Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

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Sly
Developer(s)	Sucker Punch Productions
Publisher(s)	SCEA
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2
Release date(s)	NA September 23, 2002 EU January 16, 2003 JP March 6, 2003[1]
Genre(s)	Platformer Stealth
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: E (Everyone) ELSPA: 3+ OFLC: G PEGI: 3+
Media	DVD

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (Sly Raccoon in Europe and Australia and Kaitou Sly Cooper in Japan) is a platforming video game created by Sucker Punch Productions, and released on the Sony PlayStation 2 in 2002, subsequently republished as a "Greatest Hits" title.^[1][2] It has since become the first game in the Sly Cooper series, followed by Sly 2: Band of Thieves and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves.

The game focuses on the eponymous protagonists and master thieves Sly Cooper and his gang, Bentley the Turtle and Murray the Hippo, as they seek out the Fiendish Five to recover his family's "Thievius Raccoonus", a book with the accumulation of all of Sly ancestors' thieving moves. The game was praised for using a variation on cel-shading rendering, which is used to create a film noir feel, while still rendered as an animated movie, though criticized for being too short.

[edit] Story

Sly Cooper holds the recovered "Thievius Raccoonus" from a cutscene within the game.

Sly Cooper is set in a world inhabited by anthropomorphic creatures. The game uses cutscenes to present the background of the eponymous Sly Cooper, raccoon who descended from a long line of master thieves. However, that lineage became crippled when a gang known as the Fiendish Five, led by Clockwerk, a cyborg-like owl with a hatred for the Cooper line, killed Sly's father while Sly was still young. The Five also took the "Thievius Raccoonus", a book recording the journeys and skills of all the ancestors of the Cooper line. The Thievius Raccoonus was split into five pieces among the Five, and dispersed to their various personal lairs. Sly was taken to the Happy Camper orphanage where he became close friends with the intelligent Bentley the Turtle, and the happy-go-lucky Murray the Hippo. Sly,and his friends eventually left the orphanage and formed a gang, pulling off amazing heists and robberies. Their activities attracted the attention of Interpol Inspector Carmelita Fox, who made it her mission to capture Sly, though Sly takes a subtle romantic interest in her.

At the present of the game, Sly learns of the location of the Fiendish Five by stealing the information from Carmelita's office, and plot with Bentley and Murray to retrieve the stolen book. Sly is able to defeat the four underlings of the Five and their minions, and discover the location of Clockwerk's lair, all the while furiously chased by Carmelita. After an assault on Clockwerk's fortress using Bentley's and Murray's help, Sly is able to defeat Clockwerk and retrieve the "Thievius Raccoonus", though Sly is cornered by Carmelita. However, Carmelita gives Sly the ten second head start she had promised. After using eight seconds of it, Sly takes an opportunity to kiss Carmelita, and handcuff her to the railing while she is distracted, and the gang is able to make their escape.

[edit] Gameplay

Sly Cooper is a third person platforming video game that incorporates stealth elements; as noted by an Official Playstation Magazine retrospective, the game "tries to mix one-hit-kill arcade action with Splinter Cell sneaking".^[3] The player controls Sly Cooper, the title character, as he moves between each uniquely themed lair of the Fiendish Five and the sub-sections of those lairs, avoiding security systems and the watchful eyes of enemies. While Sly is equipped with a cane to attack his foes, he can be defeated with a single hit, thus the player is urged to use stealth maneuvers and the environment to evade or silently neutralize potential threats .^[4]

Highlighted by the blue "thief sense" auras, Sly Cooper sneaks along a wall to avoid detection.

To assist in these stealth moves, the environment contains special areas colored with blue sparkles of light, identified in the game as Sly's "thief senses". The player can trigger context-sensitive actions in these areas, such as shimmying along a narrow ledge or wall, landing on a pointed object such as an antenna or streetlight, climbing along the length of a narrow pole or pipe, or using the cane to grapple onto something.^[3] The player must avoid detection by security systems and enemies, otherwise an alarm will sound and the player will either have to destroy the alarm, avoid or defeat foes alerted by the alarm, or hide for several seconds until the alarm resets.^[4] The game uses a dynamic music system that changes depending on the state of alarm in the area: the music will increase in volume and pacing when Sly attacks or is detected, and then will quiet down as the disturbance goes away.^[5]

Each sub-section of a lair contains a number of clue bottles which, when collected, allow Sly to access a safe in the level that contains a page from the Thievius Raccoonus. These pages grant Sly new moves to aid in movement, stealth, or combat, such as creating a decoy or dropping an explosive hat. Defeating each of the bosses also gives Sly moves, and these abilities are typically necessary to pass later levels. Coins are scattered about the levels and are also generated by defeating enemies or destroying objects. For every 100 coins collected, Sly gains a lucky horseshoe that will allow him to take extra hits, or if he currently has one, an extra life. If Sly collapses and loses a life, the current sub-level will be restarted or at a special "repeater" that acts as a checkpoint; if the player loses all of Sly's lives, they must restart that bosses' lair from the beginning.^[4] Besides the regular gameplay, there are mini-games that include driving levels (based on Murray), shooting levels to protect Murray as he ascends certain levels, and a cyber-tank game representing a hacking attempt by Bentley. One notable boss battle includes a rhythm-based sequence similar to Dance Dance Revolution.

Levels can be returned to at any time to gain additional coins or to seek out special moves. When a level is completed, all of the clue bottles are collected and the secret move is found, the player can then attempt a "Master Sprint", a timed sprint through the level to try to beat a set time. The player can unlock additional artistic content by completing all the levels in this fashion.

[edit] Development

Brian Flemming of Sucker Punch called the rendering style as "Toon-shading", comparing the detailed backgrounds with cel-shading foregrounds to that of animated movies.^[6]. An interview with the Sucker Punch development team identified that they took this route because "We wanted Sly and his world to look illustrated, but one step away from a flattened graphic style."^[5] To prevent slowdowns with framerates, the team "had at least one engineer working on nothing but performance for the entire development of Sly."^[5] The game art team "collected hundreds of photos and drawings of areas that looked like the worlds [they] wanted to create" to generate the backgrounds. The characters themselves underwent up to "six or eight major revisions" before the designs were finalized.^[5]

The music was inspired by the artwork from the game; Ashif Hakik, composer of the game's music, stated that "Stylistic influences came from a combination of instrument choices and musical character defined and inspired by the locales in the game, and similar composer works like Yoko Kanno and her work on Cowboy Bebop, Henry Mancini, and Carl Stalling." He continued to note that "the interactive music engine we used made us consider the gameplay for each specific level a sort of starting point that would influence the way the music would be written."^[5]
There are two different covers for the game and they both have two different names, depending on location. Sly Raccoon in Europe and Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racconus in North America.

[edit] Localization differences

The Japanese version of the game sports a vocal theme song called Blackjack, set to a flashy intro not seen in the North American or PAL versions of the game. While the group singing the song, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, has a distinct Japanese accent, none of the lyrics are in Japanese and the entire song is in English.

Another addition in the Japanese version not present in the other versions is alternate animated introduction and ending sequences. These sequences feature full animation, as opposed to the limited flash-style animation seen in the other animated sequences present throughout the game. These alternate sequences are drawn in a typical anime style. The Japanese introduction is unlockable for view in the North American and PAL versions, but the Japanese ending can only be unlocked in the PAL version.

[edit] Reception

Sly Cooper was generally well-received by the video game media. Most reviewed praised the unique look of the game. Gamespot noted that "The game has a fantastic sense of style to its design that is reflected in everything from the animation to the unique use of the peaking fad, cel-shaded polygons."^[10] Many reviews also appreciated the ease of learning the controls and gameplay; IGN states that "Sly is incredibly responsive, and though his size seems a little large at times due to his long arms and legs and the cane he carries, skillfully jumping and hitting enemies with precision is a quick study."^[9] Several reviewers appreciated the fluidity of the game between actual play, cutscenes, and other features.^[9][10]

The game was also praised for being a game that was accessible to both adults and children.^[12]

A common detraction of the game was its length;^[9][13] as commented by Gamespot's review, "The main problem is that just as you're getting into a groove and really enjoying the variety seen throughout the different worlds and levels, the game ends."^[10] The length was defended by Sucker Punch's developers; Brian Flemming noted that there was additional content to be unlocked at several levels, including "for each [Master Sprint] you complete, you get bonus commentary from the designers, artists and programmers here at Sucker Punch, something that people have reacted to really positively."^[6] The game was also cited as being too easy, with Gamespot stating that "The game's relative ease combined with a very short length prevents Sly Cooper from becoming the next big platformer. But it's great while it lasts."^[10][13]

However, OPM noted that in regards to the difficulty "There's a pleasant old-school feel to Thievius Raccoonus; the enemies are merciless but a bit stupid, and the platforming challenges come on strong and ramp up steadily in difficulty as the levels go by."^[3] Reviewers also noted some framerate slowdowns in latter levels of the game,^[11] as well as some camera control issues.^[9]

Sales of Sly Cooper were poor, overshadowed by two other PlayStation 2 platformers published around 2002, Ratchet & Clank and Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy.^[14] This, however, did not prevent the game from achieving at least 400,000 in sales a year since release to allow it to be included in Sony's "Greatest Hits" line, republishing it in 2003 and at a lower price.^[2] GameSpy considered Sly Cooper to be the 4th most underrated game of all time in a 2003 listing.^[14] The game has since yielded two sequels, Sly 2: Band of Thieves (2004) and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (2005) while a fourth game is rumored to be in production.

Sly Cooper won "Best New Character" and nominated for "Excellence in Visual Arts" at the 2003 Game Developer's Conference for 2002.^[15] Furthermore, the character of Sly Cooper has also been come to be considered as a mascot for the PlayStation systems, alongside both Ratchet & Clank and Jak & Daxter.^[3] This has further lead to collaboration between the development teams for all three series, Sucker Punch, Insomniac Games, and Naughty Dog,^[16] leading to subtle inclusion of some elements of Sly Cooper within the other titles. For example, a brief gameplay clip of Sly Cooper plays among several for Ratchet & Clank and Jak and Daxter during the start menu for Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando There was also a demo for Sly 2: Band of Thieves in Ratchet and Clank 3.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus' Official Website
• Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus at MobyGames