Heinz ketchup never changes its basic formula, and neither does the Ratchet and Clank series. Sony’s reliable comic space opera, featuring everyone’s favorite alien lombax and his deadpan robot sidekick, has had gamers jumping around and collecting bolts for a whopping seven years, dating all the way back to the earliest days of the PlayStation 2.

Since moving to the PlayStation 3, the series has felt a lot fresher, like an expertly produced Pixar flick, with vast and detailed environments and pop culture jokes flying as fast as the energy bolts from Ratchet’s laser pistol.

A Crack in Time picks up where the last couple of installations, Quest for Booty and Tools of Destruction, left off. Clank has been captured by a group of cutesy aliens who think he’s harboring the secret of the universe. While Clank visits something called the Great Clock and discovers the reason he was created, Ratchet and the cowardly Captain Qwark spend their sections of the game bopping around the galaxy, beating off the nefarious Dr. Nefarious and trying to track Clank down. (Lost? Don’t worry—you don’t have to rock the backstory to have fun here.)

The space travel sections of the game are a lot smoother than the last go-round, as it’s actually possible to navigate your spaceship and dodge enemy fire. If that gets dull, there are plenty of mini-planets in each galaxy where Ratchet can park his ship to tackle a mini-mission, Mario Galaxy-style.

Better still are the game’s new time-based puzzles featuring Clank. These are total head-benders, involving the use of a series of time-recording buttons that force you to create copies of Clank in order to solve elaborate puzzles. You may, for instance, record a Clank who walks over and pushes a button that raises a platform, while the second recorded Clank jumps on the same platform to access and flip another switch. Then Clank recording number three can use his chronostaff to slow down time and platform-jump his way to the opened door.

Yes, coordinating the actions of up to four Clank-clones at once can be overwhelming, but that only leads to a greater sense of satisfaction when you finally figure out the proper timing and unravel the puzzle.

It wouldn’t be an R&C game without a few new dopey weapons and gadgets — a couple this time around, like the buzzsaw Spiral of Death, are the result of fan suggestions — but you’ll have to wade pretty deep into the game to get to the best of them. It’s worth the effort: Those hoverboots totally rock.

Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time

SCEA/Insomniac

PlayStation 3

Rated: Teen

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