During the rise of the PlayStation 2, many new welcomed platforming mascots were entering the hearts and imaginations of gamers everywhere. After Insomniac and Naughty Dog sold the rights to “Spyro the Dragon” and “Crash Bandicoot” after the PlayStation 1 era, both companies had backup ideas that would lead to Insomniac creating “Ratchet and Clank” and Naughty Dog making “Jak and Daxter.” However, a small company named Sucker Punch Productions had its own idea for a platformer to fit in with the others mentioned before. The name of that game was “Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus.” The game was a stealth-based platformer that unfortunately didn’t do well in sales compared to “Ratchet and Clank” or “Jak and Daxter.” Still, the reception and love it gained over the years helped to elevate this “small game into a household for the PlayStation Pantheon.
The adventure sees Sly Cooper, an anthropomorphic raccoon from a long line of master thieves who is out to avenge his family name after his family was murdered by a group of villains called the Fiendish Five when he was just a little boy. After finding out where his missing pages of a passed-down book called The Thievius Racoonus are, Sly gathers his trusted pals, including brainiac Bentley the Turtle and a clumsy but strong Hippo called Murray. They track down the missing pages and defeat members of the Fiendish Five. Trouble arises though when a cop named Inspector Carmilleta Fox plans to arrest Cooper and put him behind bars. Can Sly redeem his family name before the worst falls upon him and his crew?
The story is zany, with more than enough of an edge to keep older gamers engaged. The narrative's feel is a mix between a looney tunes cartoon and a secret agent adventure. The game has no problem admitting its cartoony identity. It has as much fun as possible with the premise and gives the characters identifiable personalities, heroes, and villains. I was surprised at how much I fell in love with these characters, from the Michious Sly to the Baranic Bentley to the huge with a heart of gold Murray and even the strong-willed and stubborn Carmelltia Fox. even the villains of the Fiendish Five are each given backstories narrated by Sly which in turn provides the player with a surprising amount of worldbuilding and character info. These are stories and characters that did not need to try this hard to be charming and inviting. Still, the people a Sucker Punch worked their wonders to create iconic characters in a constantly fun and surprising narrative.
The gameplay is simple to understand and can be executed in many ways to sneak past the dangers that await you. You’ll mainly play Sly Cooper, as he’ll have to use his abilities to sneak and stealth to defeat enemies and villains to get the missing pages of the Thievius Racoonus which can help sly learn new moves to platform through areas. Every level will have a central hub with many groups for Sly to enter and find keys to unlock areas Sly will need to reach. In each level, there are many clue bottles hidden that, when all are found will help your brainiac pal Bentley give you a combination to unlock a hidden safe that will reveal an extra page of the Thievius Racoonus to give sly new abilities that may seem more minor when compared to his primary abilities but do make a difference when completing complicated bonus challenges such as the Master Theif Sprints that can be unlocked after finding all the clue bottles and unlocking safes. Occasionally, the game will break from sneaking around and introduce side challenges to get more keys to help progress through the levels. Some of these include assisting Murray the Hippo in getting to one of the keys while Sly controls a gun to stop enemies from hurting Murray. Another mini-game that makes a few returns is Murray racing in the van while going up against competing racers. The only real problems I have with the gameplay are the controls for the mini-missions, such as the racing segments. Though I’m not the first to admit this problem, I also wish the game was a little longer. Still, those problems are very minor when compared to the bigger picture because the gameplay makes the most of what it can be, and what transpires is a solid experience that is worthy of being up there with the other video game experiences released around the same time.
The graphics have a very cell-shaded look that Brain Flemming of Sucker Punch Productions called Toon-Shading. The creators wanted Sly Cooper's style to feel like a 3D illustration (Keep in mind that this game came out sixteen years before Into the Spiderverse was a thing). For its time, the visuals look fantastic. The cartoony nature is seen all throughout this game, from the character designs to the backgrounds. It seems even more impressive in the PlayStation 3 port as the visuals' colors and sharpness really shine through. For the most part, the game looks timeless thanks to its Toon-shading technique, even if the character expressions could have been slightly more expressive. Every location the player visits has so much personality through its design and color palette. Also, during the transition to other levels, the game shows 2D animated cutscenes that look like they have been taken straight out of a cartoon from a major studio. These cutscenes drive the story forward and are expressive and engage the player in the characters in the world that Sly Cooper presents. These are great graphics. Though there is some wear and tear from its age, these visuals will no doubt amaze you today as they did back then.
The music was composed by Ashif Hakik, who says his influences for the soundtrack came from many other composers who worked on projects such as “Cowboy Beebop,” “The Pink Panther,” and, not surprisingly, “Looney Tunes.” The game wears its music inspiration up its sleeve and creates musical compositions you’d likely hear from a cartoon show that is zany and classy. Add that with a sound of tiptoeing using a bass, and you have a memorable soundtrack that will no doubt stay in your head even after you are playing it.
I went into this game having little to no expectations, what I found was a charming and well-constructed platformer that helped give me an introduction to a franchise that would become one of my personal gaming favorites. Whether you play it on the Playstation 2 or the ported Playstation 3 version, The experience is all the same. Even though I wish it was longer. Most things in Sly Cooper are executed with great care and with such style that the minor issues don’t seem to bug me to the point of turning this great game down. If you're a fan of platformers and want to see a cartoony adventure that has just as much for younger gamers and older players, then Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonu will no doubt delight you. This franchise was far from over, as there were still many adventures awaiting Sly and the rest of his crew, but his first outing did leave quite an impression.
(Final Grade: A-)