Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus Review (PS5)
The thieving raccoon’s grand return. Watch my Review on YouTube
Recently released on the PlayStation store, players can enjoy the classic PS2 title on modern hardware. The emulation features allows save states, rewinding gameplay, and crisp visuals. This might be the best way to play Sly 1, all for $10.
But is the game actually still good? As someone who grew up with the franchise, let’s talk about it.
Where do I even begin with Sly Cooper? It was the first original video game IP my brother and I fell in love with. I started with Sly 3 because my brother tried out the other games at my neighbors’ house and we bought the newly released third game.
I still remember staying home from kindergarten one day and just walking around Sly 3's first hub world and pick-pocketing guards.
When I finally dove into Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, I was already used to the hub world formula. Moving back to the old school level to level design was weird but still a fun time nevertheless.
It’s been over a decade since I’ve played this game but I had so much fun revisiting it while abusing the new rewind mechanic.
The story is about Sly recovering the Thievius Raccoonus from the Fiendish Five. The gang killed Sly’s father when he was a boy, effectively sending the raccoon to an orphanage where he met his best friends, Bentley and Murray. With their combined skills, they plan to take down the Fiendish Five, retrieve Sly’s family book, and avenge his father.
A cartoon plot I can get behind.
It’s simple, straightforward, and has a lot of heart. The comedy is subtle with action at the center. It’s a story about a sneaky raccoon collecting his family book from the bad guys. How can you not like this story?
Clockwerk being an immortal owl who’s been hating on Sly’s family for generations is fantastic. It really brings the stakes of the final battle to another level. The other villains are great too, very cartoon-y and goofy but totally make sense in Sly’s world.
The gameplay is akin to old PS1 3D platformers like Crash Bandicoot. The level to level challenges focus on platforming with different gameplay styles every once in a while. Stealth is part of Sly’s identity but it’s still an action platformer at the end of the day. Use Sly’s move-set to sneak past guards and climb over obstacles to take down the Fiendish Five.
All platforming levels feature a collectible to find: the clue bottles. They’re scattered throughout each level, sometimes hidden in really sneaky spots.
I tried to find every single clue bottle before advancing to the next level. Not gonna lie, I had to revisit a couple of levels because I forgot where all the bottles were. Even after all these years, collecting the clue bottles is a tricky and fun collectible to look out for.
Once they’re all collected, find the vault in the level to unlock an additional page for the Thievius Raccoonus. Sly will gain a power-up and their uses vary. It can be a dive maneuver or decoys for guards to hit. They’re neat and feel very right for a platformer from the early 2000s.
The non-platforming levels usually involve Murray needing Sly’s help as cover fire or using the team van in races. There’s also a Bentley hacking mini game which will become a staple in future installments.
Overall, these sub-levels are fine. The mini gun levels can be tricky because of how sensitive the crosshair moves. Racing as Murray does come down to luck at times. Rewinding was my best friend during these sections.
Speaking of the feature, because this is an emulation, you can rewind at any point during your play session. Honestly, I wasn’t going to use this feature at first but after testing it out, I started spamming it whenever I made a mistake. Whether I would get hit or mess up a turn on the race track, I’m rewinding.
It does make stacking up lives very easy and all the game’s challenge is essentially gone.
I would say if you’ve never played Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus before, do it sparingly because dying in one hit and a live system is outdated.
Rewinding a few times is fine but if you’ve played this game a bunch of times before, let loose with the ability. You’ve already finished the game without rewinding, so might as well abuse the feature in this new version.
I’m not going to gate keep how you play but that’s just my opinion. Rewind as much as you want because it does make dealing with certain bosses and levels much easier. There are other emulation features such as visual presets, custom button mapping, region swapping, and of course save states. I personally didn’t touch these options at all, including the save states because Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus already has a fantastic save system.
One thing that might bug new players is the inverted camera controls. As someone who’s played this game before, the inverted camera did take some time to get used to again. This is where you can map the right stick to be inverted for every direction but then you’ll run into problems when you do the twin stick shooting missions and shoot in the opposite direction. Try to thug out the inverted camera controls.
Sly 1’s gameplay holds up remarkably well. The level to level gameplay style for every new hub world is great with no two worlds looking the exact same and different level gimmicks throughout. The club bottles are fun to hunt for even if I did lose my mind at times.
Anyone looking for a classic PS1 platformer experience can find right here in Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus.
The game looks great on the PlayStation 5. The enhanced visuals are crisp and sharp while still feeling like a PS2 game. It’s pretty much how I remember it from my childhood, 4:3 aspect ratio and all. I ran into some glitches but nothing game breaking. The performance is pretty solid.
Even though Sucker Punch Productions would shift towards the sandbox open-world approach for Sly, his first entry is still worth checking out.
Now playable on the PS4 and PS5, you really can’t go wrong with Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus. Nothing has changed from the title aside from the emulation features which only enhance the game for modern audiences. The story, gameplay, and cel-shaded visuals all hold up in 2024. Obviously, I would love a remake of Sly 1 with top notch graphics and maybe some other gameplay enhancements but for a $10 port, this is great stuff.
Travis “tvsonic” Vuong
Business e-mail: travisvuong56@gmail.com
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