Trivia / Ratchet & Clank

• A Crack in Time is perhaps the only game to feature two of Mario and Luigi's voice actors at once: Charles Martinet as Orvus and Marc Graue^note The plumbers in Hotel Mario... you did not expect that, did you? as Mr. Zurkon.
• Acting for Two: Jim Ward voices both Captain Qwark and Skrunch the monkey in Up Your Arsenal.
• Author Appeal: Insomniac has said that their favorite weapon from the first game was the Glove of Doom/Agents of Doom, which is likely why the weapon returned in UYA and R&C '16, the DJ Bunky/Dan Johnson skins have a stylized version of the AoD head on the shirt, and why moderators on the Insomniac Forums are "Ag3ntz of |)00m".
• Breakthrough Hit: While Insomniac Games was already well known due to their successful Spyro the Dragon games, Ratchet & Clank is what really put them over the top forever.
• B-Team Sequel:
  • Insomniac Games' only involvement with Ratchet & Clank: Going Mobile! (developed by Handheld Games) was a meeting and giving the game the green light.
  • Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters and Secret Agent Clank were outsourced to High Impact Games, which consists of several ex-Insomniac employees.
  • The endless-runner mobile game Ratchet & Clank: Before the Nexus was developed by Darkside Game Studios as a tie-in for Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus.
• Cash-Cow Franchise: The series is easily one of Insomniac Games' and Sony's most successful franchises, spawning games on every major Sony console since its debut on the PlayStation 2 and even a full theatrical movie.
• Cross-Dressing Voices:
  • Ratchet is voiced by Makoto Tsumura in Japan.
  • In English, Nika Futterman voices Vernon, a young boy from Deadlocked.
• Cross-Regional Voice Acting: Up until 2007, Clank's voice actor David Kaye is based in Vancouver.
• Executive Meddling: Ratchet was originally going to be brown, but a representative from Sony Japan told Ted Price that they didn't think his look worked, and suggested he be yellow and have stripes on his ears. Ted was aggravated about it at first, but realized the look worked better when somebody did the suggested redesign anyway.
• Flip-Flop of God: In 2014, Insomniac Games stated on their forums that Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters and Secret Agent Clank were non-canon, in response to queries regarding Into the Nexus not referencing them in a history museum level. In 2017, however, they stated on their Twitter that the two games were actually canon (but with the events of the Secret Agent Clank game being a Show Within a Show), with Insomniac community director James Stevenson reiterating that this would remain true until a future game or continuation would directly contradict it.
• Franchise Zombie: Director Brian Allgeier admits Insomniac wanted A Crack in Time to be the end of the series. But high sales made Sony pressure for more games.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • Both of the Ratchet & Clank mobile games, Going Mobile and Before the Nexus, are unable to be obtained legitimately nowadays due to the former only being released on old cellular phones and the latter being delisted from the iOS and Android app stores. The only way you can play either of them these days is through emulation.
  • The manga series has been out of print for years and has not been made available officially on any online services. The last official release was as a bonus item in a Japan-only collector's edition for Ratchet & Clank PS4 which has similarly become hard to find.
  • The Adventures of Captain Starshield webcomic that was hosted on the Insomniac website was taken down after the site went through a restructuring and was never put back up. It was, however, included in the Art of Ratchet & Clank book released in 2018 and the Ratchet & Clank Wiki was given permission to upload the comic in full so it can still be viewed, albeit not in its original format.
  • The 2010 comic miniseries has been out of print for years, and physical copies of the individual issues and especially the trade paperback are slowly but surely escalating in price. The digital versions are still available, but only on a handful of digital storefronts.
• No Export for You: The two-volume manga series Ratchet & Clank: Bang Bang Bang! Critical Danger of the Galaxy Legend has never been officially released outside of Japan.
• Official Fan-Submitted Content:
  • A Crack in Time's Spiral of Doom was the winner of the "My Blaster Runs Hot" fanmade weapon contest.
  • Each of the four playable characters in All 4 One has a skin designed by fans:
    • Ratchet's is the Skeleton outfit, based on a proposed "Heck Fire" skin.
    • Clank turns into Fish Bowl Clank, complete with water and fish.
    • Captain Qwark dons a suit of knight armor.
    • Dr. Nefarious becomes the lava-lamp headed Groovy Nefarious.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Ratchet was voiced by Mike Kelley in the first game, but was replaced by James Arnold Taylor for Going Commando onwards (though Kelley's voice was used for some of Ratchet's battle grunts up until Quest for Booty and the HD remasters).
  • The Plumber was originally voiced by Neil Flynn, but was replaced by Jess Harnell after the transfer to PS3. Flynn did return for Secret Agent Clank, however, but only because it was in an alternate continuity.
  • Talwyn went from Tara Strong in the Future games to Ali Hillis in Into the Nexus.
  • The film has Kevin Michael Richardson replaced with Paul Giamatti as the voice of Chairman Drek.
  • Starting with Rift Apart, Captain Qwark is now voiced by Scott Whyte following Jim Ward's retirement for health reasons.
• The Pete Best: Mikey Kelly played Ratchet in the original game, but James Arnold Taylor has played the role since Going Commando, becoming much more well-known as the voice of Ratchet in the process.
• Playing Against Type:
  • David Kaye as Clank.
  • Nolan North as Sigmund, who isn't a confident action hero, but a nervous, nerdy robot.
• Urban Legend of Zelda:
  • Every so often, a troll will show up on Ratchet fan forums claiming to have found an Insomniac Museum in a game that doesn't have one. Typically, you would need to do a nearly or outright impossible task to 'find' it, like making it to the end of the bridge that gets blown up in Metropolis in Tools of Destruction. Such claims have died out after A Crack in Time had its museum accessible just for beating Vorselon (or even as a pre-order bonus).
  • In recent years there have been claims that the cancelled Clone Home - the intended sequel to Going Mobile! - did receive a release in select regions before being quickly taken down, however there has been no confirmation of this and those who claim to have had the game have not provided any proof of such.
• What Could Have Been: Has its own page.

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