Ranking Every Ratchet & Clank Game From Worst To Best (11-6)

Ratchet and Clank has been one of my favorite series for as long as I can remember. The series has a long history of games at this point dating back to 2002 so I thought I would rank the main series titles from worst to best. I am ranking them based on which I find most enjoyable to me, so this isn't based off of sales or other influences. This list will exclude the two mobile games, Going Mobile and Before the Nexus, as well as Secret Agent Clank and Quest for Booty, as these are not full length games.

Series Overview: Ratchet and Clank is an action plat-former series that is mainly known for it's creative and extensive weaponry. Ratchet is a lombax who was stranded in the Solana Galaxy on a desert planet called Veldin until a robot (Clank) crash landed on the planet and warned Ratchet of a corrupt business man who was building a new planet for his species using elements and pieces from other planets, destroying those planets in the process. From there the duo set off to find Captain Qwark, and the rest is history. Ratchet and Clank have saved numerous galaxies and planets over the years and as of now they still have a strong future ahead of them. Here is my list of Ratchet and Clank games ranked worst to best.

11. Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One

This game is the only game in the series that I haven't actually played, but I've never desired to. Their goal with this game was to push 4 player co-op, which I understand but I feel doesn't really work for this type of series. I never liked how you team with Dr. Nefarious, who many consider to be the best villain in the series. I also don't like the camera angle during this game as it is positioned above the characters as opposed to behind them. Also, the timing of this game was pretty bad, as it came out after A Crack in Time which was one of the series high points. Overall this game just has nothing interesting to me. Even the RYNO 7 is a mech suit instead of an actual gun.

10. Ratchet and Clank: Full Frontal Assault

This game is similar to All 4 One but instead of a 4 player co-op game, it is a tower defense game. Full Frontal Assault marks the return of the Starship Phoenix and puts Ratchet in a series of missions basically just killing enemies and defending a location. While this can be fun at first, lack of a real story line and repetitive gameplay can make this game get old pretty fast. This game came out after All 4 One while Insomniac was experimenting with multiplayer, and while this was a step up compared to All 4 One, it pails in comparison to the other games in the series.

9. Ratchet in Clank: Size Matters

This game was originally released on the PSP and later ported over to the PS2. This is also the only main series game not developed by Insomniac Games, rather developed by High Impact Games, a combination of old Insomniac and Naughty Dog employees tasked with making PSP games. This game actually did a lot of things right. The storyline was pretty intriguing, with Ratchet and Clank vacationing on Pokitaru when a young girl named Luna warns Ratchet of an attack. The duo later finds out the little girl is actually a robotic villain (this may not be entirely correct as I have a loose memory of the actual events in this game.) The weaponry was standard for Ratchet and Clank but was pretty solid, and overall the game just comes in as a slightly below average Ratchet and Clank game. The low points for me are the clunkiness and restrictions that are brought on by a PSP to PS2 port. The game definitely has the worst mechanics of any Ratchet and Clank game. I also wasn't a fan of the cartoony gun animations that the game had. I felt like every time I shot a gun there were all these weird orange circle effects on the screen.

8. Ratchet and Clank: Into The Nexus

This game picks up where A Crack in Time left off with the duo setting off to stop Vendra and Neftin Prog from using the Dimensionator. The Dimensionator is a powerful device created by the Lombaxes to travel through other dimensions. The Prog twins want to use it to bring their race the Nether into the galaxy. There are a couple of aspects that I really like about this game. First being the worlds. There are only 5 worlds on this game, but each world is entirely different and complex. Planet Silox is one of my favorite planets in the series and probably the moodiest as well. The dark colors and flashing lights in the abandoned city makes it very eery which is rare for the series. Into The Nexus also introduced one of my favorite weapons in the series, The Winterizor. This weapon turned enemies into Christmas gifts. I don't think it gets much better than that. The only real downside to this game is it's short length and the drop from 60 to 30 frames per second (fps). This definitely makes the game feel a little bit clunkier than previous titles, but I got used to it after an hour or two.

7. Ratchet: Deadlocked

This game has by far the most unique storyline of the series. After the events of Up Your Arsenal, the duo are enjoying their newfound roles as leaders of the Starship Phoenix when they are suddenly captured. Ratchet is taken to a lawless sector of the Solana Galaxy where he is forced into a deadly televised combat tournament called "Dreadzone." After completing the tournament and taking out the shows top star, Ace Starlight, Ratchet must stop TV show host Gleeman Vox from blowing up the whole stadium. Again some of this info might be slightly off, but you get the idea. This was a total curve ball from other games in the series, but it worked really well. Gleeman Vox is probably the most underrated villain in the whole series and there are just so many things I love about this game. The gameplay is amazing because it was more about shooting enemies than ever, so the guns and the movement all flowed extremely well. The commentators of the show are hilarious throughout the game as well. The reason Clank is dropped from the title is because he is assisting Ratchet from his station along with Big Al, but he is not actually competing in the tournament. Ratchet also has 4 robots that assist him in the tournament which at first I didn't like but after you start upgrading them they can be really useful. The reason this game isn't higher on the list is because honestly its only really good in the beginning and in the end. The bulk of the game is just Ratchet doing different challenges to raise his score which honestly gets pretty repetitive. Overall it was a nice edition to the series with a lot of good things happening, but the other games on this list are simply better.

6. Ratchet and Clank (2016)

I have a love hate relationship with this game. I'll start with the things I love. The graphics are absolutely amazing. They are so beautiful that I actually don't care that the game has to run at 30 fps. Although they didn't remaster every world from the original, the ones they did look so good and was definitely a trip down memory lane. The biggest thing I love about this game and the reason I put it above the previous games on this list is honestly just how fun it is to play. Like if there were no storyline and you could just run around, I would probably spend hours just doing that. With that said this game did too many things wrong for me not to mention. For starters Ratchet as a character is the complete opposite of his character in the original game. In the 2002 game Ratchet was an edgy character with a lot of attitude. He didn't care what anybody thought, and he even picked on Clank for being a nerd. In the 2016 version, Ratchet is a complete nerd. He is so obsessed with being a galactic ranger, and just is constantly made out to look like a wuss. In WWE terms, it's just bad booking to try to have a credible babyface who is always losing. Even in the end, Ratchet seems less like a hero and more like a nice smiley guy who just so happened to do something good. I really just hated the way they presented Ratchet in this game and in the movie. The facial animation in the cutscenes is god awful as well. I can't make this up when I say it was better in 2002 then it was in 2016. It is a good thing that Insomniac Games is hiring someone who is experienced in facial animations. The storyline was just awful compared to the original as well. I will get to why the storyline of the first game was the best in the series later, but I just have to say they butchered it in this game. The greed, the capitalist themes, and the grittiness of the first game is just entirely gone in this game. Even the original had tear jerking moments, like when Clank meets his mother (a computer screen) and he says i will try to make you proud, Mom, and after he walks away the screen says "You already have." Like seriously none of the great storyline moments in the first game made it into the remaster, and its not like they were replaced by anything. I could go on but I won't. I'll sum it up like this: the Ratchet and Clank re-imagining is a good game on its own, maybe even great. That's why it got a lot of good reviews. However, as someone who has been a fan of the series for a long time and hold the first game very close to my hart, I feel like this game spits on the face of that game and throws out a lot of what made it so great.