For the last five and a half years, Ratchet and Clank have entertained PlayStation audiences worldwide with their bolt-collecting, galaxy-saving antics. To date, all of the games in the series have put Ratchet in the limelight, with robot buddy Clank acting as his backpack and purveyor of common sense. The second PSP title in the series, Secret Agent Clank seeks to defy series convention by making Clank the hero – not unlike Ready At Dawn's Daxter did for the Jak & Daxter series.

The reason Clank is the lead protagonist of this adventure is largely due to his witnessing Ratchet attempting to steal the universe's largest pristine gemstone. The Lombax is caught before he can escape with the stone, and is promptly incarcerated. Clank, knowing his long time partner would never knowingly commit such an evil deed, sets out to prove Ratchet's innocence and find the real culprit. The adventure that follows is a combination of the outlandish plot/villains and gadgets of a James Bond film, the kung-fu stylings of The Matrix, and a heavy dose of platforming.

Like Size Matters before it, Secret Agent Clank squeezes a lot of power out of the PSP, and is one of the system's more visually impressive titles. Clank's model is one of the highlights, with the little robot looking rather classy in his spy tux. Some of the game's enemies look a little plain or lack some of the detail you'd expect to see. The game's environments are quite large, varied and detailed, though the camera is zoomed in a little too close to the action for players to fully appreciate the developer's efforts. Momentary slowdown does manage to disrupt the sequence of events on a number of occasions, but shouldn't bother the majority of players. Sound is a little weak; the usual cast do a serviceable job providing voice-overs, but the music is forgettable. Effects are mostly recycled from the earlier games featured on the PlayStation 2.


Secret Agent Clank takes on a pretty typical action/platforming gameplay role. Despite what the title of the game would suggest, there is very little in the way of stealthy gameplay – in fact, Clank plays a lot like Ratchet would in a regular entry of the series, rather than his smaller, weaker, normal self. That's a good thing too, as Clank's segments in the main Ratchet & Clank games have generally been pretty sterile. When stealth does rear its head, it's actually pretty clunky and devoid of fun – you'll mostly just need to make Clank pretend to be a tree or statue until the game's brainless enemies expose their back to you, providing you with the opportunity to do a QTE-based stealth takedown. This takedown doesn't always initialise when it's meant to, which can result in a brutal ass kicking from the game's many foes and a string of expletives from the player.

Once the proceedings start to get a little more action-packed, Secret Agent Clank becomes a much better game. The stealth portions of the game are only a small piece of the puzzle, the rest of the experience is much more in line with what you'd expect from a regular Ratchet & Clank game. Clank has a fairly large assortment of gadgets and weapons to assist in his quest. Many of the weapons are actually part of Clank's tuxedo – the bowtie acts as a razor-edged boomerang, the cufflinks are bombs, and the carnation summons a rather hungry flower-beast. Clank can also tear opponents to pieces with his martial arts abilities, dubbed Clank-Fu. New weapons, gadgets and upgrades can be purchased from vendors across the galaxy and found in each level.

Controlling Clank in these actions sequences can be a bit of an ordeal. The PSP's analogue nub never seems to be limber enough to assist in the speedy movements required by some segments of the game. Like Size Matters before it, Secret Agent Clank's camera is tricky to manage and too close to the action, impeding one's efforts on even the most straightforward of platforming challenges. The developer tries to address this issue in fighting sequences by making many of the weapons home in on your opponents, but simple movements such as strafing can be a real hassle.

Straight up action/platforming sequences in Secret Agent Clank are complimented by a number of mini-games and alternative sequences. In some sections of the game, Clank will be assisted by the Gadgetbots, who will help him to complete certain tasks and progress through to his objective. These sections are pretty heavily focused on puzzles, giving players a bit of a break from the action. Mini-games include a hi-octane snowboarding section, and some rhythmic sequences that will have you dodging lasers and sneaking through traps. One can tend to struggle with the controls on these sections; they're just not very accurate, and that is especially frustrating in the rhythm sections.

Other sections of the game have you playing as other characters from the series, namely Ratchet and Captain Qwark. Ratchet's sections are firmly entrenched in the arena style challenges you would normally come across in the other Ratchet & Clank games. The selection of weapons in these segments is rather robust, with old favourites and a couple of new ones available for use. To expand Ratchet's inventory, Clank has to find or purchase weapons and send them into the prison inside a cake. While these sections initially provide a nice change of pace from Clank's adventure, the later Ratchet challenges are unremarkable, due in large to unimaginative level designs and sheer repetition.


Captain Qwark's sections provide much of the game's humour. You play as the bumbling superhero while he describes his account of his greatest adventures to a robot biographer. In true Captain Qwark style, his recollection of events is rather sketchy, resulting in him over exaggerating his role. Levels become more difficult as Qwark's claims become more outlandish; one section has you protecting a dam from an army of cacti, another has you throwing explosive ninjas at a giant monster, but the funniest of all is the Qwark musical, where the hero has to plug a leak with his posterior.

The average player should accomplish the main part of Secret Agent Clank within 10 hours. Like all games in the series, there are a few extras to keep you playing longer – skill points, platinum bolts, extra arena levels and so on. There are even a few extra unlockables for those who have a Size Matters save on their memory stick, or for those who link Secret Agent Clank up with Tools of Destruction on the PS3. They're only a few extra costumes, but it's the thought that counts.

Secret Agent Clank has just about everything you could ask for in an action/adventure title, but it fails to stay fresh throughout the entire experience. Previous Ratchet & Clank games have featured pretty tight pacing in both story and action, but Secret Agent Clank falls off the wagon pretty early in the piece. Throw in an annoying camera, finicky controls and those utterly dull Ratchet sections, and you've got a couple of big stains on what would otherwise be a pretty damn fine game. Secret Agent Clank is still worth a look, but tread cautiously.