TGS 2006: Ratchet & Clank Preview

***wraggster*** · September 22nd, 2006, 20:47

Heres an Excerpt:

Charming every time we see it, the PSP entry in the Ratchet & Clank series was once again playable after a few American press tours, here for the first time in Japanese. There wasn't a lot more to see in this version's demo, but when a game is as good as this at just 15% completion, you give it another whirl and love it.

Vying for the title of best-looking PSP game this early in development, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters shows that what really matters is framerate. We don't mean to spark up a battle between the makers of this game and the makers of Daxter on PSP (you're both super-teams, keep doing what you're doing), but one thing we were immediately knocked down by in this R&C game was how the super-smooth framerate (which we'd guess to be locked at 60 on PSP) made the game just sing. Great animation on Ratchet and his enemies also made for very pleased eyeballs, particularly in the smooth lip movements of talking characters and shrieking monsters. Textures are generally a little simpler and lower-res than something like Daxter (which never let go with colors and flower and textures and, well, stuff), but what is textured is often quite nice (the Hawaiian shirts on the bad guy bots are surprisingly sharp and clear), and what is left simple is often done with intent so that everything looks smooth. This is a game by game makers who know what kind of rug makes the room hang together.

Full Preview at IGN