Posted April 28, 2004
 |
| Think of it as Two Headed Baby with a really big gun. |
Why are there so few quality contemporary comedic games? Sure, there are games with comedic moments but rarely is a game's story hellbent on actually giving your run of the mill stand-up a run for his money. In the last year we've been a bit more fortunate to receive games that are actually humor-inspired, such as Simpsons: Hit & Run and the deeply flawed Futurama video game, but as funny at times as both games were, they are based off of proven humorous shows. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga had its moments, but it is certainly more surreal and baffling than comedic. Now, back in the heydays of the graphic adventure game it was a comical smorgasbord. You had your Space Quests, your Leisure Suit Larrys, your Monkey Islands - all sorts of farcical opportunities. Even in the text adventure days you had your Hitchhiker Infocom adaptation. Nowadays we're lucky if we get fart jokes (thanks for nothing Metal Arms).
Fortunately, I made the decision to actually hunker down and spend some quality time with Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando. Despite its rather obtuse name and the fact that I missed out on the original, Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando is genuinely humorous. The fine folks at Insomniac Games managed to reinvigorate the nature of platformer stories and spin a satirical, witty and engaging story on par with top notch television comedies. I'm not especially surprised at the fact that Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando is actually funny as I am that they went all out on integrating the humor. The cut-scenes of course are the comedic highlight, featuring send-ups of contemporary media such as the 'Behind the Hero' series of vignettes running through the game, portraying the life of a fallen superhero who fell from grace in the first Ratchet & Clank installment. It would be a crime not to mention the amusing, but slightly tacked on satirical commercials that are witty, without being 'In Living Color' over the top and feature lines such as "So, the next time your toaster doesn't explode in your face, be sure to think of MegaCorp!". Yes, making light of crass commercialism can be amusing sometimes! Many a game should be learning from Ratchet & Clank's stern hand in balancing jokes.
 |
| What else is there to say about a robot and it's robot army? |
I could go on about the attention to detail, the smirky slogans that scroll by when you're buying weapons, character animation, even environment layouts and level design (imagine a Godzilla scale duke-out, but on The Little Prince scale), as well as the fantastically polished non-humor parts of the game but the point is I slapped my knee at times while playing. It is that amusing and engrossing, not only to play but also to watch. Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando may not herald in a new era of finely scripted comedic oriented games, but it was definitely a worthwhile 15 or so hours (more even now that I picked it up again to give it a second go).
