Sly Cooper and The Thievius Raccoonus review

This is the beginning of my new 11 part blog where I give a summary of the story and review every game as a whole I have played in both the Sly Cooper and Ratchet & Clank series. This would be Sly Cooper and The Thievius Raccoonus, Sly 2 Band Of Thieves, Sly 3 Honor Among Thieves, Sly Cooper Thieves In Time, Ratchet & Clank, Ratchet & Clank Going Commando, Ratchet & Clank Up Your Arsenal, Ratchet & Clank Into The Nexus, Ratchet & Clank A Crack In Time and Ratchet & clank Tools Of Destruction. First up is my review of Sly Cooper and The Thievius Raccoonus.
Summary: Sly Cooper and The Thievius Raccoonus starts with a raccoon named Sly on top of a Police station in Paris, France when he gets a call on his binocucom from his partner in crime and brains of the operation Bentley The Turtle. Bentley is nervous but gives Sly instructions to climb through an air vent that should allow him to break into police HQ. After doing so Sly finds the office of an inspector who has a police file Sly wants, so he sneaks into the office through a window and steals the file. After getting the file the inspector whose office he broke into named Carmelita Fox catches him and a short chase scene commences where Sly has to run as Carmelita shoots at him with a shock pistol which ends with Sly jumping into his team van and driving away.
After escaping from Carmelita Sly gives the player an official introduction. It turns out Sly was born into a family of master thieves (the difference between a thief and a master thief is that a master thief only steals from criminals and no one else). His family had started writing about there adventures and how to do there techniques going all the way back to at least 1300BC in Ancient Egypt, that book was called The Thievius Raccoonus. On the night Sly was to inherit the book a group of thugs known as the Fiendish Five attacked his home, killed his dad and stole the book before Sly could read it. After his father was killed Sly went to live at the town orphanage where he met 2 guys who became his friends and teammates as thieves, Bentley the brains of the group and Murray the hippo who is described by Sly as "part time driver full time burden". Together they pledge to avenge his father and steal back the Thievius Raccoonus.
The first official level of the game is Tide Of Terror the main villain is a frog named Sir Raleigh. As a young man Sir Raleigh was a rich kid who got bored of it and decided to turn to a life of piracy thinking it'd be more fun. After realizing he had a knack for piracy he sets up base on the "Isle Of Wrath" where he creates a storm machine to make the tides so strong that any ship that comes near them will be sunk and looted. After Sly steals Raleigh's keys to unlock a cannon he shoots himself out of it to beat Raleigh and steal back his pages of the Thievius Raccoonus teaching him how his Japanese ancestor Rioichi Cooper's signature Ninja Spire Jump technique. After defeating Raleigh he warns Sly that next he'll have to face Muggshot in Mesa City, Utah if he wants to get back all of The Thievius Raccoonus. Sly leaves just as Carmelita shows up to arrest Sir Raleigh evading capture and heading off to his next mission.
The second level Sunset Snake Eyes takes place in Mesa City, Utah a once thriving boomtown turned ghost town after a bulldog named Muggshot runs everyone out of town to start a casino business. Muggshot grew up as the neighborhood weakling who was picked on and bullied until one day seeing a gangster movie that inspired him to become bigger and stronger to the point he guaranteed he'd never be picked on or bullied again. After stealing the 7 treasure keys, including a few times where Murray gets into the field to help out he breaks in to Muggshot's penthouse you defeat him to get back the pages of Sly's ancestor from the Wild West Tennessee Kid Cooper teaching you how to slide on rails. After defeating Muggshot he tells you next you have to go to Haiti to fight Mz Ruby as Sly once again escapes before Carmelita arrives to take Muggshot to jail.
The third level Vicious Voodoo you go to Haiti to face a large alligator named Mz Ruby who became evil because she was born in to a family of voodoo priests, this scared other children to the point she had no friends, this loneliness turned to anger which lead her to summon the undead and use them to take revenge on the world for being afraid of her. After stealing Mz Ruby's 7 keys to fight her in a battle of "Voodoo Simon Says" you retrieve the pages teaching you how to become invisible from Sly's ancestor from Ancient Egypt Slytunkhamen Cooper. Mz Ruby's tells Sly next he must go to China to face The Panda King to complete the book as he leaves to escape before Carmelita comes in again to arrest Mz Ruby.
The fourth level Fire In The Sky sees you go to China to face the Panda King a man who was born poor but as a child loved the fireworks set off every new year, after spending the rest of his youth learning how to make them himself he tries to sell his fireworks to the rich noblemen only for them to not be able to see past the fact he looks poor and chased him off, humiliated The Panda King turned to using the fireworks to commit crimes eventually leading him to start a business where he forces villages to pay for avalanche insurance and if they don't he sets a firework off to cause an avalanche burying the village in a ton of snow in the process. After stealing the 7 keys to Panda King's lair where again Murray helps out you defeat The Panda King this time however it's not Panda King who tells you where to go it's Bentley telling you next they have to go to The Krak Karov Volcano in Russia to face Clockwerk. After defeating Panda King you steal back the pages from Sly's ancestor Otto Van Cooper who's entries would teach how to make some kick ass modifications to the team van, then Sly leaves as Carmelita arrests Panda King.
The final level The Cold Heart Of Hate as you are driving to Russia to face Clockwerk Sly notices that in the background of the pictures in the Thievius Raccoonus there is a shadowy owl like figure similar to police sketches of Clockwerk leaving Sly confused just as they get there. As Sly and the gang get to the Krak Karov Volcano they have to use the vans new modifications to get past Clockwerk's death ray until Sly's able to continue on his own. Once alone Sly sees Carmelita has been captures and rushes to save her, getting himself trapped in the process. Bentley helps out by hacking Clockwerk's computer to turn off the trap allowing Sly to free Carmelita. After freeing Carmelita she and Sly make a truce to work together to take down Clockwerk, Sly works his way through the death ray (destroying it in the process) to find her jetpack so he can fight Clockwerk one on one while being covered by Carmelita and her shock pistol until he finally faces Clockwerk face to face. After finally facing his enemy face to face Clockwerk reveals he has been the sworn enemy of Sly's family since at least Slytunkhamen making himself a robot to become immortal to continually haunt them throughout history to do it, Sly then asks Clockwerk why he let him live when he stole the Thievius Raccoonus to which Clockwek says it was to prove without the book Sly's family is nothing (which Sly has disproved at this point). After blasting Clockwerk into the lava twice Sly races to his head so he can destroy him once and for all as Clockwerk lays there saying Sly will never be rid of him.
After defeating Clockwerk Sly reflects on the adventures he'd went through thinking about how without his friends he'd have never gotten off that rooftop in Paris and how emotional it is to finally restore his families book after all these years. His reflecting is cut short by Carmelita who gives him a 10 second head start before trying to arrest him, Sly waits until the last second to kiss her which distracts Carmelita (because she very much enjoyed it) long enough for Sly to escape.
Review as a game: This is one of my favorite games as a kid and I'd say it still holds up very nicely as well. I've always loved platformers with a story that makes you want to continue the game and this is one of the best at that. My one complaint is that they never really do anything to show that Sly, Bentley and Murray are life long friends other than Sly saying they are, which in all fairness can be attributed to the fact Sucker Punch wanted to push Sly's story and push Murray and Bentley's characters later on. The story of the game I love the twist of the idea that Sly is supposed to be an unseen sneak but then it turns out there's an evil monster who knows every move he makes I just loved that idea so much. If you have never played this game I'd suggest you try and find it (it was originally PS2 exclusive but they remastered it for PS3 as well) it's a short game but very much worth your time in my opinion