Surprised I never really heard about this before. It's a nice Zelda-lite experience. Positively I would say the puzzle-solving is quite fun; none of the puzzles feel really hard or obtuse but they're challenging enough and especially the Mummy ones can get pretty creative. The platforming feels okay and there's a variety of systems and minigames and things to collect if you wanna take a break from the game for a while. All the enemies and the bosses in this game are annoying. That could be a downside, but I actually like that mobs aren't just all the same or palette-swaps or completely ineffective at all times. Technically the game also looks better than I suspected it would, but I know that the Xbox One ups the XBOX Classics games so that probably has something to do with it.



On the downside, the combat is a bit lackluster. There's basically a normal slash, a spin slash, a jump slash and a ground pound. Aside from the spin and the jump, none of these really change the combat around. You get a blowpipe but it's mostly used for puzzle-solving. You also get a shield which you basically use once to deflect a laser and that's about it. There are some enemies which have ranged attacks, but as you can't move with the shield up, it's kinda pointless. The other system that just feels underdeveloped is the monster capture system. You can capture all the monsters in this game to give them to a museum, give them to some collector, sell them to a shop or use them in puzzles/sidequests. Unfortunately, there are only two monsters that get used this way. It feels like a system they started on, then discovered was too much work to plan and implement and then just kinda gave up. There's a lot of things that kinda feel this way in the game. You get Bouncing and Ice Darts for the blowpipe, but they're basically used for one puzzle and then never again. The OST is also pretty disappointing. It's not bad, but it is very unremarkable and my favourite track was probably the menu theme, but you barely have to open your menu so that makes it even worse.



Overall it is an enjoyable experience and one I would've been interested in to see if they would have improved for the sequel, but it was never made.

until the day the stars and moons align and i finally get my hands on a ps5 and rift apart, this is hands down the best R&C game i've played. yes, even moreso than the ps2 games.

while tools of destruction felt like ratchet's bumbling first steps as a cinematic disney-tier epic, crack in time manages to get a better handle on its new identity. yes, clank basically being the son of a time god is still stupid to me no matter how you slice it, but i was still more invested in the story than i was with TOD. lot of funny and heartfelt moments, just generally had a great time even with my grievances on post-ps2 ratchet's direction.

also dr nefarious is back and he's great. i don't care how many people want to whine about him being "overused"; this is like. the second time in the franchise he's been an antag and he's a blast in this game, quit yer whining.

guns are a ton of fun and insomniac managed to do the impossible and make clank's gameplay not entirely suck this time around. i think my only gripes are that i wish there were more full planets to play around in, but i guess having the little side moons balances things out. still a super fun time all around and definitely worth playing regardless of what you think about the ps3 games.

also alister is a manipulative asshole, i don't care how much sadboy headcanons you want to project onto him just because he's a lombax