Bastion
LQ: 9.15
Recommended Age: 10+
Skills Used: Planning, Working Memory, Mathematics, Reading
Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One is an action game that encourages players to work together as they battle robots and solve puzzles. Players will choose between Ratchet the Lombax, Clank the robot, Qwark the Galactic President, or Nefarious, a villain now fighting for good. Set in a futuristic world, players fight their way to the end of each level, battling an army of enemy robots and solving puzzles along the way. Defeated enemies drop “nuts & bolts,” which can be used as currency to buy new weapons and powers. Player’s must work cooperatively, as each level includes puzzles that are designed to be solved by two or more people. While it is not necessary that Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One must be played with another person, it is definitely encouraged. While this is a combat-heavy game, it features no blood and mild cartoon violence, but does feature some crude humor. Furthermore, no academic reading is needed to progress through the game. Due to these factors, the game is recommended to players ages 10 and up.
Adapting and adjusting to changing conditions and expectations.
In Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One, players will be given the opportunity to buy different weapons with the 'nuts & blots' they collect. Most weapons do something different, like freeze enemies with an icy blast, or fire rockets that hone in on foes. Most of the time a certain weapon will be better to use under specific circumstances, like a bomb to take out a large group enemies, or the goop gun to slow down quick robots. Thus, players should become accustomed to using them all. Also, players are only given limited ammo to use for each weapon, forcing them to frequently switch between weapons.
Managing our actions, feelings, and behaviors.
Players must conserve their ammo so that they will have enough to last until the next reload station. While it is fun to constantly fire off the zany weaponry, players must also fall back on their melee attacks to save ammo. Because ammo can only be accessed at certain parts of each level, it is up to the players to conserve ammo until they can get more. If players are constantly firing on all cylinders, they will not have enough firepower to defeat the powerful boss robots at the end of the stage. For example, a player would want to save his rockets for a large enemy instead of wasting them on robots he could defeat with the much weaker blaster cannon.
Understanding our own actions, thoughts, and feelings.
Because Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One is meant to be played with another person, it is imperative that players work well together as a team. Players will need put their brains together to solve puzzles, team up in battle, and share useful items with each other in order to succeed. Hogging all of the "nuts & bolts" or taking all of the health boxes won't just annoy other players, it will also make the game harder to play. This is because both players need to be powered up when fighting foes, as some enemies are very tough to defeat alone. If players share items and look out for each other, they'll have a much easier time making it through the game as a team.
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