Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

Sly Cooper is definitely one of the best plat formers ever made for the Playstation 2. This game has excellent graphics, great sound effects and music, and upbeat voice acting. The other good plat formers for the PS2 are Pac-Man World 2 and Jak and Daxter (even though I haven't played it yet).

In the storyline for this game, Sly receives the Thievius Raccoonus, a book written over generations by members of the Cooper thief clan, from his father on his eighth birthday. But the Fiendish Five, a gang of ruthless criminals led by the mysterious cyborg owl Clockwerk, kill Mr. Cooper, steal the Thievius Raccoonus, and rip it into 5 sections of pages. Sly then lives in an orphanage for 10 years, where he befriends tech genius turtle Bentley, and and cowardly hippo Murray. Together, they work to get back the Thievius Raccoonus and destroy the Fiendish Five. There is also Carmelita Fox, an attractive police chief hell-bent on capturing Sly.

The game has a lot of fun sub-games like the one where you move a gun and shoot enemies to help Murray make a run for the key, and one where you participate in races in order to get the key. My favorite sub-game is where I move Carmelita's gun in order to shoot away lava slugs in order to make Sly retrieve his cane. They are absolutely fun and entertaining.

There are also a lot of unlockable Sly movies, e.g. when you get all of the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus, it shows that Sly is now a master thief. My favorite unlockable is the Japanese version of the first Sly Cooper movie, because the animation and art style is far more refined and smoother than the original English movie, and the Japanese speech sounds a lot better than the English speech.

By far, Sly Cooper is THE definitive plat former for the PS2, and I can't wait for the sequel, where you would pick from Sly, Murray, or Bentley. I give this game a 10/10.

One of the best platformers of the PS2 generation -- not just for its gameplay, but for its hilarious story and equally humorous and engaging characters. The environments were fun, the difficulty was just right, and I still come back all these years later!

Animals, Cartoonism, Film Noir, Crash Bandicoot gameplay, this game has it all. I just got the PS Vita and the Sly collection simultaneously, and I love the whole concept of it all! Sly Cooper is a very interesting video game character, like a Racoon version of Robin Hood, only stealing from other thieves. Of course there are many other great characters as well. From Murray the powerhouse, to the nerdy genius Bentley (the real show stealer with his quirky dialogue) and don't forget the lovely, not to mention volatile tempered Carmelita Fox (who doesn't have a crush on this babe?). Don't forget the memorable Fiendish Five have their own quirks as well, my personal favorites are the Panda King (while being relatively easy, he's got a cool voice and moves) and Mz. Ruby (her Simon-Says Voodoo game just oozes style). The only negatives I can say is that I'm not too fond of one-hit-kill deaths since I find them annoying though at least you get unlimited continues, and the other is the game is pretty short. Other than that, this is a good game that started a franchise.

On September 24, 2002 I bought Sly Cooper on a whim and little did I know that this game would end up being the greatest platform game ever made. One of the best "hunch" buys I ever made.

Sly Cooper is as close to perfection as a platformer can reach. Outstanding story, superb "cel-shaded (toon-shaded)" graphics, excellent and easy to use controls, fine music, and tons of unlockables and replay value make this game worth getting now that it's a PS2 Greatest Hits game.

Sly Cooper is the latest in a line of Thief Raccoons; thieves so great that they don't steal from regular folks, but from other thieves. When Sly was 8, he was to inherit the Thievius Raccoonus, which contained all the secrets to their success. On the eve of his 8th birthday, 5 master thieves broke into his house, killed his father, and stole the TR away. Sly then lived in an orphanage for 10 years before plotting his revenge against those who offed his father. He met up with Bentley, a genius-geek turtle who lets him know what traps are in his way as he goes and Murray, a hippo who's their wheel-man. Together, the trio make an awesome team.

There's also Carmelita Montoya Fox, a police detective who's been trying to arrest Sly for his prior crimes. It's kind of an homage to the Duke boys and Roscoe.

Sly Cooper goes through five worlds, trying to reach the boss. Along the way, he can open safes that can get him more powers because they contain pages of the Thievius Raccoonus. He must destroy all the bottles to open the safe. You'll go through beautiful, easy to traverse levels that are interspersed by great mini-games. You'll race around a track as Murray, try to keep Murray from being assaulted by enemies as he tries to collect a key, and play Robotron-style levels. The final level is just like a bunch of mini-games put together as a level. There's so much variety. The game relies on some stealth, as you must avoid tripping alarms and traps in each level. The boss levels are awesome, too. One boss has you using Parappa The Rapper button presses to defeat her.

With lots of secrets like "director's commentaries" and film clips to unlock. this game is filled with stuff to do. It's a little short, but I'm sure you'll want to play this one multiple times. For $20 U.S., it's a no-brainer; buy it!

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoon is has aged very well proven to be easily one of my personal favorite PlayStation 2 games. The heist story was nicely told that has given the characters great backstories both the main characters and the villains. The gameplay is fantastic in platform gaming, bosses and sometimes racing. All the pages that unlocks new moves makes the game awesome. The cutscene animation in 2D is comically brilliant. And the graphics in this is one of the best platform gaming style as 3D gaming has began to experiment something new during the early 2000s. I know there's a lot of 2000s kids like me that have grew up with that decade's gaming when it comes to platform. If you're nostalgic for that era, I definitely recommend this game. But if you don't have a PS2, you can also play it on PS3 on The Sly Collection. It's sad that after 2013, the game franchise wasn't relevant to games anymore. I mean, it wouldn't be on PS4 at that time. The timing playing this game is indeed a perfect one considering it has been 20 years since it first release. So maybe PlayStation will probably make it relevant again later in the year. This has given the franchise an excellent start and I'm looking forward to play the other games soon.