Ratchet & Clank (PS2, 2002)
Graphics-8 Sound-7.5/6.5** Control-7 Challenge-7.5 Story-6.5
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-7 Fun-7.5/7* Originality-6
Overall Score-7.5
*Clank levels/segments
**The music
+
Platform Adventure-style gameplay (buy movement upgrades/tools that let you progress and backtrack to explore more of previous levels, partially open ended levels, upgradeable lifebar - only twice though and the second one is expensive)
Item drop magnet (can also throw the wrench like a boomerang at bolts to pick them up; could've been stronger though considering how much they spread out and how they don't stand out in some environments)
Lock-on (without camera lock-on) when throwing bombs or shooting certain ranged weapons
Wall jumps and somersaults (similar to a double jump except you don't gain much height) from the get go
Some interesting gear (helicopter blades for Clank in the 2nd or 3rd level - gain a double jump+long jump (w/ a minor speed boost)+glide jump, sand mouse summoner - summon a flying familiar robot at the antennas placed in some spots, hydrodisplacer - lower and raise water levels in pools/lakes, magneboots - climb certain walls and metal ceilings (later used in Twilight Princess), thruster-pack - high jump+air dash+stomp+glide jump AND hovering+strafing while hovering (double tap r1 then hold r2), persuader - discount item traded for raritanium around mid-game, drone device - spinning shield drones that take out nearby enemies once per drone+they can 100% block certain projectiles for a few seconds, controllable missiles with the camera following them in FP view - Metal Gear, robot disguise, Ryno - volley of homing missiles (OP), homing tesla gun - if you're aiming near the target, glove of doom, glove of doom - hatch robots that go attack enemies on their own)
Pretty large arsenal of weapons (16 though two of them are more like tools (taunter - used to lure enemies towards you, decoy glove - make enemies attack a clone of yourself), suck cannon - suck up small nearby enemies then spray them as an attack+suck up bolts)
Zoomable map (2D, top down) which marks visited points of interest and what you've explored
Shops (buy weapons, ammo and tools)
Partially destructible environment (a bit inconsistent though - large mushrooms can be destroyed for bolts/money but not small ones)
Various shortcuts leading back from detours (either to the beginning of the level or around the middle/crossroads point)
Very good animation (including a lot of background animation like planes flying around in cityscapes) and voice acting
Mission/quest log (slow scrolling text though)
Mini-games and challenges (some mandatory and some optional; fitness course - platforming challenge, find and destroy the enemy spawners, hoverboard race with boost pads and basic tricks (after getting the zoomerator item) - pretty fun, flight combat segment - decent though it's weird how you can't crash (you automatically steer upwards when near the ground), turret segments - meh, spaceship boss battle and skirmishes - fun, giant Clank segments - decent but too short and controlled+overly slow forward movement)
Decent humour (slapstick, silly, caricatures, sometimes sarcastic)
Hidden items and rooms (some bombable walls)
Some scripted events during levels (planes shooting apart bridges and dropping reinforcements in level 2, tanks blasting through a wall in fort krontos, drek shooting apart the ground when fighting him, etc.)
Voiced tutorial messages that don't interrupt gameplay and can be stopped (can also review these messages in a sub menu)
Enemies can accidentally hit each other when attacking
Don't fall off a ledge if doing a combo right near the edge (can't hold a button to not jump off when moving on small platforms though which would've been more useful)
Some memorable characters (the narcissistic Qwark, Drek - villain)
Some decent puzzles (timing-based, water level altering, switch puzzles involving the gadgebots - similar to Landstalker or FF Adventure) and one good puzzle involving the taunter to make an enemy open a door, conveys a sense of vulnerability on one planet where clank gets temporarily taken out, can eventually buy ammo from anywhere (but not weapons)
Context sensitive auto-equipping of some gear (magneboots, hydro pack, grind boots, O2 helmet)
Good final boss fight
New game+ of sorts (restart with collected weapons and money but not gadgets besides the one that calls the ammo shop)
Achievements of sorts (skill points - unlocks an epilogue cutscene)
Some sequence breaking possibilities (minor skips like the river on the first planet after the intro level, can skip aridia, can climb certain obstacles and walls with high jumps and mashing jump, more with glitches)
+/-
Partially non-linear structure (branching paths in nearly every level after the short intro one (some like eudora are more linear), unlock more than one new levels at a time on a galaxy map by finding info about them in the levels, can only go to one new planet at certain points and you automatically go to fort krontos after the second boss)
Collectathon elements (1k bolts each to unlock the two traversal tools on Planet Kerwan, 4k to progress at blackwater city (meet captain qwark), around 2k at various points to buy required tools; I only had to grind a bit once; gold bolts - besides being able to buy the gold weapons you can unlock a cutscene if you get all of them - meh) - have to grind for the best gear and the second HP upgrade
Fairly frequent checkpoints (no lives system - placed bolts that you've collected are kept and it seems you can use this to grind on respawning enemies though it's pretty slow (used ammo is not reset which is sometimes a minor issue); sometimes they're kind of far apart)
Can't move while crouching
Can strafe while hovering slightly above ground with the thruster-pack (get it after 7 levels or so) but both moving and strafing while hovering is kinda slow and you also can't go into FP view to aim - no strafing while walking (can side flip by jumping from a crouching position but it's not that flexible and you'll easily do the double jump instead by accident) or while swimming, No dodge roll or sprinting moves
Mostly ammo-based weapons besides the default wrench (buy ammo at shops or find it in boxes) and the walloper (a glove that you do a powerful but short dash attack with)
Can't make the camera not snap back after yawing it/moving it vertically in TP view
Auto-grab ledges (can fall back down though)
Can't dive into water from land (Tomb Raider)
Some of the music seems ripped from Star Wars, Kind of cheesy music at times (elevator funk), No music while checking the map
Sometimes skippable cutscenes but usually not (sometimes by scene, subtitle toggle however non in-game cutscenes lack subtitles, skippable staff roll; some of the ones that aren't are kinda long) - they're all skippable on your second playthrough
Rips some ideas from other games (Crash Bandicoot - stacked item container boxes with some exploding ones in the mix - here you still get the items if you hit an exploding box near others though so there's not puzzle aspect to it, Ninja Gaiden/Mario 64 - opposite walls to wall jump upwards at, Earthworm Jim 2/Banjo Kazooie - mascot in the backpack who adds to your moveset, rail grinding - jsr/tony hawk/sonic, exploding barrels - Doom?)
Have to be looking pretty much directly at an object to see if you can use the swingshot on it (basically a grapple hook) - don't have to do it to actually use the swingshot on it though so once you know what you can use it on it's very streamlined. Can't hit exploding boxes or enemies with the swingshot
Minor tactical/escort elements when playing as Clank (order gadge-bots to follow, wait, attack or enter doors; a bit similar to Oddworld but more streamlined)
Some delay when switching between a wrench attack and a sub weapon attack (no delay if jumping during a wrench swing)
Melee wrench combos are kinda slow (letting some enemies attack in-between attacks) and enemies tend to get knocked back making them less efficient than ranged attacks
No health or ammo drops from enemies (ammo crates also don't respawn until you leave the planet)
Some fetch quests
Some unkillable enemies (the turrets)
Weird how you can't explore the walled city part of fort krontos by taking your ship or the shortcut ship to it
No lock-on when throwing the wrench and its range is pretty short
The metal detector is a fun idea but the bolt stashes you find are pretty small
Some minor aim assist+homing function for the blaster and devastator when near the target with your crosshair
The map being in 2D occasionally makes it harder to find your way around
Can hit NPCs but nothing happens
Limited oxygen underwater - some tight segments early-mid game (potentially not an issue after getting the O2 helmet but then the game uses other timers that kill you instead)
A few stealth segments (can still survive if caught)
Found hidden paths/rooms don't show up on the map afterwards until you get the map-o-matic item in the late game which then reveals them without having to find them (neither is optimal)
Few boss fights
Hidden shop where you can buy gold versions of your weapons but you have to finish the game once and get back to Oltanis or Veldin to be able to (makes no sense since they'd be more useful to a first time player) - appears on Novalis (first planet after the intro level) on PS3
-
Various control/interface issues (no mini-map, can't place the camera behind your avatar if their back is against a wall and sometimes can't even rotate the camera when standing near a wall (sometimes can't rotate the camera indoors (gadgetron) either), can't jump or move during a ranged wrench attack, no control config besides camera rotation speed and reversing its directions (since the camera doesn't auto-adjust when turning around you'd want to map attacking to a shoulder button so you can adjust it with the right stick while moving, also the rotation in TP view and FP view is opposite so you can only have it be reverse for one and normal for one - not reverse or normal for both), pressing the L1/2 button to quickly put the camera behind your avatar makes you stop if you were moving towards the camera, pretty slow camera controls when looking around/aiming in FP mode (also slow during the turret segment) - can't move nor side flip while doing this and can't stand still and aim in TP view, somewhat slow camera rotation even if it's set to fast, the swingshot and other tools could've been mappable to a shoulder button (or there could've been an additional 8 slot quick select menu mapped to one of them), can't quickly put the camera behind Ratchet while swimming, ratchet gets stuck on platforms that are like stair steps in height instead of just climbing them automatically, can't sell back or refund weapons or ammo, kinda slow forward movement when glide jumping, can't change direction during or cancel a long jump (hold r1 then jump while running), slow shimmying, can't perform a jump attack with the wrench after doing a double jump or longer jump with the helicopter blades (can do it if you started hovering afterwards though), no lock-on for the blaster or devastator/missile launcher - since you can't move and aim separately and can't move in FP mode some sort of lock-on upgrade would've been good though the familiar robots can help with flying and fast moving targets, can't examine certain gadgets in the equip menu nor the help menu - pilot's helmet for example, gadgebot orders occasionally don't register the first time and the effective range of orders is kinda short, have to go back to your ship to see if there are golden bolts left on the planet you're on - not shown on the map screen which does show a mission log, the stomp move is weird in that it doesn't trigger if you don't let go of the d-pad/left stick and in how the camera focuses on Ratchet during its readying animation instead of the ground, the crouching side flip move doesn' work if you hold the crouch button down and try to do it twice - instead you'll do a high jump, sloppy hit detection on the crab enemy's attack (looks like you can jump over it but you can't), if you get shot in FP view the game goes back to TP view so you have to press the button again, you lose your forward momentum after somersaulting though you won't use it much after getting one of the backpacks, some guns auto-aim straight upwards if you're next to a wall or other big obstacle, your aim snaps back to default if you try to change weapons while aiming in FP mode even if you hold L2 down, the level select menu doesn't wrap around and you have to check each one with a button press to see if there are missions/bolts left rather than it displaying as you select a planet, some delay after hitting something with the manually controlled missile during which you can get hit, fairly easy to accidentally select the wrong weapon if you're in a bind and it's mapped to a bottom diagonal on the ring menu, movement while using the robot disguise is too slow and you can't even jump, can't cancel out of an attack animation, can't aim upwards when throwing bombs, can't shoot in FP mode as giant Clank)
Some trial & error (hard to tell what you can and can't wall jump off of at times - can only really use it properly where there are two parallel walls near each other, die immediately if you run out of air - you don't start losing HP and eventually die, some secret paths - since you sometimes can't stand on off the path surfaces you are kind of discouraged from experimenting so you're unlikely to find some of them without a guide or dying over and over (the map tends not to help here), the game makes it seem like you can get one of the gold bolts on blarg station as clank alone, rail segment at fort krontos - bad camera angles, some objects that appear solid are not, some gold bolt locations - they also don't show up on the map after seeing them, doing an air dash at ground level lets you dodge the rolling firewall attacks by certain enemies but hovering doesn't work, some surprise attacks where you'll easily die if you didn't carry the right weapon, gadgetron site rail segment blind jumps, second hoverboard race - have to take the shortcuts and not make any mistakes+the hit detection on exploding boxes is a bit unforgiving, some walls look bombable but aren't, gold weapon shop locations?)
Can't burn bushes and leaves
Playing as clank isn't as fun (limited moveset, a bit slower, can't attack in mid-air)
Weird how Clank is suddenly an idiot when encountering a robot version of Captain Qwark and very gullible right before Qwark traps you after finishing his challenge (he seems like the smart one in the beginning)
Kind of generic and sometimes overdesigned art style
Some enemies don't react when other enemies right next to them are shot at from afar
One dimensional villain
Minor backtracking and dead space here and there (new enemies or hazards don't seem to appear, if you bought the swingshot and the blaster you gotta go to another level for money and then back to progress on Kerwan, magneboot segment near the end)
Too much of a cutscene focus
No alternate solutions to money gates like the guard outside of captain Qwark's van
Kinda weird how the hoverboard races just start immediately with no countdown
Some shortcuts such as some of the aircar shortcuts on Kerwan are pretty long considering they're basically an in-game cutscene during which you can look around and move slightly (most later ones are teleporters instead though)
A few tedious parts (the sewer segment on the resort planet (too many door puzzles), one of the upstream river paths in level 1 doesn't lead to anything, kinda slow swimming and you can't attack underwater - can upgrade the former with the hydro pack after about half the game though)
Weird how the flamethrower knocks back enemies with some cooldown time so you have to go after and shoot them again to keep damaging them - damage over time after the initial hit that increases if you keep hitting an enemy would've made more sense
Stomping is a bit underused (big red buttons rather than for something exploration or puzzle-related)
Some input lag during the drek fight (emulation issue?)
Some super weapons are way too expensive
No difficulty options - added in the PS4 remake
Bugs:
-Switching from robot form to a weapon didn't work at one point in the game (fixed by moving while switching)
Notes:
-Fast money glitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6hOcDaJVOs
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-7 Fun-7.5/7* Originality-6
Overall Score-7.5
*Clank levels/segments
**The music
+
Platform Adventure-style gameplay (buy movement upgrades/tools that let you progress and backtrack to explore more of previous levels, partially open ended levels, upgradeable lifebar - only twice though and the second one is expensive)
Item drop magnet (can also throw the wrench like a boomerang at bolts to pick them up; could've been stronger though considering how much they spread out and how they don't stand out in some environments)
Lock-on (without camera lock-on) when throwing bombs or shooting certain ranged weapons
Wall jumps and somersaults (similar to a double jump except you don't gain much height) from the get go
Some interesting gear (helicopter blades for Clank in the 2nd or 3rd level - gain a double jump+long jump (w/ a minor speed boost)+glide jump, sand mouse summoner - summon a flying familiar robot at the antennas placed in some spots, hydrodisplacer - lower and raise water levels in pools/lakes, magneboots - climb certain walls and metal ceilings (later used in Twilight Princess), thruster-pack - high jump+air dash+stomp+glide jump AND hovering+strafing while hovering (double tap r1 then hold r2), persuader - discount item traded for raritanium around mid-game, drone device - spinning shield drones that take out nearby enemies once per drone+they can 100% block certain projectiles for a few seconds, controllable missiles with the camera following them in FP view - Metal Gear, robot disguise, Ryno - volley of homing missiles (OP), homing tesla gun - if you're aiming near the target, glove of doom, glove of doom - hatch robots that go attack enemies on their own)
Pretty large arsenal of weapons (16 though two of them are more like tools (taunter - used to lure enemies towards you, decoy glove - make enemies attack a clone of yourself), suck cannon - suck up small nearby enemies then spray them as an attack+suck up bolts)
Zoomable map (2D, top down) which marks visited points of interest and what you've explored
Shops (buy weapons, ammo and tools)
Partially destructible environment (a bit inconsistent though - large mushrooms can be destroyed for bolts/money but not small ones)
Various shortcuts leading back from detours (either to the beginning of the level or around the middle/crossroads point)
Very good animation (including a lot of background animation like planes flying around in cityscapes) and voice acting
Mission/quest log (slow scrolling text though)
Mini-games and challenges (some mandatory and some optional; fitness course - platforming challenge, find and destroy the enemy spawners, hoverboard race with boost pads and basic tricks (after getting the zoomerator item) - pretty fun, flight combat segment - decent though it's weird how you can't crash (you automatically steer upwards when near the ground), turret segments - meh, spaceship boss battle and skirmishes - fun, giant Clank segments - decent but too short and controlled+overly slow forward movement)
Decent humour (slapstick, silly, caricatures, sometimes sarcastic)
Hidden items and rooms (some bombable walls)
Some scripted events during levels (planes shooting apart bridges and dropping reinforcements in level 2, tanks blasting through a wall in fort krontos, drek shooting apart the ground when fighting him, etc.)
Voiced tutorial messages that don't interrupt gameplay and can be stopped (can also review these messages in a sub menu)
Enemies can accidentally hit each other when attacking
Don't fall off a ledge if doing a combo right near the edge (can't hold a button to not jump off when moving on small platforms though which would've been more useful)
Some memorable characters (the narcissistic Qwark, Drek - villain)
Some decent puzzles (timing-based, water level altering, switch puzzles involving the gadgebots - similar to Landstalker or FF Adventure) and one good puzzle involving the taunter to make an enemy open a door, conveys a sense of vulnerability on one planet where clank gets temporarily taken out, can eventually buy ammo from anywhere (but not weapons)
Context sensitive auto-equipping of some gear (magneboots, hydro pack, grind boots, O2 helmet)
Good final boss fight
New game+ of sorts (restart with collected weapons and money but not gadgets besides the one that calls the ammo shop)
Achievements of sorts (skill points - unlocks an epilogue cutscene)
Some sequence breaking possibilities (minor skips like the river on the first planet after the intro level, can skip aridia, can climb certain obstacles and walls with high jumps and mashing jump, more with glitches)
+/-
Partially non-linear structure (branching paths in nearly every level after the short intro one (some like eudora are more linear), unlock more than one new levels at a time on a galaxy map by finding info about them in the levels, can only go to one new planet at certain points and you automatically go to fort krontos after the second boss)
Collectathon elements (1k bolts each to unlock the two traversal tools on Planet Kerwan, 4k to progress at blackwater city (meet captain qwark), around 2k at various points to buy required tools; I only had to grind a bit once; gold bolts - besides being able to buy the gold weapons you can unlock a cutscene if you get all of them - meh) - have to grind for the best gear and the second HP upgrade
Fairly frequent checkpoints (no lives system - placed bolts that you've collected are kept and it seems you can use this to grind on respawning enemies though it's pretty slow (used ammo is not reset which is sometimes a minor issue); sometimes they're kind of far apart)
Can't move while crouching
Can strafe while hovering slightly above ground with the thruster-pack (get it after 7 levels or so) but both moving and strafing while hovering is kinda slow and you also can't go into FP view to aim - no strafing while walking (can side flip by jumping from a crouching position but it's not that flexible and you'll easily do the double jump instead by accident) or while swimming, No dodge roll or sprinting moves
Mostly ammo-based weapons besides the default wrench (buy ammo at shops or find it in boxes) and the walloper (a glove that you do a powerful but short dash attack with)
Can't make the camera not snap back after yawing it/moving it vertically in TP view
Auto-grab ledges (can fall back down though)
Can't dive into water from land (Tomb Raider)
Some of the music seems ripped from Star Wars, Kind of cheesy music at times (elevator funk), No music while checking the map
Sometimes skippable cutscenes but usually not (sometimes by scene, subtitle toggle however non in-game cutscenes lack subtitles, skippable staff roll; some of the ones that aren't are kinda long) - they're all skippable on your second playthrough
Rips some ideas from other games (Crash Bandicoot - stacked item container boxes with some exploding ones in the mix - here you still get the items if you hit an exploding box near others though so there's not puzzle aspect to it, Ninja Gaiden/Mario 64 - opposite walls to wall jump upwards at, Earthworm Jim 2/Banjo Kazooie - mascot in the backpack who adds to your moveset, rail grinding - jsr/tony hawk/sonic, exploding barrels - Doom?)
Have to be looking pretty much directly at an object to see if you can use the swingshot on it (basically a grapple hook) - don't have to do it to actually use the swingshot on it though so once you know what you can use it on it's very streamlined. Can't hit exploding boxes or enemies with the swingshot
Minor tactical/escort elements when playing as Clank (order gadge-bots to follow, wait, attack or enter doors; a bit similar to Oddworld but more streamlined)
Some delay when switching between a wrench attack and a sub weapon attack (no delay if jumping during a wrench swing)
Melee wrench combos are kinda slow (letting some enemies attack in-between attacks) and enemies tend to get knocked back making them less efficient than ranged attacks
No health or ammo drops from enemies (ammo crates also don't respawn until you leave the planet)
Some fetch quests
Some unkillable enemies (the turrets)
Weird how you can't explore the walled city part of fort krontos by taking your ship or the shortcut ship to it
No lock-on when throwing the wrench and its range is pretty short
The metal detector is a fun idea but the bolt stashes you find are pretty small
Some minor aim assist+homing function for the blaster and devastator when near the target with your crosshair
The map being in 2D occasionally makes it harder to find your way around
Can hit NPCs but nothing happens
Limited oxygen underwater - some tight segments early-mid game (potentially not an issue after getting the O2 helmet but then the game uses other timers that kill you instead)
A few stealth segments (can still survive if caught)
Found hidden paths/rooms don't show up on the map afterwards until you get the map-o-matic item in the late game which then reveals them without having to find them (neither is optimal)
Few boss fights
Hidden shop where you can buy gold versions of your weapons but you have to finish the game once and get back to Oltanis or Veldin to be able to (makes no sense since they'd be more useful to a first time player) - appears on Novalis (first planet after the intro level) on PS3
-
Various control/interface issues (no mini-map, can't place the camera behind your avatar if their back is against a wall and sometimes can't even rotate the camera when standing near a wall (sometimes can't rotate the camera indoors (gadgetron) either), can't jump or move during a ranged wrench attack, no control config besides camera rotation speed and reversing its directions (since the camera doesn't auto-adjust when turning around you'd want to map attacking to a shoulder button so you can adjust it with the right stick while moving, also the rotation in TP view and FP view is opposite so you can only have it be reverse for one and normal for one - not reverse or normal for both), pressing the L1/2 button to quickly put the camera behind your avatar makes you stop if you were moving towards the camera, pretty slow camera controls when looking around/aiming in FP mode (also slow during the turret segment) - can't move nor side flip while doing this and can't stand still and aim in TP view, somewhat slow camera rotation even if it's set to fast, the swingshot and other tools could've been mappable to a shoulder button (or there could've been an additional 8 slot quick select menu mapped to one of them), can't quickly put the camera behind Ratchet while swimming, ratchet gets stuck on platforms that are like stair steps in height instead of just climbing them automatically, can't sell back or refund weapons or ammo, kinda slow forward movement when glide jumping, can't change direction during or cancel a long jump (hold r1 then jump while running), slow shimmying, can't perform a jump attack with the wrench after doing a double jump or longer jump with the helicopter blades (can do it if you started hovering afterwards though), no lock-on for the blaster or devastator/missile launcher - since you can't move and aim separately and can't move in FP mode some sort of lock-on upgrade would've been good though the familiar robots can help with flying and fast moving targets, can't examine certain gadgets in the equip menu nor the help menu - pilot's helmet for example, gadgebot orders occasionally don't register the first time and the effective range of orders is kinda short, have to go back to your ship to see if there are golden bolts left on the planet you're on - not shown on the map screen which does show a mission log, the stomp move is weird in that it doesn't trigger if you don't let go of the d-pad/left stick and in how the camera focuses on Ratchet during its readying animation instead of the ground, the crouching side flip move doesn' work if you hold the crouch button down and try to do it twice - instead you'll do a high jump, sloppy hit detection on the crab enemy's attack (looks like you can jump over it but you can't), if you get shot in FP view the game goes back to TP view so you have to press the button again, you lose your forward momentum after somersaulting though you won't use it much after getting one of the backpacks, some guns auto-aim straight upwards if you're next to a wall or other big obstacle, your aim snaps back to default if you try to change weapons while aiming in FP mode even if you hold L2 down, the level select menu doesn't wrap around and you have to check each one with a button press to see if there are missions/bolts left rather than it displaying as you select a planet, some delay after hitting something with the manually controlled missile during which you can get hit, fairly easy to accidentally select the wrong weapon if you're in a bind and it's mapped to a bottom diagonal on the ring menu, movement while using the robot disguise is too slow and you can't even jump, can't cancel out of an attack animation, can't aim upwards when throwing bombs, can't shoot in FP mode as giant Clank)
Some trial & error (hard to tell what you can and can't wall jump off of at times - can only really use it properly where there are two parallel walls near each other, die immediately if you run out of air - you don't start losing HP and eventually die, some secret paths - since you sometimes can't stand on off the path surfaces you are kind of discouraged from experimenting so you're unlikely to find some of them without a guide or dying over and over (the map tends not to help here), the game makes it seem like you can get one of the gold bolts on blarg station as clank alone, rail segment at fort krontos - bad camera angles, some objects that appear solid are not, some gold bolt locations - they also don't show up on the map after seeing them, doing an air dash at ground level lets you dodge the rolling firewall attacks by certain enemies but hovering doesn't work, some surprise attacks where you'll easily die if you didn't carry the right weapon, gadgetron site rail segment blind jumps, second hoverboard race - have to take the shortcuts and not make any mistakes+the hit detection on exploding boxes is a bit unforgiving, some walls look bombable but aren't, gold weapon shop locations?)
Can't burn bushes and leaves
Playing as clank isn't as fun (limited moveset, a bit slower, can't attack in mid-air)
Weird how Clank is suddenly an idiot when encountering a robot version of Captain Qwark and very gullible right before Qwark traps you after finishing his challenge (he seems like the smart one in the beginning)
Kind of generic and sometimes overdesigned art style
Some enemies don't react when other enemies right next to them are shot at from afar
One dimensional villain
Minor backtracking and dead space here and there (new enemies or hazards don't seem to appear, if you bought the swingshot and the blaster you gotta go to another level for money and then back to progress on Kerwan, magneboot segment near the end)
Too much of a cutscene focus
No alternate solutions to money gates like the guard outside of captain Qwark's van
Kinda weird how the hoverboard races just start immediately with no countdown
Some shortcuts such as some of the aircar shortcuts on Kerwan are pretty long considering they're basically an in-game cutscene during which you can look around and move slightly (most later ones are teleporters instead though)
A few tedious parts (the sewer segment on the resort planet (too many door puzzles), one of the upstream river paths in level 1 doesn't lead to anything, kinda slow swimming and you can't attack underwater - can upgrade the former with the hydro pack after about half the game though)
Weird how the flamethrower knocks back enemies with some cooldown time so you have to go after and shoot them again to keep damaging them - damage over time after the initial hit that increases if you keep hitting an enemy would've made more sense
Stomping is a bit underused (big red buttons rather than for something exploration or puzzle-related)
Some input lag during the drek fight (emulation issue?)
Some super weapons are way too expensive
No difficulty options - added in the PS4 remake
Bugs:
-Switching from robot form to a weapon didn't work at one point in the game (fixed by moving while switching)
Notes:
-Fast money glitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6hOcDaJVOs