Having played the other mascot platformers of the PS2 era (Jak, Ratchet and Clank), I found myself eager to see what I was missing out on with the remaining one I hadn't touched upon yet.

The story revolves around Sly, a thief who had his family's book of techniques stolen by a bunch of more corrupt thieves. He and his sidekicks Bentley and Murray go on escapades into each thief's hideout in order to steal them back. Every chapter is treated like a self-contained episode, title card and all. I feel like there's very little character development in this cast. It's no deal breaker, the focus is on the gameplay, but it does leave something to be desired.

I feel like the most distinct part of Sly Cooper is the graphics. I'm not sure it's proper cel-shading, but the outlines around the characters really add to that "comic book" feel. Everything from the character models to the levels are colorful and cartoony. The character models in particular have really fluid and expressive movements. All the characters are even fully voice-acted.

The music in Sly Cooper isn't particularly memorable in my opinion, but it makes up for it with a combination of dynamic and diegetic sound design. Music shifts to a more quiet, careful tone when using sneaking abilities, and more action-packed, frantic beats when spotted or in combat. On top of that, you've also got subtle touches like Sly's footsteps being accompanied by the faint plucking of guitar strings, escalating in a scale as you run around.

Truthfully, I approached this game under the false assumption that it would be a stealth game. Instead, I was greeted by a linear 3D plaformer with collectathon, stealth, and puzzle elements. Like the animations, control of Sly is really fluid. The main levels all use his moveset in ways that flow together smoothly, and leave a strong positive impression. Hidden in each main stage is a varying amount of clue bottles, which can be used to open up that stage's safe. The fact that each safe contains a new page of the Thevius Racoonus, and by extension a new ability, is a really ingenious way to keep me searching for the clue bottles in levels. Even when the ability gained isn't useful in the slightest, it's typically still neat regardless.

The parts of the game that really tried my patience were the minigame stages, and to an extent, the quirkier boss fights. At best, I tolerated the minigame stages. At worst, I dreaded them. The moment I realized you had to clear every stage in a hub to move on, I had a sinking feeling I'd encounter a problem like this. I enjoy the standard stages so much that I don't want to leave them, and be forced to play a weird minigane to progress. To make matters worse, the final gauntlet of challenges was essentially a playlist packed full of these minigames, which may or may not have soured how I look back on the rest of the game.

I think it's safe to say that I only enjoyed about half of what Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus had to offer. The artwork, character designs, and standard levels are great fun, but everything else kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't think it's a bad game as a whole, but I'd expect a decent bit of resistance if you decide to play it yourself.

Platformers from this era are so numerous and largely the same. Cartoony characters, collectathon platforming, and insufferable mini-games. That said, I liked this game a lot.

The platforming levels are all pretty enjoyable and the game feels nice to control. Although, there is the occasional jank with swinging and climbing. The aforementioned insufferable mini-games aren't great, but they're not obnoxious enough to ruin the experience. It comes close at the end of the game though. I didn't use most of the bonus upgrades, but they're fun rewards for collecting all the clues in each level. I know a lot of people who grew up with this game and still love it. I'd say it mostly holds up. Excited to check out the sequels.

[Breve análise]

É uma pena eu não ter conhecido Sly Cooper antes, é o tipo de jogo que eu teria adorado quando criança. Os personagens são extremamente carismáticos e a história é muito agradável de acompanhar, tudo isso combina perfeitamente com o clima do jogo, nada parece fora do lugar. Tem uma ou outra fase decepcionante, assim como alguns upgrades inúteis, mas ainda sim é muito divertido ir atrás de todos eles.

8.5/10

Replayed the PS Now version on a whim. managed to platinum it in a couple days, which is crazy because it took me months as a kid.

I still have my issues (the Mz Ruby chapter and god awful boss fight, the races, the twin-stick shooter sections), but I can’t deny this game’s charm. Muggshot and Panda King’s chapters are just a total blast and the art style still looks great. it’s definitely undercooked (especially compared to Sly 2) but it’s still really good fun. wish they still made games like this

Can be a little unforgiving with how you don't regenerate your horseshoes after dying (definitely took me a lot longer than I would have liked during the 3rd boss and final boss) and has some jank with the driving minigame, particularly in how tough it can be to turn the van without losing speed. The main platforming, however, is a huge strength. It's not a super technical 3D platformer at all, yet you feel so powerful and accomplished just slinking your way through these crazy looking levels with a few buttons, set alongside fantastic comic book visuals (cel shading never ages) and a great soundtrack. Very much looking forward to playing Sly 2 in the near future.

As the start of a new mascot platforming series launching around the turn of the millennium, one might assume Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus would stand as nothing but a sloppy first step for a long abandoned IP, but I was delighted to realize this assumption of mine was misguided, at least for the most part. In an effort to make a title that stood out from other games released for the PS2 in 2002, as well as potentially compete with the competition on Nintendo's platform, Sucker Punch aimed to make a platformer that played as smoothly as the aesthetic it was draped under. Setting the game around a globe-trotting adventure following the escapades of a sneaky Raccoon and his fellow band of misfits was already a recipe for success as far as I was concerned, but managed to be elevated even further by its gameplay.

Following in the approach of its narrative, Sly Cooper leans into a more adventure oriented design philosophy when it comes to its various locales, focussing less on gamey platforming playgrounds and more on the feeling of scavenging through organic feeling levels and environments. One of my favorite elements to the game is absolutely the levels themselves, once you reach a new level, there's basically no breaks until you complete the objective at hand, which more often than not tasks the player with collecting a few trinkets that tie into the level itself in some way. While I could have gone without Sly’s disembodied head being scattered throughout levels to give you more lives, I love how the game goes out of its way to make some of its more gamey elements feel a bit more diegetic. You’re not breaking boxes to fill an imaginary quota or collecting Stars to bring power to a castle, you’re collecting keys to open locks or finding pages of Sly’s family handbook to unlock more abilities focussed on the art of thievery. The platforming is pretty basic compared to other games of its ilk, but these little elements go a long way towards making the experience stand out from the crowd.

Thankfully, even while traversal isn’t necessarily taxing, Sucker Punch added just enough flourishes to Sly’s kit to make progression feel smooth and satisfying for the entire runtime of the game. Through the use of a single multi-purpose stealth button, Sly is able to interact with the world around him in practically any way you see fit to sneak by undetected. Hiding along walls, climbing up poles, sneaking on overhead wires, you name it. Everything lends further credence to the idea that you’re a master thief sticking your nose in spots you're not supposed to.

Unfortunately, the game’s design cohesion is not completely airtight. My statement earlier on the levels feeling organic is only partially true. While it's correct that each individual section is laid out in a way that makes it feel like a more believable place, each area is generally connected to a central hub that splits off into segmented levels through Super Mario 64-esque portals where the game warps you to a new section of the map. Sadly this is an element to the experience I can’t say I’m fond of. It may feel pedantic to rag on something as small as this, but when the rest of the experience goes out of its way to feel organic in its pacing and progression, it makes something like this stand out pretty hard. I tend not to care about it in something as whimsical as SM64, but I suppose I expected something more, forward thinking(?) for a game with a world as confident and grounded as this (ironic given the fact that the leads are anthropomorphized animals scouring the globe for the missing pages of a book)

The strength of the level design also tends to get lost when you’re stuck performing arduous mini-games that are clearly only there to extend the runtime or occasionally give Sly’s fellow thieves something to do on the field. It was a bit of a shame to see such a colorful cast of characters mostly swept to the side in place of the admittedly fun and charismatic Sly. It makes me wish there were a version of this group where overcoming obstacles felt more like a collaborative effort, rather than Sly doing everything himself and dragging his friends along

I could go on about smaller nitpicks like the mostly forgettable bosses or other teeny world-breaking elements, but on the whole I greatly enjoyed my time with this. Despite my issues with how it all ties together, a strong foundation was clearly laid with this game and I don’t think that should go overlooked. All it would take is some rethinking of the level structure, some extra polish on the objectives, and maybe a better balance between the cast, and I think you'd have a game that truly makes the thief motif shine. (I wonder what a game like that would look like 🗿)