Very cool, very fun movement. Building and managing momentum feels akin to ye olde sonic games, but they massively up the complexity here. It's somewhat fiddly, but really rewarding to become proficient at. Though this is slightly dampened when you keep clipping through walls and occasionally the ground like me. Maybe I was just unlucky, but I found it pretty easy to get OOB on accident.
Presentation is A+, but I feel like it could have done with a bit more variety, even though the worlds all do differentiate themselves enough from another.
There's a bunch of very clever design in here if you look for it like the classic "teaching you game mechanics without textboxes" (though they do exist if you want them to).
And then there is some stuff I don't really like, like the pepper powerup needing to charge every time and some of the sidequests kinda breaking the flow.
As this new age of 3D platformers is in full swing, this is a nice addition with a - well not totally unique style (a bunch of the sonic inspired ones are just starting to get rolling [rascal]) - but a very creative twist on the momentum based fast platformer.

This game rocks.
I am a fan of this wave of retro platformers, but there is often a feeling that they are missing an aspect of the experience of the games they aspire to be like. Some tend to hyperfocus on one thing like exploration or platforming challenges, sandbox movesets or just looking cool. This game has it all.
Every area just feels so tightly designed. There's a purpose to every element, but they don't feel empty. The world is just really dense.
The main character is so fun to move around with. The headbutt walljump combo feels as satisfying to me as using cappy in SMOdyssey.
I have to say I'm more of a nearest neighbor kinda guy with low rez textures, but this game largely pulls the N64 style off amazingly and all of the character designs and animations are absolutely fantastic. I love Seve and Alexis.
And this is the hard part: it doesn't just have a great character to move around with and look at, this game has great level design. You use your powers in all kinds of ways and no challenge really feels like just a repeat. There's always evolution and fun creative ideas to keep it fresh. All while largely moving around these big world areas that give you a great sense of exploring every nook and cranny of the area you're in.
Idk man, if you enjoy Collect-a-thon platformers, this game should be on your list.

This high rating might be influenced by me mostly having played trash VNs recently, but I was really impressed by its quick pace. It goes through a fun concept and really doesn't waste any time with drama, which is nice for this kind of thing. Honestly the first thing ive liked in which Ryushiki07 has been involved with. However, character depth you usually get in VNs suffers from spending so little time on each plot point, plus the ending almost feels like a regular full size Key route ending which is a bit drawn out and melodramatic compared to the preceeding fun time. Not the most amazing thing I have ever played, but a really good time you can knock out in an evening and be satisfied with, and honestly, for what more can you ask.

This is where it starts going downhill. 2 had some up, some down, this game is just a tiny bit down from 2. It has all of the things that game has - often times just more of it. But there's a couple key differences. Weapon leveling is back with a vengeance, and in the way that it still works in games to this day! You have 5 levels for your weapons, each improving it in very minor ways, while the last upgrade is the equivalent to the R&C2 level up, transforming it into a generally better version of the weapon with fun new features. The issue is that - while in theory this should just give you more little boosts inbetween, it generally just makes the weapon leveling process a very long and tedious one - to the point that if you don't rush one weapon up immediately, it might already be useless by the time you get it to level 5. It still works well enough, the balance is just very easy to break in either direction which isn't helped by the mission design. This game introduces a lot more arena-esque sections where you do missions in the same area over and over for bolts and most importantly weapon exp. Depending on if you engage with these often optional missions, your weapons might just decimate enemies with no challenge or, if you didn't level efficiently or just skipped the optional and often times somewhat boring content, are unloading your entire ammo resource into one enemy (group). This game also makes the damage creep much worse. To the point that your level 5 starting weapon which was completely overpowered, but in exchange ate a lot of ammo quickly, barely scratches a basic grunt in mid-game.
Regular action stage design has also taken a hit. While 2 still had a healthy mix of combat and puzzles, and a teeny bit of platforming, 3's levels are mostly straight shooting galleries - which are often really fun and well designed, but also get tiring after a while. This game still has the great combat of 2 and an adequate arsenal of weapons, but it just wastes a lot of the potential here for "more of what people liked in the previous one". This philosophy seems to understandably dictate most decisions made in this franchise for the forseeable future, but also leads to losing the all-round greatness the 2nd and especially games had. Laser focusing more and more on linear combat tubes that slowly lose scenarios and level layouts that still make this game one of the better games out there.
There is a clear trajectory here and, for the future games, this franchise just continues moving along with little innovation to show for it.

So when you make a perfect game and make a sequel... well priorities have to change to keep it fresh. And that's what they do here. This starts the trend of slowly phasing out platforming and more interesting levels in favor of combat arenas. However, this increased focus on combat works like a charm in this game. Ratchet & Clank 2 adds strafing and just a general extra bit of nimbleness to Ratchet which vastly increases your combat efficiency. With all of the obvious weapons out of the way in the first game, this game mostly introduces more creative ones - which is kind of a hit or miss affair, but hits more often than not. This game also introduces Leveling both for your health bar and weapons. This means that over the course of the game, the enemies also scale accordingly. I never much cared for this system and it completely ruins the fun of some later games, but I enjoy it enough here. As weapons only have one extra level on a regular playthrough, the leveling is generally quickly done away with and you get to have the satisfaction of a cool (usually) improved weapon without needing to use it for 10% of the entire game. Leveling always introduces the problem that you can't just switch around at will because new weapons will be weaker for a bit, but likely stronger once theyre done than what you have, while even your top level starting weapon loses all power in midgame. This also persists in this game, but the sheer quality of the combat gameplay makes up for it. One thing that has taken a major hit is the planet structure. You have maybe 3 missions on a planet if you're lucky, but there are lots of 2-path planets or straight one-offs. Not a huge problem, but this shows the direction the series would take in the future.
This game also introduces increased bolt costs for your weapons. While the first game mostly had affordable weapons until lategame, here we start having ludicrous prices attached to weapons and armor (a new feature that I frequently forget exists). To counterbalance this, this game introduces sections explicitly made for grinding. This aids both your wallet and your weapon experience, as you'll be collecting crystals in the desert and snow while fighting enemies. This is pretty fun as you'll just be doing a lot of combat, but also gets kinda tiring after you've been doing it for a while or are looking for the last few crystals.
Oh uh and minigames. Those were also in the first one, but barely mattered. There's more here and some of them start sucking pretty bad.
Overall still one of my favorite games, but not as tight as the first one. A classic case of an inconsistent game with higher highs.

I consider this pretty close to a perfect game. Fun weapons with mostly full freedom in what you can use for what. The multi-route planets are an extension of Insomniac's Spyro level designs. You have a balance of quick combat and fun platforming in this game you rarely see in a videogame. As far as action platformers go, this is top of the line as it's pretty great at both sides of the coin. A lack of power creep over the game keeps it sponge-free and lets you complete the game with the starting weapon as part of your core arsenal. The weapon selection might not be as "quirky" as they get later, but really that's for the best. I do not want Mr. Zurkon anywhere near me. Ever. It's also the only game in the series I find is actually difficult in any way other than enemies just outsponging you.

Oh and it's also the only game in the series that manages to have Ratchet and Clank be characters. Or have any compelling characters at all (except maybe Angela???).