Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

aka: Kaitō Sly Cooper, Sly Raccoon
Moby ID: 7647
PlayStation 2 Specs
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Description official descriptions

Sly Cooper is the latest in a long line of master thieves. When he was a kit, a gang called the Fiendish Five killed his family and divided up their book on the art of thieving: the Thievius Raccoonus. Sly must defeat all the members of the gang to recover the book while evading Carmelita Fox, a police officer chasing him around the world to apprehend him.

This game is divided into five worlds, each themed around a particular part of the world and the villain headquartered there. Most worlds are structured as a central hub with entrances to numerous individual levels. Each of the levels has a primary goals which earns you a key. You must collect all the keys in the world to fight the world's boss.

Many of the levels have a platformer structure. The objective of these worlds is to reach the location of the key. There are substantial stealth elements here as you must dodge searchlights and trips lasers which set off alarms and avoid alerting guards. In addition to the main objective, there are clue bottles to find. Finding all the clues in a level allows you to open a safe with a page from the Thievius Raccoonus which grants a new ability of some sort. After getting this, there is also a master thief sprint where you must get from the start of a level to the exit within a time limit.

There are also mini-game levels which could be kart-style racing, several varieties of shooter or assorted other tasks, such as collecting objects before your enemies do.

Boss fights also run to several styles, ranging from platforming, to more straightforward combat to puzzles to rhythm to shooter.

All artwork is done in a cel-shaded style and dialogue is fully voiced.

Spellings

  • 怪盗 スライ・クーパー - Japanese spelling
  • 怪盜史庫柏 - Traditional Chinese spelling
  • 슬라이쿠퍼: 전설의 비법서를 찾아서 - Korean spelling (Hangul)

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

93 People (80 developers, 13 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 84% (based on 27 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 48 ratings with 5 reviews)

Perfect

The Good
Sly Cooper is a modern platformer made by some nobodies named Sucker Punch. Fortunately, this game will make them famous.

The visuals, firstly, are amazing. Cel shading was an appropriate method for a game of this story and plot. Sly Cooper moves with a brisk frame rate across amazingly eye-catching backgrounds. These backgrounds are one of the highlights. They are so well made, they look so good, that you have to see them again.

In the topic of backgrounds, it is also mentionable that these areas are created so well, so logically. Unlike other games, you will always know what to do, instead of walking around deciding what to do. This makes playing the game fun, but not repetitive.

Fun little mini-games are also in here, like a crab game, and a shoot on a platform game. These are fun and nice to play over and over. The control scheme is refreshingly simple. Jump, attack and a special sneak action button. Its amazing how much this button can do in different scenarios.

The Bad
No flaws in this game at all.

The Bottom Line
Sucker Punch has made a winner. If Mario'd enough, and are looking for a good platfomer, I truly believe that this game will make you think Mario was a joke. The visuals, smooth gameplay makes playing it so fun. Some people think it's short, but they just can't admit that the reason they finished it in three days, was because they just couldn't put the controller down for hours when they played. If you have a PS2, i pity you for not having this game. Go get it right now. Sly Cooper and the Thieivus Raccoonus deserves a solid 5 out of 5*

PlayStation 2 · by ThE oNe (180) · 2002

An overlooked game. I wonder why.

The Good
Nice-looking backdrops, well-designed main character. Some of the early levels are quite fun.

The Bad
Rather than relying a varied platforms, this game requires you to slide along wires, climb ladders and jump onto tiny flashing points via the use of special moves. Unfortunately the special move (whether's it's jumping onto a three-pixel-wide point or grabbing an overhanging wire with Sly's hooked cane) seem to work only at the whim of the game, so you find yourself falling into oblivion on countless occasions. The racing games are irritating. This is quite the most frustrating game I've played for many years. Like its two sequels (both of which vary between tedious wandering around and frustrating sub-games) this game has little or no replay value to speak of. The characters are cardboard cut-outs and the dialogue between them is tedious. Oh, and Sly is a complete drip. One hit and he's dead.

The Bottom Line
Sly Raccoon is one of a family of thieves. His inheritance, a book selling of the ways of master criminals, was stolen by a gang of hood and is now scattered across the world. So he must brave various platform landscapes in order to find it. On each level there are several areas, each containing a key. Gather all the keys to rescue a piece of the book.

PlayStation 2 · by Gary Smith (13) · 2007

A true guilty pleasure...even for adult gamers

The Good
I hate platformers. I truly do. Even the term itself sounds extremely mundane. When I was a lot younger, I would enjoy the Marios and Sonics of yesteryear. Of course, like most gamers, I've grown up and moved on from the kiddy platforms. With all that behind me I have delved into more crazier, darker games or just much more complex ones. However, along comes a preview and some screenshots of its graphics and I found myself playing this game and finishing it. Despite its cartoony tone and cheeky dialogue, Sly Cooper is a very good game. If given a chance, the game not only appeals to families who love Disney collections but to a much bigger group of gamers than what one might expect. The direction, cutscenes and characters are well designed and animated but what really amazes me is the pacing of the game. There are many games where you play a character that gains abilities as he traverses through the levels gradually. This is one of them. But, when it is tightly wrapped around some pretty interesting puzzles and good story, it is a game that is truly hard to put down. The difficulty of this game isn't that high considering the target audience it was aimed to sell for but it does its job with some really unique game situations not tried in many "platformers". In Sly Cooper, you are mostly a thief trying to retrieve the separated parts of the holy grail known as the Thievius Raccoonus. This is nothing new but the way the game tells the story is. Sly Cooper makes heavy use of cinematic gameplay meaning the game looks plays like a real life cartoon where the camera is always changing. And although you jump around a lot in this game, it isn't frustrating. It is actually enjoyable. In fact, there are parts of the game where the character has the ability to jump at precise spots. Gone are the die-from-the-edge-of-the-cliff days where most platform type games have jump over or under p a particular block floating in mid air. Not Sly Cooper. In the game, you are given a series of objectives but none of the objectives feel pointless, nor do they feel like tedious play. There is actual purpose for everything you do in the game and the objective does not feel like something small you go after. In my own experience, it seems that the bigger the objective the more dire the challenge. Sly Cooper's execution is so well thought out that it would be worth playing again. The boss fights are hilarious and in some cases a puzzle in itself. There is even a sequence in the game where you must sync with the rhythm of the buttons a la Parappa.

The Bad
Other than the fact that it was a platformer, there weren't too many weaknesses. There maybe the occasional annoying dialogue but for the most part it is actually entertaining. You may also get sick of the cel-shaded look of the game. The colors are very vibrant but sometimes too vibrant that you may need to take a break once in awhile. The other gripe is that it is a short-lived ride. Very short. Just when you think the crescendo approaches, it ends.

The Bottom Line
Bottom line? Sly Cooper is a good game that can be easily overlooked for its kiddy and cartoon-like direction. But a deeper look says alot more about what the game offers for all of its audiences.

radcastro.com

PlayStation 2 · by diglot.net (27) · 2006

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Japanese version differences

The Japanese release of the game is somewhat different from the North American and PAL releases. This is most visible in the intro and ending cinematics, which are fully animated instead of using limited flash sequences like in the international versions. There is also a slight dialogue difference, with Carmelita counting down her "10 second head start" instead of Sly. The PAL version has both cutscenes available when unlocked, while the North American version only has the Japanese intro.

Furthermore, the Japanese release has a 3-minute demo of the game with the vocal song Blackjack that appears after 30 seconds of the player's inactivity in the main menu.

Utah inaccuracy

Mesa City, the location of level two of the game is portrayed as being in Utah. In reality it could not be, as the casinos central to this level are outlawed in this majority-LDS state.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by vism.

PS Vita, PlayStation 3 added by GTramp.

Additional contributors: Macintrash, Exodia85, Martin Smith, monkeyislandgirl, Plok, Rik Hideto, FatherJack.

Game added November 3, 2002. Last modified January 28, 2024.