By Ned Jordan

Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty isn't your typical downloadable game.  Its production values are on par with the duo's last full-blown adventure, Tools of Destruction, and in fact the story picks up right where that game left off.  While playing the game, there's no real way to tell that you aren't playing a full-fledged Ratchet & Clank adventure other than there are fewer animated cutscenes and sequences than usual.  Although the game assumes that you are intimately familiar with the Ratchet & Clank franchise and its characters, there's nothing preventing someone new to series from jumping into Quest for Booty.  The game's intuitive gameplay and pop-up gameplay tips makes it easy for even Ratchet & Clank novices to enjoy the game, although the story may seem pretty confusing to those people.  That story finds Ratchet desperately searching for his friend Clank, who is still in the hands of the mysterious Zonis.  Stranded on a planet full of robotic pirates (including ghost robot pirates, how cool is that?), Ratchet searches for the key part for a super telescope of sorts that could point him in the direction of the Zonis.  Complicating his search are the pirates, led by familiar foes Rusty Pete and the severed head of Captain Slag.

The Ratchet & Clank series has always been a hybrid of the platform action and third person shooter genres, and it has been a combination that has worked quite well.  It's also been a series that has never stood still, adding new gameplay elements and features with each iteration.  Quest for Booty, takes the series back to basics, concentrating on the core elements of platforming, puzzle solving, and shooting, dispensing of everything else such as the mini games, arena battles, and space battles.  While all of these extras are certainly missed to some degree, Quest for Booty serves as a testament to how good the core gameplay is.  There series has been such a large success because its foundation is so solid.  The platforming is fun but never frustrating, the battles are enjoyable chaotic mayhem, and you get to use a nice mix of Ratchet's famous upgradeable weaponry.

Some may complain that the game is short, or that there aren't enough weapons, or some such thing, but they need to keep in mind that Quest for Booty is a downloadable PlayStation Network game.  Downloadable games never look this good, feature such polished and refined gameplay, or are ever this much fun.  Quest for Booty is a must have for Ratchet & Clank fans and is easily recommendable to everyone else.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 90%. Ratchet & Clank fans will be happy to answer this booty call...