Video Game / Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters

Small enemies. Big trouble.

Clank: This does not seem right. It has been too easy.
Ratchet: Easy?! How's about I ride on your back while you do all the fighting?
Clank: I mean if the Technomites want to stay hidden, they are making it awfully easy for us to find them.

The fifth-developed game in the Ratchet & Clank series and first on the PSP, later ported to the PlayStation 2, and (technically) the fifth game in the mainline series. It is the first of the two PSP games in the series developed by High Impact Games.

Ratchet and Clank are trying to enjoy some well-deserved time off, only to get wrapped up in another adventure after a little girl named Luna - who claims to have been doing a school report on the duo - gets kidnapped by robots. From there a number of events begin to unfold involving a shrinking device, cloning, and a conspiracy involving a mysterious race known as the Technomites and their leader Otto Destruct, all while Captain Qwark tries to find his long-lost parents.

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Looks like Otto overlooked one thing—we're not half as good without these tropes:

• Acid-Trip Dimension: Dreamtime. Let's see, you have Flying Needles and Captain Qwark masked as a doctor and throwing chainsaws at you as enemies, chunks of Pokitaru, Veldin, Endako, specifically Megapolis, and some other locations, there are bolt crates that are one fourth of their usual size, mirrors from which enemies fly (and if you shatter it, instead of one enemy flying from the mirror there will be an enemy flying from each shard), eyeballs with a literal red glare that will kill you if you're shot, Sprout-O-Matic plants having the head of Qwark that transform into swingshot targets once swung off, and finally the boss fight against Giant Clank whose attacks generate waves of butterflies that still damage you. The background isn't less trippy either, with a green void full of floating 2D sprites of previous Big Bads and some other characters.
• Afraid of Needles: Flying Needles serve as enemies in Dreamtime.
• Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Ratchet, as he wears his outfit from the first game. He can use shoes later in the game.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: Well, not really a battle, but near the end of Dreamtime, Ratchet is put into a boss battle against a dream version of Giant Clank.
• Call-Back: Otto's monologue before the final boss fight is very similar to Drek's monologue at the end of the first Ratchet and Clank.
• Continuity Nod: Several in Ratchet's dreamscape, like Clank's apartment in Bogon and larger form. Then there's this exchange, which mirrors a conversation from the original game.
  Ratchet: There she is! Let's get her!
  Clank: Ratchet, do you notice anything... unusual about Luna?
  Ratchet: Well, she does seem to have an unusually large door coming out of the back of her head.
  Clank: And why do you think that is?
  Ratchet: She's... uh... a robot?
• Clone Army: Otto extracts Ratchet's DNA to create an army of miniaturized clones after his defeat they're sold as living action figures.
• Converse with the Unconscious: Clank does this to a comatose Ratchet midway through the game. Ratchet was able to hear him, which allowed him to wake up.
• Cute Is Evil: Luna.
• Daddy's Little Villain: Luna may count as being Otto's "child". After all, he created it for his evil intentions.
• Deadly Doctor: Ratchet dreams of Qwark clones as chain sword throwing doctors while in Dreamtime.
• Deep Sleep: Luna's mooks force Ratchet into a coma after they capture him. It's at this point where he "visits" Dreamtime.
• Deliberately Distressed Damsel: Luna spends the first 1/3 of the game imprisoned in Kalidon, guarded by Mungo. The heroes defeat the monster, but find out that "she" faked her own kidnapping just so it and it's "friends" can kidnap them!
• Disney Villain Death: Luna, following its defeat. Unlike most examples, we see it hit the ground, HARD.
• Dream Land: Ratchet ends up in a nightmarish version following his capture by Luna.
• Enfant Terrible: It's not everyday that you get to fight an evil robot built to resemble an innocent young girl....
• Evil Genius: Otto Destruct. His goal is to become the most intelligent being in the galaxy by extracting intelligence from others.
• Expy: Otto and Luna can be viewed as evil counterparts of Geppetto and Pinocchio. Both Otto and Geppetto are inventors, while Luna and Pinocchio are puppets very valued by their creators and even strongly loyal to them.
• The Fake Cutie: Luna. It was built to resemble a little girl to lure Ratchet into a trap.
• Faked Kidnapping: Luna during the first third of the game.
• "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: Ratchet goes inside Clank to reboot him after he is attacked by Technomites.
• Flat-Earth Atheist: Ratchet's skepticism of the existence of Technomites, dismissing them as just an old fairy tale. Naturally, he gets proven wrong.
• Game-Breaking Bug: On your second or third playthrough (PSP version), the Omniwrench all of a sudden stops damaging 90% of your enemies. This will never go away, on every subsequent playthrough. The PS2 version is not affected.
• Incredible Shrinking Man: Shrink rays are used frequently by just about everyone in the game.
• Make My Monster Grow: The Game
• Merchandising the Monster: Otto Destruct, the emperor of the Technomites, creates an army of evil Ratchet clones as part of his plan to absorb the intelligence of everyone in the galaxy and become the smartest being in the galaxy. After his defeat, the Ratchet clones end up getting sold as toys.
• New Game Plus: Completing the game unlocks "Challenge Mode" which allows you to play the game again with all weapons obtained. To obtain everything in the game, you have to go through the game three times, as the Hyperborean and Chameleon armor pieces only appear in the first and second Challenge Mode playthroughs, respectively.
• Permanently Missable Content: The "Friends Don't Hurt Friends" skill point is lost until a New Game Plus if you took damage during the Giant Clank "fight" and beat the "battle", as it doesn't reappear after you win.
• Pun-Based Title: The subtitle, aside from being another Double Entendre, is also a nod to the game originally being a PSP exclusive, whose UMDs were smaller than the standard PS2 discs. It was later ported to the PS2 anyway, so the pun somewhat gets lost in the process (besides playing into its plot).
• Rainbow Pimp Gear: While you can get and wear all the pieces of armor in a set like a normal person, several secret armor combos can be created by mixing and matching the pieces you find, creating this effect.
• Series Continuity Error: Qwark's mother is alive in Up Your Arsenal. Also, the 10% employee discount from the third game is inexplicably gone, even if you have a memory card with the hologuise gadget from the first game. Notably, this is the only game in the series to contain this error as the other games following the third all use different vendors apart from Gadgetron. Ratchet: Deadlocked had Vox Industries vendors, Secret Agent Clank has Agency vendors, and the Future series uses Grummel Net vendors.
• Set Bonus: Getting and wearing all the armor pieces of a set gives you extra protection and a bonus effect for your wrench. However, certain combinations of pieces from different armor sets can give you bonus effects and defense too (and in fact, while you can get 96% damage reduction (the best in the game) through the Chameleon armor set, you can also combine the Wildfire helmet and Sludge Mk. 9 gloves with the Chameleon chestpiece and boots to get the same defense stat with a different wrench effect).
• Space Battle: Clank goes through two of these throughout the game.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Ratchet. His personality in this game is similar to the one in the first game, especially during the first 1/3 of the game.
• Tranquil Fury: Soon after he wakes up from his Dreamtime nightmare to find himself in a medical outpost, Ratchet puts two and two together and figures out that he was experimented on while he was unconscious. While he seems calm, his lowered voice, narrowed brow, and quiet declaration that he's "just getting started" after bashing one of the robot doctors responsible with his wrench all show that under the surface, he is simmering with anger— anger that he takes out on every one of Luna's goons in the facility. It happens again when he learns that it was done to extract his DNA not long after, throwing the beaker containing it into the outpost's reactor in another fit of rage and causing it to have an explosive meltdown.
  Ratchet: Nobody messes with me like this.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Ratchet, as he wears his outfit from the first game. Subverted shortly into the game, as Ratchet can equip armor, including shirts.
• Would Hurt a Child: Subverted, as the child in question turns out to be fake.

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