Ratchet (Ratchet & Clank)

General CVG character|width=240px
name=Ratchet


caption=Ratchet, with Clank on his back and holding his OmniWrench 3000
firstgame="Ratchet & Clank" (2002)
series="Ratchet & Clank"
creator=Insomniac Games
voiceactor=Mikey Kelley (2002)
James Arnold Taylor (2003 - present)
japanactor= Makoto Tsumura

Ratchet is a science-fiction character and the protagonist of the Video Game series Ratchet & Clank for Playstation 2, Playstation Portable, and Playstation 3. Ratchet is a Lombax, a fictional furry cat-like creature. He always includes his robot companion Clank in his adventures (except in the fourth installment of the series, .) Ratchet maneuvers through various planets with a variety of weapons and gadgets that are upgraded and modified as you progress through the games. He also is equipped with an OmniWrench 8000, a weapon that you may swing like a sword or twist mounted bolts with in the ground.

"Ratchet & Clank"

Ratchet is a mechanic on the Fictional backwater planet Veldin. He dreams of leaving his planet and setting off on an adventure. He works on a home-made starship, although he knows there is no hope of it working without a robotic ignition system which he does not have. When a robot that he calls Clank, for short, crash-lands on his home, they are forced to team up to defeat the evil Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman Drek, who is destroying planets to collect pieces which he is stitching together to build a new "perfect" planet to sell to his own people the Blarg to replace their uninhabitable home world.

Halfway through the journey, Captain Qwark, the superhero Ratchet and Clank are searching for, ends up betraying them and explains that he is working for Drek before departing, leaving his pet Snagglebeast to kill them.

Consumed by the need for revenge, Ratchet vows to stop Qwark at any cost. Eventually, they meet on a space station, engaging in a fierce battle but Ratchet triumphs, shooting down the disgraced "hero".

Nevertheless, Ratchet's victory is short-lived as he finally discovers that Drek is planning to destroy his home planet, because it occupies the orbit Drek has selected to use for a planet he has created. Finally, after a long and dangerous journey followed by Drek's downfall, Ratchet becomes a hero, remaining friends with Clank.

"Going Commando"

Ratchet is summoned to the new Bogon Galaxy. Here he is sent by Abercrombie Fizzwidget on a retrieval mission for a stolen biological organism, the Protopet. His first enemy is the thief who steals and tries to eliminate the Protopet, later revealed to be Angela Cross. After discovering the prototype's true nature, Ratchet and Angela ally in order to find and calm down the protopets before they became monsters that become dangerous predators. Ratchet dosen't trust her, but pretends he does. Together, they discover that Abercrombie Fizzwidget, the founder and CEO of Megacorp, is no other than Captain Quark, and that the real founder was tied up in a closet throughout the entire game.

Going Commando was the first in the series to include the Strafe ability and have a leveling system. The first Ratchet and Clank acted more like a platformer, rather than an action game. From Going Commando, until now, the series is more action based, but still has several platforming elements.

"Up Your Arsenal"

Ratchet hastily flies back to the Solana Galaxy to help defend his Home world of Veldin from Tyhrranoid creatures which obey to a supremacist robot called Dr. Nefarious, who calls organic beings "squishies". When Ratchet and Clank get there, Ratchet is thought to be the Galactic Rangers' sergeant, and is quickly pulled into the mess. Ratchet is soon a part of the Q-Force, with Captain Qwark, now an ally, despite that he now believes that he's a monkey. Even as a leader, Captain Qwark often places Ratchet and Clank in the more dangerous scenarios in his plans (albeit partly out of revenge) and they never receive any credit for accomplishing them.

After filming a 'Secret Agent Clank' (a TV Show parodying on James Bond) episode, Clank gets kidnapped by Dr. Nefarious. Courtesy of Dr. Nefarious being a big fan of his TV series, he gives Clank the choice to join his side to rule the universe together or be forever ridiculed by his fellow robots. Whatever the answer, Clank is imprisoned and a clone of him called Klunk returned to Ratchet's side. Sasha, daughter of the Galactic President, Captain of the Starship Phoenix, and who has a romantic crush on Ratchet, alerts Ratchet and the rest of the Q-Force that Dr. Nefarious was tracked down on the Star Cruiser Leviathan, though it turns out to be a trap to kill Ratchet and Captain Qwark is reported missing. Ratchet, Clank and Skrunch, Qwark's monkey friend, escape. Later, it turns out that Qwark was alive, and that Dr. Nefarious' grudge for organic beings may originate from Qwark's bullying him back in their high school days. Ratchet frees the real Clank, after which they destroy weapons called "Biobliterators" and Dr. Nefarious' organic extermination plans in the final aerial combat with the help of Qwark.

The gameplay is very similar to the kind, in Going Commando, but a few changes had been made. Some obsticle gadgets from the previous 2 games (Such as the grind boots) have been eliminated and new gadgets (Such as Charge Boots) have been added. Due to this change, the game is more action-involved and a bit less of a platformer. Also, the addition to vehicles have made the game much more interesting. Lastly, the addition of online play brings the replay value higher.

Note: The appeal gained from the Secret Agent Clank idea encouraged Sony to make a game for the PSP called "Secret Agent Clank", starring the robot himself.

"Deadlocked"

Ratchet is now the new captain of the Starship Phoenix from "UYA" due to Sasha being the present mayor of Metropolis, but is kidnapped alongside Clank and Al by Gleeman Vox for his combat sport show Dreadzone. They are then attached with Deadlock Collars, designed to self-destruct on Vox's command, and Ratchet is given a Combat Suit and two Combat Bots named Merc and Green (taken from a fallen contestant). Clank is now Ratchet's Mission Engineer while Al is his Technology Engineer.

Throughout the game, Ratchet has to survive challenges from Dreadzone, many of which hosted on various planets and satellites. Vox regularly sends one of his 4 exterminators, Shellshock, Reactor, The Eviscerator and Ace Hardlight, to destroy Ratchet.

Throughout the game Ratchet is continually slandered by Dreadzone Announcer/"News" Reporters Dallas and Juanita, who depict him as a malicious villain who has little to no moral decency (supposedly this is Vox's way of building Ratchet's "Bad-Boy Image"). However they change their attitudes towards him in the end of the game, when Vox tries to blow up the Battledome, locking Dallas, Juanita and the fans of the show with their own Deadlock Collars and their fate in Ratchet's hands. This game also features new multiplayer game modes.

Since Clank is not part of the team in this game, many platforming elements from the previous 3 games have been eliminated and the game is mostly concentrated, in the action genre. Due to these changes, "Lock-Strafe" mode has become the game's default control mode. This mode helps the player have better comfort, in battles.

"Tools of Destruction"

"Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction" starts as a robot army begins to attack the city of Metropolis, seemingly searching for Ratchet. Ratchet decides to escape, but unfortunately his vehicle fails and he has to sneak through the robot-infested city on foot.

They soon discover the details of the mastermind behind the attack: Emperor Percival Tachyon, a being known as a "Cragmite". They learn that Tachyon's race has been waging an epic war against the Lombaxes (Ratchet's race) for generations. At this point it is revealed that Ratchet has never known anything of his past, his family, or his Lombax origins, and no one, not even Clank, is able to fill that void. Thus, "Game Informer" asks, "What course of action is more compelling than stopping an alien scourge from conquering the universe? For Ratchet, it's learning about who he is, where he came from, and what happened to his people. As he searches for these answers, developer Insomniac Games is also using this game as a means to identify with his past." [Reiner, "Second Opinion," "Game Informer" 176 (December 2008): 147.]

Ratchet learns about the Lombax secret known as the dimensionator which can open portals to other dimensions and wants to use it, but Clank urges him that it must be destroyed because it is too dangerous and the Zoni told him too. Clank's argument and Ratchet being unable to see or hear the Zoni causes the two to drift apart. After seeing Tachyon use the dimensionator to bring back the Cragmites, Ratchet and Clank get separated after getting hit by a blow and Ratchet realizes how important Clank is to him. They soon reunite and make up their differences.

While confronting Tachyon on planet Fastoon, Tachyon reveals Ratchet's father was the guardian of the dimensionator and that he killed him. Tachyon uses the dimensionator to give Ratchet one last chance to go home to where the Lombaxes went after they used the dimensionator and never bother him again. Ratchet refuses saying that more people would be hurt if Tachyon continues and they fight. When Ratchet wins, Tachyon claims that he is the only one who knows Ratchet's real name and purpose and he cannot get rid of him so easily after he gets sucked into a blackhole. Ratchet later wonders if what Tachyon claims is true and Clank says he did not hear any lie in Tachyon's voice, but Ratchet's purpose was fulfilled by defeating Tachyon. Soon after Ratchet is forced to watch the Zoni take Clank away and this is where the game ends.

Personality

Athletic and skilled with a variety of Guns, Gadgets and an Omniwrench 3000, Ratchet does the fighting in the pairing. An excellent rocket mechanic, Ratchet always put his skills to use.

A very cocky and confident character who is the polar opposite to Clank, often making rash decisions on impulse (one of the most extreme examples is flying into a black hole in space which will, as Clank puts it, "result in probable death"). Despite this, he is very loyal to his friends, even putting himself in danger several times for Captain Qwark, a man who has tried to kill him in the past. He is also very humorous and makes constant jokes in the games.

Guest appearances

* In the flash video called The Decline of Video Gaming, Ratchet is mentioned as another character who is voiced by James Arnold Taylor. The characters in the video mention that Clank should not be mentioned in the title Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando, as he was proclaimed as "Useless."
* In "Jak II", Ratchet and Clank appear on some of the walls in Haven City.
* Ratchet is a secret racer in ""
* Finding a secret unlocks a Ratchet mask that Daxter can wear in Daxter.
* In "", lombax equipment can be unlocked in Multiplayer, based on Ratchet.

External links

* [http://ratchet.wikia.com/wiki/Ratchet Ratchet on the Ratchet and Clank Wiki]