The Sly Collection is all three of the Sly Cooper games bundled and remastered for the PlayStation 3.  Sly Cooper was first introduced to gamers back in 2002, near the end of what I call the golden age of gaming which began with the Nintendo 64 and ended with the original Xbox, and PlayStation 2.  The collection greatly upgrades the graphics of the original games, supporting 3D compatibility, and adapts the control scheme to include the ability to use the PlayStation Move, as well as adding Trophies.

Sly Cooper is a classic platformer with dialogue and characters similar to Star Fox or Sonic the Hedgehog.  The player is a descendent in a long line of thieving raccoons and it is your job to carry on the family legacy with your posse of thieves around you.  The first game, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, you learn the back story to the Cooper family and how the “Thievius Raccoonus”, a book that chronicles the Cooper line, has been stolen.  It is the player’s job as the last Cooper to go and recover the book.  The second game, Sly 2: Band of Thieves, Sly Cooper is attempting to destroy what remains of his enemy but the pieces he must gather have been stolen by a rival gang and must go through each world, tracking down and destroying artifacts.  The final game, Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, Sly is trying to enter his family’s vault which has been fortified with security.  The game takes place in flashback and has the player going around and gathering their gang in order to infiltrate the security and get into the Cooper vault.  As anyone can tell the story is very linear and simple, there are no great twists, but somehow the simplicity of it is very engaging and makes the player really feel part of the world and feels an honour among thieves.

The graphics of the game (as mentioned before) have been punched up significantly.  Even without high definition and 3D, you can tell that the development team put effort into the presentation.  The characters are drawn in 2D but placed in a 3D world giving an enjoyable contrast to the play.  The characters come across as very sharp but have retained that old school feeling about them.  With the classic audio track that accompanies the graphics, it is a very nostalgic feel entering the world of Sly Cooper.

As for the game play, this is a clear reminder of what platformers should be like and what they should involve.  No complicated plots, no need for a huge worlds, just good jumping around, hacking and slashing cartoon enemies and the like.  The game is a third-person adventure, “stealth” game.  There are elements of stealth as you sneak around and hide in shadows, but don’t expect Splinter Cell here.  The second game introduces the ability to play with characters other than Sly as well as expands on the stealth aspects.  You have the ability to shoot sleeper darts, hack computer terminals, and pickpocket people.  In part 3, there are a few new in-game puzzles to solve like cracking safes and the use of disguises but what I think is most significant is an offline multiplayer experience.  Overall, it is just a good time and has enough change to really give the player and enjoyable, varied experience in the world that has been created.

When Sly Cooper was first introduced almost 10 years ago I had heard of it but didn’t really experience it.  So when I had the opportunity to play this collection I was very excited because I remember the reverence the game was treated with on the PlayStation 2.  This is an excellent collection that should be picked up because it reminds us all what games used to be and how simple games can be the most engaging experiences we have.  Plus, who doesn’t want to play a cane-wielding, wise-cracking, raccoon thief?