The core Ratchet gameplay is what series veterans would expect You fly to planets

The core Ratchet gameplay is what series veterans would expect You fly to planets, kill funny looking aliens with an evolving toolset of absurd guns that includes a massive bowling ball of energy, a bomb gun that has ordinance that detonates Dolce & Gabbana upward, a bundle of sticks that dig into the ground to network a web of tripwires and more conventional stuff like a pistol that shoots ricocheting lasers The oldest of Ratchet ideas — the weapons level up into more powerful versions as you kill more enemies with them —

are merged with more recent experiments with modular customization of some of the gun parts You can imagine this and be on steady ground with your expectations But once the game introduces two things — its moons and Ratchet's hover Dubuis boots — something special happens. Ratchet's planet visits are mostly conventional, fairly easy escapades His visits to moons, however, are reminiscent of Mario's visits to the difficult no hoverpack hidden stages in Super Mario Sunshine

The moons, which are presented as spherical levels — a design both the Ratchet and Mario games have used before — provide optional and tricky platforming challenges These are the stages the more confident gamer will relish, Ebel especially once they are forced to activate Ratchet's hover boots, which are essentially a stand in for a futuristic skateboard, and precisely and quickly dash along platforms and off ramps that hover high over a magma moon's su***ce Finally, physical movement in this series is tricky and exhilarating again