An upgraded and retooled version of 2002’s Ratchet & Clank is due to launch for the PlayStation 4 next spring, developer Insomniac Games announced today.
Next year’s “re-imagining” of the classic PlayStation 2 title will feature new weapons, new gameplay sequences, and new story elements that more closely align series lore with the upcoming Ratchet & Clank animated film. The game’s retooled storyline will place its focus on series protagonist Ratchet’s origin, in particular.
“We ended up with a new game,” Insomniac Games community lead James Stevenson explains, “with elements based on the original – but now with modern controls, several new planets, new and updated gameplay segments, all-new Clank gameplay, all new boss fights, new flight sequences, and more.”
A standout among Sony-published games in the PlayStation 2 era, Ratchet & Clank is a hybrid platformer and third-person shooter that casts players in the roles of the wisecracking lombax Ratchet and his tiny robot companion Clank. The series is best known for its distinctive characters and arsenal of outlandish weaponry that allows players to brutalize enemies with killer bees, saw blades, miniature tornadoes, and other unconventional ammunition.
2016’s Ratchet & Clank will follow suit with the Pixelizer, a gun that disintegrates enemies and turns them into exploding 8-bit pixels. Weapons previously featured throughout the series like the Groovitron and Mr. Zurkon will also make a return.
2002’s original Ratchet & Clank spawned many sequels and spinoffs in the years after its initial release. The PlayStation 3 hosted recent series entries Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, A Crack in Time, and Into the Nexus, along with the spinoffs Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One and Full Frontal Assault. HD remakes of the first three games in the Ratchet & Clank series were bundled in 2012’s Ratchet & Clank Collection for the PS3.
Ratchet & Clank will hit the PS4 in the spring of 2016.
