“Greetings, cadet! I’m Captain Copernicus Qwark, galactic ranger extraordinaire,” says the game’s conceited superhero he has cucumbers placed over his eyes. “And that puny little fur ball is Ratchet, who is a lot more trouble than he looks: trust me.”
In contrast to Qwark’s boasting, of course, the gameplay in the trailer shows Ratchet doing most of the work as he blasts through waves of enemies, grinds on rails, and flies through the sky.
According to Insomniac’s James Stevenson, Qwark’s narration is the major difference between the game and the upcoming film.
“He gets all the big details right, but the little asides are all him,” Stevenson says in a post on the PlayStation Blog.
While I can’t speak to the quality of the film, I’ve had a chance to try out a demo for the “game based on the movie based on the game” a few times now, and it plays like an absolute dream, with remarkably short load times given the amount of action typically on screen. Its visual design and audio are also as good as anything I’ve ever seen from the studio, with bright, vibrant colors and a soundtrack that just makes you want to dance to the beat.
Ratchet & Clank — the game — releases exclusively for PlayStation 4 on April 12. The film is out April 29, which should give you plenty of time to play the game beforehand so you can see how the two compare. Insomniac also recently revealed the undersea Song of the Deep, which is scheduled to release this summer.