VIDEO GAME REVIEWS 'Ratchet' and 'Armed' loaded with great guns

Both games utilize robot helpers.
By VICTOR GODINEZ
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
"Ratchet & amp; Clank: Going Commando," a Sony title for the PlayStation 2, is more of what made the original Ratchet & amp; Clank great: Guns. Lots of guns.
Going Commando ($49; suitable for ages 13 and up) is a platform game welded onto a shooting game.
You play as the walking dog-man Ratchet, with your robotic pal Clank.
With a faraway galaxy in peril, you swing into action, armed initially with a metal wrench and puny laser gun. You'll acquire more devastating weaponry as you blast your way through your enemies.
Once you've fired one of your guns enough times, it gets upgraded to a more destructive level. For example, your gravity bomb launcher powers up to a mini-nuke launcher.
Although explosions run rampant and you rarely go more than 30 seconds without shooting something, the colorful, cartoony graphics and constant humor keep things lighthearted.
There's a lot of running and some jumping but thankfully little crate-moving, often a tedious staple of platform games. The puzzles, such as having to fix electrical circuits, aren't brain busters but do break up the action nicely.
Mostly you play as Ratchet, but you do control Clank in some spots, and it's fun marshaling a small robotic army.
There are also fun mini-games scattered throughout the levels, such as racing and spaceship combat interludes that are surprisingly polished.
If you haven't played the first game, don't worry. Going Commando works just fine as a stand-alone title but will also please longtime fans.
'Armed & amp; Dangerous'
Also in the category of games that let you blow stuff up: "Armed & amp; Dangerous" from LucasArts for Xbox and PC. I tried out the Xbox version ($49; suitable for ages 13 and up).
The same guys who did the equally offbeat -- and equally enjoyable -- "Giants: Citizen Kabuto" created this quirky shooting game.
In the sort of odd couple match-up popular among shooting games these days, you get a human, a robot and a walking, talking toad man to annihilate the evil warlord crushing the planet beneath his iron boot.
You play as the human warrior, although the other two do an admirable job of engaging the enemy as well. You can even issue rudimentary orders for them to guard a certain location or defend you.
The graphics are more detailed than in Ratchet & amp; Clank, and the levels are bigger. You mostly fight outdoors in wide-open spaces rather than in tunnels or control rooms.
The weaponry is more traditional but also a lot weirder than in Going Commando. For instance, you can get a gun that fires land sharks.