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I’ll keep this straight, I’ve glanced at other guild apps so I feel I have a generous idea of how to go about this. I considered just posting an old piece I wrote, but it felt better to provide something more recent (but still sorta a rough draft since it could use some polishes here and there but other than that it’s basically 95% ready)
Here goes, hope you enjoy.
Ratchet & Clank: A Secret Love Letter to Super Mario 64
The 3D platformer genre had a fascinating evolution not just across the years, but also across competing systems. Especially in the 90s to late 2000s when the word “exclusive” had more weight to it. I would know, I was one of those jealous PlayStation owners who couldn’t get most Nintendo systems since they had no real presence in Kuwait. But we now live in an age where everything is more readily available, so it became quite easy for me to catch-up to the games I missed out on as a kid, including our very own star of this article, Super Mario 64.
Yeah, not only was it missing the “bros”, which is crazy enough on its own, but it was the first mainline 3D Mario. Although, I don’t think you’re here to learn about that as I’m sure this is likely your 50th time seeing an article about it, give or take. Rather, I’m sure your attention is fixated elsewhere, more towards the other star here, Ratchet & Clank.
Yes, while it is easy to think of Crash, Spyro or Jak (or even Ape Escape if you’re feeling quirky), I do find Ratchet to be the most interesting to dissect out of the earlier Sony platformer IPs. This is thanks to Insomniac being secretly huge Nintendo nerds, which feels funny to say in hindsight given how heated console wars used to be, to the point that when Crash Bandicoot’s first demo was first showcased, Naughty Dog were accused of fabricating the whole thing because the game seemed impossible to make at the time but in reality, Naughty Dog were just creative with PSX hardware.
But all the tiny little nods Insomniac makes towards Nintendo platformer are nothing to scoff at, Spyro already felt a far smoother Banjo Kazooie at times, and Ratchet & Clank only further cements that trend by focusing on the other big collectathon on the N64; Mario 64.
Now admittedly, I did lie a bit earlier because frankly, it’s tough to make the following point about SM64 without at least brief refresher so here goes. See, you may have mixed Mario and Banjo a few times in your memory. At least going by what traits people attribute to each game. From what I could gather, almost all the credit for defining the collectathon genre goes almost solely to Mario meanwhile Banjo is mostly remembered as just a really good game. Nothing wrong with that assessment, except for the fact it’s probably completely backwards.
See, if you go back and play SM64 and Banjo again, you’ll find all the usual stuff we associate with collectathons can be actually found in Banjo, things like giant scale interconnected worlds, a gargantuan number of collectibles and progression gates being locked by how many of said collectibles you have, with the aforementioned being a combination of rewards you obtain by doing tasks or by just walking around the world itself and gathering whatever you happen to stumble by. This is why I’ve made the connection between Spyro and Banjo. Meanwhile SM64 was almost entirely mission-based.
Now you did have the 100 coin star missions, but those needed to be done in a single run which only further cemented SM64’s heavy task-oriented nature. Something similar can be found in another secret love letter; Ape Escape, but that’s a topic for another time. How does R&C factor into all this? To answer that, we must highlight 64’s other defining trait; the controls.
Not only does R&C have a beat-for-beat the exact same control layout and scheme, save for a few differences since it’s also a shooter, but the mindset behind SM64’s crazy parkour can be seamlessly carried over into Ratchet & Clank, with the game constantly encouraging smooth movement complemented by beautiful cartoony character animation. Things obviously don’t end there, as we need to address what we highlighted as SM64’s structure’s other most defining trait and that is the mission based progression.
R&C does a surprisingly respectable job at emulating SM64’s somewhat specific formula. It’s usually seen as a little ambitious to ask the player to constantly perform unique tasks without the game borderline turning into a glorified minigame simulator, but Insomniac found an incredibly organic way to implement that system while ironing out many of its potential quirks and weaknesses.
While Ratchet & Clank opts for a stage based progression, you seldom finish those by just reaching the end. Instead there’s often a particular task you gotta complete in order to obtain an “infobot” that contains coordinates to your next planet. Sounds familiar? That’s because Mario 64’s story related items would also often be things like keys and what not. And similar to that game, each stage in R&C is a small hub area that loops back to itself once the stage is done.
Now to keep things leveled, obviously you shouldn’t take this as some kinda “Mario and Ratchet are the same game” kind of post as naturally, the two games still have stark differences. R&C is a third person shooter with a plot that satirizes consumerism and capitalism while simultaneously making butt-crack jokes, it couldn’t be more different even if it tried, but that contrast only strengthens the charm of these similarities, let’s not forget they were exclusive to competing hardware, it goes to show that underneath all the marketing jargon, game developers were mature enough to put all that aside and carry their inspirations with their heads held high. There’s definitely a lesson to be learned here about healthy competition and unique ideas.
How about you? Any two games on your mind that seem different, but are more similar than they might initially seem? Feel free to speak your mind.
Article end.
My other article idea was an ape escape recommendation post but it’s too incomplete and I’d rather not get stuck in a loop where I’m constantly restarting?. I had to control myself and actually get productive.
It’s also possible for me to write some stuff in Spanish but it would need more time.
Here goes, hope you enjoy.
Ratchet & Clank: A Secret Love Letter to Super Mario 64
The 3D platformer genre had a fascinating evolution not just across the years, but also across competing systems. Especially in the 90s to late 2000s when the word “exclusive” had more weight to it. I would know, I was one of those jealous PlayStation owners who couldn’t get most Nintendo systems since they had no real presence in Kuwait. But we now live in an age where everything is more readily available, so it became quite easy for me to catch-up to the games I missed out on as a kid, including our very own star of this article, Super Mario 64.
Yeah, not only was it missing the “bros”, which is crazy enough on its own, but it was the first mainline 3D Mario. Although, I don’t think you’re here to learn about that as I’m sure this is likely your 50th time seeing an article about it, give or take. Rather, I’m sure your attention is fixated elsewhere, more towards the other star here, Ratchet & Clank.
Yes, while it is easy to think of Crash, Spyro or Jak (or even Ape Escape if you’re feeling quirky), I do find Ratchet to be the most interesting to dissect out of the earlier Sony platformer IPs. This is thanks to Insomniac being secretly huge Nintendo nerds, which feels funny to say in hindsight given how heated console wars used to be, to the point that when Crash Bandicoot’s first demo was first showcased, Naughty Dog were accused of fabricating the whole thing because the game seemed impossible to make at the time but in reality, Naughty Dog were just creative with PSX hardware.
But all the tiny little nods Insomniac makes towards Nintendo platformer are nothing to scoff at, Spyro already felt a far smoother Banjo Kazooie at times, and Ratchet & Clank only further cements that trend by focusing on the other big collectathon on the N64; Mario 64.
Now admittedly, I did lie a bit earlier because frankly, it’s tough to make the following point about SM64 without at least brief refresher so here goes. See, you may have mixed Mario and Banjo a few times in your memory. At least going by what traits people attribute to each game. From what I could gather, almost all the credit for defining the collectathon genre goes almost solely to Mario meanwhile Banjo is mostly remembered as just a really good game. Nothing wrong with that assessment, except for the fact it’s probably completely backwards.
See, if you go back and play SM64 and Banjo again, you’ll find all the usual stuff we associate with collectathons can be actually found in Banjo, things like giant scale interconnected worlds, a gargantuan number of collectibles and progression gates being locked by how many of said collectibles you have, with the aforementioned being a combination of rewards you obtain by doing tasks or by just walking around the world itself and gathering whatever you happen to stumble by. This is why I’ve made the connection between Spyro and Banjo. Meanwhile SM64 was almost entirely mission-based.
Now you did have the 100 coin star missions, but those needed to be done in a single run which only further cemented SM64’s heavy task-oriented nature. Something similar can be found in another secret love letter; Ape Escape, but that’s a topic for another time. How does R&C factor into all this? To answer that, we must highlight 64’s other defining trait; the controls.
Not only does R&C have a beat-for-beat the exact same control layout and scheme, save for a few differences since it’s also a shooter, but the mindset behind SM64’s crazy parkour can be seamlessly carried over into Ratchet & Clank, with the game constantly encouraging smooth movement complemented by beautiful cartoony character animation. Things obviously don’t end there, as we need to address what we highlighted as SM64’s structure’s other most defining trait and that is the mission based progression.
R&C does a surprisingly respectable job at emulating SM64’s somewhat specific formula. It’s usually seen as a little ambitious to ask the player to constantly perform unique tasks without the game borderline turning into a glorified minigame simulator, but Insomniac found an incredibly organic way to implement that system while ironing out many of its potential quirks and weaknesses.
While Ratchet & Clank opts for a stage based progression, you seldom finish those by just reaching the end. Instead there’s often a particular task you gotta complete in order to obtain an “infobot” that contains coordinates to your next planet. Sounds familiar? That’s because Mario 64’s story related items would also often be things like keys and what not. And similar to that game, each stage in R&C is a small hub area that loops back to itself once the stage is done.
Now to keep things leveled, obviously you shouldn’t take this as some kinda “Mario and Ratchet are the same game” kind of post as naturally, the two games still have stark differences. R&C is a third person shooter with a plot that satirizes consumerism and capitalism while simultaneously making butt-crack jokes, it couldn’t be more different even if it tried, but that contrast only strengthens the charm of these similarities, let’s not forget they were exclusive to competing hardware, it goes to show that underneath all the marketing jargon, game developers were mature enough to put all that aside and carry their inspirations with their heads held high. There’s definitely a lesson to be learned here about healthy competition and unique ideas.
How about you? Any two games on your mind that seem different, but are more similar than they might initially seem? Feel free to speak your mind.
Article end.
My other article idea was an ape escape recommendation post but it’s too incomplete and I’d rather not get stuck in a loop where I’m constantly restarting?. I had to control myself and actually get productive.
It’s also possible for me to write some stuff in Spanish but it would need more time.
