After finishing my Jak marathon, I knew that I had to get my ass in gear and finally replay one of my most beloved series growing up, and something I still hold dearly to this day. As mentioned in my Jak 1 review, I was the kid that grew up with Sucker Punch Studio's Sly series of the PS2 Platformer Trio, having played 1, 3, and then 2 growing up. As such, forgive me if there's any sort of nostalgia bias at play, I can't really hold it in when discussing this franchise for a bunch of reasons. Regarding these games, the reviews might be longer than what I've usually done so far since I've got a good amount of things to say having played the OG trilogy, and mulling some thought over the fourth one, for so many years.

I'm sticking with PCSX2 and not RPCS3 for emulating the PS2 trilogy, and even despite owning the games physically, since 1) while I do think RPCS3 is a better emulator, I don't... exactly trust that HD remaster from all that I've looked into, so I'm playing it safe (especially since recent PCSX2 devbuilds fix some of the issues and makes them majorly smooth as butter), and 2) playing a game from before HDTVs were a standard, as some might gather, is not a good time unless you like having the screen be darker than it should!

Anyway, preamble over, starting the review off with the writing, which I honestly still dig despite the depth not being nearly as strong as 2 and 3 as I'll get into them. If Jak 1's story was, to put it plainly, a low priority, and Ratchet & Clank 1 was a satirical romp that delves into making an asshole into a Decent Fella (though with a rocky result from what I've seen and know, but I'll actually play it one day to see), then Sly 1's in the middle, being a more humble and simple game that has Sly, Bentley, and Murray be the "wiseguy", "fidgety brainiac", and "the feeble muscle" be... well still like that, but better than they were at the beginning. The trio's dynamic and writing isn't all figured out yet, since it feels more like they're just coworkers begrudgingly working together for a common goal, but it never really gets bad or detracting from the overall experience. I forgot how Carmelita Fox is more so a distraction than an actual character in this game though, not helping is that compared to the Cooper Trio and the villainous group Fiendish Five, her VA isn't all that up to snuff by comparison. In fact I always forget how standard her Straight Edge Cop voice was in this game, and it miiiiiiiight actually be my least-preferred voice of hers of the four games (which, to this day, I don't really get why this happens so often), but I'm replaying 2 next whose VA I found to be rather bored by the experience, so I'll know by then.

Back on the Fiendish Five though, they consist of Raleigh, Mugshot, Mz. Ruby, Panda King, and Clockwork, and they're all damn good, both from a design perspective and having memorable personality. Again, 1 is simpler than the others, but it makes up for it by having such strong voice casts, as well as their overall aesthetics in their level and general look being eyecatching. Special mention goes to Clockwork, who even to this day remains one of my all-time favorite villains, due to all the blanks and intrigue he brings to the table due to his connection with the Cooper Family. In fact, the whole presentation of the game still stands pretty strongly to this day, even despite me upscaling the game on PCSX2. Very great use of color direction for the overall vibe of the world you're currently in, the rough, comic noir style that I don't think needs much to say since EVERYONE rightfully talks about it being great, distinct animation and little touches to make even the enemies standout from the usual crowd, I'm still stunned by the amount of stuff I find to this day. The only critique I can make are that some of the models were rather rough, that's about it.

As far as I'm concerned, the only aspects you'll find plenty of wrinkles in, is the gameplay, but even then there's only like, a few I'd say are major issues. Now getting this out of the way, this by far leans the heaviest into the platforming aspect, being dubbed as a Stealth Crash game, since 2 focuses more on the mission-based trio dynamic, 3 does a mixture of those styles, and 4... I think 4 tries to do what 3 did again, but I haven't played that in years. Regardless, I can at least say the controls are great feeling even today. There were very rare moments were I felt like it was more so on the controls and/or game design itself than on me, as well as enemy tells and their positioning being majorly fair. As for the few times it does feel like it's on the game, there's the occasional jank like ledge-grab shenanigans, some of the circle button usage overlapping with each other near the end, and issues I'm not sure if it's on me, the emulator, or the age in general like the jump attack sometimes turning you around. There were a couple times the camera got stuck on stuff, but since I usually use the widescreen hacks PCSX2 have, I'm willing to bet that's the reason instead (and even then, these moments were few and far between that I don't exactly think it's that big a deal, but YMMV). Alongside all that, the game is pretty damn easy, even easier if you have any skill in the genre. Now this isn't the case of "I played this game a lot so I find it easy", you can basically cruise through levels by collecting a ton of coin and breaking shit or defeating enemies for those, and be topped off with two lucky charms (this game's equivalent to Aku-Aku), and then from there on a new life if you manage to do so without getting hit. If you STILL have some trouble, you can even exploit how saving/loading works by going to a hub world - preferably the first one - nab all the lives and lucky charms there, save, reload it, and not only are those lives and LC pickups registered, you can go and collect those again, in the same spots. By the time you hit that final world, either normally or with that exploit, you'll have plenty of lives available to clear the challenges that await there.

Something I think could've used more fine tuning, less so because of its feel and more so how it was executed, is the Clue bottles you find in these levels. The amount in each one differs - usually they're within the 20-40 range - but collect enough of them and you, essentially, get a new ability... that are pretty worthless for the most part. They're either too situational to use all the time, or just flat out aren't needed altogether. I think S2 handled these ability rewards a little worse, but I definitely remember that the way they're handled in the new sandbox element of that game is worse than here since it's contained solely within the linear platforming levels, and not the actual hub itself, but I'll get into it when I get into it. Overall, if it wasn't for the fact they're tied to a "true" ending, as well as them being pretty much easy to find and nab to begin with, I wouldn't really bother going after them in each playthrough. I never do the time trials though, so I've yet to "100%" the game, if you want to be technical.

On that note, there's the absolute worst aspect of the game, the minigames. Now I say "worst", but it's really more like they're a big mixed bag you pretty much have to put up with. They're supposed to spruce up the playing field into being an arcade attraction, and while some work (most turret sections, twin-stick shooters), others are pure chores to complete (racing events as Murray of which there's thankfully two of, the chicken coop, and the second level of the last world). It's the one aspect I agree with critics on cause it's really hard to ignore, and even harder to try and lessen the tedium over, but THANKFULLY there's more platforming-based challenges to compensate.

Final thing to mention are the boss fights and they're pretty alright actually? I remember them being really weak too but as whole they're actually pretty fun for the most part, and they're interesting from a design standpoint since most are varied from each other. Raleigh's a standard no-frills fight, Mugshot has you running to then hitting mirrors to turn them around and light up crystals, Ruby's a Not Good rhythm game you have to do in oneshot since there's like, no checkpoints, and I know it's worsened in the HD Collection due to how they added, or at least, changed, some of the sounds and therefore inadvertently messed up the timing on, Panda King's another standard fight that's pathetically easy, and Clockwork has about three phases worth, two of which center around a jetpack that doesn't control too bad all things considered. I'm pretty sure this is the only game to have such dynamically altered boss encounters, since I know 2, 3, and 4 focus more on fisticuff stuffs, but I could be wrong.

Everything said though, I still think Sly 1's a fantastic game even to this day, and is an essential one any platforming enthusiast should play one day. It might've showed its growing pains when comparing to the improvements or other changes made in the following sequels, but there's a reason it not only captivated a lot of children like myself back in its release, but also how there's still a select few that say it's the best entry in the series after all these years.

Reviewed on Aug 09, 2022


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