PlayStation 2

Secret Agent Clank

It's completely expected to see Clank venture out on his own. The Ratchet & Clank franchise has been good to both Sony and fans, but that's likely due to the folks who made it famous - Insomniac Games. There are some really fun nuggets to be found in Secret Agent Clank, but for every one thing the game does right, it does two or three other things terribly wrong. The game doesn't completely run off the rails - not by any means. However, there's a standard that has been set for this series, and unfortunately, this game falls well below par. Younger gamers might find it mildly amusing, but diehard Ratchet & Clank fans should cry foul.

Comme ce fut le cas pour le portage de Ratchet & Clank : La Taille Ca Compte, l'adaptation PSP vers PS2 de Secret Agent Clank ne s'est pas faite naturellement. Celui-ci, malgré de grosses qualités, n'était déjà pas un hit sur la console portable, il ne l'est pas davantage sur cette bonne vieille PS2. En effet, la base utilisée n'est pas d'aussi bonne qualité que les premiers jeux de la série sur PS2, ce qui se ressent à travers quelques problèmes de caméra, des déplacements un peu rigides et une technique à revoir.

On PSP, Secret Agent Clank wasn't much to get excited about, and the PS2 version isn't much different. The gameplay is the same mix of fun Ratchet and Clank dialogue mixed with mundane mini-games, Qwark's missions still break the pacing of the game and you won't feel like a spy by the end of the title.

Secret Agent Clank first appeared on the PSP, and unfortunately it shows. The graphics are pretty crude and grainy, and I'm not comparing them to those of PS3 games either. The game is rather ugly for a PS2 game, paling in comparison to games like God of War or the other Ratchet & Clank games available on the system. Also, the game insisted on playing with vertical bars on both sides of the widescreen monitor used while playtesting the game. There was an in-game option to select widescreen graphics which did absolutely nothing – the black bars remained no matter which setting was selected. It's just another disappointment in a game that's a disappointing entry in a storied series. This one's best left to diehard fans that can't bear to let anything Ratchet & Clank pass them by. Everyone else should let it go quietly away into the dark.

Secret Agent Clank è spassoso, condito da personaggi irresistibili e battute fulminanti. Eppure questo porting si rivela realizzato in fretta e furia, con un unico cambiamento apportato, in peggio, alla gestione della telecamera. Chi se l'è perso su PSP e adora la serie alla follia troverà un simpatico divertissement, gli altri possono pure dedicarsi ad altro.

As a huge fan of the Ratchet and Clank games and I thoroughly enjoyed the original game on the PSP to see this sad port makes me think that this was nothing more than a money grab for those gamers without a PSP who wanted to play this game. Only a rental if you cannot find anything else to play and if you are a completely forgiving gamer regarding bad games.

What parts of the Ratchet and Clank series Secret Agent Clank doesn't dispose of from the outset it mangles with poor controls and repetitive gameplay, and anything worthwhile in the PSP game has been largely demolished in this shoddy port.