Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal

Ratchet and Clank on a planet's surface. Visible are the weapon and bolt information, and a Gadgetron vendor. The player is currently equipped with a shield barrier, and wearing the Infernox armor.

Despite straying further from a classic platform game, Up Your Arsenal still offers some of the basic features of a platform game but with a strong mix of action and shooting; PGNx Media has dubbed it a "combat-platformer".[8] It offers melee and long range combat and boasts a large, varied arsenal as one of its primary features as it has been in previous games.

As the player progresses through the game new weapons and upgrades can be obtained. As well as the 20 weapons available to the player, each weapon (apart from the RY3NO) has 8 levels of strength,[9] which differs from the previous game's 4 levels of strength. 5 upgrades are available after a weapon's purchase, and then 3 after that once the game has been completed, the player starts "Challenge Mode", and purchases the weapon's upgrade. Alongside the weapons, which are primarily used in combat, there are 10 gadgets that can be collected for use in other situations.

For most of the game the player will be in control of Ratchet, but in some areas the player takes control of Clank,[10] Ratchet's ally. Clank can give commands to smaller robots called Gadgebots to perform tasks with the use of a command menu to solve puzzles and attack enemies.[11] Clank also features in "Giant Clank" scenarios where Clank transforms into a larger and more advanced form and can battle similar size enemies;[12] in this form he gains increased firepower with rockets and bombs and a large amount of health. During the single-player game, the player can also play as Captain Qwark in 2D side-scrolling levels (called "Vid Comics"),[13] which builds upon the history of Captain Qwark and his previous conflicts with Dr. Nefarious.

The game offers a large range of enemies[8] and different stages.[14] It also features online multiplayer modes, such as Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, and Siege (in which the player storms the opponent's base and tries to destroy the power core inside).[15] It supports up to eight players at a time and supports voice chat through a PS2-compatible headset. Internet connection is needed if playing online against other players.[16]

Up Your Arsenal was the main focus of the Insomniac Team during development.[31] The team of around 115 people were aiming to create a new Ratchet and Clank game that would differ significantly from its predecessors and almost end up being two games in one.[31] Insomniac believed that one of the key processes in the development process was the rigorous testing. Working closely with Sony and listening to fans of the Ratchet and Clank series, they gathered feedback and made improvements to the game. They felt that they had created a game that would appeal to a number of genres with the inclusion of elements of platform, action and side-scrolling gameplay.[31]

At the same time, Jak 3 was being developed by Naughty Dog, a company closely tied with Insomniac. Naughty Dog's Jak & Daxter series and the Ratchet & Clank series are in similar genres; each game in both series' has been released at a similar time and both contain references to each other. Ryan Schneider, an employee of Insomniac, said, "The analogy that I like to use is that at Insomniac we like to look at it as how Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant act when it comes to their professions. We don't really look at it as how we compare to other athletes or other games, we just try to do the best that we can and elevate the sport."[31]

Before its release, IGN was highly anticipating the final version of the game as they had played two previous versions of the game already.[34] Concentrating on the multiplayer aspect of the game, they praised the developers for moving a solely platform game into the multiplayer genre so well. Up Your Arsenal was featured at the E3 games festival in 2004, where there was a playable demo. Only the multiplayer Siege mode and a single-player demo were available but they were enough to get 1UP.com's award for best action game at E3.[36]

Soon after its release, Up Your Arsenal received critical acclaim. GameSpy awarded it 5 stars out of 5,[12] and IGN said that "You MUST buy this immediately" due to its extensive line-up of weaponry, high quality graphics and polished sound effects.[37] IGN did, however, believe it was easier than the previous game, Going Commando, while GameSpot thought that the gameplay was too similar to the previous title, but both reviewers considered these as minor issues and they made little difference to the overall score. Gaming magazines GamesTM and Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine both mentioned that the offbeat comedy that was apparent throughout the majority of the game was one of the points that made it unique.[35][38] X-Play said "A mixture of excellent gameplay tweaks and new activities make the third one easily the strongest game in the series and one of the best games of this year" and giving it a full five star rating.[39] According to Metacritic's collection of reviews, 12 separate reviewers gave the game the highest possible score.[7] In 2006, Edge Magazine featured a "Time Extend" article on Up your Arsenal and among other points, focused on the amount and variety of weapons available to the player.[40] It won GameSpot's 2004 "Best Platformer" award.[41] In August 2005 Up Your Arsenal entered the Greatest Hits line-up. Since its release, it has sold over 1,150,000 copies in the US alone.[42] As of June 30, 2007, the game sold more than 3.2 million copies worldwide.[43] IGN listed the game 18th on their list of "The Top 25 PS2 Games of All Time".[44]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal.

• Official website
• Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal at MobyGames