Insomniac's Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters

Even if you don't have a soft spot for Insomniac's Ratchet and Clank series like I do, chances are high that you'll enjoy Size Matters anyway. Developed specifically for the PSP by the newly-christened High Impact Games (former members of Insomniac themselves), this latest Lombax and robot adventure is outstanding fun. In fact, the Hollywood-based studio's rookie effort is one the system's best titles thus far.

A primary reason that Size Matters is so good is because it matches its console inspiration almost exactly. Though it wasn't developed by Insomniac directly, you probably couldn't guess it unless somebody told you. In short, High Impact has done a great job of emulating the famous Ratchet and Clank engine while successfully modifying it for handheld play.

That downsized success is probably Size Matters' biggest victory. It's not often that a developer can take a game that's been designed around two analog sticks (and eight action buttons) and move it to the PSP without noticeable problems. But the team behind Ratchet Portable has done it by designing an extremely smart camera that follows the action in an effective way. The POV isn't perfect mind you (your viewpoint can and will get stuck on certain structures when traveling in close quarters, or when you're surrounded by huge groups of enemies), but 90% of the time it works just as you'd want it to. Even when there are problems, however, users can always pull the Right and Left triggers to manually control the direction of the camera, or tap select to switch to first-person mode for fully rotational examinations.