Mika and the Witch’s Mountain, Ratchet & Clank (2016) – WGB

At the beginning of the year, I made a very simple New Year’s resolution to earn at least 12 Platinum Trophies across the coming months. An average of 1 every four weeks, a pitiful amount by any hunter’s standards but for someone without only 7 Platinums to his name a marked increase.

My lack of trophies is pretty simple to explain: I’ve never chased them, and on top of that, any game I play I usually put down as soon as I’m finished so I can pick up and review the next one. But lately I’ve found myself bitten by the trophy bug and wanting to get at least a few more.

That brings me to the first Platinum of the year, and it wasn’t what I had planned on at all. Initially, my goal was to get the Platinum in the 2016 soft reboot Ratchet & Clank. The trophy list looked more than doable, calling for just 2 playthroughs totalling 20-30 hours or so. But while I was chipping away at that in the background, a super-cutesy game by the name Mika and the Witch’s Mountain popped in for review.

Mika and the Witch’s Mountain is basically an adorable little package delivery game where you play as a fledgling witch who finds herself needing to earn some money by flying around a small island, dropping off parcels to the friendly locals.

While I was busy doing witchy stuff and soaking up the incredibly chill vibes I glanced at the trophy list and was pleased to discovered that it looked quite easy to do. The list mostly called for doing the main quest lines, and then cruising around finding collectibles and doing optional deliveries. Best of all, the Switch and PC versions of the game had been out for a while, so there were guides readily available if I didn’t fancy scouring the land for little statues, although as it turned out I didn’t need them – it was easy enough to discover enough of them on my own.

The process was a breeze; I ventured through the game completing all the main story missions, enjoying the low-stakes of the plot. These missions usually took me close to the optional stuff. And that’s where I made a small mistake, because there’s a trophy that calls for getting a green stamp on every single delivery in the game, except in the case of a few special story missions where it’s impossible. Along the way, I had messed up one delivery by accidentally doing some damage to the package, cursing me with a neutral orange stamp. At the time, I had assumed there would be some way to replay missions later, but that’s just not the case, so I ended up having to do a second play through where I had to do every single delivery again.

Ah well. In some massive 100-hour behemoth this fact alone would have stopped me in my Platinum-seeking tracks, but Mika and the Witch’s Mountan is a very short game, taking something in the region of 4-6 hours to complete and even less if you already know where everything is and all the paths you need to take.

In the end, I opted to hoover up all the collectibles etc. on my first run through, as well as some of the random trophies that needed doing. I dropped poor Mika from high enough up to get the trophy for bouncing off the ground five times in a row, I changed her costume 3 times for another trophy and I activated all the catapults around the island for yet another. Although I really wish the catapults were actually more functionally useful because outside of getting the trophy I never used them even once.

All of it was simple stuff and took me maybe an hour or two to do. The only challenge came in the form of completing churro delivery races, and that was just because I was half-asleep and kept screwing up a single race.

With all that done, it was on to my second run through the game. Armed with a map of the island in my head and knowledge of where every optional item was hidden away, I set off to speed-run the story. There’s nothing exciting to say here – I blasted around that tiny island like a hare on cocaine, or in this case a tiny child witch on a sugar rush. I ensured every delivery was not damaged, picking up those coveted green stamps along the way.

Ultimately, it took me less than 10 hours to pop the Platinum on Mika and the Witch’s Mountain, giving me my 8th Platinum overall. Sure, it wasn’t the most exciting or challenging, but I enjoyed the hell out of my time with the game. It was a cosy, relaxing experience.

And that brings me to Platinum number 9, Ratchet & Clank. Despite my love of Ratchet & Clank over the years, and especially of the excellent Rift Apart, the 2016 soft reboot kind of flew past. I’ve been meaning to sit and play it for years now, and its been chilling on my SSD for who knows how long at this point. I’m glad I finally fired it up, though, because it’s a real delight.

Admittedly, though, I’m still not sure how I feel about the reboot opting to make Ratchet & Clank friends right from the start. The small, well-spoken bot and the more feisty Ratchet were not firm-friends in the original games, their relationship taking time to grow as the two personalities clashed. But in the reboot, they’re fast-friends from the first second they meet, and it does take something away from the experience. Their interactions are somewhat generic, too, lacking a bit of oomph in the dialogue.

That aside, the game is brimming with the usual Ratchet & Clank charm. Ratchet and his pal find themselves caught up in a galaxy wide story of evil corporations and alien invasions, ending up as part of the noble Galactic Rangers and led by the idiotic Captain Qwark who is narrative the story from prison. It’s fun stuff, a breezy tale full of light-hearted jokes.

It is, of course, meant to tie-in with the disastrous 2016 movie which brought in a mere $16 million at the box office. Not great, considering it was made on a $20 million budget.

But Ratchet & Clank is really about the fun gunplay and adventuring, and the game has that in spades. The arsenal of guns is impressive, varied and a freaking hoot to use, from the Pixelliser which turns everything into an old-school sprite to the Glove of Doom which lets you throw out tiny suicidal robots.

The guns represent the longest trophy in the game, at least in my experience. The guides all said I was looking at two play throughs to get the Platinum, the second one being because Challenge Mode needs to be completed as well. But in the end I wound up doing nearly three because every single weapon in the game needs to be levelled up to the maximum, and unless you specifically grind by restarting checkpoints or farming certain enemies that can infinitely spawn, it can take a while. By half-way through my third play through of the story, I was starting to tire out, and had come to the realization that I might even end up in a fourth play through to finish maxing the weapons. And so I gave in and farmed some enemies for the trophy, restarting one of the boss fights five or six times to level up some of the bigger weapons before accidentally killing him before I could jump in some lava. Whoops! I’m not a fan of grinding stuff out like this, but I really didn’t want to have to sit through the same missions yet again.

Outside this one trophy, the rest of the game was a blast to play and the trophies are a good mix of story-related stuff and fun little detours. It was great to see where the groundwork for Rift Apart was laid, too, which is why I’m going to go back and finally get the Platinum for that as well because I left off with just one left to unlock. Why? Pretty simple: more stuff was coming out to review and funds were low, so I decided to sell my copy of the game. I had intended on grabbing the last trophy before posting it out but never managed to get the time. Thanks to stealing my brother’s copy of the game, though, I can now rectify that horrible mistake!

Overall, Ratchet & Clank was a more fun Platinum than Mika and the Witch’s Mountain, but also just a very different style. The Witch’s Mountain was a more relaxing and chilled, whereas Ratchet & Clank was a much more boisterous experience.

That brings me to Platinum number 10, and I think this month’s “free” PSN games have given me an answer: High On Life. The Rick and Morty style humour isn’t something I enjoy too much, but I’m willing to give the game a go and the Platinum is supposed to be straightforward.

After that, who knows? I’m considering Evil West or maybe Cult of the Lamb.