Review of Sly Cooper & The Theivius Raccoonus for PS2 Publisher: SCEA
Developer: Sucker Punch
Genre: Platformer
# Of Players: 1
The latest attempt at a new platform franchise along the lines of Mario & Sonic comes from Sucker Punch and stars a raccoon thief named Sly Cooper. He’s one of the best thieves in the world, descended from a long line of master thieves, but his family’s best thieving secrets, kept in a book called the Thievius Raccoonus were stolen by a gang of thieves known as the Fiendish Five and spread into five main parts all across the world. Now Sly must use all of his thieving skills to get back the pages and defeat the Fiendish Five. Sly Cooper tries to be the next big thing in platform gaming, and I really
tried to like it, but in the end, it’s uninspired, way too short, and way too easy to be anything more than a fun weekend diversion.
Graphics:
I really like how the locales and animation really look like they are straight out of a cartoon show (each world even has a title screen and episode title like you are watching a cartoon), but I really, really hate the style of the characters. They all have this pseudo art deco look that just looks weird and strange and animates very poorly in the cut scenes. There is also slowdown all over the place, even when nothing’s going on. Plus, the character designs themselves just plain lack personality.
Sound:
While I like the great cartoony music and effects, the voices bug me. The delivery itself is fine, but the voice casting is just wrong, as all the characters just plain have annoying voices except Sly, and he’s just boring, he’s so monotone and low volume I feel sleepy whenever he talks!
Gameplay:
Oh joy another collection fest. Go find these keys to open that door or operate that object. Jak and Daxter had this problem, but it had challenge (well, for people like me who usually suck at these games anyway) and likable, funny characters, this game doesn’t. It tries to add some fresh moves, but these are completely unnecessary and only serve gimmick functions. The game is extremely linear, there’s only one way to do everything, and again the game is insultingly easy. All the normal enemies only take one hit, and the bosses have idiotically simple patterns to recognize and are just no challenge at all. You can quite easily beat this game in one day.
Features:
No extras. No difficulty, no minigames, etc. Not necessary, but something that added one real hint of replay value would help.
Funfactor:
Regardless of its shortness and ease, games like this really live and die by heir cast. All the great platformers have very likable characters and usually pretty funny ones. You have to be invested in the characters, and these characters lack style, flair, personality, and humor. You could beat this game in a day, but if you’re like me, you’ll play this for about 3 hours, get bored, and go back to Jak & Daxter, or for a real challenge, Mario Sunshine.
--Final Scores—
Graphics: 7.0-I like the animation, but I really don’t like the look of the characters or their design, and there is lots and lots of slowdown.
Sound: 7.5-Great cartoony music and sound effects, but voices are annoying and boring.
Gameplay: 5.0-Extra moves are useless gimmicks, and levels are way too linear and easy, and I’m sick and tired of collecting keys/orbs/whatever, just gimme a freaking level to play through!
Features: 5.0-Just the extreme basics here.
Funfactor: 6.5-If you absolutely positively can’t wait for the huge flood of platformers coming in the next few months, this will fill a day (two at most), and then you, like me can go back to whatever other game you are currently trying to beat, waiting for the next platformer (I pray Ratchet & Clank has more challenge and personality than this).
7:45:24 AM 
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