I mean this in the best way possible when I say this feels like one of those games you'd play at a McDonald's game kiosk as a kid.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus was my first outing with this legendary series, and I can already tell this will become one of my favorite game franchises of all time. I had an absolute blast with this game, got the platinum trophy and everything, I only have a few minor nitpicks.

To start, the characters are all memorable and enjoyable to see. Sly and the deuteragonists Bentley and Murray especially are just so damn lovable and sweet. The ost is banging, especially during boss fights. The art style is so gorgeous its unreal, clearly taking inspiration from comic books, it adds so much personality to the overall look and vibe this game gives. At its core, the gameplay loop is satisfying and addicting as well. Swinging from hooks immediately into walking on ropes and shit was so cool and the stealth was super fun too, even if for a good amount of the game I charged head first into every enemy.

My complaints with this game are very few, pretty much just minor nitpicks. It's pretty much just a cost of being an early PS2 3D platforming game, but god sometimes the gameplay was not doing it for me. Unless you get a lucky charm, Sly dies in one hit, and Sly's hitbox can be so absurd at times that even if his pinky toe or hat touches something your immediately sent back to the last checkpoint. Maybe this issue was just caused by the fact that I played this game on PS3 streaming on my PS5, but I swear sometimes inputs just do not register. Sometimes when I would go to grapple onto a hook or jump onto a rail the input just would not register and I would be sent falling to my death.

In short, Sly Cooper is a hella great 3D platformer that hopefully Sony will eventually remember the existence of, because a new one of these using modern tech would go so hard. The game features lovable characters, a gorgeous art style, a fantastic soundtrack, and a good core gameplay loop. This game is only held back by shitty 1-hit deaths and occasionally poor boss fights.

There were two moments, in relatively quick succession, that showed me just what I was in for with Sly Cooper. The first was when I attempted to pick up a coin and had to be directly on top of it, and the second was dying in one hit from an enemy. Once I experienced those two disquieting things, I readjusted my expectations for just what kind of game Sly Cooper was. For some reason, I had it in my head that the game would be a fun, light-hearted stealth game, not a platformer that is closer to classic Crash Bandicoot in design. I still had fun, but there were some glaring issues that can only come from its genre and age.

So, positives first. For one, I thought the platforming, for the most part, was really good. I felt like I could slink around the maps with ease, and the stealth sections added a nice twist to the gameplay. Sly Cooper is hardly Hitman, but the stealth was suitably challenging for a game about a Master Thief Racoon. Just pressing circle to swing from hooks, climb up pipes, slide along walls, and run along walls created a nice flow. I found the design of the world and its inhabitants quite appealing. The use of cell-shaded graphics, which tend to remain visually impressive over time, added to its charm. Despite not being as intricate as Wind Waker, the game’s visuals have aged gracefully, making it remarkable for a title that’s 22 years old. I must commend the game’s overall style. Its structure is reminiscent of an after-school cartoon from Cartoon Network, capturing that essence flawlessly. From the episode titles, the quirky side characters, the main villains being broad caricatures of certain parts of the world, and the confident, smooth-talking nature of Sly himself. 12-year-old me would've loved it.

There are some festering, rotten issues with Sly Cooper that really make it a struggle to play at times. Every minigame is awful, with the racing one being an abomination. From what I recall, it was common practice for platformers to throw in an abundance of abomnibal minigames in an attempt to add 'variety' to their game. Whether this was from boredom or a lack of confidence, who knows, but they were almost universally terrible, and Sly Cooper is no different. To make matters worse, they are mandatory. Discovering this, I nearly quit there and then. They all control like shit, and cost you a life when you lose, which is absolutely wild. These minigames also infected a few of the bosses and made the experience of beating them miserable (hello, the sudden rhythm game section). I really hope subsequent games either design better minigames or have less of them. 

Additionally, I found that tying Sly's upgrades to collecting items to be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, some of them are really good, like the dive or briefly going slow-mo; on the other, so many were utterly useless that I felt kind of ripped off (why would I ever roll when it was slower than moving?). I couldn't believe you had to unlock the ability to hoover up coins at a reasonable distance—something that should've been in the game to begin with. Admittedly, I didn't see all the upgrades, as I missed a few collectables and had no desire to go back and find them. But I saw enough to know that the effort wasn't always justifed.

There were also a few weird technical issues that I assume came from the PS3 HD remasters, although it could equally just be age. The characters voices were very low-bitrate and sounded rough. I also thought the mixing was out of wack. The atmosphere was super loud in spots; sound effects were missing entirely, and when you start the game, the music is obnoxious. Minor things but over 8 hours, they became grating.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus was a game I ended up enjoying on an academic level rather than a qualitative one. It is nice to go back in time and see what the gaming landscape was like 20+ years ago as well as where a beloved series began, warts and all. Believe me, the game is warty as hell, but it still has its charms. I look forward to seeing how it develops from here.

Yet another PS2 collectathon platformer, compared to its contemporary Jak and Daxter, this game is much more linear and level-based, and so overall a little weaker. The addition of some very mild stealth elements is good as they change up the formula a little without being too hard for non-stealth-game players. It's still very fun and the dialogue is a highlight - the characters all have great personality and their banter keeps things interesting while wading through the levels. And "jump and hit the circle button" is iconic.

Nowhere near as good as 2 and 3, but still a pretty good game. The first Sly game doesn't quite feel like it has a personality of its own yet. It's like the Uncharted 1 of the Sly series; it takes a big leap in the second game. You can also tell it's heavily inspired by Crash Bandicoot. The one hit kill system can be very annoying, some of the movement doesn't work as well as in later games, and the gang's banter is almost nonexistent and very thinly written compared to in 2 and 3. The whole thing about doing side missions, then one grand heist doesn't exist in this game either. You just go through levels to get keys, then a boss fight at the end of each area. It feels very gamey and inorganic. You also don't play as Murray and Bentley like in the later games. There's some driving with Murray and a single hacking mini game with Bentley, but these are just annoying. They get missions of their own in the sequels and these are usually very fun and varied. This whole game is pretty much just Sly gameplay, which is fun, but it is a lot of the same stuff.

Stuff like the music and artstyle are great though. It's a very stylised game, and I have always loved that about the Sly series. Definitely a fun game to play through, although it hasn't aged as well as 2 and 3.