Fourteen years ago, the climax of the first Ratchet and Clank hinged on a betrayal: superhero blowhard Captain Qwark (think The Tick in space) turning on Ratchet. Now, in the 2016 installment, that twist becomes a framing device as Qwark, from a prison cell, narrates the story to his fellow inmates. It's a canny way to explain away any narrative differences between the original Ratchet and Clank and this one--but also a winking move toward self-awareness. "We know, we know, you've probably heard this before…. This newest title in the series about the space adventures of a gun-toting fox-cat-dude and his no-nonsense robot has plenty to recommend it.

Not long ago, almost every blockbuster film release was accompanied by a tie-in video game. Just look back to the noughties superhero films; from Batman Begins to Iron Man 2, each one had a playable port, and most of them were awful. Nowadays, it's done less and less, with few straight film-to-game adaptations being made, yet more game-to-films (such as Warcraft) hitting cinemas. Thankfully, Insomniac has gone the completely bonkers route and made a game based on a film based on a game. Ratchet and Clank is thus a reimagining of the original tale, giving us a new-but-so-not-new story of how a Lombax and a defected robot became friends and saved the universe from Chairman Drek.