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Ratchet and Clank is the first game in Naughty Dog's seminal PlayStation series — and its two main protagonists, the hyperactive Lombax Ratchet and the misunderstood robot Clank are, arguably, the closest thing the current and next generation has to the PSX's hugely popular mascot, Crash Bandicoot. So far, so good: The marketing men are happy &mash; they have characters who can make millions on dolls with movable limbs and rickety plastic lunchboxes. But what about the actual game — does it do as well as the "brand"?

In short: Yes, yes it does. It's a game in the well-worn tradition of childish platform titles — think Spyro the Dragon or Jak and Daxter — that, due to excellent design, imagination and execution, exceed in pleasing parents just as much as it will their offspring. Albeit with, perhaps, a sliver more embarrassment than the younger generations of the family when they pop the CD in the tray and start playing.

You begin your journey on the backwater planet of Veldin, where Ratchet lives, earning his crust as a grease-monkey mechanic. Until, that is, a spaceship crashes nearby that contains an escape pod which, in turn, contains Clank — a death-wielding robot turned introspective intellectual — and he stumbles upon a plot to ruin the galaxy by an evil corporate chief named Drek, who has visions of cherry-picking the best portions of the local planets to make his own version of paradise for the richest folk of the universe. Ratchet, meanwhile, is bent on catching and finishing off Captain Quark, his former hero — who is now working in league with Drek on the assurance that he'll be the spokesperson of the new world.

And so, you begin your journey, launching yourself into a multitude of vastly different planets in Ratchet's newly repaired rocket ship — using a part that only Clank, conveniently, can provide. As you begin to explore Veldin, you're able to listen to the helpful Gadgetron message system that guides you through the title's control system and gameplay. It's easy enough to get to grips with, though — X is jump, circle fires your weaponry (I'll get to that later), square is your Omniwrench. Steering and camera controls are on the sticks, and triangle brings up the helpful Quick Select menu that enables you to choose what weapon or gadget you need to wield. This is customisable through the pause menu and is a great feature — you're going to obtain more than eight items to use during the game, and being able to pick and choose the most useful ones saves a lot of time throughout the Ratchet and Clank journey through the myriad of playable planets.

Technically and graphically, Ratchet and Clank is nothing less than superb. It's easy to forget that it's a five-year-old game — I wouldn't have believed it until I looked it up for this review — because the cartoon-style visuals (which are fantastic, I should point out) would, like they do in other, similar games, make up for any shortcomings in the design. That's what I'd be saying if there were any shortcomings in the design. There aren't. The worlds are, at once, expansive and inviting, stretching into the horizon and rich with vivid detail. You're running around an area, and you brush against a plant, swinging your wrench into a bad guy. He bursts apart into a cloud of little pieces of mechanical mayhem, and more of them stalk toward you, hell-bent on your destruction. Remember that plant you, incidentally, glanced past as you waded into battle? It wobbled as you passed. That sort of detail, five years ago, wasn't always taken for granted like it is now. It's a great little touch that helps to convince you that you're in a real, living galaxy, which isn't always easy when you're too busy dealing with a herd of angry, yelping robotic dogs.

The game is full of those little, detailed touches — blinking, light-up computer panels on spaceships, nondescript items that you can, nevertheless, destroy (for bolts) with an idle flick of your Omniwrench. It's all graphically impeccable, and you won't find any glitches that you'd expect in a lesser title. You know what I mean, surely — you're wandering around a level in a more mediocre game, then gently collide with a wall that really shouldn't present you with a problem, and you're stuck there, juddering like a jackhammer as the sloppy engine gets confused. There's no way for you to escape, seemingly, the bad programming that has led to this situation. So you have to reboot the console, loose your progress and start again. Not in this game. Insomniac has worked hard to ensure that Ratchet and Clank is a polished, well-presented and stupidly fun piece of platforming adventure — and it shows.

The sound, also, is right up there with the graphics in terms of quality and polish. The voice acting is good — rare in games, I know — and this contributes to the several genuine laugh-out-loud moments of comedy throughout the many cut scenes. Every world — and they are numerous, each one different and presenting new challenges — has a themed soundtrack, crafted to help sculpt the rich atmosphere present in each environment you encounter. Each type of enemy, too, has its own voice and sound effects, as do your eclectic arsenal of weapons. There's also incidental sounds aplenty, ladling more of the galaxy into your grateful ears.

I'd better talk about the weapons and gadgets in Ratchet and Clank because, quite frankly, James Bond would be jealous. You start off pretty basic — your ever-present Omniwrench and a glove to toss bombs, imaginatively called the Bomb Glove — but you're soon wielding a huge variety of death-dealing instruments. There's a blaster, flame-thrower and several missile launchers which, admittedly, are all pretty standard, even though every single armament feels satisfying and heavy in your virtual, furry hands. Later on, however, it gets a bit more interesting. You're given a gun that turns your enemies into chickens and another that sucks them into the bulbous barrel and fires them back out as devastating bullets. A particularly useful gun throws small bombs that expel tiny little warrior robots that do your bidding. The gadgets are just as exciting — one that throws zip-lines to help you fling yourself around the level on specific targets is especially useful, as is the Trespasser, which enables you to get through locked doors by solving a laser-beam puzzle. There's also a PDA to buy ammo at any time (at an inflated price, naturally — Gadgetron are staunch capitalists) and helmets that let you breath underwater and activate small, reclusive mice that fly around in tiny hovercraft, shooting anything that moves — apart from you. Yes, you did read that correctly. Reclusive mice on a hovercraft.

Touches like this are absolutely crammed into Ratchet and Clank, and this helps to make Insomniac's masterpiece enormous fun. You're not going to get tired of it on the initial run-through — although, it'll take dedicated players to explore all the replayability that this game offers. You're able to collect a multitude of items throughout — skill points for completing certain tasks especially well, and Golden bolts (regular bolts are the galaxy's currency of choice) that help alter the game: unlocking skins and special items, gold weaponry and other factors that'll change the gameplay enough to, potentially, warrant a second or even third exploration of the many locations to collect up all the secrets that Ratchet and Clank has to offer. One-hundred percent completion is not easily achievable here: It takes a long, long time. But since it's a title primarily aimed at a younger audience (despite how enjoyable it can be for older players), they're the kind of people who'll have to time and ability to be able to see Ratchet and Clank through to the last name on the credits. The third time.

It's difficult to find fault with this game: The best I can do is say that you'll pick clichйd holes in the plotlines and the characters, but that's an issue that could be labelled at any of the titles in the Ratchet and Clank canon. And it's not something that the target audience of the game is going to notice. Instead, try to play it like they would: Rather than attacking it with a cynical frame of mind, just enjoy it. Enjoy the large, varied, pretty worlds populated by impeccably animated characters. Enjoy the funny moments and great soundtrack, enjoy the intriguing puzzles and crunchy, fresh, addictive combat and deadly weaponry. It's a game to put a smile on your face rather than tax your brain, as are the other games in the series. I'd recommend this without hesitation, especially with the PS3 version of Ratchet and Clank, Future: Tools of Destruction making excited waves of anticipation since it's unveiling at last year's GDC. The first game in the series is a perfect starting point, then, to see its particular Genesis moment — take a look at where it all began, and do it with a smile on your face.