Sly Raccoon : Web Wombat: Games

Oho, game developers are getting a bit naughty in their old age and the folks at Sucker Punch have come up with a sort-of-shady-but-nice character called Sly Cooper.

Now, young Sly is a cute raccoon who comes from a long line of thieves - master thieves actually - and he’s hoping to take up the family trade in a big way.

However, just as he is about to get his paws of the treasured heirloom 'Thievius Raccoonus', a grand book that has guided the family to the Burglars’ Hall of Fame, a group of nasty thieves breaks into his dad’s place, murders the guy and nicks off with the reading material.

Just in case you are having a moral panic attack here, it should be pointed out that Sly only steals from thieves. Problem solved, we think.

Anyway, the whole point to Sly Raccoon, or Sly Cooper, or Thievius Raccoonus as the game is also known (confusing huh?) is that our furry hero needs to track down the five killers and retrieve each of the five sections of the book they stole.

To do so Sly has got to use all his guile and stealth skills to find his way past some interesting traps set to guard the baddies.

He also likes fishing, and watching the sun set...

He also gets to wave around his cane, which is crescent-shaped hooking device, that assists him in jumping over difficult objects, whacking guards and breaking objects.

While he is wandering around his wonderful modern-cartoon-style cel shaded 3D environment, Sly gets to pick up coins and discover jars of clues.

He also has special thief moves that can be activated at various stages of the level you are on and are signposted by bands of blue lights.

These allow him to edge his way around things with narrow ledges.

The stealth aspect of Sly Raccoon is somewhat reminiscent of the PC Thief series, although this game is definitely aimed at a younger audience and isn't too likely to scare anyone.

The guards are usually big dumb boneheads who are reasonably easy to get around - once you’ve picked their weakness - and these old thumbs found the hardest things to deal with were the automatic warning systems you cross along the way.

They use lights and laser-like beams to firstly detect your presence and if you are unlucky enough, or dopey enough (that’s me folks), they can halt you in your tracks, then quickly fire off energy bolts that will fry Sly very quickly.

Lastly, Sly likes body-building and Madonna

And the guy does get clobbered badly. He doesn’t have a lot of hit-points and while you may escape death if you get hit by opponents once, possibly twice - if they get a third shot in, you are cactus.

Mind you, the youngsters will enjoy the humourous way he salutes as he sinks to a watery grave and if they are anything like mine will deliberately kill Sly to see the results (nice kids - Ed).

This, however, is a pain as you only have limited lives and once you go through them it’s back to the start.

Gameplay is not easy to start with either - particularly if you’ve been overloaded with Jak and Dakster and are used to their multi-attack, jump-punch moves.

But you pick it up fairly quickly and there is a huge amount of fun to be had.

The game’s levels do seem a bit short, but other than that, there is plenty to see and explore. A very enjoyable game that will appeal more to the younger gamers out there.

Game: Sly Raccoon
System: PS2
Players: 1
Memory Card: Yes
Developer: Sucker Punch
Distributor: Sony

Rating: 80%

(Ratings Key/Explantion)

Sly Raccoon is on the shelves now.

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