History Videogame / RatchetAndClank

[[quoteright:201:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Ratchet_and_Clank_1_170.jpg]]

The first game in the ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' series, it was a modest hit for the {{Playstation 2}}.

The game is about how the titular duo meet and then team up to stop Chairman Drek and the Blarg from destroying planets across the galaxy in order to build themselves a new homeworld. In exchange for a chance to see the galaxy, Ratchet helps Clank look for the great hero, Captain Qwark.

[[http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2014/06/10/original-ratchet-clank-re-imagined-ps4/ A remake of this game is in the works]] complete with updated gameplay, and will tie into [[Film/RatchetAndClank the upcoming film]].
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!!Provides Examples Of:

* AcronymConfusion: Captain Qwark offers the heroes a PDA.
-->'''Ratchet:''' Public Display of Affection?\\
'''Qwark:''' No no no, Personal Delivery Assistant!
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The Blarg, at least under Drek's rule.
* ArrowCam: The Visibomb Gun in this and [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando the next game]].
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: While it makes sense that the Gemlik moon base has some form of artificial gravity, the lack of atmosphere (which prompts the need of an O2 mask through all of it) makes one wonder how the Heli-pack and Thruster pack could possibly work in an environment where there is no air.
* AsteroidsMonster: The Ameboids infesting Blackwater City, annoyingly enough.
* {{Autosave}}: The games save in between levels.
* [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace Captain Qwark Can Breathe In Space]]: In the Gemlik Base level, Captain Qwark is inexplicably able to breathe and talk in the open vacuum of space when confronting Ratchet, the latter needing an O2 mask just to transverse the level.
* BarefootCartoonAnimal: This is the only game where Ratchet doesn't have shoes, aside from ''Size Matters'' and ''Secret Agent Clank'', as well as some unlockable skins in other games.
** Though he can equip the Grind Boots or the Magneboots for cosmetic effects.
* BareYourMidriff: The hoverboard race hosting girl in Blackwater City.
* BigBad: Chairman Drek.
* BigGood: Captain Qwark for the first half of the game, [[spoiler: only to be [[BrokenPedestal knocked off his pedestal midway through]] when it's revealed he aligned himself with Drek, who is sponsoring his big comeback.]]
* BlingBlingBang: Ten of Ratchet's weapons can be upgraded (for 4 gold bolts and 10,000-60,000 regular bolts, depending on the weapon in question) to a golden form that gives bonuses such as increased damage, improved range and ricocheting shots. Getting all of these gold weapons will unlock some bonus content on the goodies menu.
* BookEnds: The game begins and ends on Planet Veldin.
* BoringYetPractical: Some of the weapons, notably the early ones.
** Bomb Glove; your default weapon along with the Wrench. It has a large ammo capacity and deals decent damage, but has a short range and is somewhat slow.
** Pyrociter; a Flamethrower acquired early in the game, useful for crowd controlling small enemies, but suffers from short range and unremarkable damage.
** Blaster: Another early weapon, a simple handgun that deals moderate damage and has an auto-targeting function, but it chews up its ammo fast, and it's bullets only have a short range.
** Mine Glove: A homing mine that functions similar to the Bomb Glove and Glove of Doom, but many can be deployed at one time. The mines have short range and move somewhat slow, but combining it with the Taunter makes it even more useful, as the noise increases the mines homing range significantly.
** Drone Defense: A series of floating orbs that protect Ratchet from most incoming attacks (sans melee attacks and projectiles). They also home in and self-destruct on enemies if you get close to them, and they have a large ammo capacity.
* BreastExpansion: Perform a few sideways flips in front of the girl who gets you into the hoverboard race in Blackwater City.
* BrickJoke: Ratchet when he sees the Plumber again on Batalia; "Hey, the plumber's back!"
* BroughtDownToNormal: Clank during the final boss battle; the first part of the battle against Drek's giant mecha is fought with Giant Clank, but after a small chunk of Drek's health is mowed down, he uses a shrink ray to change Clank back to normal size--with Ratchet still piggybacking.
* CanCrushingCranium: In a cutscene after you buy some soda that increases your max health, to demonstrate your newfound strength.
* CashGate: Infobots (which open up new planets) and essential upgrades all cost high amounts of Bolts. At one point you even have to bribe Qwark's Bodyguard to be able to see him.
--> '''Bodyguard:''' You see howit works? You grease the hinges, the door opens.
* ChekhovsGun: After the Gadgetron hoverboard race, Ratchet asks if he can get a discount in Gadgetron gear only to be told that the employee discount only kicks in after two years with the company. In ''Up Your Arsenal'' (released two years later), you can import a ''Ratchet and Clank'' save to get that discount.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Chairman Drek.
* CrapsackWorld: Orxon, the former homeworld of the Blarg. It is a completely uninhabitable wasteland of abandoned buildings, pools of acid, [[EverythingTryingToKillYou vicious local wildlife]], a platoon of remaining Blarg soldiers, and a sickly-green atmosphere that is so toxic, that Ratchet can't even set foot outside of his ship when first visiting (and thus Clank has to travel out alone) and he and the remaining Blarg need O2 masks to breath in it.
* CurseCutShort: During the ship battle on Gemlik Base:
--> '''Qwark:''' Son of a...! *radio static*
** And another during the Novalis infobot:
--> '''Drek:''' ...and you can kiss my a- ah, is this thing still on? Well, turn it off then, you-
* DeadpanSnarker: Drek.
-->'''Novalis Chairman''': This is your last chance! Stop this madness now!
-->'''Drek''': [[SarcasmMode Okay, wait. You're right. I WILL withdraw my troops!]]
-->'''Novalis Chairman''': [[DoesNotUnderstandSarcasm Really?]]
* DecapitatedArmy: Just defeating Chairman Drek is enough to completely thwart the Blarg's invasion plan, and blowing up Drek's ill-gotten new world along with him sure helped.
* TheDragon: The Robot Lieutenant is this to Drek early on in the game, but he promptly [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse disappears]] after the duo encounter him in the logging site on Eudora and gets replaced by [[spoiler:Qwark]].
* DrillSergeantNasty: The guy the duo encounter on Batalia is one, though since his whole squad apparently went AWOL on him and left him to fight the Blarg alone its pretty understandable.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In contrast to the sequels, the original game is drastically different in several ways;
** The art direction is somewhat different; the lighting is brighter and the design and general aesthetic are more cartoony, unlike the sleeker, more futuristic look the series quickly adapted to.
** Racthet is more of a HalfDressedCartoonAnimal only really wearing blue jeans. Later games have him fully dressed and in more sci-fi gear.
** The gameplay is slower paced, with less emphasis on combat and more on platforming and puzzles. Due to the lack of strafing and the inability to upgrade weapons (barring buying the golden versions) and only having four hit points (which can be upgraded to eight), the game can be a bit harder to some. The game also puts some emphasis put on {{Backtracking}}, something that was heavily downplayed in the sequels.
** The weapons are much more simplistic and nowhere near as plentiful as they are in the sequels, and the enemies are likewise much less numerous and threatening. The Thruster Pack has a distinct moveset from the Heli-Pack, including a hover strafe and slam move--whereas the sequels just treated it as cosmetically different, and you have to earn your Helicopter, Thruster and Hydropack, O2 Mask, whereas those are equipped by default in the later games, and the magneboots force Ratchet to walk at half his normal pace, only use his wrench and won't allow him to jump, in sharp contrast to the Gravity Boots that every other game uses.
** Ratchet's voice actor in this game is not Creator/JamesArnoldTaylor, it's Mikey Kelly.
** While the game has a fairly large cast of characters, several of who would becoming [[AscendedExtra recurring extras]], many of them only appear briefly, and outside of Ratchet, Clank, Qwark and Drek, there are no other major characters you interact with.
** Clank's voice is more monotone and is more of a know-it-all.
** Qwark is a mildly competent, if airheaded, villain that is FauxAffablyEvil, unlike his later characterization as a DirtyCoward and {{Flanderization}} into a cowardly buffoon.
** There is not a tournament in this game; ''Going Commando'' had the first two in the series.
* EarthShatteringKaboom: Drek mentions this as an eventual side-effect of his planet looting; when a large portion of a planet is extracted to be added to Drek's new world, the sudden change of mass would cause the crippled planet to "spin out of control and drift into the sun where it will explode in a flaming ball of gas".
** Drek intended to pull this off on [[spoiler: Ratchet's homeworld, Veldin by using the Planet Buster bomb and eventually the Deplanetizer superlaser, although this ironically ended up happening to his own planet instead, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard via the very weapon that was meant to destroy Veldin.]]]]
* FauxAffablyEvil: Chairman Drek. He seems to come off as humorous or composed, but he has a very short fuse when things don't go his way, and it's clear by the end of the game just how much of a genocidal monster he really is.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: The creature Qwark is fighting in the commercial for Al's Robo Shack is a ''Blargian'' Snagglebeast. Not only does it (and the spot from the advert) appear as bosses but it also hints that Qwark is working with Drek.]]
* GoldColoredSuperiority: The game allows you to upgrade 10 weapons into Gold Weapons through the use of hidden Gold Bolts and several regular bolts. ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'' replaced this weapon-upgrading system with the one that would be a staple of the ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank'' series, but came back in ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction'' with one of your devices, the Groovitron, being able to be upgraded for the Gold Groovitron. It also returned in ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankIntoTheNexus'', where you can pay large sums of money plus a Gold Bolt for the Omega weapons, which are also gold.
* HeroicBSOD: Ratchet gets one after [[spoiler:Qwark's betrayal]], becoming a major {{Jerkass}} as a result. At this point, the only thing keeping him from dumping Clank and packing it all in is a need for mutual cooperation. [[spoiler:He does become determined to get back at Qwark though and gets better when he defeats him.]]
* HumongousMecha: The Ultra Mech Unlimited, a series of 40 foot tall robots made into giants by an enlarging machine, armed with a missile launcher and mace-flail armed on it's shoulders. Amusingly, they are marketed as a personal defense system, when they are clearly weapons for the Blarg. Fortunately, Clank uses their enlarging machine to turn himself into Giant Clank, capable of punches, firing missiles and a WaveMotionGun blast, and mops the floor with all of the Ultra-Mechs while the Enlarging Machines inventor sabotages it so it will only work for Clank.
** Chairman Drek uses a giant flying Mecha during the final boss battle, which is briefly fought against by Giant Clank, only for Drek to use a built-in cannon to [[BroughtDownToNormal shrink him back down]], and the rest of the fight is fought on-foot.
* {{Jerkass}}
** JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Ratchet [[spoiler: especially after defeating Qwark. He loses the Jerk part in later games...]]
** JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Chairman Drek, Captain Qwark [[spoiler: and Ratchet for half of the game]]
* LethalJokeWeapon: The Taunter. On it's own, it seems like an obnoxious noise-maker that can't even directly harm your opponents, and just leads them in your direction and smashes crates. However, certain situations such as an enemy between you and an electric force field (one situation where you perform this will get you a skill point and another is needed to obtain a Gold Bolt), and combining the Taunter with the Mine Glove weapon (which the Taunter can automatically activate and increase its homing ability) turns it into a fairly useful item.
* MetalDetectorPuzzle: The Metal Detector Gadget allows you to find a few extra bolts, but it's never required to complete the game.
* MotiveMisidentification: When Ratchet and Clank corner Drek on top of the Planet Buster:
-->'''Clank''': [[spoiler:There must be a better way to find a home for your people.]]\\
'''Drek''':[[spoiler: You think ''that's'' what this is about? Who do you think polluted the ''last'' world? ''I did''. This is about one thing and one thing only: ''cash'', and lots of it. See, I've been ''paid'' for every square inch of my new world. Once the new inhabitants move in, I'll begin polluting this world as well, and the whole thing starts ''all over again''. Ah... brilliant.]]
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Clank, the alias given to him by Ratchet in lieu of his long serial number name.
* OrbitingParticleShield: The Defense Drone device.
* OverlyLongName / TheUnpronounceable: Clank's "Real" name, which is a very long serial number that he doesn't get to finish before Ratchet cuts him off and gives him his nickname.
* PlanetLooters: The Blarg, or at least Drek.
* PlayerGuidedMissile: The Visibomb Gun.
* PowerupLetdown: The Morph-O-Ray allows you to turn enemies too large for the Suck Cannon into chickens, allowing you to stock up on Suck Cannon ammo whenever you want. The giant chickens produced by the Gold Morph-O-Ray, however, are too big for the Suck Cannon.
** Plus, thanks to a GoodBadBug, Morphing and then Sucking an enemy will give you more bolts than just killing it.
* RewardingVandalism: So much that Ratchet's [[spoiler: destruction of Drek's planet]] is seen as a good thing.
* ScaredOfWhatsBehindYou: On Planet Eudora, when Ratchet and Clank confront the Robot Lieutenant, the big robot looks as though he's going to attack Clank, so he does a kung-fu pose, prompting the Lieutenant to run away. We then get to see that Ratchet was behind Clank, holding his wrench and looking very threateningly at the Lieutenant.
* TreacherousAdvisor: [[spoiler: Qwark.]]
* UnfortunateNames: Chairman ''Drek''; especially when you know that "Drek" in Slovenian is slang for feces.
* TheUnfought: The Robot Lieutenant.
** According to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sh2GjLko90 developer commentary]], he was supposed to be the first boss, but the artists didn't have time to finish all his animations, and the fight was cut from the game. With a remake in the works, though, this might get a second chance to be an actual fight.
* VideoGameSettings
** Veldin - NoobCave / [[spoiler: WhereItAllBegan]]
** Novalis - GreenHillZone
** Aridia - ShiftingSandLand
** Kerwan - MegaCity / RecurringLocation
** Eudora - JungleJapes
** Nebula G34‎ and [[spoiler:Drek's Fleet]] - StandardSciFiFleet
** Rilgar - PortTown / PipeMaze
** Umbris - BigBoosHaunt
** Batalia - RemilitarizedZone
** Gaspar - LethalLavaLand
** Orxon - GardenOfEvil / BubblegloopSwamp
** Pokitaru - PalmTreePanic
** Hoven - SlippySlideyIceWorld
** Gemlik Base - SpaceZone / DiscOneFinalDungeon
** Oltanis - GhostCity
** Quartu - Robot Factory
** Kalebo III - MegaCorp
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: [[spoiler: Captain Qwark.]]
* WalkingShirtlessScene: Ratchet, only in this game and ''Size Matters''.
* [[WeaponsAndWieldingTropes Weapons]]
** [=OmniWrench=] 8000 - WrenchWhack
** Bomb Glove - GrenadeLauncher + PowerPalms
** Pyrocitor - FireBreathingWeapon
** Blaster - [[{{Handguns}} Handgun]]
** Glove of Doom - Produces [[RealTimeStrategy RTS]]-style minions
** Mine Glove - Produces [[SpaceMines Space Mine]]-style floating mines
** Suck Cannon - WeaponsThatSuck (and blow, incidentally)
** Taunter - PracticalTaunt
** R.Y.N.O. - MacrossMissileMassacre
** Devastator - HomingProjectile
** Walloper - PowerFist
** Visibomb Gun - PlayerGuidedMissile
** Decoy Glove - Produces inflatable BodyDouble(s)
** Drone Device - Produces HomingProjectile drones
** Tesla Claw - LightningGun
** Morph-O-Ray - Shapeshifting gun that transforms enemies into harmless [[BalefulPolymorph Baleful Polymorphs]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Chairman Drek [[spoiler:is not one of these, as he is really just trying to exploit his own people at the cost of millions of lives, all for the money.]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Drek's lackey, the Robot Lieutenant all but vanishes from the game after you meet him on Eudora.
* WhatMeasureIsAMook: The Blarg may be fighting for the creation of their new planet but they do not know that [[spoiler: their leader actually polluted their own original planet and is making money off of them in the process.]]
* WhereItAllBegan: The final battle with Drek takes place on Veldin-the first level of the game and Ratchet's home planet.
-->'''Drek''': "Imbeciles. After all the trouble you've gone to, you're about to die right where you started. *sniff* It's so...poetic."
* WrenchWench: Clank gets a new upgrade from one.
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The first game in the ''RatchetAndClank'' series, it was a modest hit for the {{Playstation 2}}.

** Ratchet's original voice is more like a surfer dude and comes off as a case of TheOtherDarrin. [[invoked]]

** Qwark is a mildly competent, if airheaded, villain that is FauxAffablyEvil, unlike his later characterization as an DirtyCoward and {{Flanderization}} into a cowardly buffoon.

* [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace Captain Qwark Can Breathe In Space]]: In the Gemlik Base level in the first game, Captain Qwark is inexplicably able to breathe and talk in the open vacuum of space when confronting Ratchet, the latter needing an O2 mask just to transverse the level.

** The weapons are much more simplistic and nowhere near as plentiful as they are in the sequels, and the enemies are likewise much less numerous and threatening. The Thruster Pack has a distinct moveset from the Heli-Pack, including a hover strafe and slam move--wheras the sequels just treated it as cosmetically different, and you have to earn your Helicopter, Thruster and Hydropack, O2 Mask, whereas those are equipped by default in the later games, and the magneboots force Ratchet to walk slowly, only use his wrench and won't allow him to jump.

** But only with a save file that has progressed up to that point.

** Though to be fair to the Blarg, you have hounded them across a dozen worlds, destroyed their entire fleet, blown up a planet killer, slaughtered their elite commandos, and destroyed their new world. They have every right to run screaming from the mere mention of Ratchet's name.

* GoldColoredSuperiority: The game allows you to upgrade 10 weapons into Gold Weapons through the use of hidden Gold Bolts and several regular bolts. ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'' replaced this weapon-upgrading system with the one that would be a staple of the ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank'' series, but came back in ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction'' with one of your devices, the Groovitron, being able to be upgraded for the Gold Groovitron.

* Foreshadowing: [[spoiler: The creature Qwark is fighting in the commercial for Al's Robo Shack is a ''Blargian'' Snagglebeast. Not only does it (and the spot from the advert) appear as bosses but it also hints that Qwark is working with Drek.]]

** Ratchet's original voice is more like a surfer dude and comes off as a case of TheOtherDarrin.

* ArrowCam: The Visibomb Gun in this and the next game.

[[http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2014/06/10/original-ratchet-clank-re-imagined-ps4/ A remake of this game is in the works]], and will tie into [[Film/RatchetAndClank the upcoming film]].

** Veldin - FirstTown / [[spoiler: WhereItAllBegan]]

[[http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2014/06/10/original-ratchet-clank-re-imagined-ps4/ A remake of this game is in the works]], and will tie into [[Film?RatchetAndClank the upcoming film]].

** According to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sh2GjLko90 developer commentary]], he was supposed to be the first boss, but the artists didn't have time to finish all his animations, and the fight was cut from the game.

* FailOSuckyname: Chairman ''Drek''; especially when you know that "Drek" in Slovenian is slang for feces.

* TheOtherDarrin: For this game only, Ratchet is voiced by Mikey Kelley, but his death scream is recycled in later games.

** OmniWrench 8000 - WrenchWhack

* BarefootCartoonAnimal: This is the only game where Ratchet doesn't have shoes, aside from ''Size Matters''.

** Blaster - [[Handguns Handgun]]
** Glove of Doom - Produces RTS-style minions
** Mine Glove - produces floating mines
** Suck Cannon - WeaponsThatSuck

** Drone Device - HomingProjectile drones

** Veldin - FirstTown / [[spoiler: [[{{WhereItAllBegan}} Where it All Began]] ]]

* AsteroidsMonster: The Ameboids infesting Blackwater city, annoyingly enough.

* LethalJokeWeapon: The Taunter. On it's own, it seems like an obnoxious noise-maker that can't even directly harm your opponents, and just leads them in your direction and smashes crates. However, certain situations such as an enemy between you and an electric force field (one situation where you perform this will get you a skill point), and combining the Taunter with the Mine Glove weapon (which the Taunter can automatically activate and increase its homing ability) turns it into a fairly useful item.

* TheOtherDarrin: For this game only, Ratchet is voiced by Mikey Kelley.

* PlayerGuidedMissile: The Visibomb gun.

* AwesomeYetPractical: Many of the weapons.
** The Glove of Doom, simple in concept but wonderful in execution; throw an egg than spawns into four nimble little robots that chase down and blow up your enemies quickly, while you're safe in the distance. The only handicaps it has is it's low ammo capacity, and the fact that the drones [[InsurmountableWaistHighFence can't get over ledges.]]
** The Decoy Glove; it can't harm your enemies, but it can distract them and take a fair amount of punishment while you effortlessly kill them. It also helps that you can launch several at a time, and it has a fairly good ammo capacity.
** The Tesla Claw, a crab claw like electricity coil; it ranks as one of the best weapons in the game, due to its great range, quick auto-targeting ability and devastating, constant stream of damage, only undermined by its quick ammo consumption.
** The Walloper; a short range, but hard-hitting melee glove that will kill most enemies in a single punch, and is far more damaging (if less flexible in use) than your default Wrench.
** The Visibomb Gun, a guided missile weapon that can kill almost every enemy in the game from a safe distance, and almost all of them in one hit. And as a bonus, it gives you a nice birds eye view of the level as you control it. It's only real handicap is that Ratchet has to stand still while using it, which basically makes it useless for close-range combat.
** Fortunately, the Devastator, a fast firing homing missile launcher, fills in that aforementioned handicap just fine, even if its only a third as powerful.
** The Suck Cannon, an ideal weapon for those wanting to save on ammo, since it uses common small enemies as it's ammunition.
** The Morph-O-Ray. It uses no ammo, and can turn most enemies into harmless chickens in just a few seconds! Combine this with the fact that the suck cannon can suck up the chickens in question, and you have a deadly combination, and sucking up the chickens gets you extra bolts as a bonus!

** The Glove of Doom, simple in concept but wonderful in execution; throw an egg than spawns into four little robots that chase down and blow up your enemies quickly, while you're safe in the distance. The only handicap it has is it's low ammo capacity.

** The Tesla Claw; ranks as one of the best weapons in the game, due to its auto-targeting ability and devastating, constant stream of damage.

** The Visibomb Gun, a weapon that can kill almost every enemy in the game from a safe distance. It's only real handicap is that Ratchet has to stand still while using it, which basically makes it useless for close-range combat.

** The Suck Cannon is also an ideal weapon for those wanting to save on ammo, since it uses common small enemies as it's ammunition.

** Mine Glove: A homing mine that functions similar to the Bomb Glove and Glove of Doom, but many can be deployed at one time. Combining it with the Taunter makes it even more useful, as the noise increases the mines homing range significantly.

* BigGood: Captain Qwark for the first half of the game, only to be [[BrokenPedestal knocked off his pedestal midway through]] when it's revealed he aligned himself with Drek, who is sponsoring his big comeback.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: While it makes sense that the Gemlik moon base has some form of artificial gravity, the lack of atmosphere (which prompts the need of an O2 mask through all of it) makes one wonder how the Helicopter and Thruster packs could possibly work in an environment where there is no air.