Somehow worse than Size Matters. The story is complete nonsense, to the point where someone at High Impact had to specify in a tweet that it wasn't canon. Clank's arsenal is clever, but not very fun to use, especially when the majority of combat encounters in this game are stealth based. Ratchet gameplay is similar to Size Matters with an even worse arsenal, and the Qwark segments are good for little more than a light chuckle the first time. You change gameplay styles once every 20 minutes, and none are fleshed out enough to be interesting. This game suffers from a serious identity crisis, and I will not be picking it up again to help it figure itself out.

Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters is a game that really hasn't aged well when going back to it but things could be made a lot better had they made a sequel. Instead they made Secret Agent Clank which came out a year later and proceeds to correct almost none of the problems that plagued that game and only exasperates the bad shit tenfold.

The story is borderline incomprehensible rubbish that apparently thinks that Clank IS a secret agent (even though in the third game he's just a fictional character in a TV show) and sees Ratchet being framed for a crime he didn't commit. Apparently everyone except Clank is stupid to not realise the red things on his head is a dead giveaway that he's being mind-controlled and it only gets more weirdly convoluted as it goes on.

Gameplay wise things haven't improved much. The weapons are still crap (and somehow even worse this time around) and the stealth sections get repetitive quickly especially if you're using Clank's takedowns.

Not helping in the slightest is the bloody terrible other gameplay segments that take up the bulk of the game such as the atrocious rhythm sections including a particularly awful one at the Casino. Ratchet's playable for a few arena battles at the prison he's been sent to but those grow old pretty fast as does the Gadgetbots levels. Special mention goes to Captain Quawk who despite the fact that he's playable for the first time, his levels go on for about 100 million fucking decades and any jokes that may have been funny are stretched past their breaking point.

This really should have been where big improvements were made for Ratchet and Clank's second PSP outing but instead High Impact Games fucked up big time and gave us the worst game in the series to date. Consider this agent shaken, stirred and a big load of Clank!

"The Spin Off No One Wanted"

What a crock of sh!t this was! Why did this game get approved in the design room, and why was this handed over to High Impact Games, the creators of the very bland and clunky "Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters"? Simply put - money and development downtime. I (sadly) put myself through playing a good chunk of this game, so I'm here to tell you why you should stay away.

The visuals are very bland and lack pop, even despite being squished into a PSP resolution screen. Audio tracks are amateurish and there's a severe lack of decent tracks, and you're likely to hear the same few songs blare throughout the experience.

Levels are super linear and predictable with its art, but the actual gameplay is random and unfocused. You'll encounter really crappy stealth sections, stupid racing segments, unfun Ratchet combat, and some of the worst rhythm minigames ever introduced into a game. Oh yeah, and there's the jumbled together Quark sections as well. None of the mechanics feel very good, and the controls don't suit the console at all either. Everyone in this game controls weirdly, and it's a dumb thing when it feels better to move with the D-pad compared with the console's movement stick.

The writing is atrocious. It's so cliche, so unfunny, and so uninteresting with its premise, purpose, and punchline. Clank is already not the strongest character in the series, which is why his pairing with Ratchet is so important. Here, he's just a very bland robot James Bond. Ratchet is yet again purposeless and whiny. Quark is a sniveling man child that is actually not important to the overall plot at all.

The kicker is that High Impact Games didn't even understand the lore of the series and decided to make Clank an actual secret agent. In "Up Your Arsenal", Clank is just a TV star who plays the SAC character while Ratchet serves as HIS sidekick, a clever poke at the series and their dynamic. High Impact decided that this was apparently an ACTUAL part of his character, and thus this load of garbage was written. On top of this, they decided Clank was the perfect main character for "Ratchet & Clank", a series that had never (and still has not) created a solid gameplay loop around him. The mechanics are not similar to "Up Your Arsenal's" sections, but instead involve a score metric and slow, repetitive stealth takedowns.

This game is a waste of time and a useless addition to the franchise. I was more impressed with the flip phone game since that somehow managed to stay true to the series, and this game somehow managed to fumble expectations and mess with the formula. Not worth playing, not even for free.

Final Verdict: 3/10 (Poor)

High Impact games delivered a real Ratchet and Clank with Size Matters but in there second attempt they basically threw out the whole formula. There is still a little.. very little platforming and some gun play. The guns are no where near as interesting as in the other games though. Now instead of all the platforming, running and gunning, and a fun quirky story that we are use to in this series we got a stealth mission, quick time event, mini game having, frame rate lagging, non sensical bad story.

You may be asking why do I have it as a 2.5? Fair question. One I had to talk myself into it as my gut reaction was a 2 star (and was on track for a 1 star after the first few levels.) Two there was still fun to be had. Mainly in the mini games and the Ratchet sections where it was mostly like a easy version of other Ratchet games arena mode. The clank sections where hit or miss some fun others not so much. Third reason is I wanted to be fair to the game. Three things I personally hate in games are stealth missions, quick time events, and a bad story. This game is loaded with those things. But for quick time events and stealth missions they weren’t that awful. So basically while I’m not going to sing it’s praises I’m not going to bury an ok game because it has some things in it that aren’t my personal cup of tea.

All in all this is an ok game that if you like stealth missions, quick time events and mini games you would love it. But for me of the Ratchet games I’ve played so far this is the last one I would recommend. Excited to get to Tools of Destruction now!

Secret Agent Clank is a very peculiar game, as not having Ratchet in the title of the game means you can still play as a secondary character and that's a problem for this game.
The game's graphics are interesting, but in some stages, such as the last one, my Playstation portable became so bright that my eyes started to hurt.

The story is about Clank trying to get Ratchet out of prison for a crime he didn't do, but there are some things that don't make sense about the character Captain Qwark being playable, in my opinion he's the most annoying character, especially the theatre stage where he hums so much and the stage of protecting the dam is just boring.

The weapons in the game are creative, for example the shock rain guarad was a weapon a few times, but I used mini bombs is a very powerful weapon.

The stealth in this game is good, but there is a possibility that one of the buttons will be wrong and the quick time event will be cancelled.

In short, the biggest problem with this game is that it doesn't have Ratchet and the new attempt at stealth wasn't the best.

Not very good, sadly. Doesn't feel great to be yet another voice to criticize the franchise's punching bag, but it's so easy to dislike for several reasons. The Qwark sections are awful slogs that go on and on, being both too simplistic and always having at least one section too much. the Ratchet sections should be fun since they're just arena fights, but the weapons lack any sort of punch, so they too get boring fast. Clank sections are actually decent, pretty similar to ordinary R&C gameplay though with some very basic stealth mechanics here and there to give the game a very distinct identity, and not in a bad way during those sections. Sadly, the stealth and action gameplay have to share so much screentime with the other two characters, and also those absurdly long rhythm game missions that were way too easy for going on for as long as they did

Another PSP Ratchet and Clank title developed by High Impact Games. I'll be honest. I think it's somewhat better then Size Matters, but not by much. This time around, Clank gets the main focus!

I think the idea of Ratchet landing himself in jail while Clank has to prove his innocence is an interesting plot for a Ratchet and Clank game. Ratchet has to fight for his survival against all his past foes that he's gotten thrown in the slammer, while Clank does the investigating on the outside. Oh yeah, Qwark is there as well I guess?

The gameplay is pretty much the same as it is in Size Matters. Clank can do everything that Ratchet can now, except it's got a slight focus on stealth. Ratchet gameplay is pretty much the arena missions in previous games. Qwark plays...pretty much the same as Ratchet except with some gameplay twists here and there.

Music is fairly forgettable here outside a couple tracks. Nothing much to note here.

If you liked Size Matters you will probably like this one. It's regarded as the black sheep of the Ratchet and Clank franchise but I think it's alright for what it is.