Think of it as Two Headed Baby with a really big gun.

When was the last time a game made you laugh? I mean really guffaw, a belly laugh. Not an 'oh isn't that ironic?' giggle or a 'teehee I'm so clever' titter - an honest laugh provoked not camp, but by using intentionally well written jokes. How many games have provoked you to laughter consistently while you were playing? I'm guessing you won't need to get out the calculator for your final answer.

Why are there so few quality contemporary comedic games? Sure, there are games with comedic moments but rarely is a game's story hellbent on actually giving your run of the mill stand-up a run for his money. In the last year we've been a bit more fortunate to receive games that are actually humor-inspired, such as Simpsons: Hit & Run and the deeply flawed Futurama video game, but as funny at times as both games were, they are based off of proven humorous shows. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga had its moments, but it is certainly more surreal and baffling than comedic. Now, back in the heydays of the graphic adventure game it was a comical smorgasbord. You had your Space Quests, your Leisure Suit Larrys, your Monkey Islands - all sorts of farcical opportunities. Even in the text adventure days you had your Hitchhiker Infocom adaptation. Nowadays we're lucky if we get fart jokes (thanks for nothing Metal Arms).

Fortunately, I made the decision to actually hunker down and spend some quality time with Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando. Despite its rather obtuse name and the fact that I missed out on the original, Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando is genuinely humorous. The fine folks at Insomniac Games managed to reinvigorate the nature of platformer stories and spin a satirical, witty and engaging story on par with top notch television comedies. I'm not especially surprised at the fact that Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando is actually funny as I am that they went all out on integrating the humor. The cut-scenes of course are the comedic highlight, featuring send-ups of contemporary media such as the 'Behind the Hero' series of vignettes running through the game, portraying the life of a fallen superhero who fell from grace in the first Ratchet & Clank installment. It would be a crime not to mention the amusing, but slightly tacked on satirical commercials that are witty, without being 'In Living Color' over the top and feature lines such as "So, the next time your toaster doesn't explode in your face, be sure to think of MegaCorp!". Yes, making light of crass commercialism can be amusing sometimes! Many a game should be learning from Ratchet & Clank's stern hand in balancing jokes.

What else is there to say about a robot and it's robot army?

Let us not forget the character interaction! Ratchet and Clank, a ... furry something or other and a small robot (respectively) who run into more than a few amusing, unique supporting characters on their planet-hopping missions: The slightly askew CEO who always manages to use the incorrect 25 cent word in a conversation, your occasional absent-minded professor hocking goods in each level, each with a very bent way of selling their wares. I certainly cannot neglect one of my favorites - The Mathematician, a sub-villain that Ben Edlund would be proud of scripting. Each character riffs off Ratchet and Clank in a rapid, slapstick manner that keeps the pace moving and keeps the giggles coming. Ratchet and Clank themselves pull their own weight too - Clank plays Ratchet's straight man and Ratchet has his occasional aside. Both balance each other out extremely well, and Clank's levels are by far some of the most amusing, requiring throngs of either adoring (or mindless) robots. Of course the dialogue would be nothing if the voice actors couldn't deliver their lines properly, but luckily Insomniac did not skimp on the talent - each actor brings life and enthusiasm to each character, incidental or not. While lines like "This changes nothing!" and "It is really big, and it goes really far!" do not sound especially comedic on your computer screen, the voices compliment the mood perfectly.

I could go on about the attention to detail, the smirky slogans that scroll by when you're buying weapons, character animation, even environment layouts and level design (imagine a Godzilla scale duke-out, but on The Little Prince scale), as well as the fantastically polished non-humor parts of the game but the point is I slapped my knee at times while playing. It is that amusing and engrossing, not only to play but also to watch. Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando may not herald in a new era of finely scripted comedic oriented games, but it was definitely a worthwhile 15 or so hours (more even now that I picked it up again to give it a second go).