Insomniac reveals new Ratchet & Clank game based on a movie inspired by a game

By Danny Cowan June 10, 2015

ratchet and clank

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.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Contributor

Danny’s passion for video games was ignited upon his first encounter with Nintendo’s Duck Hunt, and years later, he still…

Gaming

More Ratchet and Clank games are joining PlayStation Plus Premium

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Insomniac's Ratchet & Clank franchise, Sony announced that it is adding five new games from its PlayStation 3 era to the PlayStation Plus Premium subscription service on November 15.

A few Ratchet & Clank games were already available on Sony's revamped PS Plus service, but the update expands that list out significantly. Here's the full list of games coming to the service.

Gaming

No Man’s Sky 4.0’s difficulty options make the space game feel new again

No Man's Sky warp drive

You’d think space was the final frontier, but 2016’s spacefaring exploration sim No Man’s Sky seems to keep finding new ways to expand and improve its eye-watering collection of features. What began as a quiet trek through a galaxy comprised of over 18 quintillion lonely planets is now a far more comprehensive game with a more sophisticated suite of gameplay options, including frontier towns to run, outlaw space systems to smuggle goods through, multiplayer missions to complete alongside your friends, and a fully-fledged story campaign to follow at your own leisurely pace.

It’s also recently been updated to its fourth major iteration as of October 7. That’s when developer Hello Games unleashed the 4.0 update, also known as the Waypoint update, coinciding with the long-awaited Nintendo Switch release. As a result of the 4.0 update, long-term No Man’s Sky fans were once again treated to an impressive array of improvements, including boosts to visual fidelity, better legibility within menus, and a noteworthy overhaul to inventory management that also left some players momentarily disheartened.

Gaming

Two Sam & Max games are getting a PlayStation remaster

sam max remasters coming to playstation on september 29 remastered

Skunkape Games, a small indie team comprised of some members of Telltale Games, has announced that the remastered versions of Sam & Max Save the World and Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space will be released on the PlayStation on September 29.

Both games were originally released in 2006 and 2007 as Sam & Max Season One and Sam & Max Season Two, respectively. The project was developed by Telltale Games, who adapted them from the comic book series created by Steve Purcell. When Telltale shut down in 2018, Skunkape bought the rights to the Sam & Max series and remastered them for Nintendo Switch, PC (via Steam), and Xbox One in 2020 and 2021 with Purcell's blessing. Today, it released a trailer confirming the PS4 port of the remasters of the adventures of the crime-fighting dog and rabbit duo.