Original Ratchet and Clank
The original game gets credit for its gameplay and environments, as it should. It’s a straight up beautiful game, and each world gives you a moment where you look around and go “I wanna explore everything”. The weapons are fun, the platforming is solid, and we wouldn’t have the great dynamic between our lead characters or the consistently entertaining Captain Qwark.
That said, there are some faults here. For anyone who started this series with the sequels, the lack of a strafe option for aiming is going to be something that they’ll have to adjust to, along with the absence of a leveling system. Running around in circles trying to blast enemies is the name of the game here, and an unexpected difficulty spike during the second half of the game wears the polish off. The hoverboarding levels aren’t as fun as they could be, and the final boss fight is very frustrating. Still a fun game, but easy to see why the series went forward with action.
