User blog:TyrantRex/TyrantRex's Jak, Sly, & Ratchet Ranking List

As everyone knows, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon where the Platformer Mascots of the PlayStation and I loved both franchises as a kid, but then Naughty Dog and Insomniac lost the rights to those franchises after the PS1 ended and well... we know how that worked out (but at least Crash is back). So for the PlayStation 2, three new franchises are considered the "mascot platformers" of that console, Naughty Dog's Jak & Daxter, Insomniac's Ratchet & Clank, and Sucker Punch's Sly Cooper.

My main goal when I picked up a PS2 earlier this year was to check those three trilogies. Now that I did and beat all 9 games I decided to make a ranking list for all of them. '''THIS LIST IS 100% OPINION AND BASED ON WHICH ARE FAVORITES, NOT NECESSARILY WHICH ARE THE BEST.  Best game doesn't automatically mean favorite. '''

9th Place - Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus
Sly Cooper 1 is a pretty good game, the art style is quite unique, the characters are likeable, the voice acting is great, and it reminded me a lot of Crash Bandicoot. The levels are linear obstacle course style gauntles to get a key item (literally keys in this case) you can beat out of order, once all are beat all levels in a world you face a boss, optional time trials, clue bottles and vaults act much like crates and gems, and there are five worlds total. Sly's Stealth maneuvers make for some very interesting and cool level design which is helped by the dozens up new moves you get.

So why is it at the bottom of the list? Because it shares two tropes with Crash Bandicoot and did both worse: Limited Lives and One hit deaths. While not a deal breaker, Sly unfortunately is very easy to get hit, resulting in a lot of cheap deaths due to making the slightest mistake and unlike Crash extra hit points and extra lives aren't that common. Because of this Sly 1 ends up feeling as the most dated game in the three trilogies. It is also VERY short, like 5 hours.

8th Place - Ratchet &amp; Clank
As a kid I loved Spyro so I was upset that Insomniac lost the rights to that franchise. Then I played Ratchet & Clank, now I'm glad Insomniac moved on from Spyro. Cause seriously, Ratchet & Clank games are freaking amazing. The soundtracks, the humor, the badass weapons, they're shooter games I can actually play, good writing, lots of chaotic gameplay, etc.

HOWEVER Ratchet & Clank 1 clearly shows the formula was still very rough around the edges and needed more polish. No strafing? Weapon Select menu doesn't pause? Ratchet's control are kind of sluggish compared to the rest, the weapon list is a tad weak and aren't even upgradeable. Oh, and Ratchet is an unlikeable douchebag in the first game.

Still, the game is very good despite those issues and it's the only R&C game I 100% completed.

7th Place - Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves
Oh Sly 3... You know how many times the third part of a trilogy tries to do better than the second and ends up being weaker due to trying too much? Well, that's the case for Sly 3. Sly 3 follows the same formula as Sly 2 and at some points does it even better, I also like how the main trio get new abilities and introduces new characters, and some missions turn into Sly 1 style levels only with unlimited lives and a health bar. But in my opinion the best thing Sly 3 does is that most missions have you use different team members for different sections.

THE PROBLEM, is that it got carried away with the new playable characters, EIGHT player characters. Out of the five new characters, I only liked one of them, the other four either utterly suck or are forgettable. Two of those characters BARELY even get any missions so they feel pointless. But the big reason why so many characters is a flaw, is because the main trio end up getting a lot less missions than I'd like to. Sly 3 is also two chapters shorter than Sly 2 and I hated the ending cutscene, it was a huge cop out rushed way for Sly and Carmelita to become a couple.

6th Place - Jak II
I was very skeptical about Jak 2, I heard a lot of things about the game that raised many red flags and the game is very infamous for being extremely difficult and punishing. It also in a way symbolizes the beggining of the decline of 3D platformers. Still, I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and in fact it was the first Jak game I played. Being blunt, I expected to hate this game.

This here goes into more detail about why, but putting it simply Jak 2 completely proved me wrong, Jak 2 is an excellent game and has by far the best story out of the 9 games in this list. Some of my concerns did were correct though, Jak II can be really frustrating and unfair at times, but the upsides still far outmatch the downsides. And hey, given that it's not uncommon to see Jak 2 in a "Top X hardest PS2" games, beating it is something you can brag about right? ...right?

Nevertheless, I enjoyed Jak II and I'd even play it a second time.

5th Place - Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
I said the Ratchet & Clank formula was amazing but still needed more polish, and that's exactly what the Going Commando did, then Up Your Arsenal improved the gameplay flaws Going Commando had and -Seriously what's the deal with those innuendo titles?-

In my opinion, Up Your Arsenal is the best game in the PS2 Ratchet & Clank trilogy, best weapon selection, revisiting R&C 1 levels is cool, most balanced difficulty, and the Qwark levels are hillariously ridiculous in a good way. Then WHY is it lower in the list than Going Commando? Well... this game has the WORST hacking minigame in the entire franchise, the soundtrack was the most forgettable, levels only having 1 main mission was dissapointing, and while Doctor Nefarious is the best villain the plot felt a bit weaker.

4th Place - Jak 3
So Jak 2 was great but had some very frustrating flaws. When it came to Jak 3, I was told it fixes the main problems Jak 2 had so I jumped into it with very high hopes. And it ALMOST delivered on everything I expected, keyword being almost.

Aside from the plot, Jak 3 completely outshines Jak II in every way. See here why I think that. The only major problem I have with Jak 3 is the driving, seriously why did Naughty Dog have so much trouble with driving controls in the Jak games? And even then I still think the driving isn't as bad as in Jak 2 despite still sucking.

Other than the very bad driving controls I can't find anything to complain about Jak 3, it's just an excellent game.

3rd Place - Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando
When it comes to the Ratchet & Clank PS2 trilogy, Going Commando is the one I've played the most times. I think it's the funniest one, the weapons are badass, in fact some of my favorites in Up Your Arsenal came from this game, it improves EVERYTHING from the first game, it has by far the best soundtrack, the most memorable levels in the series, and I could keep going on and on.

A lot of people say this game is extremely hard, and they're right. In fact, I'd argue it's even harder than Jak 2, but the interesting thing is, it is hard yet fair. Unlike Jak 2's artificial difficulty, Going Commando doesn't irrate me when it kicks my arsenal constantly, and honestly this game is only hard in the first playthrough. Once you fully upgrade your weapons in New Game Plus mode they become so overpowered that the game becomes surprisingly easy.

Sadly it has awful flying levels but at least they're short lived.

2nd Place - Sly 2: Band of Thieves
Most people agree that Sly 2 is the best game in the franchise, me included. I'd almost have to cherry pick to find any flaws in this game. Like I said before Sly 2 was the one that established the Sly Cooper formula and did it the best. It has the best balance between the different playable characters, all of the characters are fun to use, best writting, significant improvement to the custcenes, Bentely and Murray get plenty of time for themselves but don't steal the spotlight from Sly the main protagonist, almost every mission is good, clue bottles are fun to hunt, the maps are open ended but not too big, etc.

Like seriously, the only downside I can find in Sly 2 is the turret sections, any other issue I could have with the game would be a minor nitpick. Actually, even calling the turrets bad could be considered a minor nitpick, but that's really the best I got in terms of flaws.

In my honest opinion, Sly 2 is a near perfect game and the best out of this entire list. So why is it second place?

1st Place - Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
I could explain in long detail why this is my choice for 1st place but I already wrote an overly long blog as to why this is arguably one of my favorite games of all time so I'll just link to it.

Now to be fair, I know that Jak 1 isn't perfect, for one thing the game is very short and very easy. In fact I think Jak 3 is better than Jak 1, but I still find Jak 1 to be my favorite for a very personal reason.

I've already beaten this game twice and I could easily see myself replaying it a few more times. If there's a game I want to see getting an HD remaster, it's Jak 1.