Locomotive Games take the reigns for a PSP game based on the Pixar film and make an enjoyable yet sometimes frustrating 3D platformer.
| Developer | |
| Publisher | THQ |
| Franchise | Disney/Pixar |
| Genre | 3D Platformer |
| PSTV | Yes |
| PSN | EU/NA |
World-building & Story
Taking place after the events of the film, Ratatouille follows Remy the rat as he settles into running his new restaurant with Linguini and Colette. He develops a recipe book but this is stolen by Skinner (still bitter at being bested) who drops all of the recipes while fleeing – it’s up to Remy and his family to recover these to help the restaurant succeed.
The plot here is really nothing special – it’s background noise at best – but it’s nice to see a movie tie-in that bookends the story rather than simply re-telling the events of the film. It’s an idea that makes sense and provides a decent enough reason to reunite the characters, as well as to explore the beautiful version of France that Pixar created.
Characterisation is nothing special either – if you don’t know the cast from the film, you’re not going to find out anything new here. In fact there’s very little time devoted to exploring personalities (aside from Gusteau, who remains a bubbly delight in his role as the guiding force for Remy) – although if you are a fan it’s just nice to see these characters again.
World-building is the game’s strongest story aspect, showing the Parisian streets and shops from Remy’s perspective. This means you’ll be jumping along chests of drawers in Linguini’s flat; scuttling under obstacles in the sewers or avoiding flaming hobs in the kitchens of the restaurant. It all feels incredibly faithful to the source material and is brilliant fun to explore.
Presentation & Sound
Ratatouille doesn’t look amazing by any stretch of the imagination – employing basic textures; plenty of repeated objects and some clunky animations. With that said, there are moments it really catches the feel of the film and it manages to evoke a gorgeous nostalgic feel.
The character models are pretty good – Remy and the fellow rats look like I remember them and Remy’s animations are good, with him scuttling around or swinging his tail smoothly. Humans come off less well – Linguini and Collette look goofy (especially when seen up close) but Skinner is the best of the bunch. Enemies are a varied bunch, with wasps shooting hornets at you and chipmunks throwing acorns, with mostly convincing animations.
It’s the environments that are more hit and miss. When they’re good, you can expect to jump your way through brightly coloured cake stands and across concrete rooftops to the backdrop of the purple Parisian sky. Yet these moments are fleeting – you’re more likely to be running through dull grey sewers or household levels that feel like a mishmash of incoherent objects pushed together to make a platforming challenge.
Sound on the whole is solid – there is voice acting here but it’s fairly minimal, instead you’ll be treated to Remy’s grunts and cheers. The music is the saving grace – at times it’s orchestral and sweeping just like the films; at other times it reminded me of the playful electronic melodies of something like The Sims. Either way, its all catchy and enjoyable.
Soundtrack highlight – The City Market
Gameplay & Content
While it follows a fairly standard 3D platformer template in design, Ratatouille still provides a polished and enjoyable experience thanks to some good controls; smart level design and some unique missions. It doesn’t all work, but there’s plenty here to love.
Levels are selected from a central hub which is more LEGO than Spyro. You can run around and explore but there’s not much here aside from a few chests which need collectables to unlock, alongside a shop where you can trade cheese for ability upgrades (but of course, since you’re a rat!). It’s useful for getting to understand how Remy moves though – he can attack; swipe his tail; scuttle along the floor or swim in water, all of which you’re going to need in the main game.
Ratatouille‘s platforming challenges run the gambit from run-of-the-mill to fairly interesting, especially towards the end of the game. Remy is fairly easy to control and crucially can lock-on to certain ledges in order to home in on them – not dissimilar to Sly Cooper. While you’ll spend a lot of your time simply climbing non-descript boxes, when you’re tasked with weaving through electrified wires at the right moment or acrobatically swinging across a series of metal bars, the game gets more interesting.
The levels themselves present an interesting mix between being open and linear. In general, you’ll spawn in one area and have to overcome some obstacles to reach the next, but each is pretty open encouraging exploration (rewarding hidden collectables) and experimentation. There was more than one occasion where I reached a platform following a route I suspect wasn’t one the developers intended, but these moments that feel rewarding.
Best of all are some of the ‘gimmick’ levels that get slowly introduced. In one, you have to scuttle around the tables of a house while a dog yaps at you from below in order to find treats you can throw at him in order to briefly distract him so you can get to the next room. In another, you’ll be fleeing towards the camera Crash Bandicoot-style while Skinner is in hot pursuit, eventually doing laps of the area and seeing it increasingly busted-up from the chase.
It all comes together to sometimes make Ratatouille better than it has a right to be as a licensed cash-in – it is often a generic 3D platformer, but it uses the source material well to make some intriguing challenges. You’ll always feel like a rat out of his depth chasing recipes in everyday places, fighting insects and small mammals and using your wits to get by (it’s helped massively if you liked the source material of course).
Yet at the same time, you’ll often be reminded that this is just a fairly standard game in a genre that’s seen some remarkable titles, even just compared to other PSP games. After your umpteenth time swatting away wasps, climbing a chair to jump on a door handle and move to the next samey room, you’ll begin to lose enthusiasm for playing; even with the draw of hidden collectables to find and chests to unlock. There are also pacing issues, with the second set of levels being incredibly dull (the sewers) followed by the third set (the marketplace) being among the game’s best.
At least everything runs well and (best of all) load times are incredibly quick, although on Vita an odd annoyance occurs when suspending and resuming in that the title will briefly stutter before turning off autosave. There’s a good number of levels here, meaning there will be plenty to do if you get hooked by the mechanics and it is worth seeing the game through, as the game definitely peaks in the latter levels.
Conclusion
The developers clearly have a good handle on the 3D platformer genre as well as the Ratatouille source material and have crafted a game that melds the two things together well – you’ll truly feel like Remy exploring Paris; the story nicely follows on from the end of the film and some of the late-game platforming challenges are a lot of fun. Yet, there’s plenty of boring busywork in between that mean the title overstays its welcome and isn’t quite as good as it could have been.
7.0/10
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