Ratchet & Clank was recently one of PlayStation’s free games as part of the Play At Home promotion, and also received a free 60fps update on PS5. The Play At Home deal is over now, although it’s still via the PlayStation Plus Collection for free if you’ve got said PS5. Even if you haven’t - I’ve heard they’re a bit tricky to get hold of - it’s only £16 on PS4, and you’ll get it even cheaper preowned. The physical disc is a valuable investment too, because as we’ve seen recently, digital ownership is a precarious business. Anyway, regardless of how you get it - go get it. Then come back and we can chat about how Ratchet & Clank has the best weapons in video game history.
Ratchet & Clank is kind of a reboot, kind of a remake, kind of a retelling, kind of a reimagining… it’s hard to define exactly what it is. On the weapons front though, this unique position allows it to borrow all of the best bits from previous games in the series. The arsenal is like a Greatest Hits of the zaniest weapons ever commited to video games, and it’s all killer, no filler.
If you want a weapon that just does the job for you, try the Bouncer. As the name suggests, it fires bouncing bullets, but since a lot of the combat is chaotic and takes place in relatively tight spaces, you can just fire anywhere vaguely near the enemy and you’ll end up taking them all out in an instant. That’s obviously quite a handy tool to have in your belt, but if you’re just trying to take your enemies out in the most efficient way possible, you’re missing out on what makes Ratchet and Clank so great to begin with.
Buzz Blades, Warmonger, and obviously RYNO are up there with the Bouncer as the most effective weapons when it comes to clearing the path or completely gutting a room, but there really is more to Ratchet & Clank than that. Take the Sheepinator, for example. Want to turn your foes into sheep? No problem, Ratchet & Clank has you covered. Or want to shoot them with a raygun that invades their brain and makes them psychologically compelled to dance even while whirling blades rip them apart? Check out the Groovitron. It’s more fun and cartoonish than I made it sound, I promise.
Then there’s the Pixelizer. It turns its victims into 8-bit silhouettes before they crumble into tiny blocks of colour. Shotguns in games are usually very dull instruments, just brownish grey blasters that deliver a powerful shot over a short range. They’re effective, but not particularly malleable, so I never use them too much. With the Pixelizer though, I was always looking for an excuse, and I know you will too. You can even throw the Groovitron in the mix, freezing your foes mid-funk in a pixelated prison.
Finally, there’s Mr Zurkon. This gun is actually pretty weak and only useful against the smallest of enemies, but I didn’t care. It was always my go to. Ratchet & Clank is not a difficult game, so having a gun that isn’t a guaranteed whitewash is actually part of the charm, especially when this gun’s whole deal is bragging about how deadly it is. My Zurkon is a tiny robot built for killing, and he will narrate his escapades with lines like “I shall let you live, little alien…psych! Mr Zurkon lives only to kill,” “Death is too stupid for Mr Zurkon,” and “Why do you hide, stupid aliens? Mr Zurkon only wishes to kill you.” If you die while brandishing Mr Zurkon, the last words you’ll hear are “Mr Zurkon is ashamed.”
Go on, play it. I promise you won’t be disappointed.