Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

I saw this game on shelves many years ago and was keen on the new character of Sly Cooper, but I had a Gamecube, not a PS2, and thus it was not an option. With the new HD remaster available I gave the game a chance and, while it's a bit dated in terms of gameplay, it is a fun and non-stressful.

You play as the titular raccoon, a master thief from a long line of master thieves who travels the world on various heists while fighting multiple anthropomorphic furries. It reminded me a lot of the Scooby-Doo games of the same era. The only thing that bugged me was the horrendous voice-acting from the guy who actually plays Sly. He was just awful, and since the cut-scenes are unskippable you HAD to listen to him.

Quite easy for the most part though, and a fun game that won't have you tearing your hair out.

Have you've ever picked up one of those games you thought would be really bad, but instead you fell in love with at first game playing session? This is what happened with me!

The story, as expected, follows our protagonist, Sly Cooper (who comes from a long line of thieves), as he searches for the pages of his family's heirloom, the Thievius Raccoonus, which holds all of the family's thieving. You see, when Sly was just a young cub, five intruders showed up in his home and murdered his father. As if that wasn't bad enough, these five fiends also stole all of the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus. Fast forward a few years later, after Sly has met his pals Murray, the clumsy but brave hippo and Bentley, the worrywart, geeky turtle and now you have the present time of the game!

While Sly adventures, he will have the aid of tight and intuitive controls, smooth animation, his special cane (which is useful for hooking on to objects and whacking foes) and pages he collects that unlock more moves for him, whether you chose to collect them or not. And what would a thief be without stealth moves? You WILL be making Sly sneak along walls whenever you see a blue aura, which assists you as you progress through the game.

The worlds Sly travels within are very gorgeous to look at. With a combination of cel-shading and cartoony graphics, this game will provide you with plenty of eye candy. Unfortunately, the view is ruined whenever the frame rate drops and strangely, it rarely happens when there are enemies on the screen, nor does it ever really hamper with your game play.

This game is jam-packed with variety. You'll never be bored. Heck, how often do you get extremely entertaining chase scenes on rooftops or with fireworks? Or a unique boss battle that plays like a rhythm game? Speaking of which, the five villains aren't the only folks you must deal with! Being a thief, you're also going to get chased by the police. Namely: Carmelita Fox, who also happens to be Sly's love interest (or so it seems).

The characters, before I forget, have excellent voice acting (most of the time)! They truly set a mood to the game, something that is rare these days! Sucker Punch truly has great taste in voice acting (well, except Carmelita--she sounds a bit overdone sometimes).

So, top all of this goodness off with a $20 price tag and what do you get? A game you should go and get now!

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!

This game is very good for it's generation but it don't passes the second game the second is the best of the series. I like the final boss because he's very powerful and you must go to the first level to collect lives in order to beat him. And believe me this is the last game i played from the series. First i played Sly 2 then Sly 3 and finally Sly 1. They were all great. I can play them all because i own the Sly Trilogy for the PlayStation 3. The only bad thing about this game is the lives you must collect a few in order to beat hard bosses. But play this game is very good and it contains amazing stages. My favorite is Ruby's swamp.

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!