• ID = PS0796
• STYLE = 3D Platform
• DEV. = Sucker Punch Studios
• PUB. = Sony CEA, Inc.
• R-DATE = Sep-25-2002
• ESRB = E / For Everyone
• PLAYERS = 1 player
• LIST PRICE = $19.99
  

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus puts the player in the role of a raccoon named Sly Cooper. On Sly's eighth birthday, he is given the Thievius Raccoonus, an instruction manual passed down through the Cooper family for generations on how to be a great thief. But ruthless villains bust in and steal the manual, split it amongst themselves, and then vanish. Sly, along with his two friends Bentley and Murray, must embark on a platform adventure to recover the pages of the book and prove to the world that Sly Cooper is the world's greatest thief. Different skills, such as stealth tactics and platform jumping, are required throughout the game. You'll also pilot vehicles, play minigames, and fight bosses as you proceed.

Description 2:
George Clooney. Brad Pitt. Matt Damon move over... there's a new thief in town! "Sly" Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus is a vibrantly animated caper starring the charming and wry, charismatic thief, "Sly" Cooper. Born into a family of the world's greatest thieves, "Sly" is given the Thievius Raccoonus, a family heirloom that is passed down from generation to generation containing all of the best-kept secrets of thievery techniques around. On his eight birthday, a ruthless game of five mysterious villains break into his home, overpower his father and steal the Thievius Raccoonus, splitting it five ways and each taking a piece of this legacy with them. Now, ten years later, "Sly" is ready to steal it back and restore the family honor.

Description 3:
Only one thing can make a thieving raccoon better at his job, and that’s the long-lost Thievious Racoonus a collected work of thieving knowledge. Split into ten pieces, the writings are spread across the world, and it’s up to one young raccoon, Sly Cooper, to track them all down. Angered security guards, searchlights, and lasers are just a few of the obstacles Sly will have to confront, but luckily he’s got binoculars, swords, daggers, and all sorts of other fun stuff. A thoroughly original experience, SLY COOPER is sure to go down as an all-time classic.

• Play as a raccoon burglar.
• Action platform game.
• Elements of stealth.
• Beautiful cartoon-style graphics.
• Varied, fast-paced gameplay.

As anyone's mother will tell you, stealing is wrong. Anyone's mum except Sly Cooper's, it seems, because he managed to get born into a family of morally challenged thieves whose most prized possession is a book explaining how to execute all their various cat-burgling skills. Ironically, as the game starts the book gets stolen and it's up to Sly to defend the family dishonour and steal it back again.

Although the basic gameplay of Sly Raccoon is that of a fairly ordinary platform adventure, complete with linear levels full of bizarre architecture and fairly dim bad guys, things are livened up considerably by Sly's ninja-like thieving skills. As well as having to duck and dive between moving headlights, laser-beam gates and the like, Sly also begins to gain such enviable skills as being able to turn invisible and use banisters as slides.

The graphics in Sly Raccoon are excellent too: cel-shaded so they look like 3-D cartoons and very nicely detailed with particularly impressive cut-scenes. There are downsides, of course--the game's not terribly long and the stealthy bits take a back seat to more mundane platform sections a few times too many--but overall this is a classy adventure for platform, raccoon and/or burglary fans everywhere. -- David Jenkins