Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters: The Review

Overview

Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters was... alright. I mean, it’s cool that they managed to squeeze a "full" Ratchet game onto the PSP, and that it still managed to have that classic vibe from the PS2 games: fun weapons, some decent levels, and the usual silly humor. But, as the title says, size does matter, and Size Matters falls incredibly short of any Ratchet game released up until this point in time. The controls were rough most of the time, the platforming was a pain here and there, and overall it just didn’t hit the same as the main games. I finished it and had some fun, but it didn’t really leave much of an impression. Definitely felt like a scaled-down side game and not the next step into the Ratchet series.

Score: 5.5 out of 10

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The Positives ✅

So, yeah, what can I say positively about Size Matters. It definitely feels like a Ratchet & Clank game for the most part, which is kind of impressive considering it runs on the PSP. It’s just... smaller in every aspect.

The weapons were fun enough: I messed around with the Bee Mine and the Acid Bomb Glove a lot—but it didn’t have that same crazy variety you get in the main games. The armor system was kind of a cool addition too. Nothing mind-blowing, but it gave me something to collect and mess with, which helped keep things interesting even if the system felt unpolished and unbalanced. While talking about unbalanced things, we should mention how painful bolt and XP management were. The economy and enemy balancing were completely BROKEN.

The story was pretty bland. Something about Technomites and Qwark's missing family (because that's super important): it was fine. It did the job of getting me from one planet to another, and at least the environments were new. Also, for a PSP game, it looked pretty good. The cutscenes and voice acting made it feel like a legit part of the series, not just some random side project.

That said, you can definitely tell it’s not on the same level as the PS2 ones. I had fun, but it never really wowed me or stuck with me after. Just kind of a quick little side adventure. Not bad, not amazing: just one of those games you play through, enjoy for a bit, and move on.

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The Negatives ⚠️

Alright, so while Size Matters tries to have its fun moments, there are some unforgivable things the game tries to do. The camera and controls, especially on the PSP, are an absolute pain. No second analog stick means the camera "autofocuses" on you, without too much control, so trying to move and look around at the same time feels way harder than it should be.

The levels also felt pretty stripped down. I get that they had to scale things back for handheld, but the areas just didn’t have that big, open feel the main games nailed. A lot of it felt kind of linear and bite-sized, which was fine for quick play sessions, but didn’t really leave much of an impression. And don’t even get me started on the mini-games: the hoverboard "races" (if you even can call them that) and the Clank sections just felt like broken, untested, and outright bad. Not fun, awful to play, and they dragged the "already weak" pacing of the game to a halt.

Some of the difficulty spikes were also kinda random. Like, one second I’m breezing through a level, and the next I’m getting smacked around for no reason. That final boss has NO RIGHT to be that unfair to the player. Making it hard and unfair just removes any rewarding feeling we could get from it. It felt like no one tested the game before shipping it. And while the story tried to do something different with the whole Technomite thing, it just didn’t stick with me. It worked well enough to keep things moving, but it’s not something I’ll be thinking about later on. It just sort of... exists.

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The Experience 🎮

I spent like 8 hours getting through Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, and honestly… it was all over the place. Is it an outright bad game? No. But it's not that far off. It really shows that Insomniac knows how to make Ratchet shine, and High Impact just failed at hitting the mark. They missed the entire target, to be honest. There are some really big negatives in this game, but some things do end up working. The final boss was just straight BS tho. I finished it mostly just to say I completed the entire Ratchet saga and for this review, but yeah, this one didn’t really leave much of a mark. Definitely a one-and-done.