Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

Yes the weekend is over already. What did you play this weekend?

I made a bit of progress in Ratchet & Clank: A Crack In Time and while there’s a decent amount of mission variety I am playing it on Hard. This could get me in trouble later – I’m currently stuck at the end of Uncharted 2 since I played it through on a harder difficulty – but for now I’ve got a challenge from time to time as I zip around the universe with Ratchet, Clank, and Quark.

I’ve also spent some time puzzling over why it apparently didn’t sell incredibly well. The game itself is technically superb, highly polished, and so far it looks like it’s the best example of the action-platformer-shooter hybrid the series has epitomized to date. I will agree with the recent comments from the IGN Podcast Beyond crew that while the franchise is great, I’m thinking it’s probably finished with this installment – it’s shown us everything it has to offer over its past what, six games? Aside from the mechanics being polished to a mirror-like shine, its cartoony sense of humor is probably why it didn’t hit commercial success this time around.

I blame the Wii, really, and that the PS3 and Xbox 360 just skew to older gamers who aren’t too excited about a game like this. It doesn’t matter if you give the Ratchet a tough-Lombax glare on the cover – it’s a bloodless action platformer with a great, but youth-oriented sense of humor. I’m a longtime fan of the series, having played all of the PS2 games, the first Future game, and even the PSP game, so it’s feeling pretty tired to me. If the rumors of Insomniac going multiplatform are true, they might be able to strike gold on the Wii with all of the great voice, art, and gameplay design talent they have on display.

What do you think? More Ratchet & Clank on the PS3, or is it time for Insomniac to do something new on more platforms?