playstation 2 It was a formative console. Not only for Sony, but also for the studios that create games on the platform. the PS2 would go on to become the best-selling home console to date, defined by a myriad of classic games from now big-name developers. Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica, and Insomniac have iconic franchises born of this generation.

For Sucker Punch Productions, the cartoonish exploits of a master thief in Sly Cooper and Thievius Raccoonus it helped define what makes the studio’s games special, even after twenty years.

Cops and robbers

If you’ve ever looked at a raccoon and thought “the black markings on its face look like a cartoon thief’s mask,” then you basically understand everything you need to know about cunning cooper.

He is a raccoon who comes from a long line of master thieves, although he tragically grew up in an orphanage after his parents were murdered. Sly Cooper and Thievius Raccoonus puts players in control of Sly (and other members of his crew on special missions) as he attempts to reclaim his family’s birthright by staging a series of elaborate heists against the group that took his parents’ lives.

Stealth mechanics are common in video games, fragmented cell Y solid metal gear both are stealth action game franchises. Both are military fantasies where you basically play as a policeman! Unlike, cunning cooper makes you feel like an honorable thief, pulling off heists against absolute garbage bags.

There are five levels in cunning cooper, each assigns Sly and his gang the task of breaking into a huge evil lair of one bad guy or another. Levels are divided into “Jobs” which narratively act like steps in a heist. There are investigative missions where you have to investigate the joint and collect information about security moves or computers that need hacking.

While Sly has a staff to attack enemies, he dies with one hit from an enemy. This fragility is a message from the developers that combat is definitely not the right way to go, maybe try to embody a thief. Levels are defined by lighting, paying attention to where Sly can get covered in shadows and avoiding light means the difference between a successful job and getting arrested. The game’s ability to speak to the narrative of the game itself helped establish Sly Cooper and Thievius Raccoonus plus a sea of ​​platform games that existed on PlayStation 2.

family resemblance

In the Christmas season of 2000, my older brother convinced our mother to buy a PlayStation 2 for Christmas. I was three years old at the time and too young to care.

Sly Cooper and Thievius Raccoonus it came out on September 23, 2002. I was five years old at the time, and my earliest memories often included watching my brother play on the PlayStation 2. cunning cooper it wowed me with its cartoon style and talking animal characters. reminded me of Disney Robin Hood, a movie that I had seen on VHS repeatedly. wanted to play cunning cooper. I eventually did, after my brother beat him first. I loved.

I played fewer and fewer games over the next few years until I convinced my mom to buy me a PlayStation 3 Slim in 2011. She took me to GameStop and let me pick out a few games. I asked the counter clerk for recommendations. I left the store with uncharted 2 Y infamous.

the first time i played infamous, I loved. It still stands as one of the best superhero games out there. So I learned that infamous Developer Sucker Punch also created the cunning cooper Serie. In hindsight, it made a lot of sense. infamous is a game so defined by its expertly crafted city that feels incredible to walk through, in many ways it feels like the natural progression of the open world from cunning coopers transverse across ropes and roofs. Both series offer the player upgrades throughout the game that allow for new ways to explore the game world.

Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima is often called a assassin’s Creed clone for its stealth action gameplay, but it also depends on the work done on cunning cooper.

By creating a unique combination of stealth and world traversal, Sucker Punch found a core gameplay experience that continues to work even 20 years later. From the historical account of Ghost of Tsushima to the cartoonish robberies of cunning cooperone thing remains constant: the view is better from the rooftops.

The Sly Cooper Collection is now available for PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers.