Sly Raccoon

Sly Raccoon PS2 is the PAL name for Sucker Punch Productions’ 2002 PlayStation 2 adventure, released in North America as Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus. Published by Sony Computer Entertainment, it introduced the raccoon master thief Sly Cooper and established the series’ blend of third-person platforming, stealth, and cartoon-styled action. Its illustrated, toon-shaded presentation gives the caper a distinctive animated look, while its globe-spanning criminal hideouts frame a focused single-player journey.

Sly is heir to the Cooper Clan, a family whose hard-won thieving techniques were recorded in the Thievius Raccoonus. The Fiendish Five murder his father and scatter the book’s pages, leaving Sly to reclaim them years later. His partners are Bentley, the turtle who supplies intelligence and technical support, and Murray, the group’s getaway driver. Their search begins with stolen Interpol files and repeatedly crosses paths with Inspector Carmelita Fox, the determined officer pursuing the gang.

The campaign is organised around five villain-controlled worlds, each with a central base and a set of self-contained missions. Sly travels across rooftops, corridors, caves, casinos, and guarded strongholds to reach keys that open the way to each area’s boss. The destinations and antagonists give the adventure a shifting travelogue: Sir Raleigh’s stormy Welsh operation, Muggshot’s American gambling empire, Mz. Ruby’s Haitian stronghold, the Panda King’s Chinese fortress, and Clockwerk’s volcanic lair all present different visual themes and hazards.

At the controls, Sly can run, jump, use his hooked cane against enemies, and perform context-sensitive acrobatics at highlighted thief-sense points. These moves let him balance on narrow objects, climb pipes, hang from ledges, and grapple across gaps. The game makes careless movement risky: searchlights, guards, lasers, and alarms can turn a route into a scramble, and Sly normally cannot absorb much damage. Coins build up toward protective lucky horseshoes and extra lives, while repeaters serve as checkpoints within many missions.

Careful exploration provides more than a route to the exit. Every standard level hides clue bottles; collecting a full set opens a safe that returns a Thievius Raccoonus page and unlocks a new technique. Those rewards can expand Sly’s combat, stealth, or traversal options for later stages. After a level has been cleared and its secret recovered, players can revisit it for a Master Sprint, a timed run that tests knowledge of its shortcuts and layout. Completing these challenges also opens behind-the-scenes material, including developer commentary.

Although Sly handles most on-foot missions, Bentley and Murray remain active through specialised sequences. Murray’s driving challenges place the gang’s van at the centre of escapes, while Bentley’s technical role appears in hacking-oriented minigames. Boss encounters likewise vary from direct confrontations to set-piece challenges, helping the game move between platforming, pursuit, and infiltration rather than treating every mission as the same kind of obstacle course.

Sly Raccoon is the first entry in the Sly Cooper series and the first PlayStation project released by Sucker Punch. The original PS2 adventure later joined its first two sequels in The Sly Collection on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. The original game also returned through PlayStation’s PS4 and PS5 catalogue in 2024 with modern convenience features, but the PAL PS2 release remains the version known simply as Sly Raccoon in European and Australian territories.