I’ve just picked up a brand new copy of Ratatouille for Windows from eBay, and it’s just as nice as I remember it from back in the day on the GameCube (unlike the disappointment that is the PS3 “HD” version, which happens to be a completely different game of the same title).
Thankfully the game still works on Windows 11, thanks to the RatataR patch you can find on GitHub. I wanted to play the game with my PS4 Dualshock and PS5 Dualsense controllers, but they’re not natively supported so I had to use my favourite little tool that helps me out in these situations: DS4 Windows. It translates the PS4/PS5 controllers so that the inputs are understood as native Windows (Xbox 360/Xbox One) commands.
Tragically, when enabling DS4 Windows, mouse and keyboard inputs seem to be blocked in Ratatouille. It took me a while to figure this out, so here’s how to handle this:
- close DS4 Windows if it’s running
- start the game using RatataR
- wait for the intros to finish or skip them by left-clicking
- when it says “press any key to continue”, do so to get to the main selection menu
- now launch DS4 Windows and connect your controller
- switch back to the game and start playing
I don’t really know why mouse/keyboard inputs are disabled when DS4 is in operation, but that’s the way it is. At least the game is playable with a controller like I remember it. I haven’t tried it with my Xbox controller, but I would imagine it “just works” (that D-Pad is so loud, I tend to stay away from it).
Further Reading
- Custom launcher with lots of options: https://github.com/0x5abe/RatataR
- DS4 and DS5 for Windows: https://ds4-windows.com/