Zodi Plays: Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (Furry Crime Adventure)

[LaZodiac]

No fancy header for this one, my poor tortured artist didn't have enough time rip him.

A long time ago, a company named Sega decided to make it's counter to Mario in the form of Sonic T. Hedgehog, a sassy blue animal friend. Thus was the start of what can be known as the "Mascot Platformer" genre, which if you're generous can include a lot more than just straight action platformers because the feel is more about having a (typically sassy) cute animal player character, which also doubles as the developers mascot. Many people tried their hand at this, no more than Sony that basically pumped out like, at least a hundred of these. It had Crash Bandicoot, which was terrible. It had Spyro, which was really good up until it suddenly wasn't and no one knew how to recover it. It had Rachet and Clank and the...other, main character and side kick duo which shall go unmentioned due to being t h e f o r b i d d e n in this household, and while the first of those was good the latter is um...well given my response to it you can guess how much I like it.

But on top of all of that, one of the last, was a simple game by Sucker Punch studios. You may know them from Rocket Robot On Wheels, or their later inFamous series. But here is where it all started. A game about a raccoon man, his turtle friend, his hippo buddy, and their global crime spree adventure. We'll have fun, excitement, and more than a few close calls. This is one of my favorite games of all time, as well as one of my favorite series, so you can rest assured I'm getting 100% on this and am going to have a pretty fun time. As always, no spoilers please, try and keep the talk about the game, etc etc. I'm going to be trying to get 2 or maybe 3 levels in a video, barring for time. Without further ado, lets dive on in.

Zodi Plays: Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus [1] Tide of Terror

Video Length: 20:55

And so our adventure games, in media res as it where as Sly sneakthieves his way into the Paris police department. Mechanically this game controls incredibly well, movement being fluid and everything rolling into each other very well. The animation has always been a high point of this series, with a lot of effort put into making it all look sneaky. Everything Sly does carries with it this feeling of light footed intentionality, with a mild cartoon exaggeration that really sells home how it all looks. Joining Sly on this little heist, though in the getaway van and not out in the field, are Bentley the turtle and Murry the Hippo, the brains and driver of the gang. And after we steal the file, it's time to meet the Zenigata to our Lupin, Carmalita Fox. This interpol agent packs a powerful proton pistol and is generally pretty acrobatic as well, and is probably one of the biggest threats in the game. Which is saying something given you die in one hit. We evade her, and make our escape.

Which of course leads into the other really iconic "bit" from Sly Cooper. The animated cutscenes. I'm a big fan of the kinda pulpy comic book style the Sly series uses, and it works really well here. We get our backstory here, and it's a good one. Sly is the latest in a long line of master thieves, who own a book of thief knowledge passed down from one member of the family to the next; the Thievius Raccoonus. A group known as the Fiendish Five attacked Sly's family and killed his parents, stealing the book. Poor Sly ends up in the orphanage where he meets his friends, and together they work on the big plan to steal back the pages of the book and return ourselves to infamous glory, as it where. This leads us to the first hideout of the game, Sir Raleigh's pirate base.

SIr Raleigh was a rich frog who got bored so he decided to do a pirate. Turns out he liked it, and he used his mechanical know-how to create a weather control device to rob more ships. All in all not the most impressive villain in the series, but he'll make a good first target. We infiltrate his hideout, in the process finding the main collectable of the game (clue bottles that let us unlock safes in each level) and then get a little message from the frogger, showing how deranged he actually is. All in all, a good first outing.

Hope you all enjoyed the start of this new LP. I'll see you guys next time for more crime.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I probably won't be particularly active this time 'round. I do like the music, and the animation style is pretty amusing. Other than that, however, the game really shows its age, and I'm not overly fond of how they do tutorials. For some reason, it's more immersion-breaking to me for a character to outright say 'use the circle button' than for Navi to reference buttons during one of her many chats, simply because I can skip through her nonsense most of the time.

[DataNinja]

I'll be honest... I had never really heard anything about this game before now. So, uh, this'll be entirely fresh to me.

I do like this cinematic, because it tells you without super-stating what some of the abilities of this character are.

...ah, good. We're discussing the plans right before executing them. The sign of a great thief. (And expositor.)

...so, why are these super-sneaky master thieves writing down their tips in a place easily researchable?

Very discreet getaway van.

Is your special technique rubbing your face on every bit of scenery?

[Qwertystop]

They did pretty good work on Sly's tail, given the age of the game. Pretty fluid.

[LaZodiac]

I'll be honest... I had never really heard anything about this game before now. So, uh, this'll be entirely fresh to me.

I do like this cinematic, because it tells you without super-stating what some of the abilities of this character are.

...ah, good. We're discussing the plans right before executing them. The sign of a great thief. (And expositor.)

...so, why are these super-sneaky master thieves writing down their tips in a place easily researchable?

Very discreet getaway van.

Is your special technique rubbing your face on every bit of scenery?

The Cooper family ranges from all the way to ancient egypt to modern day Paris. I feel like it's encrypted just by being made out of a thousand different languages.

My special technique is actually pretty legit, and I'll talk about it later.

They did pretty good work on Sly's tail, given the age of the game. Pretty fluid.

Fluidity is something this game nails really well.

[DataNinja]

The Cooper family ranges from all the way to ancient egypt to modern day Paris. I feel like it's encrypted just by being made out of a thousand different languages.

I suppose. But then you have to wonder how our dear turtle-buddy can just research it like that.
(I know, I know, video game. But I like to poke fun at this stuff.)

[PhantomFox]

Ah, Sly Cooper. Never got the chance to play it, never owning PS hardware. But I have watched a few playthroughs and it's right up my alley...

Anyhow, I think I figured out what I want to do for this playthrough: Improv Fanhistory! 100% pulling it out of my ass as I go! I may end up regretting this, but who cares! Onward! Feel free to add to, or riff on this along with me.

Drake Cooper

Drake Cooper was not a pirate. No sir! He was a PRIVATEER! There was a difference, and he refused to be lumped in with those dirty, uncivilized, and most importantly unsubtle pirates. While most privateers were hired to prey on merchant ship of enemy countries, Drake considered them little more than pirates with a badge. His contempt for the pirates grew to such levels, that preyed almost solely on pirates. His offer to England was to be an anti-pirate privateer, one who raided the pirates sent against England and recovered the stolen goods and treasure, and bringing them back to England. Well, MOST of them back to England. Many a treasure was 'lost to sea' or 'destroyed in the battle' but managed to find its way to Drake's private stash. The rest he returned, charging an almost-outrageous fee to do so. Just enough service done keeping true pirates at bay to earn him a blind eye from those in power, but still keeping his purse lined. Playing both sides for profit was a dangerous game, but one he relished.

His methods mainly revolved around stealing treasure charts, deciphering clues made by other pirates, and finding buried treasure. He originally developed the Fast Attack Dive Move as a way dig up buried treasure quickly, burrowing into the ground with his spinning cane to retrieve the chests, but quickly discovered it's combat applications as well. Quickly darting under a pirate's guard and knocking their feet (or peg legs) out from under them proved invaluable, and despite his reputation, he ALWAYS was quicker than he let on.

As with all Coopers, Drake's wielded a hooked cane. However, after an accident involving leaping from shark to shark to board a ship, Drake lost a hand and he had a spare hook for his cane spring-loaded and put on his stump to replace his hand. Figuring that if he had to take part in the cliche, he might as well make it stylish, he used his new hookshot and cane combination to great effect, granting him unparalleled mobility about a ship's mast and rigging as well as through jungle tropics, and coining the phrase "By hook or by crook" to describe his hookshot and cane thieving tricks to get what he was after.

To this day, Drake remains the most notable seafaring Cooper, although the clan's aversion to water may play a part in that.

[LaZodiac]

...oh hell yeah I'm into this idea. It's gonna get fun for...a couple of reasons we'll be able to talk about in the far future, but heck yeah.

[DataNinja]

His methods mainly revolved around stealing treasure charts, deciphering clues made by other pirates, and finding buried treasure.

Hmmmm... reminds me of some recent escapades around here, for some reason.

[PhantomFox]

...oh hell yeah I'm into this idea. It's gonna get fun for...a couple of reasons we'll be able to talk about in the far future, but heck yeah.

Well, only having watched through 3, and a light browsing of the wiki, I'm trying not to step on any canon toes, but mostly I'm just doing whatever I find fun.

[Eurus]

Ooh! Sly Cooper is one of my strongest nostalgia-triggers, for some reason... really not bad, as platformers of that era went. I can't for the life of me imagine why Crash Bandicoot became more mainstream. The animated cutscenes even take the edge off the ugliness!

I actually quite like the banter, too. Although the voices (especially Carmelita's) are more stilted than I remember. I don't remember if the first game has the intercom monologues or if those got introduced in Sly 2...

[GloatingSwine]

Sly 2 is the best Assassin's Creed game :P

The way all the minor objectives directly impact the main mission in tangible ways is streets ahead of all the Ubisoft games that fundamentally use the same "clear these objectives to get the main one" structure.

[LaZodiac]

Ooh! Sly Cooper is one of my strongest nostalgia-triggers, for some reason... really not bad, as platformers of that era went. I can't for the life of me imagine why Crash Bandicoot became more mainstream. The animated cutscenes even take the edge off the ugliness!

I actually quite like the banter, too. Although the voices (especially Carmelita's) are more stilted than I remember. I don't remember if the first game has the intercom monologues or if those got introduced in Sly 2...

God don't even get my started on Carmelita and adventures in voice acting. We'll get to that when we do hit the future Sly games. Also yeah no I don't get Crash's fandom at all, running forward while platforming is a genuine sin.

The first episode ends with Raleigh ranting over the speakers so yeah, I'm pretty sure they're introduced here.

Sly 2 is the best Assassin's Creed game :P

The way all the minor objectives directly impact the main mission in tangible ways is streets ahead of all the Ubisoft games that fundamentally use the same "clear these objectives to get the main one" structure.

By patron request or otherwise, Sly 2 is definitely on the "gonna do it eventually" list.

[LaZodiac]

Let's continue with furry crimes.

Zodi Plays: Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus [2] Tuck and Roll

Video Length: 15:35

In this episode, we go through the next two stages in Raleigh's hideout, and technically the first stages in the game. We get to see the extent of our sneaking ability as we fiddle our way through a fiery engine room, and we get to slip past security in a fancy library type area. The level design in this game feels really good, with the actual aesthetic design being fantastic (not to mention all the small details in the backgrounds) so even if it is relatively simple to navigate these levels, they look really cool if you stop and take a peek at em, which I will from time to time. We also encounter some pretty cool set pieces, the rotating van area from the first stage and the statue garden laser security system from the second. And of course the lilypad jumping, which is something I distinctly remember always seeing from the trailers/commercials for the game as a distinct "thing".

Clue bottle wise, we find a new move and also find that not every safe is gonna have a piece of the Raccoonus in it. We get the roll, which is decent at getting around fast but has the problem that it reacts to physics as you'd expect a rolling move to do in reality, and since this is a cartoon world it's full of things in the way and bumpy, uneven terrain so it ends up not actually being super useful. It has it's places though. In the second stage we get the blueprints to Raleigh's hideout, letting us use our binocu-cam to find breakable objects and clue bottles. It's a little vague about it (I don't recall ever using it to find bottles myself) but it's definitely useful to have in a pinch. Each hideout has it's own blueprints though, so once we're done with the frog we won't have much use for them. Still, nice to have.

And that's the episodes. One of the "both good and bad" sides of this game is that it's a lot more simpler than others, so I end up having not tooo much to talk about, so we get shorter posts like this. But that's not a bad thing, sometimes we need to take a step back and chill. But yeah, hope you all enjoyed today's episode. See you guys next time for further crime!

[DataNinja]

Into a machine? Sounds dangerous.

All this water seems... dangerous to have around these machines. At the very least, it seems like it'd make maintenance hard. And things to rust easier. Man, why don't these mad scientists ever do things intelligently?

The pausing in the music during the transitions keeps making me wonder if I accidentally paused the video...

The whole statue with eye lasers thing is pretty cool.

Zodi... didn't you just get a move that lets you roll into walls? Why not keep ending videos that way?

I... don't really have much to say about these videos. Don't know much about the game, and there's not a whole lot to talk about, as mentioned. But, I'll keep watching, and commenting something if at all possible.

[HalfTangible]

It would be a pretty bad storm machine (primarily used in the sea for wrecking ships, btw) if it A) had no water and B) couldn't handle said water.

Also, Sly is best raccoon. With the possible exception of Rocket.

[LaZodiac]

Into a machine? Sounds dangerous.

All this water seems... dangerous to have around these machines. At the very least, it seems like it'd make maintenance hard. And things to rust easier. Man, why don't these mad scientists ever do things intelligently?

The pausing in the music during the transitions keeps making me wonder if I accidentally paused the video...

The whole statue with eye lasers thing is pretty cool.

Zodi... didn't you just get a move that lets you roll into walls? Why not keep ending videos that way?

I... don't really have much to say about these videos. Don't know much about the game, and there's not a whole lot to talk about, as mentioned. But, I'll keep watching, and commenting something if at all possible.

The game becomes much more talk aboutable in episodes that feature cutscenes regarding the criminals we're heisting from. Also there's no satisfying thud when you roll into things in this game so it's not something I've considered.

[HalfTangible]

The game becomes much more talk aboutable in episodes that feature cutscenes regarding the criminals we're heisting from. Also there's no satisfying thud when you roll into things in this game so it's not something I've considered.

There wasn't much of a thud in Super Mario Sunshine either

[LaZodiac]

There wasn't much of a thud in Super Mario Sunshine either

It had a sound effect and a lot of explody stars. It worked.

[HalfTangible]

It had a sound effect and a lot of explody stars. It worked.

Yeah but it was more 'poof' or 'bonk' than 'thud'

[DataNinja]

Also there's no satisfying thud when you roll into things in this game so it's not something I've considered.

That's what the magic of editing is for.
*cue a small explosion every time you roll into a wall*

[PhantomFox]

More On-the-fly-fanhistory time!

"Old" Sally Cooper

Sally Cooper made her claim to fame out in the United States, namely in Texas during the days of the Wild West. Originally, she was part of a thieving gang called the Nine Bandits, led by Arnold Dillon, and from whom she learned and improved upon her signature move: the Fast Getaway Raccoon Roll. While she was young, Sally took her inspiration from Dillon and his hit-and-run tactics. The whole gang knew and used his roll move, using their unique (at the time) speed to hit stagecoaches, rob them, and then roll away before a response could be organized. Arnold, or "Arny" as he liked to be called, was just as quick with his guns and never backed down from a fight if someone got in his way. His hide was covered in scars, but it just made him tougher, leading to the legend that his back was bullet-proof. He came to be feared by anyone carrying too many valuables for Arny's taste, and admired by most of the rough-n-tough guys in the county. His fame grew to the level that people could recognize him on site, and since then whenever he rolled in seemingly out of nowhere to rob a coach they would yell "Look out! It's the Nine Bandits' Arny Dillon!"

Later on, one of his members unfortunately put himself out of commission by attempting to disguise himself as a soccer ball, and got used in a pickup game for a good half hour before the disguise was discovered. Sally stepped forward at this time, as you couldn't have a gang called the Nine Bandits without a ninth bandit. Already pretty speedy on her feet, she quickly picked up the gang's signature move. She made a name for herself there, but she soon grew tired of stagecoach robberies, and struck out on her own and traveled down south to Mexico. She soon improved on Arny's techniques, and discovered a way to make herself more compact while rolling. She used this to track down various banditos and gangs and steal from them, using the roll to fit through tight passages she would not able to access otherwise.

Sally has since retired from thievery, but can't stay away from the lure of adventure, and now is a freelance archeologist. Meaning, she spends most of her time crawling and rolling around ruins, dodging traps, and searching for ancient relics rather than any of the 'boring' archeology work.

[Qwertystop]

More On-the-fly-fanhistory time!

"Old" Sally Cooper

Sally Cooper made her claim to fame out in the United States, namely in Texas during the days of the Wild West. Originally, she was part of a thieving gang called the Nine Bandits, led by Arnold Dillon, and from whom she learned and improved upon her signature move: the Fast Getaway Raccoon Roll. While she was young, Sally took her inspiration from Dillon and his hit-and-run tactics. The whole gang knew and used his roll move, using their unique (at the time) speed to hit stagecoaches, rob them, and then roll away before a response could be organized. Arnold, or "Arny" as he liked to be called, was just as quick with his guns and never backed down from a fight if someone got in his way. His hide was covered in scars, but it just made him tougher, leading to the legend that his back was bullet-proof. He came to be feared by anyone carrying too many valuables for Arny's taste, and admired by most of the rough-n-tough guys in the county. His fame grew to the level that people could recognize him on site, and since then whenever he rolled in seemingly out of nowhere to rob a coach they would yell "Look out! It's the Nine Bandits' Arny Dillon!"

Later on, one of his members unfortunately put himself out of commission by attempting to disguise himself as a soccer ball, and got used in a pickup game for a good half hour before the disguise was discovered. Sally stepped forward at this time, as you couldn't have a gang called the Nine Bandits without a ninth bandit. Already pretty speedy on her feet, she quickly picked up the gang's signature move. She made a name for herself there, but she soon grew tired of stagecoach robberies, and struck out on her own and traveled down south to Mexico. She soon improved on Arny's techniques, and discovered a way to make herself more compact while rolling. She used this to track down various banditos and gangs and steal from them, using the roll to fit through tight passages she would not able to access otherwise.

Sally has since retired from thievery, but can't stay away from the lure of adventure, and now is a freelance archeologist. Meaning, she spends most of her time crawling and rolling around ruins, dodging traps, and searching for ancient relics rather than any of the 'boring' archeology work.

...Well, that's an unexpected pair of crossover-references.

[PhantomFox]

Which two were you thinking of? While writing this, my mind kept ping-ponging between how to include an Armadillo, Morph Balls, and possibly Indiana Jones.

[Qwertystop]

Which two were you thinking of? While writing this, my mind kept ping-ponging between how to include an Armadillo, Morph Balls, and possibly Indiana Jones.

The first two - Dillion's Rolling Western and Metroid. "Adventurer in ancient heavily-trapped ruins" is enough of an archetype that it didn't specifically say Indy to me.

[PhantomFox]

The first two - Dillion's Rolling Western and Metroid. "Adventurer in ancient heavily-trapped ruins" is enough of an archetype that it didn't specifically say Indy to me.

To be honest I had forgotten his name was Dillon as well, I just remembered that he existed and didn't bother researching it. Mainly, I saw "Nine Banded Armadillo" as the type of Armadillo in the US and couldn't resist the pun to jump to "Nine Bandit's Arny Dillon"

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Also, the world of Metroid could be very easily described as 'ancient heavily-trapped ruins', so it felt to me like a continuation of the Metroid reference.

[LaZodiac]

Little late an episode because I stayed up Too Late watching Coco.

Zodi Plays: Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus [3] Barrel Friend

Video Length: 16:00

In today's episode, we finish up the final two stages of Raleigh's hideout...or at least, this half of it. Most hideouts are split into two sections, with the first set of levels getting you deeper into the compound due to some manner of trickery (in Raleigh's case, smashing his electrical defense grid). This is also the first real time that I miss some clue bottles, so you can get a feel for how I'm gonna edit that in the future. If you'd prefer speed ups to cutting directly to it just tell me and I'll see how that looks.

The first level is the main engine of the storm machine, a huge furnace of heat and fire, and the first (and I do think only) instance of a redundant tutorial. We already needed to know how to to run on the flywheel to get INTO this stage, after all. But of note, the game...doesn't FORCE the tutorial on you, you have to trigger it. But that begs the question of why it's triggerable here when, again, you had to learn how to operate the wheel to get in here in the first place. It's a strange sort of interaction that makes me curious about the development of the game, is all. In this stage we get access to the S L O W ability, letting us slow down time to a crawl...while we're jumping. Not super useful, but it allows us to better maneuver in the air. It's more useful than you'd think.

The next level we deal with is the episode namer. It's time for the perfect disguise; a barrel. Getting into it's a little finicky, and movement is reasonably slow while wearing it, but it's a pretty cool mechanic all things considered? I like the turrets we need to sneak by, and given that Raleigh is a mechanist it makes sense that he'd have some ridiculous security like this. Unfortunately for him, nothing can defeat the power of banded wood. Also his guards are as dumb as Moblins. I think my favorite feature of this stage, however, is the two little token security lights on the rafters of the library. It's like...you've got so many auto turrets that are truly unavoidable, but you've still got that little extra layer of security. So silly. For this stage we get an addition to the Dive attack, letting us do a downward dive in mid air. It's a sort of AOE, and can collect stuff rather quickly, but overall is um...not suuuper useful. It's got it's merits though.

And that's the episode! Hope you all enjoyed. I'll see you all next time, where we finally take a cane to Raleigh's dumb frog face.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Gotta admit, having Windwaker flashbacks. Getting shot out of a cannon catapult and living in barrels to avoid minions...

[DataNinja]

Oh, good. "The Fire Down Below." That certainly doesn't bring up parallels to a particular place you rather don't want to end up in.

So... how small are your charts, Bentley? Because Sly is still alive.

Yay, gimmicks! ...not that they're necessarily always bad. There are some pretty neat ones out there.

Huh, this isn't too bad, gimmick-wise. It's not like you have a bunch of special items or whatnot that're taken away for this segment. In fact, it seems as if you're being given an extra ability. Which is how things should do it.

Stop telling us the odds, Threepio.