Ratatouille

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One rat you'll enjoy in your home

Words: Shane Patterson, GamesRadar US

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If you haven’t noticed - it’s summer, a time where movie theatres get big-budget actionganzas and your console goes through a bit of a dry spell. Unless you want to start tapping that pile of games you swore you’d get to by now, you can always sniff around for the latest, potentially awful film tie-in starring emo spider-men, ambiguous pirates or… a French rat that cooks? Ratatouille - the latest Pixar anthropomorphic animal flick - bucks this trend and offers a solid platformer that doesn’t feel like Disney’s trying to rape your wallet.

Playing as bi-pedal rat, Remy, you’ll traverse sewers, markets and restaurant kitchens in order to help your family find grub, and assist a nerdy Frenchman in becoming a better chef. Each section of the game is broken up into missions that help your fellow rat get one step closer to fine cuisine such as finding a coin to distract a human, disabling rat traps or stealing a key to open a food locker.

While the pathways to your goals are linear, it never feels too distracting because you’ll often traverse much of the wide-open level in order to reach your destination. Need to shut off the gas main? Just sprint past the crabs, evade the cooks by hiding under tin cans, climb up the broom handle, swing on the hooks, grab the umbrella… and it goes on. The constant “A to B to C” missions do get repetitious, but there’s so much variety, it’s almost a platforming dream.