Maybe I'm just getting old, but it's hard to believe that this is the ninth Ratchet & Clank game to date.  I remember kicking around my house after work and firing up the first two games when they came out, thinking that 3D action platforming couldn't get any better than this.  Nine games later, Insomniac continues to prove me wrong.  A Crack in Time continues the story started in Tools of Destruction (and continued in Quest for Booty) featuring Dr. Nefarious and the mysterious Zoni.  Clank is on the other side of the universe acting as a guardian of The Great Clock.  Ratchet is fighting alongside a lombax General.  And the Ratchet & Clank universe?  The Ratchet & Clank universe soldiers on.

As usual, a variety of weapons tweaks and arsenal additions dot the landscape of this R&C offering.  Weapons like the Chimp-o-matic, which turns enemies into monkies (and robot enemies into toy monkies with cymbals) and the Sonic Eruptor, which features a Xenogote slug burping its mating call and knocking enemies back with it's gassy love song, make their way into your usual assortment.  The biggest change though, is adding customizability to the weapons we know and love.  You can pick up upgrades for your pistol, bombs and shotgun that will modify your types of shot, weapon color, and other tweaks that will change the way you tackle the baddies.  Thanks to my daughter joining me for marathon sessions, all of my weapons had to be pink.  That's right.  I'm a man's man.

A Crack in Time also sees the addition of hoverboots.  Like the name suggests, hoverboots are boots that keep you an inch or so above the ground, and they'll get you moving like you're the star of some crazy space roller disco.  Like all good things though, they're not merely there to move you around -- the serve a purpose.  there are stretches of levels that are designed exclusively for hoverboot navigation, and they're a blast to play.  Go fast enough and you'll think you're playing Ratchet & clank Extreme Pinball, as you bounce Ratchet from post to post in an effort to get to his goal.

But while the Ratchet & Clank series might be known for introducing new weapons and equipment, A Crack in Time takes a big leap forward and introduces some exceptional new gameplay to the mix. 

Clank and Ratchet spend their time at seperate ends of the universe.  And while Ratchet's hunt for his little buddy results in the usual ass-kicking carnage we've all come to know and love from the series, Clank's levels are a little more... delicate.  Clank is now the caretaker of The Great Clock, and while his duties occasionally involve hitting some space critters with a big stick, Clank's main duties are repairing damaged goods and exploring the environment through puzzle solving.  It's a stark contrast to the Ratchet violence we know and love, but that doesn't mean it isn't fantastic.

Clank's puzzle solving takes a few different forms, but the most common of these (and the highlight) is in creating ghost Clanks to do your bidding.  You'll stand on a circle, activate it, and then go through some motions.  The circle will record your actions and create a ghost Clank that can do the same.  Let's say you need someone to hold a button to keep a door open.  Stand on the circle, go and push the button, and save that move.  Then go back to the circles, activate the ghost Clank, and he'll hold the button while you go through the door!  It's easier than I'm making it sound.  Eventually you'll be solving puzzles that require multiple ghost Clanks.  Hands downs -- out of all the new things introduced in the latest Ratchet & Clank -- this is the best of the bunch.  If they released a standalone Clank & The Great Clock game I'd snap it up in a heartbeat.

Those of you who hated the space missions before will be glad to hear that, once again, they've been revamped.  This time they couldn't be easier to master.  Your ship only moves left and right, so you don't have to worry about the vertical axis while trying to shoot down ships.  Space is something the series has never been able to get quite right, and it feels like the changes this time around were meant as a "we get it, we can't do space -- let's make it simple instead."  That doesn't mean these levels are great by any stretch, but they're absolutely playable this time.

Space also serves as your meta-map.  You'll need to cruise from one planet to another on here, and you'll notice a lot of smaller planets that have nothing to do with the main game along the way.  You can land on every one of these in your attempt to find Zoni.  While not something everyone is going to seek out, these little planets offer some of the best platforming in the entire game.  Sure the production values on these pale in comparison to the main game, but I'll be damned if I wasn't having more fun on some of these levels than I was elsewhere.

One of the things that really surprised us were the visual tweaks.  We're so used to sequels that reuse the graphics engine of their predecessors this generation that we'd forgotten what a step up in graphics could look like. This time around, everything seems a little more cartoony.  They've developed some sort of a... not cel-shading.. Hrmm..  I really can't think of a word to describe it.  The visuals pop like a three dimensional cartoon come to life.  There's just something extra in there, some "oomph" that really knocked us off our feet.

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time offers up the same humor and solid gameplay we're all used to while introducing a good deal of new twists and turns to the experience.  For a series that offers up annual releases, that's really all you need.  By keeping elements of the gameplay like spaceship piloting and side-planet exploration optional, Insomniac has created a game that can be as quick or as deep as you want it to be.  Fans of the series are going to find this a solid addition to the collection, and first timers might be blown away by how good a cartoony 3D platformer can really feel.

8/10

PROS: New Clank gameplay adds a wonderful puzzling aspect to the series.  Everything you've always loved about the series is just as tight as you'd expect.

CONS: We've been here before.  If you're looking for a game that's exceptionally different from the 8 games that came before it, well... you get the picture.

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