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Obani Draco is a location in Up Your Arsenal. It is the third moon in the Obani moon system[1] in the Zygan System, along with Obani Gemini and Obani Pollux. The moon is Courtney Gears' secret hideout, used as a base for her to film her music videos, relax with her crowd, and plot with Dr. Nefarious.[2] The moon was also used as the Biobliterator testing laboratory.

Ratchet and Clank attempted to reach the moon at first after seeing that the Biobliterator had been transported to the Obani moon system, but were unable to access it due to a forcefield. Skidd McMarx eventually broke the lock to it, but was captured by Courtney Gears, at which point Ratchet traveled the planet to rescue him.

History[]

Obani Draco was presumably involved in the Obani Moon Wars, which Shellshock fought in as a soldier of the Obanian Army, resulting in his freak accident. It was also the home of the waitresses in Le Paradis Des Tricheurs Casino.[3]

Courtney Gears Music Video

Robots of the Galaxy music video.

Courtney Gears used Obani Draco as her secret hideout. She filmed all of her music videos in the moon, including "Robots of the Galaxy", and in-between recording albums, would plan galactic domination with Dr. Nefarious.[2] After the Biobliterator was constructed on Daxx, it was moved to Obani Draco for testing.[4] The moon was protected with an omega-class disintegration forcefield.[5]

Ratchet and Clank learned that the Biobliterator had been moved to the Obani moon system in a high-security computer on Daxx.[4] Skidd McMarx insisted on going with them, but was held up at a Galaxy Burger drive-thru,[5] and met up with them on Obani Pollux. The three were unable to reach the moon due to the forcefield, which Skidd worked on cracking open while Ratchet and Clank helped the Galactic Rangers against a tyhrranoid attack on Rilgar.

Beat Courtney Gears cutscene 2

Courtney Gears testing the Biobliterator on Skidd.

Skidd was then captured by Courtney Gears, after he revealed his location to her when she arrived in a space limo and he asked for her to autograph his t-shirt,[6] unaware that she was working for Nefarious. Gears then tested the Biobliterator on Skidd, transforming him into a robot.

Beat Courtney Gears cutscene 1

The Biobliterator testing room.

In "Find Skidd", Ratchet and Klunk used the Gravity Boots to reach the control room, fighting through Gears' defenses. They then found the Biobliterator testing facility, where they viewed the video in which Gears had transformed Skidd to a robot. In "Beat Courtney Gears", she then teleported him into the arena where she had filmed the "Robots of the Galaxy" music video, where she and her backup dancers, including one named Melissa,[7] fought him. Ratchet defeated her, before receiving a transmission from Sasha Phyronix about Nefarious' star cruiser being located at the Zeldrin Starport. He then left the planet, with the robotic Skidd in tow.

Geography[]

Obani Draco map

Map layout of Obani Draco.

Obani Draco appears to be an entirely artificial moon made of dark metal, with prolific bright pink neon lights, and is filled with a pink, hazardous liquid. Inside the moon are various rooms, often comprised of glass or grav-ramp bridges across a pit filled with the pink liquid. These rooms have pulsating speakers in the walls, as well as disco lights that follow Ratchet. They are connected by long grav-ramp tunnels in-between, which themselves have a pink trim and blue lights lighting the path, some of which have pulsating flaming bursts and red electricity rendering some portions of the tunnels hazardous.

Explore the Second Moon cutscene 1

Obani Draco's exterior.

The Star Explorer lands through a round opening in the moon leading into a large cylindrical room with pink lights. Past this is a series of rooms and tunnels ending in one much larger tunnel surrounded by rotating walls made of computer terminals. This leads straight into a wide, spherical room filled with brightly lit-up red and pink walls, some of which have speakers within them, around an immense disco ball in the center. Below the disco ball in the room is a set of tunnels, with one room between them, that lead to the Biobliterator testing laboratory. Which is a small room with an operating chair on which subjects are tested, surrounded by large and screens in the walls above computer terminals. This room also has a teleporter to Courtney Gears' music video room.

Obani Draco 4

The music video room.

Gears' music video room is seen in the music video "Robots of the Galaxy", as well as the mission "Beat Courtney Gears". The room is a glass dome providing a view of space outside with a platform in the center, which during Gears' music video, raises circular platforms during the dance. Several screens are dotted around the platform in the center. During the "Robots of the Galaxy", these screens showed images of Nefarious and the tyhrranoids, and during "Beat Courtney Gears", they showed images of her. Speakers are connected to the outer edges of the platform, and circled around it are cages in which Gears or one of her backup dancers are found.

Behind the scenes[]

The main Obani Draco level was designed by Mike Stout. The level heavily made use of the Gravity Boots, and for one portion of the level, Stout reused a design that Mark Cerny had used for Gemlik Base, in which a hazardous liquid would rise and cover parts of the Gravity Boots, making it a requirement to pass them as quickly as possible. Cerny approved of the reuse when he evaluated the level.[8]

The boss battle was designed by Colin Munson, and programmed by Jerrod Putman. The original design was as a rhythm game, in which the player had to match what Gears was singing. Though this could not be achieved, as there was no time to write another song for the battle, the developers were nonetheless happy with the design.[9]

For the art design of the level, a lot of pink and purple effects were used, as they were permissible for the level. This was in spite of programmers previously being told to cut down on the use of pink and purple effects elsewhere.[10] The level also had rotating rings in some tunnels, which were required to not rotate in Japan due to potentially causing motion sickness.[11]

The use of Gears' backup dancers in the boss battle, and her music video, was to make Gears look as if she was full of herself.[12]

Citations[]

References[]

Video games
Bibliography
  • Greg Off (2004). Ratchet & Clank Up Your Arsenal Official Strategy Guide [Book]. BradyGames. ISBN 0744005000.
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