Every Ratchet & Clank Game, Ranked Worst to Best

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – June 9, 2021

Created nearly 20 years ago by Insomniac Games, the combat-laced buddy platformer franchise Ratchet & Clank has been charming gamers on Sony platforms ever since with its mix of humor, heart, story development, and over-the-top, cartoon-style action spanning multiple genres, outliving its main rival, Naughty Dog's similar Jak and Daxter series.

In the gallery on this page, we rank every* Ratchet & Clank game to date by Metascore, from worst- to best-reviewed. Some R&C games were issued on multiple platforms, and rather than clutter our list with countless versions of the same game, we limited our selection as follows:

• In general, the first release of each title is included.

• If a title was released simultaneously on multiple platforms, we only included the version that received the highest quantity of reviews from professional critics.

• If a title was later ported to other platforms, those ports are not included ...

• ... but if a title was substantially remade for another later-generation platform, the remake is treated as a separate game and included in our rankings. (We're looking at you, PS4 version of Ratchet & Clank.)

* We have omitted the 2005 cellphone (but not smartphone) game Going Mobile, which was not covered on Metacritic. (GameSpot has a review if you are curious.)

All photos courtesy of Sony Interactive Entertainment unless otherwise indicated.

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72 #13: Secret Agent Clank

PlayStation Portable, 2008
also on PlayStation 2 (2009)

The worst-reviewed title in the series to ever appear on the PSP (and on any console), Secret Agent Clank is also the only R&C release not to feature the name Ratchet in the title, though the Lombax does in fact appear in the game as a playable character. Originally developed not by Insomniac but by High Impact Games (and then ported to PS2 by Sanzaru Games), this spinoff from the main series was intended as a James Bond spoof centering on the robot Clank, who has an array of gadgets at his disposal and must utilize stealth as much as combat. Critics felt it strayed too far from the franchise formula without fully developing any of its new ideas.

“A sluggish camera, some bad gadgetry, inadequate fighting mechanics, poorly utilized stealth system and really sh.tty rhythm segments really injure what could have been a complete package.” —Destructoid

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