Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (2002)

Absolutely adore this franchise, recently went back after not playing for about a decade and played through the whole game in one sitting.

Edit:

Felt like my original review wasn't very good (just a few short hours later). Here's a real review -

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus is a nice little stealth platformer that's not too easy or too hard. There are some parts though that tear my last statement apart. The Panda King boss fight felt pretty easy and the final fight with Clockwork was so incredibly frustrating and by far took me the longest to win. Everybody dies in one hit even you, though you can grab floating Sly heads for extra lives and you even get a horseshoe on your back letting you know if you can take a hit and live or not. It's what I would call a "linear-open world" game, you have "main levels" that sort of act as a hub for selecting what actual level you want to play and you can play the levels in any order you want, but you have to beat every level to continue the story. Although the majority of the game is fairly easy, it only took around 6-1/2 to 7 hours for me to beat the game, there are a few sections of the game that really gets me frustrated. As mentioned earlier the final fight against clockwork was awful. You have to complete (from memory) about 3-4 stages before you fight Clockwork, but once you get to him you have like 3 phases to fight through, all with the same amount of lives you started with! That's right, if you went into the level with 5 lives, you have to beat all of those stages with those 5 lives. Pretty standard for old games but I would hardly consider Sly Cooper to be a retro or even old game, especially since it came out the year I was born.

But even with how frustrating Clockwork was, nothing was more frustrating than the two rc car levels. The first one was frustrating enough, everybody goes the same speed and the only way you can "get ahead" is by picking up boosts. The only problem is everybody goes the same speed and the bots seem to go faster than you when convenient for them, and they can pick up the boosts too! They can't use the boosts, but they can pick them up! The first level only took me about 2-4 tries, but the second level?? My god, that probably took me 20-30 minutes and like 30 attempts. The track itself is incredibly bumpy and polygonal with ice scattered around. At least in the first level I could make it to fourth or third place even when I was losing, but in level two I couldn't make it out of last place until I won the race! As mentioned above, you have to complete every level to continue the story and these two rc race levels are no exception.

All in all, it's a pretty good game that has a decent story. The series only gets better from here though so if you're thinking of picking up this game or series, it's a nice addition to anyone's collection.

This game smacks. Probably my favorite 3D platformer of its time. Got the urge to replay the series this week and slapped this one in. It holds up for the most part. Some controls are a little funky, but the level design, aesthetics and overall pacing of the game are very very nice.

I'd give it 5 stars if not for the last level. I really hate the last level of this game.

I think what makes a great last level is making it feel like a culmination of everything you've done and unlocked prior. The entire Clockwerk level in this game is not that. It's a series of frustrating minigames with poorly spaced checkpoints that hardly let you use any of the abilities you've unlocked throughout the course of the game, both those you get for finishing the main areas of the game and those you unlock from collecting clue bottles and opening vaults.

Banger game overall, excited to replay 2 and 3. I will not be revisiting 4.

After enjoying Ghost of Tsushima so much, I thought it would be fun to go back to one of Sucker Punch's earlier games. I was expecting something similar in scope to Jak and Daxter (which debuted almost a year prior), but Sly's scope feels much closer to that of its 32- and 64-bit forebears (particularly Crash's linear levels and Spyro's enemies).

But what it might lack in ambition it makes up for in approachability and consistency. Checkpoints are frequent and merciful (especially during boss battles), collectibles are rewarding and realistically attainable, and the whole adventure feels solid from start to finish. This was fun to play through in a weekend, and I'll definitely give its sequel a whirl.

(Played on PlayStation 3 via The Sly Collection)

Finished story and reached credits

Final thoughts: All I originally knew about this series was it's essentially one of the major gateway titles that turn people into furries, though I've personally never played this game in my childhood. XD

Overall it's an easy but solid platformer where the platforming is floaty but precise for the most part. However, there have been times when the hook swing + pole leaping segments did not register leading to instadeath. Also, I found some of the minigames to be rather frustrating due to the difficulty, and they are abundant that they start messing with the flow to me.

The comic book style, especially for the cutscenes, is flashy and the environments still hold up well. The character models do the job but are a bit simplistic.

As a debut title, Sly 1 has great ideas but it does feel a bit unrefined occasionally. I look forward to the next two games as that's where I hear Sly shines the brightest.

Buen diseño de niveles, aunque no asombra. Se queda corto con respecto a otros juegos tanto en variedad como en duración (apenas 7 horas me bastaron para terminarlo). Los poderes son poco útiles en su mayoría y la forma de intercambiarlos entre si es muy lenta. Tiene algunos problemas de cámara.

Los gráficos están excelentes para la época. Sigue siendo perfectamente jugable gracias a su apartado artístico. La música también esta muy bien y la historia entretiene, los personajes son carismáticos.

Muy entretenido pero podría haber sido mas. Espero que la secuela sea superior.

I recently stayed in an very odd Airbnb in Washington DC. Every single surface in the small apartment was plastered with American imagery and iconography. Everything that could conceivably be in the shape of the USA was in the shape of the USA, probably painted in the style of an American flag. It was oppressively patriotic. In the entertainment center, there was a PS4 Pro next to a proudly displayed DVD of America: What Would We Do Without Her?, a much-maligned little piece of ultra-conservative documentary film-making. Really gross, xenophobic, problematic stuff. Clearly, the person who owns this place had some very strong opinions about this country and wasn't afraid to shout them loudly and proudly to whoever wanted to stay at their place. Hell, maybe it was just a little song and dance to try to corner the America Super-Fan demographic. After all, it is DC, our nation's capitol. So it makes some sense to cater to that specific hyper-patriotic type of tourist.

The PS4 Pro struck me as particularly odd, though. The fact that this person would buy a high end game console to play some propaganda DVDs just doesn't add up. They must have some games to go with this thing, right? But what games could someone like this want to play? As I walked over to rummage around in the back of the shelf, I though to myself:

"It's probably like... Sly Cooper or something."

Imagine my shock and awe when the first game that I pulled out from the back of this dark shelf was THAT VERY THING.

It was the PS3 HD collection to be specific, which as far as I know, can't even be played on a PS4 Pro. But what is it about this game that would have caused it to jump immediately to my mind? Why would I conflate this cartoonish stealth-based platfomer about a raccoon with this strange person I've never met and definitely would not ever like to meet? I don't know how else to describe other than... it kinda makes sense. But I can't quite put my finger on why. A strange riddle within a cursed enigma.

DC was lovely though. 3/5 Stars.

PS: The only other game they had was Madden... obviously.