Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (known as Sly Raccoon in the PAL region) is a 2002 action stealth video game developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2, and serves as the first installment in the Sly Cooper series. The game follows the titular Sly Cooper and his gang, Bentley the Turtle and Murray the Hippo, as they seek out criminals known as the Fiendish Five to recover the pages of the "Thievius Raccoonus", the book of the accumulation of all of Sly's ancestors' thieving moves.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus was praised for its technical achievements, particularly its use of a variation on cel-shading rendering, which is used to create a film noir feel while still rendered as a hand-drawn animated film, although was criticized for being too short. The game was followed by three sequels: Sly 2: Band of Thieves (2004), Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (2005), and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (2013). It was remastered alongside its initial two sequels and compiled as The Sly Collection for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. The game was digitally re-released on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on June 11, 2024 and included trophy support, save states, region swapping, and rendering options.

Gameplay


Sly Cooper is a third person platforming video game which incorporates stealth elements; as noted by an Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine retrospective, the game "tries to mix one-hit-kill arcade action with Splinter Cell sneaking". 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, so the player is urged to use stealth maneuvers and the environment to evade or silently neutralize potential threats.

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. 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. 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.

Each sub-section of a lair contains a number of clue bottles that, 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 is the color blue and when you have two horseshoes, it turns to gold. It 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 boss's lair from the beginning. 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 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. For each level that has the "Master Sprint" completed, a developer's commentary for that level is unlocked.

Plot
Sly Cooper is an anthropomorphic raccoon and the last member of the Cooper Clan, a long line of master thieves who primarily steal from other criminals. On his 8th birthday, Sly was to inherit an ancient book known as the Thievius Raccoonus, which containing his family's secrets to help him become a master thief. On the night, however, a group of criminals known as the "Fiendish Five" invaded his home and murdered Sly's parents; then stole pages out from the Thievius Raccoonus before spreading across the world to forge their own criminal empires. This resulted in Sly being raised in an orphanage, where he forms a gang with two boys who become his lifelong best friends and eventual partners in crime: Bentley, a turtle technician, who plays the role of the brains of the gang, and Murray, a hippopotamus who acts as their getaway driver. The three leave the orphanage together at age sixteen to start their lives becoming international vigilante criminals, naming themselves the "Cooper Gang." In addition, Sly swears to avenge his family by tracking down the Fiendish Five and recover the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus.

Two years later, the Cooper Gang head to Paris, France and infiltrate Interpol headquarters to find the secret police file containing information about the Fiendish Five. During the heist, they are ambushed by Inspector Carmelita Fox, an Interpol police officer who has a history of hunting down the Cooper Gang. The gang manages to steal the police file and successfully escapes from her and the rest of the cops. The Cooper Gang use the files to track the Fiendish Five to their respective hideouts around the globe. These include Sir Raleigh, a frog pirate in Wales who built a storm machine to sink ships and steal their treasure; Muggshot, an American bulldog gangster in Utah who took over an entire city with his army of goons; Mz. Ruby, a alligator mystic in Haiti attempting to raise an undead army; and the Panda King, a giant panda explosives expert in China using fireworks to destroy and extort villages. Sly defeats each member of The Fiendish Five and takes back their pages of the Thievius Raccoonus, then leaves them for Carmelita to arrest. After defeating four members, the Cooper Gang discovers the location of the Five's leader; an elusive Owl named Clockwerk.

The Cooper Gang breaches Clockwerk's lair in a Russian volcano and discover that he had captured Carmelita, who Sly decides to rescue. Despite their opposition, Sly and Carmelita agree to a temporary alliance to defeat Clockwerk. During their battle, Clockwerk reveals to Sly that he is in fact hundreds of years old and utterly hates the Cooper Clan, having turned himself into an immortal robot empowered by his own hatred of the clan centuries ago. Clockwerk further explained the motivation behind killing Sly's parents, stealing the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus and sparing Sly was to prove that the Cooper Clan was nothing without the Thievius Raccoonus, but Sly disagrees with him, stating that it took great thieves to create the book and not the other way around. After the battle is over and Clockwerk is defeated, Carmelita ends the truce by attempting to arrest Sly, but agrees to give him a ten-second head start. Instead of running, Sly kisses her at the last second while also handcuffing her to a rail, running off with his gang in celebration as Carmelita (initially touched by the kiss) angrily swears to hunt him down. Sly, Bentley, and Murray make it back to their hideout and continue to pull off new heists with the fully recovered Thievius Raccoonus. But after the credits, one of Clockwerk's eyes flashes open, indicating that he is still alive.

Development and release
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus was developed by Sucker Punch Productions, the second game created following Rocket: Robot on Wheels for the Nintendo 64 in 1999. The concept of Sly Cooper began shortly after their previous game, and took three years to develop.

Sucker Punch decided to use Maya to develop the game. Brian Flemming of Sucker Punch called the rendering style "Toon-shading", comparing the detailed backgrounds with cel-shading foregrounds to that of animated films. Sucker Punch Productions wanted Sly and his world to look illustrated, and "one step away from a flattened graphic style." To prevent slowdowns with framerates, the team "had at least one engineer working on nothing but performance for the entire development of Sly." 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.

The music was composed by Ashif Hakik. The music was inspired by the artwork from the game and 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."

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus was released in North America on September 24, 2002. It was released in Australia and Europe as Sly Raccoon in 2003 on January 16 and January 17, respectively.

Reception
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Most reviewers 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." Many reviews also appreciated the ease of learning the controls and gameplay; IGN stated 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." Several reviewers appreciated the fluidity of the game between actual play, cutscenes, and other features. The game was also praised for being a game that was accessible to both adults and children.

A common detraction of the game was its length; 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 levels, the game ends." 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." 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." However, Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine 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." Reviewers also noted some framerate slowdowns in latter levels of the game, as well as some camera control issues.

Sales and accolades
For their "Best and Worst of 2002" awards, GameSpot nominated the game for "Best Game No One Played on PlayStation 2" and "Best Platformer". For IGN's Best of 2002, Sly Cooper was the runner-up for "Best Platformer" and nominated for "Special Achievements for Graphics". In 2003, GameSpy ranked 22 in their "25 Most Underrated Games of All Time". In 2008, IGN ranked the game 21 in its "Top 25 PS2 Games". During the 6th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences awarded Sly Cooper with "Outstanding Achievement in Animation" and "Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction", along with a nomination for "Console Platform Action/Adventure Game of the Year".

The game sold over 400,000 copies within a year since its release and was republished under Sony's "Greatest Hits" line in 2003. By July 2006, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus had sold 800,000 copies and earned $21 million in the United States. Next Generation ranked it as the 78th highest-selling game launched for the Sixth generation of video game consoles.

Sequels and other appearances
The game has yielded three sequels, Sly 2: Band of Thieves (2004), Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (2005) and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (2013). Sly Cooper won "Best New Character" and was nominated for "Excellence in Visual Arts" at the 2003 Game Developer's Conference for 2002. 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. This has led to collaboration between the development teams for all three series, Sucker Punch, Insomniac Games, and Naughty Dog,