SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 1 (Reuters) - A fox-like alien and his robot sidekick on a mission to save the galaxy could also help save sales of Sony's PlayStation 3, which has struggled to find a game so good that it gives people reason to buy the pricey console.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 has had several, including this year's "Halo 3," but Sony is still trying to find a megahit of its own as games like "Heavenly Sword" and "Folklore" have failed to make the kind of splash needed to convince holdouts.

Number of paragraphs until Microsoft gets mentioned in an article that isn't about Microsoft at all: 1

I call "several" a generous term. Halo 3 and Bioshock. As far as console exclusives go, that's it.

And Folklore sucks, by the way.

Now comes "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction," a beautifully crafted game that is being compared to Pixar animated films and touted as a must-have for Sony fans.

"We're using lots of the same techniques that would be used in a Pixar film," said Brian Allgeier, creative director on the "Ratchet" titles at developer Insomniac Games.

Seasoned video game fans can be forgiven for rolling their eyes -- claims by industry executives over the years that their games are "Pixar quality" have turned out to be just so much marketing bluster.

But the "Ratchet & Clank" that hit stores last week comes closest to delivering on that promise.

Yes, I did roll my eyes. "Lots of the same techniques"... what, like computers?

"The new 'Ratchet' is a watershed for gaming because it provides the first interactive entertainment experience that truly feels like inhabiting a world-class animated film," the New York Times gushed this week.

Yeah, I trust the New York Times to be up on the latest in video gaming. Their pull quote on the back of the box means a lot to me.

I just don't get the need to liken a video game to an animated movie. It seems obvious to me that they're talking about the graphics - which, don't get me wrong, look great - but playing a game and watching a movie are two totally different things. The magic of the modern 3D video game is that you get to push through the fourth wall, not sit passively as the film unloops in one rigid narrative.

The game is also evidence that Sony's bet on its powerful new Cell processor is starting to pay off as developers get the hang of tapping its capabilities.

"We never could have had this level of action on the screen before," Allgeier said in praise of the PS3 hardware.

That whole Cell processor thing is nonsense. The CPUs are faster this generation. They're always faster in the new generation. That's why PS3 games look better than PS2 games. This is astonishing news, I know.

Metacritic.com, which combines ratings from review sites and magazines, has given the new "Ratchet" a score of 90, the highest so far for any game exclusive to the PS3.

"'Tools of Destruction' is an amazing PS3 game that fully leverages the power of the console. It sets the bar high for not only the series but for all PS3 games to come. It is, without a doubt, reason enough to buy the system," GamePro.com said in its review.

GamePro.com said in its review, which was carefully filtered through PR flaks so as to ensure GamePro.com continues to receive the benefits of Sony's kind hand. Look, you can either write creatively about how good/bad a game is, or you can spew out bankrupt drag-and-drop phrases that become website wallpaper.

And if R&CF, a first year PS3 does "fully leverage the power of the console," than Sony truly is borked.

Sony badly needs a hit for the PS3, which has lagged the Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii. By the end of September, the PS3 had sold about 5.6 million units, compared to more than 13 million each for the Xbox 360 and Wii.

Number of paragraphs until Nintendo gets mentioned in an article that isn't about Nintendo at all: 11

Nobody wants to mention that the 360 has been out for an entire year more than the Wii or the PS3 and maybe that's a shining good reason why it had a bunch of "system selling" games this year. And it's also a giant black eye as to why it has sold just as many units as the Wii. (Fewer, I'm sure. Microsoft never reports units sold, merely units shipped... so that stack of 360s at Best Buy counts as part of that 13 million.)

Clearly, when it comes to "system selling" games, fucking Wii Sports trumps Halo 3, hands down. And yet, mainstream media never wants to talk about Nintendo, unless it's parleyed in some kind of oddball "Can you believe THIS is selling?!" pseudo-shock, just like how they talk about Apple products.

The game, the seventh for the franchise since 2002, stars the fox-like Ratchet and his robot sidekick Clank as they try to defeat the evil Emperor Tachyon. Their adventures lead through 15 locations and involve space combat, skydiving and railgrinding sequences.

Only if you count a crapped-out cell phone game. Come on now. I don't even want to count Deadlocked.

Additionally, I'm about 3/4 through those 15 locations and I think I've had two scenes of space combat, two skydiving jumps, and 1.5 grinding sequences. The hype machine is on the case, kicking bottom.

Perhaps the biggest gameplay enhancement found in R&CF, the Clank-driven minilevels where you get an unlimited ability to slow down time, seems to be barely used. Again, I believe I've had to do that twice thus far.

"All along we've gone in more of a shooter direction and we've decided to go back to our roots with a platformer, with more exploration, more adventure," Allgeier said.

The game levels are stitched together with short animated clips that elaborate on the story and amount to about half the length of a feature film. With an industry rating of E 10+, the game should be suitable for everyone but small children.

"This is one of the few epic adventure games this holiday that will make people laugh," Allgeier said. "It's kind of a bright spot amid a lot of darker-themed games."

Anyone who is being honest about Ratchet & Clank Future will tell you that the game is exactly what you did in the first three R&C games, just far prettier. It's the same dopey story (miniature evil guy wants to control the cosmos!), the same lame characterizations (Qwark is still not funny!), and the same not-changed-since-2002 art direction. I know, I know, R&CF tells the SECRET STORY OF THE LOMBAXES.

It's a solid, fun title. It's not innovating anything; it's not pushing the potential of the PS3. If the PS3 wasn't such a lead weight, we probably would have got it at the $50 price point - a more appropriate price - rather than the $60 that Sony so desperately needs (remember all the previous PS2 R&C games debuted at $40.)