Ratchet & Clank / YMMV

Games with their own pages

Mainline games

Spin-off games

Franchise and other games

Arc Fatigue: Ratchet's quest to find the lombaxes. Tools of Destruction established that Ratchet is one of the last lombaxes in the universe, with the rest having sought refuge in another dimension. Fourteen years and seven games later, the plotline remains unresolved. Rift Apart ends with Ratchet and Rivet getting prepared to travel to the lombaxes' dimension, with the full resolution being saved for a potential sequel.
Archive Panic: So far, there are thirteen console games, which include a remake, two Gaiden Games, and two multiplayer-based spin-offs. Even if one chooses to exclude those, that still leaves nine games to play. And that's not even getting into the movie and the comic series. Basically, someone who wants to get into the series will have their work cut out for them.
Awesome Music: Has its own page.
Base-Breaking Character:
- Captain Qwark, particularly in later games where his Idiot Hero traits are front and center. Is he a genuinely funny and entertaining character whose zanier antics and obvious self-delusions help play off Ratchet and Clank when it comes to humor, or is he an overused, obnoxious load who gets away with too much when it comes to his more narcissistic tendencies?
- Mr. Zurkon. Originating in Tools of Destruction as one of the Combat Devices, he became a Breakout Character due to his comedically bloodthirsty nature and has appeared in every other game since then. At this point, however, while several fans still revere him for his memorable quotes (especially since he's voiced by the same person who voices Mario from Hotel Mario), about an equal amount of people started to hate him, thinking his quotes have become tired (or weren't even funny to begin with), and wish that Insomniac would just keep him out of a game for once.
Broken Base:
- Whether or not the series shifitng its focus away from satire to dramaedy was for the better or not. Supporters love the addtions to lore and character develoment and feel that the satire was beginning to dry. Detractors however find the stories of the PS3 games onward to be Narm-filled and betrays the series' core by becoming the kind of franchise earlier games mocked.
- Speaking of the PS3 titles; many fans felt like the new plot thread of Ratchet being the Last of His Kind and Clank being The Chosen One completely cheapened the original game's premise, as it now comes off more as a Contrived Coincidence rather than Ratchet being The Drag-Along that Clank needed to take with him.
- When the PS4 re-imagining came out, fans were divided on whether to celebrate it or worry over a possible reboot of the franchise. This was rendered null and void by Rift Apart, however.
- The game's common recycling of weapons in the PS3 and PS4 era, as opposed to how the PS2 games would only bring back a few weapons. ^{For example} It's either good because fan-favorites have a higher chance to return or bad because the franchise has been using some of these weapons for a while. Also part of the argument is whether or not said weapons are good; for example, is the Warmonger a good rocket launcher? Is the Combuster a bad pistol?
Complete Monster: See here.
Contested Sequel: There is a minority of fans who discount Deadlocked, Going Mobile, Size Matters, Secret Agent Clank, Quest for Booty and All 4 One as being "real" Ratchet & Clank games, which can become confusing when they insist on referring to the game by numbers (e.g. "the fourth game" could variously apply to Deadlocked, Size Matters or Tools of Destruction depending on whether you're talking to someone who accepts all the games, only the platformers, or only the main console games). And then we've got All-4-One and Full Frontal Assault, due to their gaming style.
Demonic Spiders:
- The heavily armored, quick, and downright nasty Land Lobsters from the first game qualify, unless you throw the wrench.
- The Y.E.T.I.s from Going Commando's Planet Grelbin; they spawn from out of nowhere (and in large numbers, to boot), have no concept of Mook Chivalry (often ambushing you in groups of ten or more), and are card-carrying members of the Lightning Bruiser club. You could try running from them, but they love spawning right in your path and often appear around Arctic Leviathans, which must be killed for Moonstones. That leaves killing them, but there are a few problems with that as well: first, very few of your weapons are effective against them, the ones that are either have low ammo clips or have ammo that must be bought at a vendor, and for the weapons that don't, you're thwarted again by the fact that there are very few ammo crates lying around the massive ice field you must traverse. As a result, you'll find yourself making frequent trips back to the vendor, which often means running back into the Y.E.T.I. mobs you just fled from.
- Qwark's Hideout in Up Your Arsenal features heavily armed catchphrase-spewing Qwark Bots. They deal ludicrous amounts of damage with a very high rate of fire, have more armor than any other enemy of their size, and can even survive after being reduced to nothing but a skeletal torso with one arm, often lurking in this state until you pass the cover they're hiding behind to swipe at you. They also spawn in dense packs.
- Up Your Arsenal also features Tyhrranoid Missile Stations, which often appear in Galactic Ranger missions. They're not too bad when you're piloting a Hovership, as the missiles can be easily dodged and destroyed. When you're on foot, however, they'll shoot missiles that fly directly into the ground and explode in a shockwave that hurts you unless you jump over it, and they will continue firing even when you're in the middle of fighting other enemies. They're also very tanky, meaning the only way to effectively fight them is with the Flux/Splitter Rifle. They're so bad that they got the second Snowbeast Award.
- The beam turrets in Deadlocked. Tiny little laser turrets that drop in at random points, and are usually overlooked right until you get a laser beam in your back.
- The giant flying robot roaches, aka Laser Backs (also from Deadlocked), are a) infuriatingly hard to kill, b) have a psychotically high rate of fire, and c) are one of the few units that make life difficult for you even when you've turned them to your side with the right omega mod. (Usually, brainwashed enemies are kind enough to try and aim at the enemy; the Laser Backs simply spam ammo everywhere, and God help you if you get in the way.) Pretty much the only way to keep them from reducing you to powder was to wait until they briefly stopped shooting, then spam them with a high-knockback weapon. Oh, and your Combat Bots have no idea that these things are unspeakably annoying and will instantly get mowed down by them.
- Their sorta-predecessors, the Guard bots from the third game, are this too. They have the same attack method - that is, two guns that More Dakka you into the pavement - and take buckets of damage.
Diagnosed by the Audience: Quark's narcissism, selfishness, lack of empathy for others (in the first two games, at-least) and willingness to do evil things whenever it benefits him (also exclusively in the first two games) suggest signs of antisocial personality disorder.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Surprisingly, Captain Qwark was brought back in the second game solely because of this; the staff was midway through production of Going Commando when they realized they missed the big lug, so they came up with the Behind the Hero cutscenes as a way of sneaking him back in, and then decided to just upgrade him to Big Bad status.
- Courtney Gears as well (mostly because of her music video), even though she didn't make any more appearances since Deadlocked, but was often mentioned throughout the series. But just look at how much fanart she has on DeviantArt...
- Ace Hardlight, as well. He's got a whole group dedicated to him in DeviantArt. It's quite a surprise, considering he's a Creator's Pet in-universe.
- The Groovitron. It even appeared in Playstation Move Heroes!
Evil Is Cool:
- There is good reason why Dr. Nefarious is the Franchise's most recurring villain. While he may be a comical villain, he balances this out by being a legitimate threat in nearly all of his appearances and has even come close to achieving his goals a few times. He's almost always prepared for anything, and prior to Up Your Arsenal Qwark was the only hero to have survived fighting him.
- Drek from the first game. Although he's a Corrupt Corporate Executive and an all around scumbag, the fact he proves to be a legitimately threatening and competent villain (with a challenge boss fight to boot) has made him one of the franchise's most fondly remembered villains. His more bumbling take in the 2016 reboot was a sore spot for many fans.
- Outside of Up Your Arsenal's Dr. Nefarious, there's also Courtney Gears, whom in her boss fight does prove she can indeed fight as good as she sings.
- From Deadlocked Gleeman Vox, Ace Hardlight, and the rest of the Exterminators.
- In A Crack In Time Alister Azimuth becomes this near the end, though only briefly.
- And as of Rift Apart Emperor Nefarious.
Fanon Discontinuity: All 4 One and Full Frontal Assault are occasionally dismissed by the fandom for their weaker storylines compared to the Future trilogy. Thankfully, they were spin-off titles, so plenty of fans are still okay with acknowledging them.
Fountain of Memes: Mr. Zurkon is one of the most quoted characters in the Ratchet & Clank franchise. The fact that many of his lines are reminiscent of Chuck Norris Facts has helped this immensely.
Franchise Original Sin:
- Reuse of weapons throughout the series. The Ratchet & Clank franchise has been reusing weapons since as early as the second game, released in 2003, which contained 5 weapons from the first game that could be bought for cheap, or obtained for free if you had a save from the first game that also owned those weapons. However, Going Commando and later games that did this only brought back a few unique weapons ^note, while also still introducing their own unique weapons. One of the Tools of Destruction weapons that returned in A Crack in Time was the rocket-launching Negotiator, which was one of the first examples of a typical weapon niche being filled by a returning weapon, but ACiT still brought back several unique weapons like the Groovitron and Mag-Net Launcher, and still had plenty of its own diverse weapons to its name like the Sonic Eruptor and Spiral of Doom. The 2016 Ratchet & Clank is where this is generally agreed to have become a noteworthy problem, as almost every weapon in the game is either from an old game or a combination of an old weapon and elements from other weapons, with the game only having two wholly original weapons: the Pixelizer and Proton Drum.
- The series' slide towards the Lighter and Softer and Denser and Wackier, eventually culminating in Totally Radical. As early as the second game (Going Commando), Ratchet had gone from a brash headstrong teenager to a professional and well-meaning gun-for-hire well on his way to becoming a Science Hero, while as early as the third game (Up Your Arsenal) the game's themes of consumerism and corporate cynism were being replaced by a Tuxedo and Martini plot involving a classical Mad Scientist, and A Crack in Time had alien races explicitly ^note based off high school cliques. The thing is... Ratchet's new character in GC felt like a natural extension of his Character Development, UYA's villain became an Ensemble Dark Horse with fans and creators alike, and ACiT is often considered a high point for the franchise on the basis of its story (and when it's not, UYA or GC often are, in its stead). In short, the problems that eventually manifested as Sequelitis were not only present and not considered problems, but actively applauded in the earlier games, and only started irritating fans later once the games started running out of steam.
- While Tools of Destruction planted the seeds for a more serious story, A Crack in Time was really the point where the series began shedding its satirical roots in favor of a serious, almost Disney-like whimsical style of plot and writing. While the game was and still is well-received today, further attempts to apply this to the series have been met with increasing scorn from fans at best, reaching its apex with the controversial 2016 reimagining of the first game. Even ACiT's approach to the series is now greeted with much more scrutiny than it was in its heydey, with many fans accusing it of being a sloppily written and pretentious Cliché Storm that takes itself far too seriously at the expense of the series' comedic identity, basically becoming the kind of over-the-top parody that the original games made fun of in the first place.
Friendly Fandoms: With Jak and Daxter. The development teams shared code and assets in the PlayStation 2 era, leading to multiple Company Cross References and nods to one another. As such, the fandoms for both series tend to get along very well, and there's quite a lot of overlap between the fandoms as well.
Game-Breaker:
- The R.Y.N.O. and its ilk.^note
- The Mega Supernova (The Harbinger's upgraded form) V99 from Deadlocked. All minor foes are vaporized in one shot, and the bosses take massive damage from it.
- A non-Infinity +1 Sword example: The Rift Inducer of Up Your Arsenal, which one-shots all small to medium-sized mooks. Level it up enough, and you can just sit there while all of the enemies in the area get sucked in and die. The 5000 variation in A Crack in Time is even more powerful, with the bonus that Fred can deal with larger enemies better.
- Groovitrons from Tools of Destruction onwards. A 100% effective paralysis effect on any enemy in the game bar two or three, and your New Game Plus reward in ToD gives you an infinite amount of these. Toxic Swarmers from the same game also break bosses in seconds if placed strategically.
- Clank's Time Bombs can be used as these if you knew how to use them the right way. However, if you're playing the hardest parts in hard mode, these become more game fixers than breakers.
- The Heavy Bouncer in Going Commando does massive damage when it hits an enemy, splits into a bajillion smaller parts on contact, all of which do equally massive damage, and has an absurdly large ammo clip for a weapon that powerful (25) that's replenished by 4 per ammo crate (and buying the ammo is dirt cheap if you can't find any ammo crates). It's so bad that the final boss can be downed easily with just a few shots from this gun, and its Brutal Bonus Level, the Impossible Challenge, becomes a cakewalk with it. The ammo issue was nerfed down to 12 shots at level 5 in its return in Up Your Arsenal, but the weapon itself is just as powerful, if not even more so. Watch in awe as one shot clears a room of mooks in a matter of seconds! The remake ups the ante even further by giving it to you in Novalis for a meager 100 bolts if you pre-ordered the game. Needless to say, the pre-orderers had a much easier playthrough.
- Deadlocked's Mini-Turret Launcher, especially after maxing it out, which is very easy despite being obtained quite late. It is fast, sprays enemies with bullets and later highly damaging lasers, you can have as much as five active at once and since challenges are now more arena-based, it is easy to have ground covered with them. Put some mods on them and watch the chaos ensue.
Good Bad Bugs:
- In the first game, if you enter the first Hoverboard race wearing the Hologuise, the other racers and the boards disappear, leaving Ratchet free to walk to a ramp near the end, hit the Taunter, and wait as the boxes above break. And break. And break. It's possible to tape or weigh the Circle button down for a few hours and come back to be able to afford every weapon in the game.
- In several of the games, it's possible to clip through walls by using weapons that spawn objects; the Decoy Glove in Ratchet & Clank, the Decoy Glove and Miniturret Glove in Going Commando, the Miniturret Glove in Up Your Arsenal, the Hunter Mine Launcher and Mini Turret Launcher in Deadlocked, the Nano-Swarmers and Visi-Copter Device in Tools of Destruction, and the Nightmare Box in Into the Nexus. While fun to mess around with in general, clipping is also one of many tricks that's mercilessly abused in speedruns to get through levels faster.
- In Going Commando, beating the game unlocks a mode where you play in first-person constantly. However, you can climb walls by simply jumping at them and spamming Square to throw the wrench - the throw bounces you upwards slightly, while being next to the wall causes the wrench to return instantly. Interestingly, Insomniac knew about this bug and left it in as a sort of Earn Your Fun reward, which also explains why it was gone by Up Your Arsenal; that game lets you play in first-person from the get-go.
- Tools of Destruction has a wall-climb bug with the Razor Claws, where doing the aerial attack into a wall allows you to do a high jump off of midair, which can be interrupted by another aerial attack, which allows you to do a high jump... thus allowing you to climb almost any wall in the game as long as the Claws have ammo to use and sequence break the game to high hell in Challenge Mode.
- It is possible to encounter a glitch in Tools of Destruction that can prove useful: in the final level, about midway through, you have to ascend a grav-ramp in order to go inside a nearby building. However, if one approaches the grav-ramp just wrong, Ratchet will wind up falling through the level, and a little adjustment with Clank's hovering abilities can send him right to the outside of the Court of Azimuth, and the location of the final battle. This locks the door behind him and sends him into the final boss battle without requiring him to play the rest of the level. Which would cause you to miss out on a couple of goodies (a Gold Bolt and a RYNO IV holoplan), but if one restarts the level, they will find that the game thinks they've cleared everything; all of the doors are open (including the Gold Bolt one), and all of the enemies are already dead, allowing you to pick up everything in the level at your leisure.
Growing the Beard: Going Commando improved the gameplay by putting much more focus on the guns and put a step in the right direction by making Ratchet more likable, but Up Your Arsenal simplified a lot of the combat for the better, and while there are less worlds to work with, each are all unique and interesting, and the story firmly establishes Ratchet & Clank's dynamic, the plots become a bit more serious without losing the series' humor, and the writing for the protagonists and villains becomes more interesting.
Harsher in Hindsight: In the first game Ratchet was a huge Jerkass. After playing the Future Saga, and finding out that his father had to leave him on Veldin for the best, it's kinda hard to blame him. Keep in mind that he had no friends, was still a child, and only had a wrench to protect himself.
He Really Can Act: James Arnold Taylor was flacked for the infamous "laughing scene" in Final Fantasy X, but gets to showcase his acting chops here. Particularly in the climax for Tools of Destruction, when Ratchet refuses to join the Lombaxes.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Qwark's Personal Hygenator ad at the very end of the first game, which claims it can solve painful itching in the nether regions, becomes this in light of Going Commando revealing one of its side effects is in fact severe irritations and itching in sensitive body areas.
- The following exchange (which is already very funny) becomes even funnier if you have played the Secret Agent Clank game:
  Clank: I believe there has been a misunderstanding. Secret Agent Clank is merely a fictional character I play on the holo...
  Nefarious: LIES! SQUISHY LIIIIIIIEEEEE...*jams*
- Also, the vid-comic's narrator's utter disbelief at the concept of "robotic pirate ghosts" takes on a whole new meaning once you encounter some in Quest For Booty.
- Let's see... Ratchet's a guy from a backwater place who builds stuff, whose melee weapon of choice is a wrench, and who is a proud proponent of "more gun". After looking at it this way, all those Engineers come off as a bunch of posers.
- In Up Your Arsenal, the president has a daughter named Sasha. Remind you of anyone?
- Up Your Arsenal had Trophies before Playstation 3 had Trophies.
- Spaceship battles in the same style as the Gummi Ship missions in Kingdom Hearts II was planned for Up Your Arsenal, but instead added to Tools of Destruction. When Kingdom Hearts III came out in 2019, the Gummi Ship segments play out similar to the space sectors in A Crack in Time.
- Lots of nods to Ratchet & Clank films throughout the series became funnier in light of an actual film for the duo being released. In the original game, one of the "Epilogue" posters is for "Ratchet & Clank: The Motion Picture", and there's another poster for a film in Going Commando. When Vox tries to start merchandising Ratchet as the new head Exterminator in Deadlocked, one of the things he mentions is that he'll get movie rights.
- Nefarious self-identifying as "robot" and his pride of being one become funny if you know that the term originates from the Czech word "robota", which means "work" or "labor". Not so superior after all, are we, Nefarious?
- A real life example is that the armor that Ratchet wears throughout A Crack in Time appears to foreshadow TRON: Legacy.
- The Groovitron, a grenade that makes enemies break out in dance, leaving them vulnerable to attack. Looks like the makers of Fortnite were taking notes with the Boogie Bomb.
Ho Yay:
- Ratchet and Clank, and to a lesser extent Ratchet and Qwark.
  Ratchet: Okay, I have to ask, what's with the nurse's outfit?
  Qwark: All part of my ingenious plan to gain Dr. Nefarious' trust as the lovely nurse Shannon.
  Ratchet: Well... White's certainly your color.
  Qwark: Oh, you think so? I've always fancied myself a winter.
- All 4 One brings us some spectacular Qwark/Nefarious moments as well.
It's the Same, So It Sucks: The sequels are often accused of not having enough new gameplay elements.
Memetic Badass: Mr. Zurkon all the way.
Moral Event Horizon: Has its own page.
Narm: Pretty much all of Size Matters falls into this, especially its Big Bad Otto Destruct being nothing more than a carbon copy of Chairman Drek and unsuccessfully trying to copy the Large Ham aspect of Dr. Nefarious and Gleeman Vox. Having Clank call his actions "pure evil" only makes him look more ridiculous. He's seen as The Scrappy for this reason.
Only the Creator Does It Right: The PSP games done by High Impact Games instead of Insomniac Games aren't usually as well-liked, with technical issues, bringing some of Ratchet's unlikable characterization from the first game back, narmy villains, and unimpressive stories being cited.
Popular with Furries: Downplayed, but the overall popularity of the series means that furries will occasionally design lombax-based OCs.
Porting Disaster: The PS3 updates of the first four games, done by novice studio Idol Minds, have various glitches and save errors. The first three, however, only had minor issues, numerous as they were. Deadlocked got the worst of it, however, having serious issues that even someone who never played the original version would make note of.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Surprisingly, Ratchet was disliked by many critics in the first game due to his Wangst and Jerkassiness. However, from the second game onward, he Took a Level in Kindness and snarkiness. The switch from Mikey Kelley to James Arnold Taylor certainly helped.
The Scrappy: The villains of Size Matters, Otto Destruct and Luna, are considered forgettable villains. The former is a narmy rehash of Chairman Drek with some elements of Gleeman Vox, and the latter is infamous for being That One Boss and a Plot Twist gone wrong.

Scrappy Mechanic:
- All 4 One, Full Frontal Assault, Into the Nexus, and Ratchet & Clank '16 don't let you have multiple saves, which can get annoying if you have a completed file you want to keep and also want to start a new game.
- Several weapons in the first 3 games cause the screen to flash when used. While the idea is cool as it makes them feel more powerful, it's a pain if you're playing in the dark (especially with others around), your eyes are dry or tired, or even worse, have epilepsy.
- Ratchet's complete inability to climb ladders is starting to look pretty silly, and it makes ascending them by jumping over and over a chore.
- While Clank's playable segments are often well-integrated to the plot and can be refreshing, they aren't without their detractors; they trade Ratchet's fast-paced action to puzzles that mostly consist of slowly running around with only 4 health while Checkpoint Starvation is in full effect - not to mention the potential Backtracking if a Gadgebot dies too soon. Fortunately, Insomniac seems to have caught up to this, as many of the games released after ACIT not only make Clank faster to move around, but also make the segments more exciting from both visual and gameplay standpoints.^note
Scrappy Weapon: The series was the main inspiration for this trope. The first game had a handful of weapons that were quite useful (e.g., the Visibomb Gun, Devastator) and some that were almost useless (Pyrocitor, Taunter, Walloper). The second game and onwards introduced leveling up weapons, further polarizing their effectiveness. It was quite easy to level up weapons that were easy to use and fairly powerful (the Negotiator and Constructo Shotgun from A Crack in Time, for instance), and weapons that barely got any use (such as the wimpy Buzz Blades) would never be able to level up except on the weakest ankle-biter enemies.
Sequelitis: Most games actually have positive reception among fans and critics, but Size Matters is often considered to be the worst game of the franchise for it's lackluster production and story and being developed by a different studio. All 4 One and Full Frontal Assault are also viewed less favorly because of their multiplayer-orineted style and, in the latter's case, trying to be "hip and modern". Into the Nexus was an improvement, but still unliked for being too short.
That One Level:
- Gorda City ruins, on Planet Oltanis in the first game. In one path, you have to circumnavigate a path covered in ice (why is it covered in ice, again?) while being blown about by heavy wind. In the other, you have to make it past droves of some pretty annoying enemies, including one grenade-launching ship that's tough to dodge. Oh, and you can't use your jetpack. Yeah, Clank got randomly struck by lightning. Ratchet makes him sit this one out. Just make sure to remember that before you try making a long jump, like you've been used to for the past few hours...
- The Hoverboard Races, particularly the second one on Kalebo III.
- We also have Planet Grelbin from Going Commando. When you're hunting for crystals, Y.E.T.I.s will pop out from underground and they are TOUGH. They can survive at least one hit from any weapon you use (except the RYNO II), and will take a "bigger than average" percentage of your health if they swipe you. And how about Leviathans that hide under frozen water, then burst out, take forever to kill, can knock you out quickly and can destroy your Shield Charger in one attack? And if you don't knock out those Y.E.T.I.s, they will chase you as hard as possible-and that is by NO means an exaggeration.
That One Sidequest:
- In Going Commando there were two huge open areas on Tabora and Grelbin where, for 100% Completion and bolts, you had to collect a vast number of crystals/moonstones scattered across the map. They (initially) don't show up on your in-game map, you're constantly being attacked by infinitely-spawning enemies, and scouring every square inch of the map looking for that last crystal you require is not fun... especially the Grelbin icefield, where you're facing the ridiculously-tough Y.E.T.I.s (see That One Level above).
- Up Your Arsenal has a much worse take on the style of level described above, in the form of Aquatos's giant sewer-maze. At least Going Commando's 2 unique levels had variety in the terrain, some really good music, and the ability to use your Charge Boots to get around. On Aquatos, however, the paths are all identical and extremely cramped, the music is very dull and gets repetitive quick, the metal tubes that make up 90% of the area cause you to auto-equip the Gravity Boots, which are impossible to take off and override your Charge Boots, and the literally hundreds of Amoeboids crawling around don't help matters at all. Blagh. Blagh! BLAGH!
- Up Your Arsenal has also vid-comics and five time-related skill points, one for speedrunning each. The first ones aren't that hard, but the limit for the last one is so tight it you might want to use a Quack-O-Ray on whoever set the time requirement on it.
- "Scoring with the Blarg" in Deadlocked requires you to get a high score in a Landstalker-mounted target-shooting game while also dealing with the enemies. The problems are that there are a lot of enemies that can do some large damage to your tank, there's no healing, and the score required is tight enough that you might just end up getting enough within the last few seconds of the challenge. And God help you if you play it on Exterminator difficulty. It says something about the difficulty when later planet Maraxus's similar challenge, "Spider on a Wire", manages to be miles easier, with a much more lenient score goal and less mean enemies.
- Getting 100% completion in Crack in Time requires you to Score High on a Nintendo Hard mini-game fraught with Stylistic Suck. Plus the downright evil time puzzles required to get the last of the Gold Bolts.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: A sizable portion of the series fanbase has been rather vocally unimpressed with the series gradually going down a Lighter and Softer direction while downplaying the hard-edged satire, Black Comedy and farcical humor of the original PS2 quadriology in favor of what's perceived by them as being needlessly convoluted or cliché, pretentious, and cheesy stories with overly kiddy humor sandwiched in. This reached its apex with the 2016 movie and game having a much more juvenile tone and characterizations from the original 2002 game, which ripped the fanbase in half and led to many older fans accusing Insomniac Games of becoming completely out of touch and trying way too hard to make the series pander to a wider mainstream audience while becoming the kind of shallow, insincere product that the series made fun of in the first place.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Almost all of the female characters who could've turned out to be Ratchet's love interest are Put on a Bus in the next game. Although it's probably because the creators don't want a Romantic Plot Tumor.
- Up Your Arsenal introduces (or rather reintroduces) the Q-Force, a group created by Qwark composed of the main duo, Big Al, Helga, and Skidd McMarx from the first game, and new characters Sasha and Skrunch. Yet these characters outright disappear from the franchise after the PS2 era and are largely forgotten about in the Future series outside of some occasional mentions.
- One of the biggest complaints in Deadlocked is that you can't use Clank.
Unpopular Popular Character: Ace Hardlight is, In-Universe, a Creator's Pet. He's so heavily hated that Gleeman Vox can't even give his products away. In real life, however, Ace is surprisingly popular on DeviantArt.
Villain Decay: Captain Qwark. In the first game he was one of the two main villains, and he returned as the main villain in Going Commando. He showed up as an early boss in Up Your Arsenal, but from that point on Qwark ceased to be a villain so much as a hindrance because he was so inept at trying to help. By the time the Future series starts, no-one can take him seriously.
What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: The first three games got so many things past the radar, the T rating for them might be more than justified despite the cartoon-like look of the game. The developers admitted that the game was made more for the teenage crowd and older rather than younger kids.
- Made stranger by the fact that the European ratings for the series are 3+ (equivalent to an E), but this trend seemed to stop at the start of the Future series.
- It should be noted that the T rated games all came out before the E10 rating was introduced. Furthermore, the first four games were re-rated E10 when the HD versions came out.
The Woobie: Ratchet can be considered one when you learn the depth of his backstory. In the first game, he's an orphan living in a garage, trying to build a ship to go on an adventure, and admires Captain Qwark until his betrayal on Umbris. The third game reveals that the galaxy only sees him as a sidekick to Clank due to a TV show they both star in until Ratchet was replaced with Skrunch. And in Tools of Destruction, we learn that Ratchet is the last lombax left in the universe (not counting Angela Cross or Alister Azimuth). And as of A Crack in Time only Angela. Plus his best friend is missing for most of the game and very nearly abandons him to care for the Great Clock (Luckily he doesn't).

YMMV / Ratchet & Clank

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