Ratchet & Clank

Insomniac's Ratchet & Clank pairs a hot-headed alien mechanic with a small, anxious robot, and uses that buddy dynamic to power some of the most inventive third-person shooters PlayStation has produced. The hook has always been the arsenal: wildly creative weapons that turn enemies into livestock or summon swarms of helpers, all wrapped in Pixar-bright animation.

The games run from the gritty PS2 originals through the more cinematic Future saga and on to Rift Apart, which used the PS5 to fold whole worlds into seconds. Spin-offs let Clank and side characters headline their own adventures, and a 2016 film retold the origin for cinemas. Across two decades the core promise never wavered: smart platforming, big guns and a sense of humor about all of it.

The Ratchet & Clank franchise spans 14 games, 1 films in the CrossBinge catalog.