Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus
Sly Cooper was praised for its technical achievements—particularly its use of a variation on cel-shading to create a film noir feel while still rendering as a hand-drawn animated film—and criticized for being too short.An Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine retrospective describes the gameplay as "mix[ing] one-hit-kill arcade action with Splinter Cell sneaking".[2] To assist in these stealth moves, the environment contains special areas colored with blue sparkles of light, identified in the game as Sly's thief senses.[3] Each sub-section of a lair contains a number of clue bottles that, when collected, allow Sly to access a safe in the level that contains a page from the Thievius Raccoonus.These pages grant Sly new moves to aid in movement, stealth, or combat, such as creating a decoy or dropping an explosive hat.Two years later, the Cooper Gang infiltrates Interpol headquarters in Paris, France to steal a secret police file containing information about the Fiendish Five.The Fiendish Five comprises Sir Raleigh, a frog pirate in Wales who built a storm machine to sink ships and steal their treasure; Muggshot, an American bulldog gangster in Utah who took over a city to build a gambling empire; Mz.During their battle, Clockwerk reveals to Sly that he is himself a master thief; bitter and jealous of the Cooper Clan for eclipsing him with their superior talents, and in retaliation, he converted himself into a machine to gain immortality.Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus was the second game developed by Sucker Punch Productions, following Rocket: Robot on Wheels (1999) for the Nintendo 64.Brian Flemming of Sucker Punch called the rendering style "toon-shading", comparing the detailed backgrounds with cel-shading foregrounds to that of animated films."[3] The game art team "collected hundreds of photos and drawings of areas that looked like the worlds [they] wanted to create" to generate the backgrounds.[15] GameSpot noted that "The game has a fantastic sense of style to its design that is reflected in everything from the animation to the unique use of the peaking fad, cel-shaded polygons."[23] Many reviews also appreciated the ease of learning the controls and gameplay; IGN stated that "Sly is incredibly responsive, and though his size seems a little large at times due to his long arms and legs and the cane he carries, skillfully jumping and hitting enemies with precision is a quick study.
Developer(s)Sucker Punch ProductionsPublisher(s)Sony Computer EntertainmentProducer(s)Designer(s)Programmer(s)Artist(s)Writer(s)Composer(s)Sly CooperPlatform(s)PlayStation 2Genre(s)StealthplatformSingle-playerPAL regionsvideo gamecel-shadingfilm noirhand-drawn animated filmPlayStation 3PlayStation VitaPlayStation 4PlayStation 5third personplatformerOfficial U.S. PlayStation MagazineSplinter Celldynamic musichorseshoerhythmDance Dance Revolutiontimed sprintanthropomorphicraccoonhippopotamusInterpolParis, FranceAmerican bulldogalligatorgiant pandaNintendo 64Autodesk MayaYoko KannoCowboy BebopHenry ManciniCarl StallingMetacriticAllGameElectronic Gaming MonthlyEurogamerGame InformerGameProGameRevolutionGameSpotGameSpyX-PlayEntertainment WeeklyPlayboyreview aggregator6th Annual Interactive Achievement AwardsAcademy of Interactive Arts & SciencesOutstanding Achievement in AnimationOutstanding Achievement in Art DirectionConsole Platform Action/Adventure Game of the YearSony's "Greatest Hits"Next GenerationSixth generation of video game consolesGame Developer's ConferenceRatchet & ClankJak & DaxterInsomniac GamesNaughty DogGame DeveloperGameplanetGamesRadar+Game RevolutionMobyGamesBentley's HackpackPlayStation Move HeroesPlayStation All-Stars Battle RoyaleSly Cooper seriesInfamous seriesInfamousInfamous 2Infamous Second SonFirst LightGhost of TsushimaGhost of Yōtei