"Sly Cooper & The Thievius Raccoonus" review

Made in 2002 by Sucker Punch Productions, "Sly Cooper" was set loose into the world of gaming. Unfortunately, the game went by mostly unnoticed, and sold poorly. Despite highly positive reviews, it didn't seem to appeal to the general public. It may have been because it was a kid's game with a thief as the main character, it may have been because of a lack of good promotion, with the exception of a few TV spots, or maybe it's because the general public were playing "Jak & Daxter" and "Ratchet & Clank", even though game critics liked "Sly Cooper" more than the other PS2 games. The game gained a cult following, and managed to get enough money to make a series. Was this game worth the public rejection?


"Sly Cooper" is about an anthropomorphic raccoon who was born into a family of thieves, dating back to the Egyptians. The Coopers kept all their biographies & secrets to stealing in an ancient book.... The Thievius Raccoonus! It was guide on how to steal from master criminals. The Coopers would never steal from ordinary people, because they saw no challenge in that. When Sly turned eight years old, he was supposed to get the book, but his birthday was interrupted when a gang known as "The Fiendish Five" killed Sly's parents & stole the Thievius Raccoonus. They broke it into five parts, and went to other parts of the world. Sly was then sent to an orphanage, where he meat his soon-to-be life long friends, Bentley the turtle & Murray the hippo. Ten years later, Sly and his two friends are now eighteen, and have started their quest to get the Thievius Raccoonus back & avenge Sly's parents' death, while trying to avoid being busted by Inspector Carmelita Fox.

GAME PLAY

The game is a simple platformer like Mario 64. The goal of each level is to get through the level & find a key, once you've found all the keys, you can then advance to the next boss. Also like Mario 64, each world is a hub where you can choose which order to do the missions.

For a platformer, the game is fairly difficult, because you die with one hit, unless you have a lucky horse shoe, witch you can get by collecting 100 coins, or just find a horse shoe on the ground. If you get two horse shoes, than it'll take three hits before you die. I would recommend that when you unlock the next boss level, to collect two horse shoes before going in.

DESIGN

The game's graphics may look like crap by today's standards, but back in 2002, they where phenomenal. The art design is still pretty good though. The srt design in this game looks like a Saturday morning cartoon.
HITS

Great game play
Good story
Great art design

MISSES

Gets a little repetitive
The one-hit kill can VERY annoying in a boss battle

OVERALL: This game is VERY underrated. You should check it out some time soon.


8 / 10