Hype can be a developer's best foot forward or their worst nightmare. Get a leg over the press bandwagon and you have all of the free publicity you can eat. However, come release time, when the hype hits fever pitch, you had better be pretty damn sure that your game is packing more entertainment than a hyperactive clown and is more addictive than M&Ms with a fondant centre if you want it to be labelled a classic rather than a disappointment. Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters has been blazing the Sony hype trail on the road to its release, but awkwardly, is neither a classic nor a disappointment - it's a highly accomplished and varied title, deserving of any PSP owners time in spite of its weaknesses.

For those who were too busy playing Grand Theft Auto during the PS2 era, Ratchet & Clank is a series of cartoony third person shooter/platform games featuring an arsenal that would make your average apocalypse-fearing gun nut go weak at the knees, and more gadgets than you can shake a de-atomising transfibulating shrink ray at. You play primarily as Ratchet, a wisecracking bipedal feline handy with exotic weaponry and with a habit of tumbling into action packed adventures involving space travel, evil geniuses and lots and lots of shooting.

All great heroes must have a lovable sidekick though, and Ratchet has Clank, a diminutive robot who rides on Ratchet's back most of the time and is evidently the brains behind the outfit. In Size Matters, the unlikely action duo are taking a well deserved holiday but have to cut their recuperation time short when they find themselves lured into a mysterious quest. Following the trail of a kidnapped girl named Luna, Ratchet and Clank rediscover a forgotten race of genius inventors known as the Technomites and uncover a plot more dangerous than they could have imagined - *dun dun daaaaaaaaan!*

The first thing that Size Matters does is grab your attention. After you get past the slightly sparse title screen and into the game, you are met with a visual feast that's as sharp and detailed as anything that has graced Sony's handheld thus far. The crisp, smoothly flowing visuals that have become a trademark for the series really come into their own in Size Matters, with the PSP's screen framing the slick animations and bright confident colours beautifully.

The second thing you will notice about the game is that it is a blaster first and a platformer second. Much less emphasis is placed on navigating obstacles than in previous iterations and although the game does often take its action beyond a ground level plain, traversing the terrain is more one dimensional, with a series of lifts and zip lines placed strategically to ferry you around the level. It seems that this design decision has been made in large part due to the absence of a second analogue stick and hence an active free look control.

It is the combat takes centre stage then in Size Matters, and as you whiz around the various planets delving ever deeper into the hokum but nevertheless enjoyable plot, you will do battle with swathes of evil robot and alien henchmen. Of course, an abundance of enemies requires a broad selection of firepower to match - and Size Matters isn't stingy in this department. There is a veritable armoury on offer, including electronic beehives and acid bombs, alongside more traditional offerings such as the concussion gun (shotgun) and the scorcher (flamethrower). Much like its home console predecessors, Size Matters retains the weapons upgrades and armour collecting aspects of the series, which can be found and bought respectively. Clank gets in on the action too from time to time in the main sections of the game, but with a focus squarely on adventuring, involving the use of a collection of mini-robots called Gadgebots who he can order around to complete tasks and attack enemies.

So there is adventuring and blasting but what else is there? Well, quite a lot actually! Size Matters is filled to the brim with variation, although sometimes at the expense of a cohesive experience. There are skyboard (hoverboard) racing mini-games that Ratchet can take part in, which at times are mandatory in order to progress and at others are merely a means of winning new weapons, gadgets and armour pieces to add to your collection. There are also sections where Ratchet can shrink himself (size matters after all) and then pick an electronic lock by grinding on the wires inside. Clank soaks up even more mini-game time by taking part in a robot wars style destruction derby event, taking to the skies to do interstellar battle as a giant flying version of himself and even shepherding Gadgebots to safety in a 2D Lemmings style section!

Variety has been crammed into every available space, but although time has clearly been spent on trying to make the mini-games fun to play, they suffer from a jarring lack of polish in comparison to the main levels. The racing sections are particularly weak, with vague, unresponsive controls and collision detection that at times feels unfair and random. The inclusion of such a wealth of mini games seems to have had an effect on the main levels too, which are disappointingly small at times (although there are loads of them) and are challenging thanks to the unforgivingly difficult enemies that populate them, often requiring you to repeat sections several times.

Then there are the weapons. The availability of so much to collect is indeed welcome, but some of the weapons are a tad superfluous a lot of the time and more often than not you will find yourself sticking to using either Ratchet's melee attack or his Lacerater pistol, which is essentially your typical blaster. There are aiming and camera issues too. The strafing controls have been mapped to the d-pad and the camera to the shoulder buttons, which is awkward to switch to mid-fight and often sees you scrambling to bring your enemies into the line of fire. If Size Matters is testament to anything in terms of the PSP's control layout, it's that a solid auto aim function is an absolute must for any third person shooter, the lack of which is sorely felt in this title (even after the lock on upgrade has been bought).

In spite of a couple of flaws, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters still manages to be a very enjoyable experience. The imagination present in the levels is striking and the game is crammed with charming details, from the likeable characters and the exceptionally pretty cut scenes that bookend the gameplay to the satisfying swing of Ratchet's ratchet and the atmospheric music. Add to that a decent infrastructure multiplayer mode and it is easy to forgive Size Matters its shortcomings. Crucially, you always feel encouraged to progress by the astute execution of all of the components that do work and, despite the feeling that so much variation throughout is unnecessary, Size Matters does entertain and is certainly one of the best 3D action adventure titles available for the PSP.

Reviewed by Fraser MacInnes for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).