During the prime of the PlayStation 2’s lifespan, both the Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank series led the charge of action-based platformers on the console. Aside from genre similarities, both series being exclusive to Sony’s system was an extra cause for comparison between Ratchet and Jak to see which one was truly the better. In 2005, just as both series launched what were considered the best titles yet with Jak 3 and Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal respectively, fans were caught off guard by the huge changes being made to both franchises.
Jak X: Combat Racing ditched the platforming and epic storyline for a vehicular combat racing title, while Ratchet Deadlocked restricted the Lombax hero purely to the gladiator arenas seen in prior games. Even with these substantial twists to the formula, both series couldn’t seem to shake the similarities between them, as both now ironically had more in common than ever before.
The narrative is the driving force for both of these games, and the similar choices between both of them are easy to notice. For starters, both principal protagonists find themselves between a rock and a hard place, forced to participate in a deadly tournament in order to survive. Imagine a video game plot similar to The Hunger Games, but this time starring two colorful platformer mascots. Both Jak and Ratchet meet new, outlandish adversaries as the narrative progress, with matters going from bad to worse with each passing moment.
It’s nothing particularly groundbreaking, but the storylines in this case do a commendable job of always keeping the pace moving and placing the emphasis on the action itself. Most important however, is that both games, while dealing with violent gladiator matches and high octane racing, still retain the sense of humor that make them among the most beloved PlayStation tentpole franchises.
Both games ditch the platforming aspects of past titles in favor of delivering relentless action set pieces, one after another. Rather than a series of environments to explore, the player is instead placed in increasingly difficult combat scenarios and racetracks, sometimes with an extra layer of challenge to always keep things interesting. As the game moves on, new weapons and armor are unlocked in Ratchet: Deadlocked just as new customization and models for vehicles are available in Jak X: Combat Racing. Each game is ensuring that new destructive toys are always available to the player as the levels get tougher and tougher.
Each game additionally pushes the amount of carnage onscreen to a ludicrous maximum, with debris, explosions, and bursts of fire practically exploding off the screen. In series tradition, Ratchet: Deadlocked features stunning visuals with plenty of particle effects while Jak X: Combat Racing has an exhilarating sense of speed in races, and tense showdowns in battle arenas similar to the Twisted Metal series. Basically, both games encourage blowing stuff up and give the proper tools to do so.
As stated, both titles aren’t shy when it comes to a sense of humor, with plenty of innuendos and irreverence between them both. However, both games were released during a strange time where many franchises attempted to take on a more edgy and serious tone, regardless of whether or not it fit the genre and pre-established series. Considering both Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Daxter did feature weapons and dark themes before, look no further than Shadow the Hedgehog’s overall visual aesthetic to understand how everything was trying to adopt a “too cool for school” aesthetic in the mid 2000s.
In much of the marketing material such as trailers and promotional artwork, both of these cartoony looking characters are depicted to be as extreme as possible; looking angry and ready to break something even on the covers of the games themselves. Even so, the exaggerated coolness of both games almost adds to the sense of humor and bombastic nature of it all, similar to some of the most badass action stars in cinema. It’s all for the pure fun of it, and both games succeed in glorious fashion.
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