Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

""Winner of the best made up word in a title" -OPM"

“Something happened while playing Sly that I've never experienced before.”

- John Davison, editor in chief of the Official Playstation Magazine

For several months now, the game Sly Cooper has been sitting on every game shop throughout the nation. Until recently, this game has earned to be a Playstation 2 Greatest Hit and rightfully so. With a unique cartoony twist, the game stood well against other platform games like Ratchet and Clank. What appealed to gamers the most is the fact that the game is rendered in “Cell (or as Sucker Punch would like to say, toon) shaded” form. “What is cell shading?” you might ask. Well settle down and read some more to find out. While you’re at it, might as well enjoy other positive influences coming from the game.

As little Sly Cooper grew up, a group of five malevolent fiends ransacked the Cooper house and stole the most treasured items that they can find. One of them is the book of all the Cooper's various techniques used for thievery, The Thievius Raccoonus. As years go by, Sly grew up and meet two friends. One was the ultra smart Bentley the turtle and Murray the get away driving hippo. As they grew to be adults in Paris, Sly is ready to steal back what was rightfully his in the first place. Time to get the book back from those fiendish five!

The controls cannot be any sweeter in a platform game than this. Aside the normal moving via directional pad, all jumping is done by pressing the X button. To use Sly's mighty cane, simply press the square button. To use the normal stealth tactics learned by cracking a giant safe, press the triangle button. Now to use the most innovated and highly prioritized stealth tactics learned by beating a boss, press circle. That's all the controls needed to know to pass most of the first level. It's fun experimenting and testing other buttons on the field, no?

This game is what you get when you cross Metal Gear with Disney-like animation. You’re controlling a slick raccoon through various stages as he bypasses guards with vision limited to a range of a flashlight. The stages are kind of short; however, are wonderfully rendered. Haiti hasn't looked so messed up (even in cartoon form) in a long time. Still, themes of the various worlds play a vital role of keeping the excitement alive. Transitioning between the swamplands of Haiti to a more traditional Chinese look is really fascinating. One cool feature is that there are a lot of mini-games in the game. Games may range from catching chickens to a cool sniper mission, either way it’s great to play when your bored and don't want to progress storyline-wise.

Aside from the typical running from point A to point B, Sly Cooper adds two more tasks to complete...an easy one and a hard one. The easy one involves collecting an amount of bottles with clues inside. The purpose of this is the fact that there's a big safe in most of the levels and those clues help decipher and crack the shell. Normally there are additional Cooper moves from Sly's ancestors to learn. Now the hard task is a time trial task. It's hard to illustrate in words so it's better if you guys to try it out for yourselves. Let's put it this way, I've own the game for a month now and I only finished two of them.

Now we have reached the part where I normally talk about the graphics in all of my reviews. Right now you guys might be thinking about, ''So what's cell shading about?'' Well hold that thought, I'll break my rules and talk about the music first.

The background music of the game is basically five tracks (that I've noticed). The all help give the audio effect of a casino or a swampland in vibrant sound. The cool thing is when Sly does a stealth tactic, like hiding behind walls, the volume of the music will be reduced and you can here the tiptoe noise of Sly’s feet. Only a cartoon can do that so well. I like the third boss fight the most. (SPOILER!!!) Miss Ruby puts gamers through a musical fight involving pressing buttons according to the catchy beat. It's like Parappa if you want to compare. Very fun for someone who like those kinds of games, like me. (END OF SPOILER!!!)

This time there are no jokes. I'll tell you what cell shading is. If you guys ever watched South Park, then it's easy to explain. Just imagine Stan or the other people in front of a 3D environment. The rough yet, bright 2D raccoon is perfectly noticeable compared to 3D background that's around it. I love the way this is orchestrated beautifully to make the game feel like a controllable cartoon. For some reason with the Thievius Raccoonus and the cool raccoon main character, I can't help but feel the urge to watch a Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner cartoon.

Pros
- Cool characters, gameplay, sound, and visuals
- Environment changes
- Now it's around $20.

Cons
- About 10-20 hours long
- No different difficulty settings
- One player game

Sly Cooper (Thievius Raccoonus) is the coolest and funniest looking platform I've played since Super Mario World 3. With all the hard challenges, witty dialogue, chic main characters, the fun never stops...well eventually it can. This game may have a short life, but I guarantee that life will be cherished by it's owner. By the way, the title is true. OPM did give Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus the award for best made up name in a gaming title for the made up word “Thievius.” Great job Sucker Punch!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/19/03