Some times you'll have to take part in a PaRappa style rhythm mini-game, no doubt to appease the Guitar Hero fans, with your ability to hit the right buttons at the right times spelling complete success for Clank, or a smack upside the head with a killer piano. Again, it works, at first, but by the time you get to the poker table, and have a marathon session of split second button mashing, you'll be thinking differently.

Maybe if the game had just stuck with Clank throughout, rather than switching between him, the unjustly imprisoned Ratchet, the buffoonish Captain Qwark and Ratchet's gadgetbot minions, the story wouldn't have bounced around so much, and the experience would have been more streamlined? Playing as Ratchet is fun, but every mission is held in the same round arena, with the same enemies and the same weapons. Oh sure, there may be some food tables to signify that this arena is the cafeteria, or some weight benches to say that it's the prison yard, but those are just cosmetic changes.

Each mission is simple: Ratchet has to survive wave after wave of opponents using nothing but the weapons that Clank has purchased for him, and occasionally an environmental assist. In the end though, it's just a matter of running in circles, using the best weapon you have, until you, or everything else is dead. Come to think of it, that's exactly what the Clank sections invariable degrade into, only unlike in previous R&C games, the weapons aren't as varied, or as fun to use.

I did like the fact that there weren't any hoverboard races this time around, as I am flat out awful at hoverboard racing, those levels having been replaced by vehicle sections where you're snowboarding down a mountain, or driving a hovercar. Whatever the transportation, you'll be ramming opponents into obstacles, jumping ramps, hovering over bombs, shooting missiles and dropping mines. Honestly, other than the change in locale, once you've done one vehicle section, you've done them all.

Rounding out the mission types are the Gadgetbot missions, where Clank's small robotic companions will traverse various puzzle environments to obtain their greater goal. They're a nice diversion but not nearly as fun or as challenging as the Lemmings inspired stages from Size Matters. You'll also play as Captain Qwark in an attempt to crystallize for his robotic biographer the events that make Qwark a legend in his own mind. These levels are the most varied and funniest of the missions, and finish up just about when you want them to, which make them a welcome respite from the repetitiveness of the rest of the game.

The story was interesting, but was impeded by a clunky mission structure. The basic gist of the game is that Ratchet has been imprisoned for stealing a huge gem, and it's up to Clank to track down the gem and figure out why Ratchet stole it. The problem is that you'll truck along as Clank, sneaking and Clank-Fuing, and then you're dumped to a mission selection screen where you then have to pick a Ratchet mission and play as Ratchet. Once done with that, you can play additional Ratchet mission, or go on to the main story via the same menu. I know, I know, it's not much different than how the arena missions and the hoverboard missions work in previous R&C games, but here's why it is different, and why it bothers me.