Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

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.