The longevity of PlayStation's 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ratchet and Clank franchise is truly impressive. What 𓆏started out as a quirky little experimental title, intended to help Insomniac Games stick the landing in the PS2 era following their Spyro trilogy, has blossomed into a multimedia franchise of games, movies, cartoons, comics, and more.

Conquering Planet Veldin may be easy, considering how often it's invaded within the series' canon, but what might prove a tad trickier is conquering every adventure the Combustor-toting Lombax and his eloquent robo-pal have been on. The duo have notched up nine mainline games; if you wanted to beat them all, how long would it take you? More than a Markazian minute, that's for certain!

A quick note before we begin. This breakdown is only factoring in the core platforming titles that make up the franchise's central plotline. That means we're excluding handheld spinoffs like Secret Agent Clank, multiplayer installments like All 4 One, and the 2016 movie tie-in game.

Variances in quality notwithstanding, their canonicity remains the subject of debate.

Ratchet And Clank

12 Hours

Ratchet had very humble beginnings, both narratively and mechanically. Insomniac were finding their feet for this inaugural adventure, so it's a bit clunkier than series veterans may be used to. There's no strafing, the auto lock-on only works when it feels like it, and the checkpoints are stingier than a Gadgetron vendor.

Indeed, the difficulty is the chief drawback of R&C 1. Unless you grind bolts for health upgrades, you'll be rocking a grand total of four hit points for the entire odyssey – and the late-game enemies hit like trucks. What's worse is you can easily run out of ammo several thousand feet away from the nearest cache, leaving you defenceless against the hordes.

Still, it's a trip worth taking once, mostly for the whip-smart repartee between our two leads and the consumerist bite to the story. By the time you topple Chairman Drek (itself one of the toughest fights of the PS2 age), 12 hours will be your total.

Ratchet And Clank: Going Commando

13 Hours

Sparking a long, long lineage of seeing how much innuendo the titles could get away with, Going Commando is typically regarded as the true beginning for the series. Crucial mechanics that would become indispensable to its winning formula debuted here, like strafing, EXP levelling, and the ability to upgrade your weapons.

As a consequence, the difficulty curve is a lot more balanced. The enemies still knock back a few tons of steroids in the final worlds, but now your abilities are scaled to match them. The platforming, too, is refined, with glider and vehicle segments adding splashes of variety.

Going Commando's runtime is roughly a match for the OG; with the principal difference being the bulk of it is spent on progression and fun, rather than retrying the same impossible sections ad nauseam. Blowing the lid off the Protopet cartel will land you in the region of 13 hours.

Ratchet And Clank: Up Your Arsenal

12 Hours

The very raunchily-titled Up Your Arsenal caps off the original trilogy with Blarg-blasting panache. Many fans of the franchise will tell you this is their favourite, and it's easy to see why.

Going Commando's already tight gameplay is iterated upon in some fab ways; the movement is smoother, the hit detection's more precise, and the Omniwrench finally has combat purpose beyond 'thwack the easy mooks.'

We also get the introduction of everyone's beloved cackling cyborg, Dr. Nefarious, and his long-suffering steward Lawrence. They're an unbeatable comedic presence, and a highlight in a plot which also features such bizarre interludes as Courtney Gears a💝nd the Klunk conspiracy.

With all these improvements, Up Your Arsenal actually clocks in at a slighter time than either of its forebears – mostly because of how much faster-paced and mission-based everything is. Expect to dedicate ten to 12 hours to this classic.

Ratchet: Deadlocked

8 Hours

With three smashing successes under their belt, Insomniac were left scratching their skulls about where next to take the franchise. They were under contract for at least one more Ratchet game on the PS2 – and so for inspiration, their heads turned, in an ambivalent, edgy sort of way, to mid-2000s grunge.

It was the era of morphing your cuddly cartoon masco𝓀ts into hard-edged action heroes, and when have market trends ever been wrong?

Deadlocked, then, is a tonal outlier in the series; though that by no means makes it bad. Clank's been knocked off the top billing, and is relegated to mission control as Ratchet navigates DreadZone, a Hunger Games-esque bloodsport tel𒐪evised by the dastardly Gleeman Vox (of Vox News.)

There's no platforming to speak of – Deadlocked is guns, guns, and more guns. The tryhard grimdark feel occasionally wears, but the proven combat gameplay remains impeccable. That lack of exploration renders Deadlocked a briefer experience, tapping out at a measly eight hours or so.

Ratchet And Clank: Tools Of Destruction

13 Hours

Once the PS3 hit the scene, Insomniac's priorities shifted. They'd already perfected the actual Ratchet gameplay, so their concerns were now visual ones. 1080p was the future; and indeed, in certain markets the PS3 Ratchet titles are published under the 'Future Saga' banner.

Tools Of Destruction's improvements are hence mostly cosmetic. The game's thesis statement is clear from the off, with the prologue stage hurling more particle effects and dynamic lighting at you than Phil Spencer would know how to promote. The Havok physics engine allows for realistic crate-bashing, and puzzles that 𓄧are more in-dep🐭th than the usual turning of screws.

Narrative is also suddenly a concern, with the fate of the Lombaxes and Ratchet's parentage being propelled to the forefront. All told, your HD galaxy-hopping adventure will run you somewhere in the neighbourhood of 13 hours.

Ratchet And Clank: Quest For Booty

3 Hours

Quest For Booty is, in essence, a DLC expansion for Tools Of Destruction. It's a brief package intended to bridge the gap between it and the then-upcoming Crack In Time, and p🅠retty much walks, squawks, and talks exactly like it.

In some regions, Quest For Booty received a physical release, but one has to wonder why they bothered, since it was far cheaper and more convenient to download digitally. Copies of the physical disc now go for more than the PlayStation Store version originally cost, even accounting for inflation.

There isn't much to say about this one. If you've played Tools, you've played Booty, and the narrative - which sees Ratchet hunting a nautical realm for Clank after he goes missing - is nothing to get excited over. Damp caverns and endless pirate fleets don't particularly tickle the imagination, and you'll be done inside of three hours.

Ratchet And Clank: A Crack In Time

14 Hours

Insomniac Games have retroactively characterised A Crack In Time as the entry where they attempted to 'go all-out' and make the ultimate Ratchet game. It's not an inaccurate appraisal. For every fan who claims Up Your Arsenal is the best game, three or four more will come out of the woodwork, insisting that Crack In Time is the true masterpiece of the catalogue.

Everything here is firing on all cylinders. The visuals strain the PS3 to its limits, pumping out Pixar-grade cinematics and environs. The gunplay is the tightest it's ever been, with a wide variety of quirky firearms to lay the smackdown. You can wander space freely in your starship for the first time, complete with a little r💧adio that features hours of music and in-universe t𝔉alk shows.

Crack In Time's biggest win, however, is its storyline. You won't find a more involved or emotional tale in the Ratchet saga, as revelations are made about both Ratchet and Clank's pasts and the Lombax arc is poignantly expanded upon. Defending The Great Clock will take you a blissful 14 hours of platforming goodness.

Ratchet And Clank: Into The Nexus

7 Hours

Into The Nexus (titled Into The Nether Regions during development, but that was a step too far even for these guys) occupies an odd spot in the series' history. Crack In Time's climactic feel brought the curtain down on the Future saga, and so it functions as a sort of epilogue, while simultaneously kicking off the Dimensionator saga.

That's a lot of narrative weight for a package this bareboned to carry, and arguably it struggles to do so. Releasing in the launch window of the PS4, yet inexplicably stuck on the PS3, you get the impression Insomniac had checked out for this one. There are only five worlds to explore, and the villains - two vengeful orphans called the Progs - are pants.

Nexus is redeemed in part by its stylish Clank segments, which look like those cool sunset bits from Donkey Kong Country (if DK was being chased by interdimensional hellspawns), and the way its post-credits scene sets up the future of the franchise. You'd still be hard-pressed to squeeze more than eight hours out of it, regardless.

Ratchet And Clank: Rift Apart

12 Hours

Fans would be waiting a tremendously long time for the payoff of Into The Nexus' ending. The intervening years between that game's 2013 release and 2021's Rift Apart were spent on Sony experimenting with the duo's multimedia potential.

In 2016, we received both a Hollywood movie and a ground-up remake of R&C 1 for PS4, not to mention a glut of comic books, merchandise, and short films.

At last, Insomniac saw fit to continue the main series on the PS5. When Dr. Nefarious swipes the Dimensionator, he punches a hole in reality that sweeps all the principal cast to a universe where he's competent and victorious. There, we meet Rivet, Ratchet's dimensional counterpart, and Kit, who's Clank's.

Rift Apart's gameplay is more of the same, albeit with the added wrinkle of swapping between the two Lombaxes. The visuals are gorgeous, but that's to be expected with the horsepower of the PS5; it especially benefits the surreal Clank puzzles, which s♏ee you commandiไng multiple copies of yourself in real-time.

Overall, Rift Apart will run you circa 12 hours, and it leaves the door open for even more galactic adventures to come!

How Many Hours In Total Does It Take To Beat Every Ratchet And Clank Game?

Our blaster runs hot – and so, too, will your console motherboards when you're done with this marathon. Let's now tot up the total number of hours it'd take to finish every one of Ratchet and Clank's quests.

This brings the total timesink to 94 hours, or just shy of four days assuming you never slept, ate, or used the bathroom (in which case: is that you, Clank?). That's sub-100 hours, and therefore might not be as long as you'd expect, making this a viable series to run through in short order.

The true test of a Ratchet player, however, is the second playthrough in Challenge Mode. Each game offers this harder difficulty once you clear the story a single time, and could offer you hours more of white-knuckle action. Whichever way you choose to tackle these seminal adventures, you're bound to end up with a Solana-sized grin.