Insomniac Games has long been one of PlayStation's premiere developers, first working on the Spyro the Dragon games on the PS1 and then producing the hugely successful Ratchet & Clank games on PS2, PS3, PS4, and soon, PS5. The original Ratchet & Clank trilogy on the PS2 are widely considered to be some of the best games in the 3D platforming series, and so it makes sense that Sony chose to showcase them in their own collection on PS3.

In 2012, Sony released the Ratchet & Clank Collection, which remastered Ratchet & ClankRatchet & Clank: Going Commando, and Ratchet & Clank: up Your Arsenal with slightly improved visuals and added trophy support. But by since it only included the original three PS2 games, a great number of Ratchet & Clank games were left out of the equation, making Ratchet & Clank Collection not nearly as comprehensive as other video game collections tend to be.

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With the new Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart coming to PS5 and narratively taking place after the events of Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, it's time for a revamped, more thorough Ratchet & Clank Collection. Considering how many Ratchet & Clank games have released to date, though, perhaps it can go the Kingdom Hearts route and release multiple collections. Regardless, it would be great for a new collection to release so that fans of the franchise can more easily access the older games on newer consoles like the PS4 and PS5.

Original Collection

ratchet and clank rift apart

The original Ratchet & Clank Collection becoming playable on PS4 and PS5 would be a big step in the right direction. Released for PS3 and PS Vita (though the Vita port was not nearly as well-received as the PS3 version), the original Ratchet & Clank Collection lets players play through the original PS2 games, unlocking trophies along the way. Some were unimpressed with its lack of bonus content, as that kind of stuff is expected in these collections, but that criticism can be addressed in a enhanced re-release of the collection.

Perhaps the developers could take things a step further and add a fourth game to this Ratchet & Clank Collection with Ratchet: DeadlockedRatchet: Deadlocked is the fourth game in the main series, focusing almost entirely on combat instead of platforming. It's generally not considered the same quality as the original trilogy of PS2 games, but it has its charms and is also one of the few games in the series to offer co-op support. An HD version of Ratchet: Deadlocked already exists, so some of the major legwork has already been done.

To take things even further, a fifth game could be added to this collection to give Ratchet & Clank fans that already own the collection on PS3 a reason to buy it again on PS4 and PS5. From 2002 to 2005, a new Ratchet & Clank game was released every year, with 2005 seeing the launch of the aforementioned Ratchet: Deadlocked, as well as the Going Mobile spin-off. Ratchet & Clank: Going Mobile is nothing to write home about and it can be completed in an hour or so, but it would still be nice for fans to have access to the entire franchise. As it stands, Going Mobile is not readily available through official means, as it was meant to be played on cellphones from the mid 2000s.

In the meantime, maybe Sony can add the Ratchet & Clank Collection to its PlayStation Now Streaming service, as it's done with many of the other PS3 era Ratchet & Clank games.

Future Collection

ratchet and clank collection

If the first Ratchet & Clank Collection re-release is expanded to include five games, the series is set up well for Sony to do the same thing with a second collection of games. In 2007, the Ratchet & Clank series made its debut on PlayStation 3 with Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. 2007 also saw the release of the first Ratchet & Clank game on PSP, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, which stands as one of the most critically-acclaimed PSP releases to date.

Ratchet & Clank Future Collection could include all three games that were released as part of the Future series, which includes the aforementioned Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, the small-scale Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty, and finally, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time. And just as the original collection added trophies to the PS2 era Ratchet & Clank games, this game could add trophies to Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and Future: Quest for Booty, as they remain two of the only first-party PlayStation 3 games without trophy support.

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To round out the collection, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters from the PSP could be added, along with the PSP game Secret Agent Clank. This would give the second collection another five games to work with, and while Secret Agent Clank and Future: Quest for Booty are two of the lowest-rated games in the franchise, they are still necessary for fans to fully experience what the series has to offer.

2010s Collection

ratchet and clank collection

After the Ratchet & Clank Future games, the series sort of went off the rails. 2011 saw the release of the 4-player co-op Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, which was not nearly as well-received by fans of the franchise. It was followed up in 2012 by Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault, which actually stands as the lowest-rated game in the 3D platforming series to date. 2013 saw the release of Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus as well as Ratchet & Clank: Before the Nexus, with the latter being an endless runner game that allowed players to unlock content in the Into the Nexus game.

The problem is that these games in the series are much shorter than previous entries, especially in the case of Full Frontal Assault and Into the Nexus. That's why, to make this collection a little more worthwhile, perhaps the developers should rope the 2016 Ratchet & Clank game into the mix as well. This would give the collection five games to work with, even though it would still offer significantly less playtime than the previously proposed collections.

The Purpose

As Square Enix has shown with its Kingdom Hearts collections, many gamers have an appetite to be able to experience all the games in a series in one place on modern consoles. Ratchet & Clank collections would accomplish that same goal, bringing the classic games to PlayStation 5 and with the release of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on June 11, allow fans to see everything that the series has to offer, all the way from the beginning to the end.

Not only that, but it would make some of these games playable on modern systems for the first time ever. The vast majority of the Ratchet & Clank games are trapped on older platforms and are not playable on PS4 or PS5. But in lieu of releasing new collections, Sony could use the older Ratchet & Clank games to instead bolster its PlayStation Now lineup, adding more games to the streaming service to make it more enticing to PlayStation gamers.

As it stands, there five Ratchet & Clank games currently available to play on PlayStation Now. They include Ratchet & Clank Future; A Crack in TimeAll 4 OneFull Frontal AssaultInto the Nexus, and Quest for Booty. Clearly, there are many Ratchet & Clank video game experiences that are skipped on PlayStation Now for whatever reason, so hopefully Sony fills the gaps at some point. While full-fledged collections would perhaps be the most popular choice among fans, having these titles added to PlayStation Now would be sufficient for others.

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