History YMMV / RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal

** The Holostar Studios stage includes a bit where Clank needs to film a scene of Giant Clank taking down an armed ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' expy and a bunch of robotic mooks in a destroyable city. While it's a parody of Kaiju movies, nowadays the presence of giant robots, army vehicles, excessive property damage and lots of explosions may remind players of Creator/MichaelBay's ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' films instead.

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: The game's [[TroubledProduction turbulent production]] and [[ChristmasRushed rushed content]] made the staff at Insomniac Games genuinely worried that the game would be a flop, with one staffer saying it was seen as a disaster. They were [[DidntSeeThatComing completely blindsided]] by the game being a huge critical and commercial success: far from being a flop, ''Up Your Arsenal'' is near-unanimously considered to be the best game in the series.

** The FinalBoss fight against Dr. Nefarious is an awesome, intense fight. After the extreme difficulty of Drek and the pushover of the Giant Protopet, Nefarious hits the sweet spot between the two, possessing attacks that force you to stay on your toes, and won't punish you overly if you mess up. It's nice in concept as well -- Nefarious might be a bumbling fool while in cutscenes, [[BewareTheSillyOnes but when he's forced to fight, he's very capable of holding his own]].

** Courtney Gears became a popular minor character of the franchise, earning a few cameos in subsequent games. Her [[VillainSong music video]] and [[EvilIsSexy her]] [[MsFanservice looks]] help.

** It also applies to his {{Dragon}}, Courtney Gears, notably because of how different the atmosphere of the fight is. The setup to it, the passage through Obani Draco is already cool, basically equaling to entering something akin to ''artificial moon'', with reproductors and sound equipment everywhere, but the fight really takes the cake. In the cutscene before, she [[MoralEventHorizon turns Skidd into a robot]] and captures Ratchet, showing him how much of a sadistic monster she is. He's furious! It takes place on her singing stage, first with her dancers attacking you, then her taking on you, all happening while [[VillainSong Death to Squishies]] plays.

** Sasha being an officer in a space navy with her grey uniform, dark brown mid-length hair that sends the player character on missions (often with the help of ground forces) to stop a madman bent on intergalactic genocide (and the fact that she's the daughter of a respected leader), could easily be mistaken as a furry ''Main/{{Expy}}'' of Miranda Keyes from the two sequels of the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' trilogy. if not for the fact that ''VideoGame/Halo2'' didn't come out at least a week after Ratchet and Clank 3 proving that it's entirely coincidental.

** Sasha being a female space fairing naval officer with her grey uniform, dark brown mid-length hair that sends the player character on missions (often with the help of ground forces) to stop a madman bent on intergalactic genocide (and the fact that she's the daughter of a respected leader), could easily be mistaken as a furry expy of Miranda Keyes from the two sequels of the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' trilogy. if not for the fact that ''VideoGame/Halo2'' didn't come out at least a week after Ratchet and Clank 3 proving that it's entirely coincidental.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** The widely reviled {{Cash Gate}}s from the previous two games were finally dropped from the series for good starting with this game, meaning a player doesn't have to waste as much time grinding for bolts just to make progress and can focus on saving up for more weapons instead. It helps that the game's bolt economy is noticeably more generous here than in previous titles.
** The hotly-contested spaceship levels from ''Going Commando'' are scrapped altogether, though this was a convenient byproduct of the game's rushed development.
** The Quick Select has two rings instead of just one, allowing players to equip gadgets on the spot instead of having to constantly pause and search for the right gadget.
** The returning OldSaveBonus weapons, in stark contrast to how useless the bulk of them are throughout ''Going Commando'', are every bit as powerful if not more in this game than the previous one.
** The [[ScrappyWeapon widely disliked]] Meteor Gun upgrade for the Lava Gun from ''Going Commando'' is replaced with the Liquid Nitrogen Gun, which keeps the original purpose of the weapon intact while making it both a stronger and [[{{Pun}} cooler]] weapon. And the cherry on the sundae is that [[DiscOneNuke you can get it for]] ''[[DiscOneNuke free]]'' [[DiscOneNuke on Aquatos]] if [[OldSaveBonus you have a completed save file of Going Commando on hand]].

* HypeBacklash: The game got this in TheNewTens, with some arguing that its reputation as the best game in the series is undeserved and that it has many obvious flaws in hindsight, namely its generic level design and very repetitive enemy roster, [[ItsEasySoItSucks low difficulty]], [[ItsShortSoItSucks relatively short length]] and rather uncohesive story.

* IdiotPlot: Deliberately invoked as far as ''Secret Agent Clank'' is involved, as most of the galaxy thinks the show is for real and that Ratchet, who does the vast majority of the grunt work is really nothing more than a clumsy chauffeur, and instead call upon Clank alone to deal with Nefarious. Unfortunately, it is the show that draws Nefarious, himself believing it to be real, to pursue Clank to join his robot ranks only to replace him with Klunk as his double when Clank refuses, causing a great deal of trouble for Ratchet and his friends.

* MoralEventHorizon:
** While nether Dr. Nefarious nor Klunk cross this line, Courtney Gears does by betraying the Q-Force, abducting Clank and turning Skidd into a robot. Not only all that, she's a bit too {{sadist}}ic when Ratchet fights her later on.
** Captain Qwark nearly crosses this line when [[spoiler:he fakes his death, and cowardly refuses to rejoin the fight]]. He manages to avoid this line in the end.

** The Four-Eyed Tyhrranoid Commandos. They're essentially the Blarg Commandos from [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClank2002 the first game]], but with a much quicker, more long-reaching blaster that is liable to catch you by surprise. Fortunately, they're very susceptible to the game's resident {{Game Breaker}}s, the Bouncer and Rift Inducer, and go down quickly if you're quick enough to get the drop on them first.

** The [[CoolShip Starship]] ''[[https://youtu.be/CXFsaOCKbr8 Phoenix's]]'' theme. A very uplifting and hopeful track that plays throughout what is basically this game's main HubLevel.

* [[AwesomeBosses/VideoGames Awesome Video Game Bosses]]:
** The final boss fight against Dr. Nefarious is an awesome, intense fight. After the extreme difficulty of Drek and the pushover of the Giant Protopet, Nefarious hits the sweet spot between the two, possessing attacks that force you to stay on your toes, and won't punish you overly if you mess up. It's nice in concept as well -- Nefarious might be a bumbling fool while in cutscenes, but when he's forced to fight, he's very capable of holding his own.
** It also applies to his [[TheDragon Dragon]], Courtney Gears, notably because of how different the atmosphere of the fight is. The setup to it, the passage through Obani Draco is already cool, basically equaling to entering something akin to ''artificial moon'', with reproductors and sound equipment everywhere, but the fight really takes the cake. In the cutscene before, she [[MoralEventHorizon turns Skidd into a robot]] and captures Ratchet, showing him how much of a sadistic monster she is. He's furious! It takes place on her singing stage, first with her dancers attacking you, then her taking on you, all happening while [[VillainSong Death to Squishies]] plays.

* [[Awesome/VideoGameLevels Awesome Video Game Levels]]:

* CompleteMonster: [[{{Fembot}} Courtney Gears]], [[EvilDiva pop sensation]] of the Solana Galaxy, doubles as TheDragon to Dr. Nefarious and is the one carrying out his goal of [[FinalSolution destroying all organic life in the galaxy]]. Courtney Gears operates Nefarious's Biobliterator--a device that subjects any organic to UnwillingRoboticisation, reducing them to mindless murder-bots--and tests it out on Skidd. Not only intending to use to Biobliterator on a much larger population, Courtney turns her latest hit into a sensation to encourage her loyal fans to kill any "squishies" that Nefarious doesn't convert with the Biobliterator.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: While Courtney Gears generally comes across as too gratuitously cruel, conceited, and viscerally hateful of "squishies" to qualify as a genuine freedom fighter, she seems to consider herself in that vein, and though robots in the Solana Galaxy are not shown as being victims of oppression outside her and Nefarious' imaginations, the game does offer her a little satirical affirmation. After the Biobliterator is unleashed, what is the Galactic President's response to the seemingly inevitable [[UnwillingRoboticisation Unwilling Roboticisation]] of his entire electorate? He gets himself heavily implanted with cybernetics so that he may claim to be "half-robot" and continue to get their votes, which [[WordOfGod Word of God]] confirms to be a satirical dig at Bill Clinton (and by extension any politician who prioritises image and shallow appeal to a social group over meaningful support of them). Notably, [[spoiler:when Ratchet and Clank have saved the day, stopped the Biobliterator, and the "robot vote" is no longer so desperately urgent to court, the President ditches said implants]].

* CompleteMonster: [[{{Fembot}} Courtney Gears]], [[EvilDiva pop sensation]] of the Solana Galaxy, doubles as TheDragon to Dr. Nefarious and is the one carrying out his goal of [[FinalSolution destroying all organic life in the galaxy]]. Courtney Gears operates Nefarious's Biobliterator--a device that subjects any organic to UnwillingRoboticization, reducing them to mindless murder-bots--and tests it out on Skidd. Not only intending to use to Biobliterator on a much larger population, Courtney turns her latest hit into a sensation to encourage her loyal fans to kill any "squishies" that Nefarious doesn't convert with the Biobliterator.