The Sly Cooper franchise started back in the PS2 era and spawned itself a trilogy of popular games for that system. The last main entry game for the franchise was released back in 2005 and the world never saw Sly Cooper since then. Apart from the HD trilogy remake that surfaced on the PS3 a few years ago, no new game starring the crafty raccoon had been made.
Thankfully, fans can now rejoice as the fourth game in the franchise is here with Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. Not only is Sly Cooper making his first official HD debut, he will also be gracing on more than one console as well. This is because Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time is not only available for the PS3, but will also grace the PS Vita too.
With that being said, is Sly Cooper a game that works well on a handheld console? Find out as we take a look at what’s HOT and NOT in our review of Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time.
Hot
Fun and Varied Gameplay
When it comes to other platforming games, you can say that the gameplay can become repetitive since it’s either a series of jumping puzzles or you’re just beating up a bunch of bad guys all of the time. As much as I like the Ratchet & Clank series, sometimes I get bored of the gameplay as you’re just blasting bad guys with lots of weapons all of the time.
The Sly Cooper games are a different type of platformer as you play as a group of thieves and stealth is the key element of gameplay here. If you have not heard of the Sly Cooper games before, they’re like the Ocean’s Eleven movies only that the main group only consists of three members and all of them are animals.
Sly Cooper is the leader of the group and his missions usually consist of stealth and being as quiet as possible. Murray is a huge pink colored hippo and is the muscle of the gang. He usually beats up a bunch of bad guys using his belly flop and other pro-wrestling type moves. Lastly there is Bentley who is a turtle that is on a wheelchair. You could say he’s the “nerd” of the group since he can control a lot of nifty gadgets such as robots and can hack security systems and stuff. His missions are pretty fun too as you will control remote controlled cars, use tracking darts to find specific enemies and more.
There are several missions in the game that are just fun to both play and watch as well. One of the highlights include Murray dressing up as a Geisha to woo some guards. Sly’s girlfriend Carmelita will have to woo guards later on in the game too when she dresses up as a belly dancer.
Interesting Story
The premise of Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time is pretty interesting because Sly and the Gang have to travel back in time to restore the “Cooper” family name. This is because the evil Le Paradox is jealous that the Coopers became renowned as famous thieves instead of his family. In order for him to rewrite history to his own liking, he travels back in time to erase the Cooper family’s reputation. Sly will have to travel to different places in different time periods to meet up and help his ancestors who have all been imprisoned by Le Pardox and his associates. The story is engaging throughout and is told via entertaining cartoon cutscenes.