Every developer has a franchise or game which they are known for. Infinity Ward has the Call of Duty franchise. Ubisoft has Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed franchises. I associate Insomniac Games with the Ratchet & Clank series. It’s what they’re good at and Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time is a testament to that. They’ve improved on nearly every aspect of its predecessors which can be tough when considering the fact that this is the sixth featured length game they’ve created with the Lombax and his robot companion.
Games. I’ve been playing some. I haven’t finished anything since Modern Warfare 2 which is why I haven’t written a review for some time.
With that in mind, I decided to jot down some of my thoughts in this week’s Checkpoint post.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii – I’ve actually finished this game with my brother a few minutes ago. Went through over the past month or so via co-operative play. It was a unique and awesome experience overall. We’ve still got World 9 and Star Coins to collect which means there’s still quite a bit of game for us to complete.
Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time – 12 hours in and I can see the finish line. Like NSMBWii, there’s quite a bit of collectibles to finish up and extend play time with. They’re easy and interesting enough to get into, so I’ll be investing time searching for these.
PixelJunk Shooter – I bought this last week and completed the first three levels. I’m liking it a lot more than PixelJunk Eden simply because of the art and music. Some of Eden’s tracks were grating to the ears after awhile.
Modern Warfare 2 - Still have yet to reach level 70, but I have been spending time trying to complete challenges. Even if it means sacrificing K/D ratio performance.
Playing both Mario and Ratchet reminds me of the Winter of 2007 with Super Mario Galaxy and Tools of Destruction. Both games were great, but Super Mario Galaxy was the clear superior. This year isn’t so clear cut. Both have their own strength and weaknesses which I’ll get into with my reviews soon.
As for what’s coming up next? I hope to start Assassin’s Creed 2 which I just picked up for $30!
Here’s something you don’t see every day: a $14.99 CAD downloadable game with the production values of a $59.99 CAD game. The catch with Insomniac’s Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty is that this pint sized version of Ratchet & Clank is a mere three to four hours in length. It’s a title that is treading new ground for console downloadable titles, but is this worth your time and hard earned fifteen bucks? Well that depends on how much you adore the Lombax.
