YMMV / Secret Agent Clank

• Complete Monster: Klunk is the Evil Counterpart of Clank, out to replace his heroic foe and become worshipped by the galaxy. After a failed attempt to murder Ratchet and ensure Dr. Nefarious's attempted genocide of organics came to pass, Klunk returns as his own mastermind, framing Ratchet for the theft of the Eye of Infinity and getting him thrown into a Hellhole Prison. Klunk then threatens a scientist into weaponizing the Eye and reveals his plan to threaten the entire Solana Galaxy with it, then "save the day" after murdering Clank to make himself into a hero. When his plans are jeopardized, Klunk spitefully tries to annihilate the Solana Galaxy with the laser out of sheer refusal to be one-upped.
• Crosses the Line Twice: The prison shower level, where being hit causes Ratchet's towel to drop. Everything is censored, but the fact that the devs actually added it is some fine Black Comedy.
• Fanon Discontinuity: The game's canonicity has been disputed. Many fans still argue whether or not it (along with Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters) are canon. Insomniac stated that both games are non-canon in 2014, but went back on this in 2017. Later downplayed by Insomniac saying this adventure is merely an episode of the Show Within a Show rather than an actual adventure the characters went on.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Most everyone hates the rhythm sections due to the button prompts not matching the beats at all, and because it's a gameplay shift that does not fit the series at all. Special mention goes to the final boss which suddenly forces you into these segments once you hurt Klunk enough in order to finalize the damage.
  • Ratchet and Qwark do not earn bolts in their sections, meaning you will be playing a large amount of the game not getting money to buy weapons or upgrades with. Ratchet will at least earn bolts upon completing the prison challenges and can unlock a gadget that allows him to earn bolts from defeating enemies (though the latter itself is seen as an example of They Changed It, Now It Sucks!). Qwark, however, can never earn bolts in any capacity, which is especially egregious with how long and tedious his levels can end up being. It can't even be argued that it's intended to be a Surprisingly Realistic Outcome (since Ratchet is not connected to Clank during the game and Qwark's sections are complete fabrications), considering that the previous High Impact installment had a level where Ratchet earned bolts in his dreams.
• Signature Scene: Qwark's opera. All of it. It's not every day you hear a line like, "I swam right under it, and plugged the leak, with just my left buttcheek!", but oh boy does Jim Ward make it work so well.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: High Impact Games took advantage of the PSP's additional processing power this time around. The levels are bigger, and more detailed, the number of enemies and NPCs on screen is higher and the sound effects are more impressive, and the story is seen as a massive improvement over its predecessor...
  • Sequelitis: ...however the game also ends up falling into this camp as well, not just in comparison to the Insomniac titles but also to Size Matters. Common points of contention include the overabundance of gameplay styles most of which are not that fun, the weak weapon selection for both Clank and Ratchet, the arbitrary restrictions on your ability to earn bolts, and generally poor implementation of stealth mechanics which make the game feel like little more than a poor man's Sly Cooper.
• That One Achievement: This game has some of the hardest Skill Points to obtain in the series.
  • "Triple Platinum Record" and "Perfect Tango" require beating the first two rhythm minigames without messing up, which is extraordinarily difficult because the timing is very precise and the segments are very long.
  • "Lucky Sevens" requires you to finish the third rhythm minigame with exactly 77,700 points, which requires you to very carefully manage your score count (not too low, not too high).
  • "Deadly Hands" requires you to kill all of the Kingpin's guards during the Rionosis stealth sequence before he reaches the fourth cart, which requires some very fast stealth-killing and distractions.
  • "Magnum Opus" and "Sold Out" require completing Qwark's opera segment without taking damage and earning a very high score, respectively. The segment is also quite long, and while you can get hit once and still earn "Sold Out," it requires a lot of special kills.
  • "Revenant" requires you to kill every enemy in the salvage yard segment of the Spaceship Graveyard without being detected, which requires a lot of planning and luck.
  • "Perfect Mirror" requires that, during Qwark's dam defense segment, the dam never springs a leak. This segment, like every other, is extremely long and the enemies will very easily destroy the dam.
  • While most of these achievements might be easier to obtain in Challenge Mode, when you have better weapons and more knowledge of the game, "Mix Maxing" is not. In fact, it is far harder on Challenge Mode. While normally the Skill Point requires earning 1,075 points during the Giant Clank segment, which is doable, in Challenge Mode the requirement is bumped up to a whopping 1,550 points. There's not much room for error in Challenge Mode on this one.
• That One Boss: Klunk is ridiculously difficult in challenge mode; his attacks can kill Clank in just a few hits, and is so durable that you'll be running out of ammo before the halfway point.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • While the Walloper returning and finally getting a proper upgrade path was well-received overall, longtime fans were not please by the fact that it required ammo to use this time around.
  • As stated above, this game inexplicably requires the use of a gadget in order for Ratchet to earn bolts from the enemies he defeats. While this is somewhat mitigated as Ratchet acquires it by the second mandated prison trip, the fact that this was implemented at all did not sit well with players, and most tended to simply skip the optional challenges until after the Bolt Extractor is obtained as they viewed going through them without it to be a waste of time.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The Thugs-4-Less leader from Going Commando appears at one point in Ratchet's prison, leading other imprisoned thugs to take revenge on Ratchet. You'd think he'd become Ratchet's antagonist for the rest of the game, but he abruptly disappears after one cutscene, and doesn't even appear in the gameplay after that point.

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