Despite the Ratchet & Clank series being relatively quiet since the 2021 launch of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, dedicated fans have successfully unearthed a nearly forgotten title. Ratchet & Clank: Clone Home, originally announced in the mid-2000s as a follow-up to the mobile game Ratchet & Clank: Going Mobile, was ultimately canceled and never officially released. However, after years of searching, a playable copy of the game has now surfaced online and been preserved.
The extensive, years-long quest for Ratchet & Clank: Clone Home was meticulously documented by The Golden Bolt on a popular video platform. While many members of the gaming community contributed to the search, significant credit goes to college students `Emily` and `Super Gamer Omega Clank.` They were pivotal in locating a Sony Ericsson W880i phone that contained a working version of Clone Home. The most formidable hurdle was breaking the phone`s encryption, but their persistent efforts ultimately proved fruitful.
The game`s plot centers on a pair of digital clones of Ratchet and Clank who join forces with their real-world counterparts. Their shared mission is to foil the nefarious plans of Vox, a returning antagonist from Going Mobile. Intriguingly, the digital versions of Ratchet and Clank exist within a video game embedded inside Clone Home itself, and approximately halfway through the story, the actual Ratchet and Clank are also transported into this virtual environment.
It is widely believed that Clone Home was briefly accessible online due to an oversight before being promptly removed. The recently recovered and preserved copy is fully playable, though the precise reasons for its initial cancellation remain ambiguous. One theory, put forth by The Golden Bolt, suggests a potential legal disagreement between Sony and Handheld Games, the studio responsible for Going Mobile. Furthermore, The Golden Bolt speculates that JavaGround, rather than Handheld Games, was likely the developer of Clone Home.
This discovery isn`t the only notable event for Ratchet & Clank aficionados this year. Recently, Grant Parker, a senior designer for Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, revealed the inclusion of a hidden minigame within that title. While Rift Apart was ported to PC in 2023, there is currently no official word on if or when another sequel will be released.