayal of his adopted home, Jak sets about building a new life for himself and his faithful friend Daxter. In between proving himself to Damas, dealing with the outright hostility of the local monks, and deciding whether he should answer Ashelin and Torn's call to help Haven again, Jak also picks up some new light eco abilities and finds out just why his friend Sig was haunting Haven in the first place. The answer will end up changing Jak's life forever.

Images:

Jak and Daxter, v. 3.0
Dark Jak is still alive and kicking
And Light Jak joins the party
Veger supervises Jak's exile
Damas and Jak enjoy a heart to heart
Ashelin asks for help
Torn is pleased to see Jak again
All in a day's work
A leisurely desert cruise
Game intro movie

Jak II

Jak and Daxter may have been a light-hearted game, but 2004's Jak II turned the brightness down by a spectacular amount. The bright, pastoral openness of the first game is hedged into an enormous but dark, dirty, run-down city. The platform aspects remain the same, but the addition of a variety of guns add shooter to the genre list. More than the appearance darkens in this game, as the bright-eyed, silent Jak of the original gains a voice and turns anti-hero, with a predilection for hijacking vehicles and mowing down pedestrians caught in the crossfire. The darkness is also an indicator of depth, however, as the plot is more intricate and the characters more detailed than before.

When the investigation of a Precursor relic on the behalf of Samos and Keira goes amiss, Jak and Daxter find themselves alone in a strange city, but not for long: Jak is captured by the Krimzon Guard while Daxter runs off, promising to rescue his friend in no time. Two years later, Jak's a prisoner, undergoing near-constant torture and infusions of dark eco. Daxter finds him in the nick of time, as Baron Praxis, the ruler of the city, issues the order to have Jak killed off that night. Jak utters his first words before transforming into a uncontrollable monster and only barely changes back before killing his best friend. Thus begins an effort to get revenge on Praxis, whether it be joining Torn and the Underground to overthrow the Baron or working as hired muscle for Krew, the city's biggest mobster. Throw in the fact that the city itself is under assault by Metalheads, the true heir needs protecting, Keira and Samos are still missing, and the captain of the KG has a burning desire for Jak's head on a plate, the Demolition Duo have their work cut out for them.

Images:

J&D, the new look
Tall, dark, and gruesome
Erol, KG captain and Praxis' right hand man
Jak is a little too pleased with his new weapon
Torn is less pleased with newcomers
Ashelin, KG spy, is also a tad suspicious
Krew may be scum, but he's powerful scum
Sig, Krew's main enforcer, is surprisingly decent, though
Things may be bleak, but there's always time to relax
Game opening movie

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

Seamless loading of a massive map is the major hallmark of this 2001 release. In most respects a fairly typical platformer, with a set amount of health that never increases, the only "power-ups" being new colors of eco (an energy source with different effects depending on the type), and some driving sequences, Jak and Daxter still garnered overwhelmingly positive reviews. While there was nothing especially innovative in the gameplay, story, or characters, the classic elements of a silent protagonist, obnoxious sidekick, and standard jumping and collecting puzzles merged together to create a wonderful, light-hearted, and fantastically fun game.

The ever-silent Jak and his best friend, Daxter, have disobeyed orders—as teenagers tend to do—and gone out to Misty Island. After witnessing a gathering of Lurkers and being attacked by a guard, Daxter is knocked into a pool of dark eco and transformed into a little orange critter dubbed an ottsel (half otter, half weasel). Samos, the Green Sage, tells them that they must travel across the continent to the Dark Sage in order to have Daxter's condition reversed. Trouble is, there's an awful lot of Lurkers between their village and the Dark Sage...

Images:

The titular duo
Samos, pontificating at length
Keira: Samos' daughter and mechanic extraordinaire
Hanging around the seaside
Spinning through the jungle
Fighting a Lurker
A little dance of victory
The game trailer

Xenogears

Philosophical, psychological, and religious themes pervade 1998's Xenogears, enough so that a decade later the intricacies and overall meaning of the game are still hotly debated. On the surface it's a confusing mesh of destruction, hatred, and giant robots. Underneath that is a confusing mesh of love, death, betrayal, psychosis, self-determination, and 10,000 years of machinations and plotting. The game mechanics are subject to debate, as the innovative mix of semi-turn-based battle and combination attacks are juxtaposed against the unlikely addition of platforming elements, leading to some extremely unusual jumping puzzles prone to interruption in mid-leap by random battle. Equally subject to debate are the long cutscenes, some lasting upwards of twenty minutes at a time. While the story unfolds and the characters are explored, it can be quite frustrating to play for five minutes, watch ten minutes, play ten seconds, watch fifteen minutes, play thirty minutes, watch twenty minutes, etc. Also of concern to some is the disparity of graphics, with less than stellar in-game animation occasionally being supplanted by hand-drawn anime sequences. Regardless of how they may fall on these minor issues, fans of the game universally applaud the twisted depths of the story, with references ranging from Gnosticism to Soylent Green and the vagaries of Dissociative Identity Disorder and Freudian psychology.

The nations of Aveh and Kislev have been at war for time beyond memory. Kislev had developed an edge until the appearance of a new fighting force, Gebler, put Aveh back on top. The war literally drops into the middle of a quiet border town and the resulting destruction forces Fei—a young man with no memories prior to three years previous when he was taken into the village with severe injuries—to depart for the world at large on the advice of his friend and town doctor, Citan. Fei meets Elly, a Gebler soldier, for the first time in a series of life-changing meetings before falling in with Bart, the deposed heir of Aveh. Reluctantly joining Bart's insurrection, Fei is gradually exposed to the contrived forces behind the war, the feuding religious sects of the Ethos and Nisan, thousands of years of history that had been deliberately buried, and a handful of strange people who alternately want to make him stronger, empower his enemies, or just kill him for existing. The matter of warring nations falls by the wayside as it becomes apparent that the issue at hand is the survival of the human race.

Images:

Your first glimpse of Fei
The improbably-haired Fei against the backdrop of his burning town
Meeting Elly
A recurring image
Bartholomew Fatima (Bart)
Left to right: Bart, Citan, Fei, and Billy—an Ethos warrior priest
The Nisan cathedral
Grahf, who has a habit of empowering Fei's enemies
Id, who has a habit of killing entire cities for amusement
The seemingly irrelevant opening sequence
In-game graphics demo: Citan, Billy, and Elly fight Id