Mother Gamer Plays Ratchet & Clank

I have never played the Ratchet & Clank games before so when I saw that I could get the first game for free with my Playstation Plus I got it to try it out. The game introduces you to a cute Lombax known as Ratchet and shows you a tutorial as you go on how the gaming controls work. You start out with only two weapons, an omni wrench which is your melee weapon and a bomb glove which launches grenades. The game also sets up the story for you; showing a little robot named Clank running away from a Blargian businessman named Drek who is corrupt and trying to harvest inhabited planets in order to make new planets for his race the Blargs. Clank meets Ratchet when he crash lands on his planet and they become friends and the game goes from there.

There are several different planets to explore each with its own unique area. You have to fight various enemies such as the Blarg and killer warbots while trying to stop Drek from destroying the universe. The fights are fun and fast paced with some puzzles thrown in. They're not terribly complex, but a few of them are a bit challenging. It's definitely rewarding when you solve a difficult puzzle.

Ratchet ready to take on warbots. 

Ratchet is not the only one who does things. The gameplay and story itself is like a buddy cop game. Clank rides on Ratchet's back like a small backpack. There are some worlds with areas that only Clank can go. For these moments you get to play as Clank solving puzzles that involve tinkering with various robots that make bridges, jumping platforms, and batteries for the purpose of getting specific items or unlocking doors for Ratchet. The teamwork between the two works quite well in the game and adds to the fun. 

As the game progresses you get access to new weapons, weapon upgrades, and ammo which you can buy with bolts as currency. You can choose which weapons you want to use via an inventory wheel from the user menu. My favorite weapon was a robot named Mr. Zurkon because he wasn't just powerful with his lasers he was hilarious with biting one liners like, "Mr. Zurkon conducts a symphony of pain." When you fully upgrade Mr. Zurkon you also get his family Mrs. Zurkon and Zurkon Jr. and their one liners are just as hilarious. It is so much fun trying out all the different weapons and seeing what they do on your adventure. 

Mr. Zurkon is one of the funniest and best weapons in the game.

The voice acting in Ratchet & Clank are well done and the design for each planet and level are beautifully detailed. It's hard to believe this was a PS2 game which shows just how well they did at remastering it for the PS4. Exploring every corner of each area is a good idea because it offers unique rewards like collector's cards and specialized items for both Ratchet and Clank. There are levels that are designed for some of the new tools and equipment you get so this adds to the exploration fun as well. There are various space battles too and while there is a bit of a learning curve with them, they are still quite enjoyable very much giving off an excellent Star Wars space battle vibe. 

Ratchet uses a zip line tool to get to an out of reach area.

There are some fun mini games in Ratchet & Clank also like hoverboard races which offer rewards such as extra money and collector's cards. The hoverboard races are a blast as you try doing different tricks while earning prizes. There are boss battles too of course and each one has its own unique style and rhythm. They're fairly straightforward, but they offer unique challenges and add to the story and fun of the game. 

There are some small technical issues with Ratchet & Clank such as the controls sticking a bit and the sound cutting in and out. These aren't a deal breaker, but when you're trying to win a boss battle the controls sticking are a little frustrating. It's a small thing so it didn't stress me out too much. 

Ratchet and Clank take on a boss. 

If you die in a level or fail a boss battle, don't worry. The game has an autosave feature and will start you right where you left off. I know I died quite a few times on challenging fights, so having that autosave was great. When you beat the game you can start over with a new game plus feature called challenge mode. This allows you to start the adventure all over again with all your weapons and upgrades. Be wary however because in new game plus the enemies have more health and are twice as difficult. 

Ratchet & Clank is a lot of fun to play with memorable characters, funny lines, and an interesting story. The game is a little short; about 10 hours if you don't get all the extra and about 20 hours if you do. That doesn't detract from how good the game is and I am glad I got a chance to play it as well as stream it because it was fun for everyone. See you at the next adventure! 

Ratchet ready to save the galaxy. 

*Ratchet & Clank is available to play on the following platforms: Playstation 4

*I stream the games I love on Twitch. Come hang out with our community and say hi! https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Smashbomb, A Great Social Network For Reviews

When I first found Smashbomb, I believe it was via a Facebook ad. I admit I was skeptical of it at first, but I decided to check them out. As I read their statement on what they were about, I found myself intrigued. Basically Smashbomb pointed out that fake reviews are a growing problem and that it is far too easy to engineer false positive reviews. Smashbomb stated that they are a social platform that allows its users to research and discover things based on recommendations from people they know, trust, and respect rather than anonymous reviews from people who may not be trustworthy. So Smashbomb is a social site where you can rate anything such as video games, movies, books, and more.


It is free to sign up for Smashbomb and the site itself is completely free to use. The layout design for Smashbomb is nice and simple making it easy to navigate. There is little to no loading times between pages and items are easy to find. You can easily find categories that you are looking for and there is even a help page with several helpful articles for any questions you may have such as getting started or how ratings work. Speaking of ratings, the rating system on Smashbomb is easy to understand and is rather clever. If a person rates something a 7 or higher it is a smash which is great, but if they rate it lower than a 7 it is a bomb which means it is not good. It is not difficult at all to add a rating for whatever you're reviewing. There are two ways to do this. You can click on the Rate It button on the item's page itself which will bring up a  bomb icons scale (there are 10 in all) and click where you want your rating to be whether it is a "smash" or a "bomb" on the scale. The second way to review an item is to click on the rating scale and add what is good or bad about it as well as write a full review if you wish. It's completely optional. Just a note about writing a review; you can't just write a couple of sentences. It is important to write a clear and concise review offering nuanced viewpoints about why you loved a product or why you didn't like it. This allows others from the Smashbomb community to get a better idea about why they should check out a book, play a video game, or see a movie or why they should avoid it.


If you don't see an item you're looking for in your search category or get a message that the item does not exist, you can add it easily via Smashbomb's create button. When you do this a window will pop up where you can add the title, description, and year it was released. Smashbomb's admins will check it manually and if they approve it, the item is added. It doesn't take long for them to check at all. I myself have added a few books and video games that did not show up in a search. When a person likes your review they can give you kudos points. You can also earn kudos points by contributing to the site in a positive way such as giving quality reviews. Kudos points are good for unlocking badges, entering giveaways, and unlocking certain admin features to name a few things. Higher kudos points offer great things like qualifying for better giveaways.


You can follow people on Smashbomb as well. Why follow people on Smashbomb? Following people on Smashbomb is a great way to discover people who have interests similar to yours and if you really like their reviews, following them allows you to see their activity when they review something. This is also a fantastic way to gain some followers because in general most people will follow you back. There are also social groups on Smashbomb called Orbs. Orbs are communities for people with similar interests and anyone on Smashbomb can create an Orb. For example, if you are passionate about books and would love to discuss them with others you can create a book lovers Orb and invite people like your followers to join.


Smashbomb also has a fantastic app that you can get on iOS and Android phones. The app is just as easy to use and navigate as the website. I find myself using it pretty often when I'm out and about because it is so great to use. The fact that Smashbomb itself is incredibly user friendly on all fronts is a big plus with me. Smashbomb overall is a great social network for reviews. It is refreshing to see a company that truly understands the meaning of community and the importance of full transparency. You can also give them feedback about things on the website and the app whether it is good or bad. You can follow them on social media and they are quick to respond and interact with everyone. The Smashbomb team does a great job of listening to everyone in the community. I think Smashbomb is amazing because of all of this. I have been using Smashbomb for two years now and I love it. It is a wonderful community that is very welcoming with a great team of people running it. Be sure to check out Smashbomb for yourself and sign up for free here: https://smashbomb.com/
Thanks for reading. See you at the next adventure!



*I stream the games I love on Twitch. Come say hi! https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Kingdom Hearts III An Amazing Adventure With Friendship

It took so long to get here, but once Kingdom Hearts III was here I was ready to play and explore all the worlds. It felt incredible to be traveling with Sora, Goofy, and Donald again. The opening song was incredible and the introduction to the game starts off well, hooking you in immediately. There are a couple of familiar worlds such as Olympus and Twilight Town which act as tutorials for the battle controls and exploration aspects of the game. 

Sora hangs out with Hercules. 

The battle system for Kingdom Hearts III is great. Combat is fluid, easy to follow, and fun. You can easily swap between keyblades, use your magic abilities, and use your items. Level grinding is not a chore because the battles are so much fun and the worlds that you explore make them even more so. My personal favorite was Toy Story because Sora fit so well in that world and there some pretty fun battles there. 

Having fun with battles in Toy Story. 

Another fun aspect to battles that was added in the game are the attraction flow attacks. These are not just stylish and fun, they are also pretty powerful special attacks. You can take out many enemies with these attacks so there is no downside to using them at all. My personal favorite was the pirate ship because it was a blast spinning around taking out tons of Heartless. 

Use attraction flow attacks to take out your enemies.

The user menu is easy to navigate and is quite user friendly. You can easily equip keyblades, items, and accessories as well as organize everything easily. The moogle shop is back too and you can synthesize and craft items that you need as well as upgrade your keyblades. 

The inventory menu is nice and neat. 

Another new addition to the game is the gummiphone. This is a cute little nod to social media things like Instagram. You can take photos with the gummiphone and there are even some photo quests where you need to take pictures of specific things in order to get various rewards such as items and munny. In between loading screens you get to see Instagram style posts from the gummiphone that reference the characters, story, and events. It's a nice touch to the game. 

Instagram style posts from the gummiphone. 

There are also mini games that you can play on your gummiphone. You have to find the code for them which are hidden in various worlds. When you do, you can play a variety of mini games that look like old school Nintendo gameboy games. They all feature Mickey and Sora with games like catching eggs or flying a plane to grab mail. They're silly fun and add that extra bit of whimsy to Kingdom Hearts III. 

You can play all these mini games on your gummiphone. 

If you're not in the mood for gummiphone games, there is also a cooking mini game that you can play. In order to play, you need to have ingredients for all the recipes. These are easily found in all the worlds you visit during your adventure. Once you have some ingredients you can bring them to Remy (the rat from the movie Rattatouille) and try your skills at the cooking mini game. The cooking mini game is fun, but there is definitely a learning curve to it. If you go too fast or too slow, you fail and you can lose all the ingredients you found. It takes a bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it you can make a ton of great dishes and Sora and friends can use them to up their stats. 

Practice makes perfect with the cooking mini game. 

The world map is pretty easy to see and you can swap between the maps fairly easily. Once you discover a location you can fast travel there which makes things easier. I do wish there had been a few more worlds, but I was pretty happy with the worlds the game had. Everything looked amazing and it was clear that they really wanted things to be done right. 

The world map in Kingdom Hearts III.

There is one thing that I absolutely detested in the game however and that thing is the gummi ship. I have never liked the gummi ship in any of the Kingdom Hearts games. The controls for them in my opinion have always been terrible and I always dreaded gummi ship battles. That has not changed for me with Kingdom Hearts III. While the controls have improved quite a bit, I still found myself struggling with them. Having to fight the controls to fly the gummi ship is not a good time. I also didn't like the fact that I would be forced into gummi ship battles before I could land on worlds. I truly feel that the gummi ship should have been optional. This is the only thing I did not like about the game. 

I am not a fan of the gummi ship. 

I blazed through Kingdom Hearts III because the game itself was an amazing adventure and I couldn't wait to save the world with friendship. The story was great, the worlds were so much fun to explore, and there were so many heartbreaking and heartwarming emotions throughout this adventure. Kingdom Hearts III did a fantastic job of making me care about all of these characters and I was a little sad to say goodbye at the end. Having one thing I didn't like about the game and loving the rest of it speaks volumes about how fantastic I think the game is. It was definitely worth the wait. See you at the next adventure! 

This was an amazing adventure! 

*Kingdom Hearts III is available to play on the following platforms: Playstation 4, Xbox One

*Come hang out with me on Twitch as I stream games like Kingdom Hearts III: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer