That's all you need to know to appreciate Tools of Destruction, which wears its plot lightly and its action-platforming expertly. Controlling Ratchet and occasionally Clank, you'll visit different intergalactic locales with both plot-unfurling and optional objectives, some of which must be completed in return visits with offworld gadgetry. Populating each area you'll encounter both indigenous alien hostiles and destructible objects like crates and other landscape items that when destroyed cough out "bolts," the series' standard currency, which can be spent at vendor stations to purchase new or upgrade existing weapons.

Those weapons come in dozens of colorful flavors, a hallmark of this series, which never takes itself too seriously to include comedy gadgets, e.g., ray guns that turn enemies into harmless, cuddly animals. In Tools of Destruction, Ratchet starts with his emblematic omni-wrench, which he can use to pulverize enemies or toss like a boomerang. Goo guns, geo-lasers and a device called the "Groovitron," which hilariously hypnotizes even boss-sized enemies into stopping and dancing, eventually round out Ratchet's arsenal. You even get exotica like a mini tornado launcher to fool with, a weapon that sweeps up enemies and that you guide by tilting the PS3's motion-sensitive wireless controller.

Occasionally you'll be presented with situations that only Clank can handle. These are separate areas that involve a kind of variation on the "real-time strategy" mode found in prior iterations where Clank commands minions to build or disassemble objects and maneuver his less-tricked-out-than-Ratchet self around. A few space flight shoot-ups and "gyro-cycle" racing courses round things out, providing (in the case of the former) connective gameplay while shuttling automatically between planets.

Platform perfect

Visually astonishing. Mechanically brilliant. Staggeringly vast. Words that hardly describe what Insomniac's managed to pull together in terms of the look and feel of its sixth-in-series Ratchet & Clank game. Gadgets whirl, bodies explode, cogs and bolts surge like rivers of metal bits. Hundreds of flying cars, buses and other vehicles arrow across skylines on par with the vigorous cityscapes in Luc Besson's The Fifth Element or the building-bristling planet Coruscant in George Lucas' Star Wars: Episodes I, II, and III. And somehow, however improbable it sounds, you're permitted to engage all of it in real time.

Impressive as it looks (and, thank goodness, controls), Tools of Destruction's virtues lie just as much in its extensibility. While it's not impossible to blow through the entire thing in a dozen hours by ignoring optional to-dos and item upgrades and even gladiator-style battles in a virtual arena, the game invites exploration both for its sequestered collectibles and the simple pleasures to be had in viewing its lush swamps and icy comets and gravity-defying pirate space bases from new angles.

Incidentally, so what if the story's almost an afterthought? What's Mario's story? Sonic's? Rayman's? And let's talk about the ending for a moment (which, predictably, isn't really). Should we be surprised? Disappointed that the final battle—conventional but perfectly satisfying as end battles go—marks off the gameplay but not the narrative? It's an ongoing quibble of mine that someone can see a movie like The Two Towers and ignore the uncomfortably dumb parts (e.g., when Gimli takes a spill) but fuss about the whole endeavor feeling like only "half a movie" when you know going in it's the midpoint of a broader tale. Besides, we're talking about games where weird little creatures bounce and jump on unsuspended platforms (ergo the genre). What do you expect, narratively speaking?

The only other criticism worth addressing is the game's difficulty level, which seems a little low unless you're pursuing the optional side games and power-ups and special onesy-twosy collectibles, at which point the curve tends to be vertical by comparison. The latter can be offputting if only because your sense of forward motion feels abruptly checked when you have to suddenly reload a half-dozen times to figure out some combat pattern or puzzle or navigation logistic.

The PlayStation 3 needed a killer app to complement its recent price drop this holiday season, and it finally has one in Tools of Destruction. Just don't make us wait too long for a sequel, OK, Insomniac?