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Ratatouille
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Publisher Region Released THQ NA 06/26/2007 THQ EU 09/28/2007 THQ JP 08/02/2007 THQ AU 08/09/2007 |
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AKA: Remy no Oishii Restaurant (JP)
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Systems > Wii > R > Ratatouille > Staff Review
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Review by Jason Venter 
July 06, 2007
On both systems, Ratatouille is a three-dimensional platformer, similar in style to something like the Sly Cooper games. You control a charismatic rat named Remy as he jumps, climbs and scurries his way through the sewers beneath Paris, then across stovetops in its finest kitchen. Along the way, you’ll have to avoid detection by humans and animals as much as possible or run from them when you have no choice. There are tons of stars to collect and bonus stages that extend the experience by several hours, but the main portion of the game can be completed in a long afternoon.
In spite of the main attraction’s brevity, Ratatouille is a great game. It’s not particularly revolutionary, but the elements are pieced together nicely. If you proceed in the manner intended, you’ll constantly be doing something new, whether that’s scavenging for a given area’s hundred stars, or sliding down a sewer canal at breakneck speeds, or playing a cooking mini-game or something else entirely. The developers knew better than to make the game one long series of platforming sequences, and they knew enough to break up the collecting portions with lots of other styles of play. In fact, the more tedious elements are completely optional. As far as adventure games go, Ratatouille is a well-oiled machine.
It also happens to be a title that was clearly developed with the PlayStation 2 in mind. The game works like a charm on the system, and there are times when the Wii version feels clunky by comparison. Fortunately for the Wii, the inverse is sometimes true. For example, there are many places where Remy will run along a series of wires, or jump across a series of poles suspended high in the air. With the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, it’s easy to pull off such daring moves. Hopping all over the place feels natural. On the PlayStation 2, such maneuvers are more cumbersome and you have to concentrate harder to succeed.
On the other hand, combat is less natural on the Wii. You have to whirl the Wii Remote around to simulate a swing, at which point Remy will attack. This takes a little bit longer and feels like wasted energy, but it does work and you shouldn’t lose much or any life throughout the game’s duration because of it. After all, Ratatouille is more about evasion than it is direct confrontation.
Outside of combat, Remy does seem to control better with the Wii Remote. The same cannot be said about the camera. When you’re running along a ledge and working your way up through an area with little on your mind, the camera moves like a dream. You hold the ‘C’ button on the Nunchuk portion of your controller, then use the Wii Remote to slide around for a better view. However, in tight quarters it seems like a bit more of a struggle to get your bearings than it was on Sony’s console. There are times when you can’t really get a clear perspective no matter how hard you try, when on the PlayStation 2 you could.
That’s probably the best example of a situation where you might wish you were playing the PlayStation 2 version. Almost everywhere else, Sony and Nintendo’s consoles play the host with equal style. The only other difference of note is the mini-game selection, which has expanded on the Wii. There are new controls, too.
As an example, one mini-game asks you to select the ingredients for a recipe. The food you’re supposed to use is listed in the upper right corner, while the main portion of the screen is covered with different cuisine options. On the PlayStation 2, as the options are presented, you would press one button to approve of the choice and another to decline. That felt pretty natural. On the Wii, you have to lift the Wii Remote if you like the choice available, or lift the Nunchuk if you don’t. This can take some getting used to, and sometimes you might reject food you didn’t mean to just because you forgot that you were holding the Nunchuk and happened to tilt your hand wrong.
Ratatouille on the Wii makes up for that by improving some of the other mini-games. Peeling a potato was fun on the PlayStation 2 (honestly, it was), but on the Wii it works even better. You’ll feel almost like you’re actually preparing food. There are other options available, too, like picking up tomatoes from a conveyer belt and dropping them into a basket, or frying crepes in a pan. The extra mini-games aren’t always as polished as the ones that are included in both editions of the game, but it is nice to have additional options.
If you own both a PlayStation 2 and a Wii and you’re trying to decide which version to buy or rent, you’re in for a tough choice. When the Wii version is at its best, it really feels great in ways that its worthy competition never does. However, the difficulties with the camera and some mini-games are disappointing. Additional mini-games make up for that, and the load times on the Wii seem to be better to boot, but those weren’t really an issue on the PlayStation 2. Choosing the version you’ll experience is basically painless. Either way, you get to lead an awesome rat through the virtual streets of Paris. Either way, you’re in for a good time.
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