Since Going Commando was released a mere year after the first game in the series, I had some trepidation about the game prior to playing it. Even though the guys at Insomniac were simply re-using the Naughty Dog game engine from the first title, a one-year hiatus between releases seems incredibly short.

While playing Ratchet & Clank, I found myself having a difficult time justifying to others why I thought it was a good way to spend my time. What's the point in playing platform games nowadays anyway?

Gene brings up an interesting question of perspective. But, in contrast to his thoughts, I was trying to justify to myself why I was playing Ratchet & Clank. I had passed up several opportunities to play the game's full version after being unimpressed with the demo handed out at E3. Specifically, I was totally apathetic to the by-the-numbers character design, and the idea of collecting "stuff" while dodging enemies, and jumping pits has lost some appeal over the years.