Not Another Game Review!
Sly Cooper and the Theivius Raccoonus
It's Like:
Taking the best bits from Mario 64, Metal Gear Solid, Saturday morning
cartoons, and a list entitled "The Best Parts of An Action/Platform
Game" and putting them all into one slick-looking and playing package.
The Bottom Line:
Slick visual style, a unique twist of stealth added to an action/platform
game, tight controls, and well-done humor and voice acting make this a solid and
enjoyable experience. Now if only it wasn't so SHORT.
The Review:
Video gaming's landscape is littered with the corpses of shallow 3-D platforms
that try to coast on the the artificial "attitude" of an anthromorphic
mascot, or the "next big style" of cel-shading. So I was slightly
skeptical when I got my hands on Sly Cooper. I needn't have worried; Sly
Cooper is brimming with style and substance.
The
story of Sly Copper is thus: Sly is part of a family that boasts generation
after generation of master thieves, and they owe it all to a tome detailing the
clan's secret techniques called "The Thievious Racconus". When Sly is
just a young boy, his father is murdered, and the pages of the Theivious Racconus
are scattered far and wide. It's up to him to retrieve each section of the book
from the Feindish Five, and reclaim your family's good name. Throughout the
game, the tone is lighthearted, with lots of in-game and meta-game humor, as
well as a stylish, cartoony presentation (from the level design, to the intro
sequences for each level, and even the in game cinemas).
The game is broken down into five worlds, each one containing a starting
point, then a hub, and 'astly, an extension to 6 more levels. Each of the first
four worlds have seven keys that are needed to gain access to the level's boss.
The progression aspect is fun and rewarding, but you're required to clear EVERY
level in the 
world
before leaving for the next world which takes away some of the freedom, because
honestly, there were a few levels I wanted to skip.
Those would be the racing and shooting and "collect all-of-a-certain-something before time-runs-out" mini-game stages. While they were a fun diversion from the constant stealth platformer action at first, after encountering the same type of mini-game for a third time, it seemed to get a bit stale.
Thankfully the boss fights never grow stale, as each boss will require you to use different patterns and methods of fighting (there's even a rythmn game flavor to one boss fight).
Controlling Sly in the platform levels is a delight. You can
easily navigate Sly with the analog stick, using the other analog as your
camera, while each of the face buttons will perform either a jump, 
"super
secret thief" move, or an attack. The analog stick is perfectly sensitive
to just how hard it's pressed, making stealthiness a snap. You also have
binoculars which are perfect for scoping out the later parts of a level (or
admiring the pretty graphics). The controls are both intuitive and well laid
out.
The controls for the mini-games are rather frustrating, though. The races and vehicle collector mini-games have sluggish controls. The shooter mini-games are well done, however, one analog stick covers the direction, the other controls the firing.
The mini-games do bog down the game a tad, but everything else about Sly Cooper And The Thevious Racoonus screams CLASSIC platform game. And with unlockable movies, secrets and behind the scenes features as you complete the game and accomplish certain objectives, there's a fair amount of replay vale to make up for the slightly too-short play-through time once you beat the game.