Ratchet & Clank is without a doubt one of the longest-running and most loved sagas in the history of video games. Born in 2002 with the first chapter released for PlayStation 2, since then the iconic duo of protagonists has enriched the game library of all Sony consoles more and more. After remake / reboot of 2016 who was going to recount the story of the progenitor again (in addition to advertising the film released in theaters in the same period of time), however nothing was heard of the series. This, coupled with the fact that the development team Insominac Games was dealing with much more important projects related to a certain "wall climbers“, Made fans worry considerably about the fate of the saga. And as we know, Sony has never had too much trouble retiring their historic brands. During the Sony conference on June 11th However, to the delight of all fans of the series, the return of our two heroes has been announced with Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, exclusive to PlayStation 5 that will show all the potential of the next generation console.
There was a time when video game mascots were unstoppable, and Sony during its early years in the gaming industry tried everything to thwart characters like Super Mario e Sonic The Hedgehog. Over time, however, things have changed and the various Sony mascots have gradually given way to other brands (Jak & Daxter e Sly Cooper, so to speak). Ratchet & Clank, in this sense, represents the only constant in the history of Sony and Playstation, and this indissoluble union has been going on for almost twenty years now. Given the longevity of this saga, rare as far as Sony exclusives are concerned, let's take a step back and retrace together the history of the most iconic duo in PlayStation history through the main chapters of the series (therefore, no spin-offs like All for one, Secret Agent Clank e Q-Force).
Obviously, we invite anyone who wants to recover the following titles to stop reading immediately, since below we will let ourselves go to the wildest spoilers.
Ratchet & Clank - PS2, 2002 and PS4, 2016
The game is set in the year 5354 and follows the events of Ratchet, a lone mechanic belonging to the race of gods Lombax who lives on Veldin and wishes to leave that planet in search of adventure. His life changes forever when the robot Clank crashes on his planet and allows him to leave. The two then embark on an adventure to seek the help of the intergalactic celebrity par excellence, the Captain Qwark, in the struggle to save the galaxy from the president Drek, a businessman who wants to create a new world by extracting parts directly from other planets. Despite them, they discover that Captain Quark is actually allied with Drek as the official spokesperson for his new planet. Eventually the duo will be able to stop both of them and, at the end of the adventure, they will decide to stay together.
These same events are also recounted in the 2016 reboot, published exclusively on PlayStation 4, but with some substantial differences such as the introduction of Galactic Rangers and Nefarious (which in the original saga would only appear in the third chapter). The Reboot should not be considered as canonical in this timeline, being a reboot of the series, and therefore has no connection with the episodes that we will see below.
Fire at Will - PS2, 2003
The game again follows the events of Ratchet and Clank who, after defeating Drek in the previous chapter, are recruited by the CEO of Megacorp, or Abercrombie Fizzwidget, and brought into the Bogon galaxy. While Clank is assigned an apartment on the planet Endako, Ratchet is trained hard only to be tasked with locating a thief who has stolen a biological experiment, namely the Protopet.
In the course of the game, a bitter truth will be discovered, namely that Fizzwidget was actually Qwark in disguise who, now fallen from grace, wanted to use the Protopets to restore his reputation. Qwark then takes Ratchet, Clank and the hostage Angela (the thief at the beginning of the game, revealed to be an ally of the two), stating in front of a camera that the three were the cause of the threat and that he would be able to stop the Protopets. However, a failed experiment turns one of the Protopets into a giant, who is defeated by Ratchet and Clank. At the end of the adventure, the real Fizzwidget also appears, who had been trapped in a supply cabinet by Qwark the whole time.
Ratchet & Clank 3 - PS2, 2004
Ratchet and Clank, after hearing that the Solana galaxy was attacked by a mad scientist known as Dr. Nefarious, a robot who wishes to wipe out organic life in favor of a robotic civilization with him as a leader, they rush to the rescue. The two find themselves having to ally with the Galactic Rangers by collaborating with characters such as Sasha Phyronix, Big Al, Skidd McMarx and even their former enemy, Captain Qwark, who has a history with the evil robot. This team, called Q-Force, is created to stop the plans of Nefarious and his men Tyrannoids. Eventually the group will be able to stop the dangerous enemy, who together with his faithful assistant Lawrence is forced to teleport into the depths of space on an asteroid.
Gladiator - PS2, 2005
The story takes on a noticeably darker tone than the previous installments of the franchise. We will follow again the exploits of Ratchet and Clank, now famous for having saved the galaxies of Bogon and Solana, who are kidnapped and forced to compete in the illegal gladiator combat sport DreadZone. Ratchet, who will have to participate in this crazy game firsthand, will be joined by Clank and Al, who will have a tactical support role. On the battlefield, however, Ratchet will have combat robots at his side Merc e Green. The group will not only have to fight for their own survival, but also to take down Gleeman Vox and its media empire. In the final, Vox, who was planning to blow up the entire station, is stopped by the intervention of Ratchet, who thus manages to save the other competitors and spectators present.
Height Doesn't Matter - PSP, 2007
Ratchet and Clank, on vacation on the planet Pokitaru after their recent adventures, they are interrupted by a student named Luna, which asks them to fight some robots so they can take pictures for a school project about heroes. Along the way, a mysterious force kidnaps the girl, leading Ratchet and Clank to investigate the mysterious race of Tecnomiti which, according to legend, created most of the galaxy's advanced technology. Meanwhile, Captain Qwark searches for his family origins.
In the continuation of the adventure, however, the two discover that Luna was actually a robot and that the goal of the Tecnomites was to take Ratchet's DNA to create an army of clones of the same Lombax with which they would no longer be exploited, since no one has given them credit for using their technology. Eventually, Ratchet will manage to find the technomite emperor, Otto Destruct, who wants to use a new machine he has built to steal the brain power of every intelligent being in the solar system to transfer it all to himself and become the smartest person in the universe. During the final battle, Ratchet and Clank will even be thwarted by Qwark, who believed that Otto was his father, but despite this the emperor is defeated.
Weapons of Destruction - PS3, 2007
Ratchet and Clank travel to the planet Kerwan, which was invaded by the emperor Tachyon, a Cragmite who plans to destroy Ratchet, the last Lombax. During the journey, Ratchet tries to learn more about the Lombax, in hopes of finding the "Secret Lombax" that could be used to defeat Tachyon, while Clank is aided by a mysterious and invisible alien race known as Zoni which claims to be the key to its past.
Tachyon will reveal that the Lombaxes had used the Dimensioner to escape to another dimension when Tachyon himself invaded Fastoon in Great War. Only two Lombax remained, the Sizer's keeper and his newborn son, Ratchet. It turns out that Ratchet's father was killed by Tachyon, but not before he sent Ratchet to Veldin. Tachyon opened a portal to the Lombax dimension and gave Ratchet a chance to join them. But Ratcher realizes that no one would be safe as long as Tachyon was in possession of the Dimensioner, so he and Clank decide to fight the emperor. During the fight, the Dimensioner sucks all three into another dimension. After Ratchet and Clank defeat Tachyon, this declares that only he knew Ratchet's real name and purpose before being sucked into a black hole, all of course not before promising revenge. After being saved, the Zones will appear again which, this time visible to all, will trap Clank in a psychic field, taking him away through a dimensional portal.
In Search of Treasure - PS3, 2008
The game is a short adventure that takes place right after Weapons of Destruction, in which we see Ratchet intent on saving Clank from the Zones. His search takes him to the planet Merdegraw, where he will discover that a pirate named Darkwater, a Zoni culture expert, possessed an Obsidian Eye that can be used to find Clank. At the end of the game, it is revealed that Dr. Nefarious was behind Clank's kidnapping. Ratchet, given the coordinates of Clank's location, which is in Breegus Nebula, promises to save his companion of a thousand adventures from Nefarious and the Zoni.
A Crack in Time - PS3, 2009
Ratchet searches for Clank in the Breegus system of the Polaris galaxy with the help of Captain Qwark. Clank is being held captive by the evil Dr. Nefarious, who has promised to help the Zoni fix Clank, but is actually trying to use the Great Clock for their own shady ends. Ratchet and Clank must reunite to prevent Nefarious from taking control of time and learning more about his past along the way.
During the adventure Ratchet tracks down Azimuth, another Lombax left behind when the race fled from Tachyon. Azimuth hesitantly explains that he was indirectly responsible for the Lombax near-extinction when he gave Tachyon their technology and was exiled for his crimes. The general plans to change what happened by using the Great Clock, a real time machine, to rewrite history, while giving Ratchet a chance to get his family back. After managing to track down Clank, who warns them that using the Watch could cause him permanent damage, Ratchet gives up the idea of using it to save his family and the Lombaxes, which will provoke Azimuth's disapproval.
Ratchet and Clank meet up with Qwark to infiltrate Nefarious' space station and destroy his army so he can't reach the Clock. The plan fails when confronted by Nefarious himself, whose goal is to change the weather to create a perfect universe where villains always triumph over heroes in retaliation for his previous defeat. Ratchet and Clank fight and apparently kill Nefarious before narrowly escaping with Azimuth's help as the doctor's malfunctioning ship destroys the station.
Arriving at the Clock, Azimuth insists that they could still use the tool to save the Lombaxes, but Ratchet refuses again. Furious at this decision, Azimuth hits and kills Ratchet and then runs to the Clock but is stopped by Clank who uses the tool to reverse the time by just six minutes, thus saving Ratchet's life. In the new timeline, Azimuth manages to reach the Clock before Ratchet and Clank and attempts to go back in time to save the Lombax, but inadvertently breaks the controls putting the existence of all creation at risk. Overwhelmed by remorse, Azimuth manages to stop the Clock from destroying reality at the cost of his own life.
Nexus - PS3, 2013
Ratchet and Clank have been assigned as an escort for the criminal Vendra Prog at the penitentiary of Vartax. When his brother Neftin Prog hires the group of mercenaries Thugs 4 Less to free her, this tries to bring together with his sister some dangerous creatures from the Netherverse to attack this dimension; Ratchet and Clank therefore aim to prevent the two from succeeding in their purpose. After defeating Mr. Eye, leader of the beings of the dimension Netherverse, and after Vendra and Neftin are constituted, aware of the error of their actions, Ratchet admits that although he has a strong desire to find the dimension that the other Lombaxes have fled from, he prefers to stay with the people he loves.
