Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando

Dumb subtitle notwithstanding, a fine instance of what a flagship platformer is supposed to be. A varied and well-balanced game that showcases the PS2 nicely. It also allows for a few different approaches to combat. You can grind away at fighting and side activities like racing to afford more different weapons and such to try out, though you don't *have* to if you don't want to (well, unless you're interested in the newgame+ that ramps up the combat considerably).

Ratchet & Clank is even better in the sequel. This was a must-own for PS2 players back in the day and the charm still hasn't worn off all these years later. This game takes the solid guns and platforming and adds arena combat and hover biking and doesn't miss a beat.

A weaker plot, but an overall improvement on virtue of the fact the game not only plays better but also has more features. The weapon scaling has issues where your weapons often just become flat out worthless in later parts of the game, but at the very least they're less contextual than the last game and the enemy design justifies more varied weapon use. That said, the enemies themselves are also more aggressive and can't be cheesed in the stupid way they could in the first game.