Tuesday 23 May 2006
When the titular stars of one of the PlayStation 2's most explosive character-action franchises go on vacation, you have to expect things to go haywire. It seems that mere minutes after our wrench-toting space cat and his robot buddy settle down on the beach, some mechanical meatheads in Hawaiian shirts turn up and kidnap a young girl. What's a dynamic duo to do but grab all their guns, grenades and gadgets and start shooting up the place?

Of course, this being PSP, you have to anticipate a few differences between this and the console games - however, there actually aren't many. The visuals are stunning for a PSP game (even in this very early stage of development), the shoulder button-activated strafe lock is still intact and Ratchet's weapons selection on the two levels we played contained both old and new gear.

Above: Even at this early stage, the game is looking very close to its PS2 cousins

Familiar tools like the battle axe-like wrench, the pistol-on-steroids Scorcher and the hook shot -which lets you swing around like Tarzan with a portable vine - are joined by fresh inventions. We've used a flamethrower and the Acid Bomber, which launches corrosive green globules that burst in the air above your target... and many more are promised.