This product is like new. At NexWave Games, like new means:
Additionally, all discs at NexWave Games are carefully inspected and assessed for quality. When discs arrive, we do not accept any that are so badly damaged that they are unlikely to work. We only accept discs with light scratches at most. Discs with scratches are then treated in our professional disc repair machine. By warming the disc and polishing it with soft brushes, these machines can remove a very thin layer from the disc. This removes the layer containing surface scratches and improves the disc’s readability. This ensures the disc works properly, even on consoles with ageing lasers that have difficulty reading games! Great news for the player.
Ratchet & Clank for PlayStation 2
Ratchet & Clank for the PlayStation 2 is a 3D platform adventure following a mechanic and a small robot across a galaxy. Ratchet meets Clank after the robot's ship crashes on his home planet. Together, they try to stop Chairman Drek, who wants to use pieces of existing worlds to build a new planet. Their journey takes you through cities, factories and dangerous landscapes.
You jump over obstacles, explore side paths and use weapons against robots and other enemies. Ratchet's wrench lets you strike at close range and break open crates. The bolts you collect serve as money for new weapons, ammunition and other purchases. Each weapon has its own use, so you consider the distance, the group of opponents and the space you are fighting in before choosing something from your arsenal.
Tools help you progress too. New gadgets and enhancements for Clank make jumps and passages possible that were previously out of reach. The adventure therefore alternates between shooting, platforming and figuring out what else you can do on a planet. You play alone and visit different worlds along the way, where new encounters and discoveries move the journey forward. The humour comes both from conversations between the two main characters and from the strange figures and devices they encounter.
Region and language
Our PlayStation 2 games are PAL editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
Ratchet & Clank for PlayStation 2 includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of Ratchet & Clank
Ratchet & Clank was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2002. Insomniac Games developed the game and Sony Computer Entertainment published it. The studio had made its name on the first PlayStation with Spyro the Dragon. For the new console, the team sought a different protagonist and a world where platforming and an extensive selection of weapons could work together.
According to a later retrospective by studio head Ted Price, the space adventure grew from a proposal by Brian Hastings. An earlier concept, internally called Girl with a Stick, had been cancelled. Hastings suggested an alien character with unusual weapons and gadgets. An early Metropolis prototype, with platforms above a large city and flying traffic, helped the team and Sony see the potential of that direction.
The finished game gave that idea shape through Ratchet as a skilled mechanic and Clank as his robot partner. Travelling between planets allowed for varied environments, while bolts and new purchases provided a recurring goal during exploration. That combination became the foundation of a longer series. Ratchet & Clank 2 followed in 2003 and Ratchet & Clank 3 in 2004, again on the PlayStation 2. The first game preserves the duo's original introduction, in which their relationship develops during the pursuit of Drek.
Similar games for PlayStation 2
Ratchet & Clank 2: Locked & Loaded continues the combination of planetary exploration, platforming and a large arsenal. Among its additions are weapons that grow stronger through use. The first Ratchet & Clank builds progression mainly around new purchases and gadgets, while you get to know the protagonists during their first journey together.
Ratchet & Clank 3 also uses robots, alien worlds and unusual weapons for an action adventure with humour. The third game develops the combat further and includes local multiplayer as well. The first game is for one player and gives considerable space to discovering the duo and their journey across different planets.
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy shares the premise of two contrasting protagonists in a colourful 3D adventure. Jumping, exploration and collecting receive considerable attention there. Ratchet & Clank weaves those activities more closely into choosing and buying weapons, so a new device can change both a battle and the next route.
Jak II: Renegade also combines platforming with firearms, but sets many assignments around a large city and uses a darker story. Ratchet & Clank travels between separate planets and builds its humour around the duo, the inhabitants and their devices. Both games ask you to alternate between movement and attacking.
Sly Raccoon also offers a stylised cartoon world, a distinctive hero and 3D platforming. Sly uses his skills mainly to avoid security and reach the right place unseen. Ratchet & Clank makes collecting weapons and fighting groups of enemies more important, with tools that open up new possibilities during exploration.
