- 3,300
- 4,078
I believe mid-thirties. The first title has him at 15, by Jak X/Deadlocked he’s 18 (stated directly), the Future Series has 2 Years between it and Nefarious Asteroid Crash and All 4 One, (Ratchet also said it had been a year since he had seen Clank), and then after that it’s nebulous until Rift Apart, which established an uncertain 10-20 years gap as essentially retired Veterans. He’s been growing across the franchise as a protagonist—He’s more similar to Kratos in this way, developing and changing, than mascots like Sonic or Mario, who are age-locked outside of vague references to a younger iterations of themselves.
So in my eyes, the best way to do it is have Ratchet finish his Original and Future Sagas Pre-Classic Era, and then have Rift Apart take place in the Modern Era. Being-bang-boom, seamless integration. Sonic goes to see what’s up with that recent Multiversal Crisis, he finds it’s solved, and Earth finds that there’s an older, cocksure hero on the other side of the Universe with tons of gadgets that can bolster the Resistance/Restoration. (This helps in making characters more capable whilst also creating limits that can be written around.)
Suddenly Eggman and Nefarious team-up, before the inevitable collapse of the team as they fight both their respective protags. Additionally, Ratchet operates as a much more interesting, developed, and capable Rookie as a hero, so gameplay wise you can literally engage in both segments if you had a totally legit crossover game rather than a racing one.
Focusing on just the racing, though, Ratchet STILL fits. He has his own vehicle from Jak’s racing game, has plenty of ships and pod-racer vehicles (meaning he can do cars, planes, and boat), has his own hoverboard set (for his Extreme Gear option), and has his own weapons to include into the item pool for wacky racing fun.
Imagine a Sheepinator, for example. Single use blasts that turn an opponent into a slower (but floatier) sheep. Or maybe the RYNO, which can do a multi-hit. Or the Black Hole Bombs, or the Armors (for example, Ratchet has one that can transfer damage into another reality and store the damage for physical attacks. Slap that on a car. Get hit with a blue shell, absorb blue shell damage, ram into opposition, profit.)
Etc. Etc.
And that’s not including what CLANK has to offer as a machine-man-Zoni thing. Infinite options.
