As the start of a new mascot platforming series launching around the turn of the millennium, one might assume Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus would stand as nothing but a sloppy first step for a long abandoned IP, but I was delighted to realize this assumption of mine was misguided, at least for the most part. In an effort to make a title that stood out from other games released for the PS2 in 2002, as well as potentially compete with the competition on Nintendo's platform, Sucker Punch aimed to make a platformer that played as smoothly as the aesthetic it was draped under. Setting the game around a globe-trotting adventure following the escapades of a sneaky Raccoon and his fellow band of misfits was already a recipe for success as far as I was concerned, but managed to be elevated even further by its gameplay.

Following in the approach of its narrative, Sly Cooper leans into a more adventure oriented design philosophy when it comes to its various locales, focussing less on gamey platforming playgrounds and more on the feeling of scavenging through organic feeling levels and environments. One of my favorite elements to the game is absolutely the levels themselves, once you reach a new level, there's basically no breaks until you complete the objective at hand, which more often than not tasks the player with collecting a few trinkets that tie into the level itself in some way. While I could have gone without Sly’s disembodied head being scattered throughout levels to give you more lives, I love how the game goes out of its way to make some of its more gamey elements feel a bit more diegetic. You’re not breaking boxes to fill an imaginary quota or collecting Stars to bring power to a castle, you’re collecting keys to open locks or finding pages of Sly’s family handbook to unlock more abilities focussed on the art of thievery. The platforming is pretty basic compared to other games of its ilk, but these little elements go a long way towards making the experience stand out from the crowd.

Thankfully, even while traversal isn’t necessarily taxing, Sucker Punch added just enough flourishes to Sly’s kit to make progression feel smooth and satisfying for the entire runtime of the game. Through the use of a single multi-purpose stealth button, Sly is able to interact with the world around him in practically any way you see fit to sneak by undetected. Hiding along walls, climbing up poles, sneaking on overhead wires, you name it. Everything lends further credence to the idea that you’re a master thief sticking your nose in spots you're not supposed to.

Unfortunately, the game’s design cohesion is not completely airtight. My statement earlier on the levels feeling organic is only partially true. While it's correct that each individual section is laid out in a way that makes it feel like a more believable place, each area is generally connected to a central hub that splits off into segmented levels through Super Mario 64-esque portals where the game warps you to a new section of the map. Sadly this is an element to the experience I can’t say I’m fond of. It may feel pedantic to rag on something as small as this, but when the rest of the experience goes out of its way to feel organic in its pacing and progression, it makes something like this stand out pretty hard. I tend not to care about it in something as whimsical as SM64, but I suppose I expected something more, forward thinking(?) for a game with a world as confident and grounded as this (ironic given the fact that the leads are anthropomorphized animals scouring the globe for the missing pages of a book)

The strength of the level design also tends to get lost when you’re stuck performing arduous mini-games that are clearly only there to extend the runtime or occasionally give Sly’s fellow thieves something to do on the field. It was a bit of a shame to see such a colorful cast of characters mostly swept to the side in place of the admittedly fun and charismatic Sly. It makes me wish there were a version of this group where overcoming obstacles felt more like a collaborative effort, rather than Sly doing everything himself and dragging his friends along

I could go on about smaller nitpicks like the mostly forgettable bosses or other teeny world-breaking elements, but on the whole I greatly enjoyed my time with this. Despite my issues with how it all ties together, a strong foundation was clearly laid with this game and I don’t think that should go overlooked. All it would take is some rethinking of the level structure, some extra polish on the objectives, and maybe a better balance between the cast, and I think you'd have a game that truly makes the thief motif shine. (I wonder what a game like that would look like 🗿)