Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus reviewed

When I purchased Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus I didn't know what I was really getting myself into.  All I knew about the game was that it existed, it was part of a franchise and it was ten dollars.  I thought it was cheap enough for me to give this a go and see if I would want to play the other two games in the Sly Cooper franchise.  So do I want to play the other two Sly Cooper games?  Did I have a good amount of fun playing the first one?  Let's answer these questions as we dive into Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus.

Sly Cooper is a lovable scamp that comes from a long, long, horrifically long line of master thieves.  All of the Coopers have created and contributed to the book of the Thievius Racoonus, which is the tools and tricks for thieves to become master thieves.  However, on the day Sly is set to inherit the Thievius Racoonus the evil Fiendish Five breaks in the house, kills Sly's dad, steals the Thiefivius Racoonus and rips it apart to scatter it across the world.  Sly is taken to the orphanage where he meets Bentley, a turtle that does the intel, and Murray, a hippo that drives the van, to help him with Sly's thieving.  So now that Sly is a man, he's out to get back his book and to exact some revenge.  And there's this cop, Carmelita Fox,

The shining element in Sly Cooper is the look of the game.  It's all done in cel-shading, similar to Viewtiful Joe but not wasted in a crappy, overrated game.  It has the look and feel of a film noir in a way that's respectful but parodying it at the same time.  There's very well-animated, er...animated interludes between the missions.  The voice-work is awesome with everyone playing their role to utter perfection.  As a treat for the eyes, this game really gets top marks.  If there is a flaw, the game does suffer from slowdown quite a bit and it is a bit frustrating but it never lasts terribly long.

Well the game somewhat falters is the gameplay.  The main gameplay is the platforming/stealth levels and those are really good.  You runaround, whacking things with your cane and hiding from lasers & searchlights as you get the plot device...I mean treasure keys.  However, there are other types of games for variety.  There's a couple racing levels that features Murray which aren't very good since controlling the van is a bit of a hassle.  There's some levels that are like Robotron 2084 where the left analog stick and fire with the right analog stick...it didn't work then and it doesn't work now.  There's a couple levels where Murray has to run around getting the treasure key and you have to provide cover fire, which is pretty good.  All in all, this game is the Jack of all Trades but the Master of None.

This game is pretty good.  It's cute.  It's amusing.  The graphics are pretty good.  The game is funny and the voice work is good.  If the gameplay was improved then this game would really be something instead of just being mildly amusing.  I had fun playing this and I do want to play the other games so the first game has done its job.  Also, the game is a bit short as you can finish this in a day or two and get 100% in a week or two.  I think the short length may suck but for this game it does work since any longer and the game ran the risk of the style losing its luster.  It's a good diversion but not much more.

7/10