Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
Encyclopedia
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (known as Ratchet & Clank 3 in Europe and Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal in Australia) is a platform game
developed by Insomniac Games
and published by Sony
. It is the third installment in the Ratchet & Clank series
and was released in North America on November 3, 2004. Shortly after it was released in Japan on November 25, the first volume of the Ratchet & Clank manga, drawn by Shinbo Nomura, was released.
The gameplay is similar to previous games in the series but introduces new features such as a refined control system, a larger amount of weapons and a deeper upgrade system. It follows Ratchet
and Clank
's adventure through a fictional universe to defeat a robotic villain, Dr. Nefarious, who intends to destroy all organic life. Characters such as Dr. Nefarious and Sasha, a Cazar starship captain who helps Ratchet throughout the game, are introduced, and a number of characters return from the original Ratchet & Clank
.
Up Your Arsenal is the first in the series to offer online multiplayer as well as single-player. Multiplayer features three different modes of play available on all of the maps and has a selection of the weapons from the single-player game. As well as the multiplayer mode, it offers many other improvements over its predecessors such as higher quality graphics, larger worlds and a larger variety of weapons and gadgets also ships and dune buggies. The voice cast from the previous game return as their respective characters and new actors
were hired to voice the new characters. The game was met with critical acclaim, earning an average review score of 91% at Metacritic.
The name of the game is a play on the British English
word "arse
" and the word "arsenal
".
and long range combat and boasts a large, varied arsenal as one of its primary features as it has been in previous games.
Ratchet is initially armed with an Omniwrench 8000, his primary melee weapon, but as the player progresses through the game new weapons and upgrades can be obtained. As well as the 20 weapons available to the player, each weapon (apart from the RY3NO) has eight maximum levels of strength, which enhances on the previous game's progress of only leveling up once, five are available after weapon purchase and then three after that once the game has been completed and the player starts "challenge mode". Alongside the weapons, which are primarily used in combat, there are ten gadgets that can be collected for use in other situations.
For most of the game the player will be in control of Ratchet but in some areas the player takes control of Clank, Ratchet's ally. Clank can give commands to smaller robot
s called gadgebots to perform tasks with the use of a command menu to solve puzzles and attack enemies. Clank also features in "Giant Clank" scenarios where Clank transforms into a larger and more advanced form and can battle similar size enemies; in this form he gains increased fire power
and a large amount of health. During the single-player game, the player can also play as Captain Qwark in 2D side-scrolling
levels (called "Vid Comics"), which build upon the history of Captain Qwark and his previous conflicts with Dr. Nefarious.
The game offers a huge range of enemies and different stages. It also features online multiplayer modes, such as Deathmatch
, Capture The Flag
, and Siege
(in which the player storms the opponent's base and tries to destroy the power core inside). It supports up to eight players at a time and supports voice chat through a PS2-compatible headset. Ethernet connection is needed if playing online against other players.
and main protagonist
is Ratchet
(voiced by James Arnold Taylor
), a Lombax from the planet Veldin. He wields a wrench as a melee weapon and can use a large arsenal of weapons, including guns, and melee weapons. Clank
, Ratchet's robotic sidekick and sometimes co-protagonist, is usually attached to Ratchet's back and uses attachments to help Ratchet's movements. He is voiced by David Kaye
. Dr. Nefarious, the main antagonist
of the game (voiced by Armin Shimerman
), is the robotic form of a former organic life form. He has a hatred for organic life and tries to destroy it. At the end of the game, Doctor Nefarious is left stranded on an asteroid, eventually making cameos and reappearances in later titles.
by the name of Dr. Nefarious. After they help to defeat the Tyhrranoids on Veldin, the Galactic President tells Ratchet that Captain Qwark, an enemy from the first two games in the series, is the only person to ever have defeated Dr. Nefarious and that Qwark's help is needed to defeat him again. Ratchet finds Qwark and takes him to the Starship Phoenix, whose commander has been ordered to help Ratchet and Qwark defeat Dr. Nefarious. Qwark creates the "Q-Force", a group of "elite" people working against Dr. Nefarious, and he assigns Ratchet a new mission to infiltrate Nefarious' base to acquire as much information on Nefarious' plans as possible. They find that Dr. Nefarious is a fan of Secret Agent Clank, Clank's TV show, along with an encrypted star map to the Tyhrranoids' home planet. After the Q-Force destroys a Tyhrranoid base on their home planet, Dr. Nefarious sends the Q-Force a transmission
telling them that they won't be able to defeat him, and Al traces the transmission to planet Daxx.
Ratchet and Clank arrive at Daxx and learn about something called a Biobliterator, but not what it does. They also find a music video
by Courtney Gears (an obvious play on Britney Spears), which tells robots to destroy organic life form
s. Ratchet and Clank investigate what Courtney Gears has been doing, but she kidnaps Clank, unknown to Ratchet, and takes him to Dr. Nefarious. Nefarious gives Clank the choice to either rule the Universe
with him or to be a disgrace to all robots by pairing with the organic life forms, but Clank refuses. Unknown to both Ratchet and the game's player, Dr. Nefarious replaces Clank with an evil twin
named Klunk, while holding Clank prisoner. Ratchet, with Klunk, then follow up on the Bioblierator on the Obani Moons. While helping them access the third of the moons, Skidd, another member of the Q-Force, is kidnapped by Courtney Gears. Ratchet enters the third moon to save him, but is too late as Skidd gets transformed into a robot. Courtney Gears attempts to do the same to Ratchet, but Ratchet defeats her before she gets the chance. Meanwhile, Sasha tracks down Dr. Nefarious on a Star Cruiser called The Levithon and upon Ratchet's return she sends him and Qwark to infiltrate the ship. When Ratchet arrives, however, he discovers that Dr. Nefarous lured them to the ship as a trap, and he activates the self-destruct
system before teleporting out. Ratchet and Klunk return to the Phoenix, but Qwark stays on the ship, claiming to have seen something. Ratchet and Clank fly off just as the Leviathan explodes, but Qwark doesn't escape with them and is later presumed dead.
While Ratchet is fighting off a Tyhrranoid invasion in the city of Metropolis, Nefarious uses the Biobliterator to turn helpless citizens
and Tyhrranoid invaders alike into robots. Before Ratchet can attack him, Dr. Nefarious escapes the city and Klunk attacks Ratchet. After defeating Klunk, Ratchet and Clank are reunited, and they discover that Captain Qwark is still alive, but wants the Q-Force to think that he is dead. In order to prevent the Q-Force from losing hope, Ratchet decides to keep Qwark's survival a secret for the time being, and Clank reluctantly agrees The duo manage to track Qwark down at his secret hideout, but they cannot convince him to rejoin the fight against Dr. Nefarious. Ratchet and Clank reach another one of Nefarious's hideouts and Clank destroys the Biobliterator. However, Sasha soon reports that a second Biobliterator is housed at Nefarious's main command center on planet Mylon, Ratchet and Clank arrive at the command center and confront Nefarious, but before they can defeat him he teleports inside the Biobliterator, which transforms into a giant, heavily armed robot.
Having regained his bravery, Captain Qwark flies in to fight alongside them and they engage in aerial combat
against Nefarious and the Biobliterator and defeat it. The Biobliterator self-destructs, and Nefarious and Lawrence are left stranded on an asteroid after attempting to teleport
away from the explosion. The game then ends with the cast attending the latest Secret Agent Clank film.
Team during development. The team of around 115 people were aiming to create a new Ratchet and Clank game that would differ significantly from its predecessors and almost end up being two games in one. Insomniac believed that one of the key processes in the development process was the rigorous testing. Working closely with Sony and listening to fans of the Ratchet and Clank series, they gathered feedback and made improvements to the game. They felt that they had created a game that would appeal to a number of genres with the inclusion of elements of platform
, action
and side-scrolling gameplay. At the same time, Jak 3
was being developed by Naughty Dog
, a company closely tied with Insomniac. Naughty Dog's Jak & Daxter series
and the Ratchet & Clank series are in similar genres; each game in both series' has been released at a similar time and both contain references to each other. Ryan Schneider, an employee of Insomniac, said, "The analogy that I like to use is that at Insomniac we like to look at it as how Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant act when it comes to their professions. We don't really look at it as how we compare to other athletes or other games, we just try to do the best that we can and elevate the sport."
was highly anticipating the final version of the game as they had played two previous versions of the game already. Concentrating on the multiplayer aspect of the game, they praised the developers for moving a solely platform game into the multiplayer genre so well. Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal was featured at the E3 games festival in 2004, where there was a playable demo. Only the multiplayer Siege mode and a single-player demo were available but they were enough to get 1UP.com
's award for best action game at E3.
Soon after its release Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal received critical acclaim. GameSpy
awarded it 5 stars out of 5, and IGN said that "You MUST buy this immediately" due to its extensive line-up of weaponry, high quality graphics and polished sound effects. IGN did however, believe it was easier than the previous game, Going Commando, while GameSpot
thought that the gameplay was too similar to the previous title, but both reviewers considered these as minor issues and they made little difference to the overall score. Gaming magazines GamesTM
and Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine both mentioned that the offbeat comedy that was apparent throughout the majority of the game was one of the points that made it unique. X-Play
said "A mixture of excellent gameplay tweaks and new activities make the third one easily the strongest game in the series and one of the best games of this year" and giving it a full five star rating. According to Metacritic's collection of reviews, 12 separate reviewers gave the game the highest possible score. In 2006, Edge Magazine featured a "Time Extend" article on Ratchet & Clank: Up your Arsenal and among other points, focused on the amount and variety of weapons available to the player. In August 2005 Up Your Arsenal entered the Greatest Hits line-up. Since its release, it has sold over 2.15 million copies in the US alone. IGN listed the game 12th on their list of "The Top 25 PS2 Games of All Time".
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
developed by Insomniac Games
Insomniac Games
Insomniac Games, Inc. is an American video game developer headquartered in Burbank, California. Founded in 1994, Insomniac has released titles for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 video game consoles. It created Disruptor, the first three Spyro the Dragon games, and the Ratchet &...
and published by Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
. It is the third installment in the Ratchet & Clank series
Ratchet & Clank
Ratchet & Clank is a 3D platformer/shooter video game for the PlayStation 2, developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Released in 2002, it is the first game in the Ratchet & Clank series....
and was released in North America on November 3, 2004. Shortly after it was released in Japan on November 25, the first volume of the Ratchet & Clank manga, drawn by Shinbo Nomura, was released.
The gameplay is similar to previous games in the series but introduces new features such as a refined control system, a larger amount of weapons and a deeper upgrade system. It follows Ratchet
Ratchet (Ratchet & Clank)
Ratchet is the main character of the Ratchet & Clank series of video games. Ratchet is tall, 15 years old and weighs 151 lbs . In the English versions of the games, Ratchet is voiced by Mikey Kelley in the first Ratchet & Clank and by James Arnold Taylor in all the others...
and Clank
Clank (Ratchet & Clank)
Clank is one of the titular protagonist game characters in the Ratchet & Clank video game series by Insomniac Games.-Character design:Co-protagonist of the series, Clank escaped from Chairman Drek's robot plant on planet Quartu—and subsequent arrival on planet Veldin—catalyzes Ratchet's...
's adventure through a fictional universe to defeat a robotic villain, Dr. Nefarious, who intends to destroy all organic life. Characters such as Dr. Nefarious and Sasha, a Cazar starship captain who helps Ratchet throughout the game, are introduced, and a number of characters return from the original Ratchet & Clank
Ratchet & Clank
Ratchet & Clank is a 3D platformer/shooter video game for the PlayStation 2, developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Released in 2002, it is the first game in the Ratchet & Clank series....
.
Up Your Arsenal is the first in the series to offer online multiplayer as well as single-player. Multiplayer features three different modes of play available on all of the maps and has a selection of the weapons from the single-player game. As well as the multiplayer mode, it offers many other improvements over its predecessors such as higher quality graphics, larger worlds and a larger variety of weapons and gadgets also ships and dune buggies. The voice cast from the previous game return as their respective characters and new actors
Voice acting
Voice acting is the art of providing voices for animated characters and radio and audio dramas and comedy, as well as doing voice-overs in radio and television commercials, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, puppet shows, and amusement rides.Performers are called...
were hired to voice the new characters. The game was met with critical acclaim, earning an average review score of 91% at Metacritic.
The name of the game is a play on the British English
British English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
word "arse
Anus
The anus is an opening at the opposite end of an animal's digestive tract from the mouth. Its function is to control the expulsion of feces, unwanted semi-solid matter produced during digestion, which, depending on the type of animal, may be one or more of: matter which the animal cannot digest,...
" and the word "arsenal
Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, issued to authorized users, or any combination of those...
".
Gameplay
Despite straying further from a classic platform game, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal still offers some of the basic features of a platform game but with a strong mix of action and shooting; PGNx Media has dubbed it a "combat-platformer". It offers meleeMêlée
Melee , generally refers to disorganized close combat involving a group of fighters. A melee ensues when groups become locked together in combat with no regard to group tactics or fighting as an organized unit; each participant fights as an individual....
and long range combat and boasts a large, varied arsenal as one of its primary features as it has been in previous games.
For most of the game the player will be in control of Ratchet but in some areas the player takes control of Clank, Ratchet's ally. Clank can give commands to smaller robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
s called gadgebots to perform tasks with the use of a command menu to solve puzzles and attack enemies. Clank also features in "Giant Clank" scenarios where Clank transforms into a larger and more advanced form and can battle similar size enemies; in this form he gains increased fire power
Fire power
Firepower is the military capability to direct force at an enemy. It is not to be confused with the concept of rate of fire, which describes cycling of the firing mechanism in a weapon system. It involves the whole range of potential weapons...
and a large amount of health. During the single-player game, the player can also play as Captain Qwark in 2D side-scrolling
Side-scrolling video game
A side-scrolling game or side-scroller is a video game in which the gameplay action is viewed from a side-view camera angle, and the onscreen characters generally move from the left side of the screen to the right. These games make use of scrolling computer display technology...
levels (called "Vid Comics"), which build upon the history of Captain Qwark and his previous conflicts with Dr. Nefarious.
The game offers a huge range of enemies and different stages. It also features online multiplayer modes, such as Deathmatch
Deathmatch (gaming)
Deathmatch or Player vs All is a widely-used gameplay mode integrated into many shooter and real-time strategy computer games...
, Capture The Flag
Capture the flag
Capture the Flag is a traditional outdoor sport generally played by children, where two teams each have a flag and the objective is to capture the other team's flag, located at the team's "base," and bring it safely back to their own base...
, and Siege
Siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit". Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static...
(in which the player storms the opponent's base and tries to destroy the power core inside). It supports up to eight players at a time and supports voice chat through a PS2-compatible headset. Ethernet connection is needed if playing online against other players.
Characters
The player characterPlayer character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
and main protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
is Ratchet
Ratchet (Ratchet & Clank)
Ratchet is the main character of the Ratchet & Clank series of video games. Ratchet is tall, 15 years old and weighs 151 lbs . In the English versions of the games, Ratchet is voiced by Mikey Kelley in the first Ratchet & Clank and by James Arnold Taylor in all the others...
(voiced by James Arnold Taylor
James Arnold Taylor
James Arnold Taylor is an American voice actor, Impressionist, and Announcer. He is the current voice provider for Fred Flintstone as well as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and also the movie Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Johnny Test in Johnny Test...
), a Lombax from the planet Veldin. He wields a wrench as a melee weapon and can use a large arsenal of weapons, including guns, and melee weapons. Clank
Clank (Ratchet & Clank)
Clank is one of the titular protagonist game characters in the Ratchet & Clank video game series by Insomniac Games.-Character design:Co-protagonist of the series, Clank escaped from Chairman Drek's robot plant on planet Quartu—and subsequent arrival on planet Veldin—catalyzes Ratchet's...
, Ratchet's robotic sidekick and sometimes co-protagonist, is usually attached to Ratchet's back and uses attachments to help Ratchet's movements. He is voiced by David Kaye
David Kaye
David V. Hope , known professionally as David Kaye, is a Canadian American actor who is better recognized for his work as a voice actor...
. Dr. Nefarious, the main antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
of the game (voiced by Armin Shimerman
Armin Shimerman
Armin Shimerman is an American actor. Shimerman is best known for playing the Ferengi bartender Quark in the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Principal Snyder in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kramer's caddy Stan on Seinfeld, voicing Dr. Nefarious in the Ratchet & Clank series, and Andrew...
), is the robotic form of a former organic life form. He has a hatred for organic life and tries to destroy it. At the end of the game, Doctor Nefarious is left stranded on an asteroid, eventually making cameos and reappearances in later titles.
Story
The game opens with Ratchet and Clank finding a news report about Ratchet's home planet, Veldin, which is under attack by an army of aliens named Tyhrranoids. The lead suspect is a mysterious villainVillain
A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
by the name of Dr. Nefarious. After they help to defeat the Tyhrranoids on Veldin, the Galactic President tells Ratchet that Captain Qwark, an enemy from the first two games in the series, is the only person to ever have defeated Dr. Nefarious and that Qwark's help is needed to defeat him again. Ratchet finds Qwark and takes him to the Starship Phoenix, whose commander has been ordered to help Ratchet and Qwark defeat Dr. Nefarious. Qwark creates the "Q-Force", a group of "elite" people working against Dr. Nefarious, and he assigns Ratchet a new mission to infiltrate Nefarious' base to acquire as much information on Nefarious' plans as possible. They find that Dr. Nefarious is a fan of Secret Agent Clank, Clank's TV show, along with an encrypted star map to the Tyhrranoids' home planet. After the Q-Force destroys a Tyhrranoid base on their home planet, Dr. Nefarious sends the Q-Force a transmission
Transmission (telecommunications)
Transmission, in telecommunications, is the process of sending, propagating and receiving an analogue or digital information signal over a physical point-to-point or point-to-multipoint transmission medium, either wired, optical fiber or wireless...
telling them that they won't be able to defeat him, and Al traces the transmission to planet Daxx.
Ratchet and Clank arrive at Daxx and learn about something called a Biobliterator, but not what it does. They also find a music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
by Courtney Gears (an obvious play on Britney Spears), which tells robots to destroy organic life form
Organism
In biology, an organism is any contiguous living system . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homoeostasis as a stable whole.An organism may either be unicellular or, as in the case of humans, comprise...
s. Ratchet and Clank investigate what Courtney Gears has been doing, but she kidnaps Clank, unknown to Ratchet, and takes him to Dr. Nefarious. Nefarious gives Clank the choice to either rule the Universe
Universe
The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
with him or to be a disgrace to all robots by pairing with the organic life forms, but Clank refuses. Unknown to both Ratchet and the game's player, Dr. Nefarious replaces Clank with an evil twin
Evil twin
The evil twin is an antagonist found in many different fictional genres. They are physical copies of protagonists, but with radically inverted moralities. In filmed entertainment, they can have obvious physical differences with the protagonist—such as facial hair, eyepatches, scars or distinctive...
named Klunk, while holding Clank prisoner. Ratchet, with Klunk, then follow up on the Bioblierator on the Obani Moons. While helping them access the third of the moons, Skidd, another member of the Q-Force, is kidnapped by Courtney Gears. Ratchet enters the third moon to save him, but is too late as Skidd gets transformed into a robot. Courtney Gears attempts to do the same to Ratchet, but Ratchet defeats her before she gets the chance. Meanwhile, Sasha tracks down Dr. Nefarious on a Star Cruiser called The Levithon and upon Ratchet's return she sends him and Qwark to infiltrate the ship. When Ratchet arrives, however, he discovers that Dr. Nefarous lured them to the ship as a trap, and he activates the self-destruct
Self-destruct
A self-destruct is a mechanism which causes a device to destroy itself under a predefined set of circumstances.Self-destruct mechanisms are also found on devices and systems where malfunction could endanger large numbers of people...
system before teleporting out. Ratchet and Klunk return to the Phoenix, but Qwark stays on the ship, claiming to have seen something. Ratchet and Clank fly off just as the Leviathan explodes, but Qwark doesn't escape with them and is later presumed dead.
While Ratchet is fighting off a Tyhrranoid invasion in the city of Metropolis, Nefarious uses the Biobliterator to turn helpless citizens
Citizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
and Tyhrranoid invaders alike into robots. Before Ratchet can attack him, Dr. Nefarious escapes the city and Klunk attacks Ratchet. After defeating Klunk, Ratchet and Clank are reunited, and they discover that Captain Qwark is still alive, but wants the Q-Force to think that he is dead. In order to prevent the Q-Force from losing hope, Ratchet decides to keep Qwark's survival a secret for the time being, and Clank reluctantly agrees The duo manage to track Qwark down at his secret hideout, but they cannot convince him to rejoin the fight against Dr. Nefarious. Ratchet and Clank reach another one of Nefarious's hideouts and Clank destroys the Biobliterator. However, Sasha soon reports that a second Biobliterator is housed at Nefarious's main command center on planet Mylon, Ratchet and Clank arrive at the command center and confront Nefarious, but before they can defeat him he teleports inside the Biobliterator, which transforms into a giant, heavily armed robot.
Having regained his bravery, Captain Qwark flies in to fight alongside them and they engage in aerial combat
Aerial warfare
Aerial warfare is the use of military aircraft and other flying machines in warfare, including military airlift of cargo to further the national interests as was demonstrated in the Berlin Airlift...
against Nefarious and the Biobliterator and defeat it. The Biobliterator self-destructs, and Nefarious and Lawrence are left stranded on an asteroid after attempting to teleport
Teleportation
Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...
away from the explosion. The game then ends with the cast attending the latest Secret Agent Clank film.
Development
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal was the main focus of the InsomniacInsomniac Games
Insomniac Games, Inc. is an American video game developer headquartered in Burbank, California. Founded in 1994, Insomniac has released titles for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 video game consoles. It created Disruptor, the first three Spyro the Dragon games, and the Ratchet &...
Team during development. The team of around 115 people were aiming to create a new Ratchet and Clank game that would differ significantly from its predecessors and almost end up being two games in one. Insomniac believed that one of the key processes in the development process was the rigorous testing. Working closely with Sony and listening to fans of the Ratchet and Clank series, they gathered feedback and made improvements to the game. They felt that they had created a game that would appeal to a number of genres with the inclusion of elements of platform
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
, action
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
and side-scrolling gameplay. At the same time, Jak 3
Jak 3
Jak 3 is a platform game for Sony's PlayStation 2 console developed by Naughty Dog. It is the third game in the main Jak and Daxter series. Jak 3 was completely localized and dubbed in Japanese, but was not released in Japan due to Jak IIs poor sales...
was being developed by Naughty Dog
Naughty Dog
Naughty Dog, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Santa Monica, California. Founded by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin in 1986 as an independent developer, the studio was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2001...
, a company closely tied with Insomniac. Naughty Dog's Jak & Daxter series
Jak and Daxter
Jak and Daxter is a critically acclaimed video game franchise created by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation 2.The series consists of four main games and two spin-offs,though they are also considered to be part of the main series...
and the Ratchet & Clank series are in similar genres; each game in both series' has been released at a similar time and both contain references to each other. Ryan Schneider, an employee of Insomniac, said, "The analogy that I like to use is that at Insomniac we like to look at it as how Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant act when it comes to their professions. We don't really look at it as how we compare to other athletes or other games, we just try to do the best that we can and elevate the sport."
Reception
Before its release, IGNIGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
was highly anticipating the final version of the game as they had played two previous versions of the game already. Concentrating on the multiplayer aspect of the game, they praised the developers for moving a solely platform game into the multiplayer genre so well. Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal was featured at the E3 games festival in 2004, where there was a playable demo. Only the multiplayer Siege mode and a single-player demo were available but they were enough to get 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
's award for best action game at E3.
Soon after its release Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal received critical acclaim. GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
awarded it 5 stars out of 5, and IGN said that "You MUST buy this immediately" due to its extensive line-up of weaponry, high quality graphics and polished sound effects. IGN did however, believe it was easier than the previous game, Going Commando, while GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
thought that the gameplay was too similar to the previous title, but both reviewers considered these as minor issues and they made little difference to the overall score. Gaming magazines GamesTM
GamesTM
GamesTM is a UK-based, multi-format video games magazine, covering many video game platforms including PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2, PC games, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS and Arcade machines...
and Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine both mentioned that the offbeat comedy that was apparent throughout the majority of the game was one of the points that made it unique. X-Play
X-Play
X-Play is a TV program about video games, known for its reviews and comedy skits...
said "A mixture of excellent gameplay tweaks and new activities make the third one easily the strongest game in the series and one of the best games of this year" and giving it a full five star rating. According to Metacritic's collection of reviews, 12 separate reviewers gave the game the highest possible score. In 2006, Edge Magazine featured a "Time Extend" article on Ratchet & Clank: Up your Arsenal and among other points, focused on the amount and variety of weapons available to the player. In August 2005 Up Your Arsenal entered the Greatest Hits line-up. Since its release, it has sold over 2.15 million copies in the US alone. IGN listed the game 12th on their list of "The Top 25 PS2 Games of All Time".