Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters

Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters is a spin-off game in the Ratchet & Clank series and was originally designed for the PlayStation Portable, but was later released on the PlayStation 2 as well. It was the first Ratchet & Clank game on the PlayStation Portable. Size Matters was developed by High Impact Games, a company spawning from the original Ratchet & Clank developer, Insomniac Games. It is also the first Ratchet & Clank game to get an E10+ rating by the ESRB and 7+ by PEGI. The original PlayStation Portable version was released on February 14, 2007 in North America, and the PlayStation 2 port was released on March 11, 2008. It was also released for download to the PlayStation Portable through the PlayStation Store in April 2009.

It is ambiguously canon, but is set soon after Up Your Arsenal, in the year 5356.

Gameplay
Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters contains most of the basic gameplay elements from the other Ratchet & Clank games. Like its predecessors, weapons can gain experience, and can be modded similarly to Up Your Arsenal.

Grinding has returned as well, but in a different form; Size Matters implements a shrink ray that allows Ratchet to complete a grind rail course to unlock doors.

Through the game, Ratchet will collect armor pieces for seven different sets of armor, two of which were exclusive to "challenge mode." While Ratchet can mix and match any of the four parts (helmet, body armor, gloves and boots) between any of the sets of armor, wearing a complete set gives Ratchet an additional advantage; for example, using the full Wildfire suit, Ratchet's wrench will set his enemies on fire for additional damage including the additional lowering damage by 28%. Certain combinations can also create new sets of armor with unique effects, as well as a boosted defense.

Mini-games include Skyboard Races, demolition matches with Clank vehicles, a basketball-like robot throwing competition, and a Lemmings-esque robot control minigame.

Multiplayer also made a return in Size Matters, being the third consecutive game in the series to do so. (This trend was broken with the release of Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, though.) It functioned similarly to the previous two iterations.

Plot
Ratchet wanted to take a break and went on vacation to the tropical planet of Pokitaru. However, while he and Clank were relaxing, the duo met a young girl named Luna, who was writing a "school report on heroes." Ratchet agreed to help her, but shortly after, Luna was kidnapped by robots. After chasing and defeating the robots, Clank then stumbled upon a mysterious Technomite Artifact from an ancient race of the same name. Ratchet denied that the artifact was made from Technomites. The duo then set out to save Luna. In the process, they discovered a forgotten race of smart, but diminutive, inventors known as the Technomites. They traced the artifact that Luna dropped when she was captured to Ryllus. After some advice from Captain Qwark (who had followed them to Ryllus, wanting to find his lost family), they fought their way through the enemies and reached a mysterious building. Here, they came across a Technomite map room and also found the coordinates to Kalidon. Meanwhile, Qwark had looked up his family tree on a suspicious website and decided to followed the leads he came across, and continued to search for his family.



Ratchet met a Skyboarder on Kalidon, who gave him a Shrink Ray for beating him at a race. They entered the building on Kalidon and defeated Mungo. The duo caught up with Luna, but discovered that she had turned on them. Ratchet was knocked out by the robots, and sent to a space station for testing, while Clank was sent to fight against other robots alone, on the arid planet of Metalis. Clank managed to escape and made his way to find Ratchet.

On Medical Outpost Omega, Ratchet had a strange dream while unconscious. In the dream, he encountered odd hallucinations of characters and enemies he had encountered in the past, including Drek. Once Clank finds Ratchet, he is able to awake him from this dream. The duo then went on to destroy the space station, and soon found out that Luna was simply a robot puppet the Technomites used to lure Ratchet into a trap. The duo arrived on Dayni Moon, and disabled Luna in a boss-fight. Clank however, was also disabled and Ratchet had to shrink himself to enter the small robot's body and fix him. Afterwards, they discovered Otto's goal, which was to create an army of Ratchet clones, through the DNA testing on the space station. Otto planned for this army to capture other intelligent beings, so that he could transfer their knowledge to him and become the smartest being in the known universe. On Quodrona, Ratchet fought off the army of clones, and thanks to a confused Qwark (who was set-up by Faux-Family.com into thinking Otto was his father), they neutralized Otto, and switched his intelligence with Skrunch, forcing the former to lose all intelligent thought, and the latter to become super-intelligent. Qwark also found out that his real family were, in fact, great superheroes in their time, but were killed in a freak accident. Later, in Clank's apartment in Megapolis, Ratchet and Clank relax and watch a commercial about the Ratchet clones Otto created as a tiny Qwark tries to show off in front of miniature Ratchet clones.



Timeline placement and canonicity
As an ambiguously canon spin-off installment to the series, it is questionable as to where Size Matters takes place in the timeline. The trailer for the game implies that it takes place during or soon after Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, while the first cutscene in-game suggests that it happens soon after Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, meaning it happens before Deadlocked.
 * Timeline

The Japanese version of the game treats it as a fully canon main series game happening after Deadlocked, with it being referred to as Ratchet & Clank 5.

It is possible that Vox references the events of Size Matters in Deadlocked - as he states that Ratchet has "saved the Solana Galaxy" three times over - with the third time after Ratchet & Clank and Up Your Arsenal seemingly being Size Matters - as there was no other occasion before Deadlocked where Ratchet saved Solana. In All 4 One Qwark also displays the ability to shrink himself - which he may have gained from being shrunk in Size Matters. Interestingly, the things from game are shown several times in the Insomniac Museum of Ratchet & Clank (2016 game)
 * Canonicity

The issues with the game fitting as canon are that the events are never referenced again in any form, Qwark's parents are said to have died when he was a baby - when his mother was stated to be alive in Up Your Arsenal, and there are also several other inconsistencies.

Multiplayer
Size Matters included a Multiplayer mode with Capture the Flag, Deathmatch, and Iron Lombax modes. You could play with up to four players online only on the PlayStation Portable and with up to two players only in Cooperative player mode on PlayStation 2. The online servers for Size Matters have been shut down as of 27 June 2012.

PlayStation Portable
Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters on the PlayStation Portable received overall positive reviews. Game Informer rated it 9 out of 10 and awarded it the "Handheld Game of the Month" for April 2007. Metacritic has it rated at 85 out of 100 with 50 reviews taken into account. IGN gave the game a 9.0 out of 10 particularly praising the gameplay and graphics.

PlayStation 2
Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters on the PlayStation 2 received lower scores, with IGN giving it a score of 6.0 out of 10, due to its poor graphics, glitches, and difficulty. On Metacritic the game reached 62 out of 100 based on 35 reviews.

Trivia

 * Size Matters was developed by High Impact Games, a company spawning off the original developer, Insomniac Games.
 * The Description of the Triple Wave Armor in the Armor Info section, "as one Gadgetron Research Scientist famously reported, 'It's Over Nine Thousaaand!!!' " is a reference to an infamous quote by the character Vegeta in the anime Dragon Ball Z.
 * In the movie The Invasion, Oliver (a main character), is seen playing Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters at his friend's front door while waiting for his mom's car.
 * In the PS2 version, the scene where Qwark tried to tell Ratchet and Clank that he found where his father (Otto Destruct) while the duo were heading for Dayni Moon was removed presumably due to time constraints.
 * It says on the Handheld Games page that Ratchet & Clank: Clone Home was cancelled for interfering with the Size Matters plot line.
 * There is only one location in the entire game where one can swim without dying or being eaten. This place is a small pond connected to a small river on Pokitaru.
 * Strangely, when Ratchet swam in that river, he swam with whatever weapon/gadget he was using at the time, and the part of the weapon/gadget underwater was invisible (including the Repulsor Field).
 * During the production of the game in 2006, a former Insomniac Games employee named Dan Johnson died and passed away. The game gave a memorial to him, along with Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction.
 * Oddly enough when the weapon upgrades and acquires a new form, if the player enters first person view the weapon they are holding will revert into its original form(in appearance that is) until they swap to another weapon and back on.(glove weapons will not work as they will stay the same every time and a few others will not be affected)