Ratchet & Clank have come a long way, with four adventures behind them on the PS2 and one on the PS3 and PSP. The PSP game, aptly named Size Matters, came out in early 2007 but has only recently been ported to the PS2. I'm not sure why it's been ported so late, and more importantly so poorly, but this one is best played as it was intended, on the PSP.

Nothing Gained

I'm still new to the Ratchet And Clank series, having played a good part of the PS3 version and a bit of the first Ratchet And Clank on PS2. When I began to review Size Matters on the PS2, I have to admit I was at first surprised at how the visuals got little to no treatment coming from the PSP. This, I would almost feel safe to say without having full played through previous games in the series, could be the worst looking Ratchet game on the PS2. The textures are bland and feel flimsy, creating a pretty high amount of clipping and other graphical miscues.

A bit discouraged, I pushed through to unravel the crux of the story; Ratchet and Clank decide to take a vacation from their adventures and relax on a remote planet. Wouldn't you know it, they come to know a girl who gets kidnapped right from the get-go by some upset robotic bug things and it's up to you to save her. Along the way you will gather quite a few creative weapons ranging from various mines and grenades to rockets and scorching plasma. Size Matters also keeps intact the variety of platforming action the series has become known for; there is plenty of jumping, sliding, running and gunning and even some shooting parts on rails to do, which keeps the gameplay fresh and fun. The darn camera and graphical annoyances take away from the action regularly however, which puts a significant damper on things.

What fun there is though, doesn't really last all that long but that shouldn't be too surprising given this was a portable game afterall. It took me right around eight hours to play through Size Matters. There isn't a whole heck of a lot to do after playing through once, there are some hidden items you might go back and find or try some local two player on a few of the multiplayer maps, but there are quite frankly too many other great games out there to worry about playing through this a second time or with a friend.