The Next Hope for Fun Four-Player Gaming is Ratchet & Clank

Are you, like me, still waiting for a great, modern four-player action game? I’m not talking about four-player shooters but more rummy golds of a platformer. A colorful game that anyone can play? There have been experiments: Some people loved four-player riff on Super Mario Bros. that Nintendo introduced in 2009’s New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I didn’t. It was too chaotic. The other players got in the way. Griefing each other was fun for a time, briefly. Some enjoyed the four-player of LittleBigPlanet, which preceded the Mario one and certainly was a marvel for player creativity. But those jumping controls… I preferred to play the game solo and not worry about players leaving each other behind. Next from the laboratory of four-player action gaming is Ratchet & Clank a series that has long mixed Mario-style platforming with a most ridiculous arsenal of guns. This October’s Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One allows up to four people try to go through a Ratchet game together. Is that a constructive addition to the series? A dollop of chaos? Or, hopefully, the perfect balance of both? At a Sony PlayStation showcase in New York City last rummy mars week, I shot rummy master a video of four people playing the new Ratchet, to see how it’s coming along. Take a look… (click the video up top!)