The Sly Cooper series is a set of stealth action-adventure video games made by Sucker Punch Productions and owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The games tell the story of Sly Cooper, a raccoon who looks like a human and is a skilled thief, and his two friends, Bentley the turtle and Murray the hippopotamus. They are chased by Inspector Carmelita Fox, who is Sly’s love interest. Sanzaru Games created the fourth game in the series and re-released the first three games with improved graphics for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita in a collection called The Sly Collection.

Sly Cooper has become one of the most well-known characters in PlayStation video games. He has also appeared in other Sony games, such as PlayStation Move Heroes (2011) and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale (2012). An animated movie and a TV show based on the series were planned, but neither was completed.

Common elements

The games are mostly played from a third-person perspective. The player controls Sly or one of his friends during many missions that have different levels. The player must rely mostly on hiding to avoid being seen or triggering alarms while collecting treasures or other items. Sly is very agile and can use parts of buildings to hide, which are shown as a blue glow in the game. For example, Sly can climb on sharp points, walk along narrow ledges, cross tightropes, use a zipline, or swing from hooks with his cane. Sly also uses his cane to fight enemies, but this can make noise and draw attention. He prefers to attack enemies quietly because he does not have much energy. Because of his family background, Sly learns special moves that help him hide better, move faster, or defeat enemies without making noise. The player can also control Bentley, who uses gadgets, or Murray, who uses his strength, and other characters in the third game. There are also mini-games included in the main gameplay.

Each game is divided into a series of heists. To complete a heist, Sly and his team must finish several missions. In the first game, each mission was in a level that could be accessed from a central hub. The second, third, and fourth games use a different style where missions are spread across a large, open area. At the end of each heist, there is usually a boss fight to finish the mission.

The Sly Cooper series takes place in a fictional version of the real world filled with animal characters that look and act like humans. The world has film noir and comic book styles, as well as elements of advanced science and magic. The main character, Sly Cooper, is a young raccoon who is part of a family of master thieves. The Cooper Clan is known for stealing only from other thieves and passing down their skills through a book called the "Thievius Raccoonus." Sly values his friendship with his partners, Bentley and Murray, whom he met as children in an orphanage. Bentley is a turtle who plans missions and uses gadgets. Murray is a hippo who provides strength and drives the team's van. Together, they perform heists around the world and face challenges from groups like the Fiendish Five. Sly is often chased by Inspector Carmelita Fox, an Interpol agent who is also his love interest.

• Sly Cooper (voiced by Kevin Miller) is a young raccoon who is a skilled thief. He is part of a family of thieves who only steal from other criminals. As a child, he saw his father killed by the Fiendish Five, who stole the "Thievius Raccoonus." He was sent to an orphanage, where he met Bentley and Murray. Sly is the fastest member of the team and completes most missions. He uses a cane with a hook as a tool. He can walk on wires, land on small spots, and disguise himself to enter secret places.

• Bentley (voiced by Matt Olsen) is the smartest member of the team. He uses computers, gadgets, and plans missions. In the second game, he helps in the field but later uses a wheelchair with gadgets after an injury. He also helped build a time machine with his ex-girlfriend, Penelope, which is important in later games. He now protects the "Thievius Raccoonus."

• Murray (voiced by Chris Murphy) is the strongest member of the team. He drives the van and helps with tasks that need strength. When Bentley was injured, Murray left the team but returned after Bentley was attacked. He is still friendly but has become more serious.

• Inspector Carmelita Fox (voiced by different actors) is an Interpol agent who tries to catch Sly. She has feelings for Sly, which he sometimes uses to escape. In the fourth game, she helps Sly recover the "Thievius Raccoonus" and begins to support him. She uses a shock pistol to fight.

• Clockwerk (voiced by Kevin Blackton) is the main villain in the first game and a major enemy in the second. He is a cyborg owl who wants to destroy the Cooper Clan. He was defeated in the first game but later rebuilt by the Klaww Gang. His parts are used to create "Clock-La," which is destroyed by Sly and Carmelita.

• Muggshot (voiced by Kevin Blackton) is a dog who is a minor villain in the first game. He is strong but not smart. He was arrested after being defeated by Sly and later becomes a skilled pilot. He returns as a villain in the third game.

Development

Sly Cooper was created by Scott Steinberg with art guidance from Dev Madan. The first idea for Sly was to make him a thief. Scott Steinberg designed several versions of the character, including a pillow and an alien, each with unique traits. The decision to make Sly a raccoon came when the development team thought it was funny to see a raccoon wearing a thief’s mask. During the design process, staff members from Sony provided different suggestions, leading Scott Steinberg to create many designs that filled an entire folder. Sony of America wanted Sly to look "cool," Sony of Japan wanted him to look "cute," and Sony of Europe wanted him to look "dark" and "edgy." The original name for Sly was "J.T.," which stood for "Jewel Thief," but this name was changed after Sucker Punch found it could be confused with the name of Japan Tobacco.

Games

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, called Sly Raccoon in PAL regions, was released in 2002 for the PlayStation 2. Sly and his friends search for the missing pieces of Sly's family book, the Thievius Raccoonus, which holds all the secret thief techniques of the Cooper Clan. They track the book to the Fiendish Five, a rival gang led by a giant mechanical owl named Clockwerk. Sly and his gang must steal the book back while avoiding capture by Interpol's Inspector Carmelita Fox, who plans to arrest Sly for his crimes.

Sly 2: Band of Thieves was released in 2004 for the PlayStation 2. After the events of Sly Cooper, the mechanical parts from the destroyed Clockwerk are stolen by the Klaww Gang. If combined, the parts could be used to revive Clockwerk. Separately, each part has special functions and is used by the Klaww Gang members for different crimes. Sly and the Cooper gang are chased by Carmelita and her new partner, Constable Neyla, as they search for the missing Clockwerk parts.

Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves was released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2. On a remote island, Sly finds the Cooper Vault, a large treasure of wealth collected by his family over time. To enter the vault, Sly must defeat Dr. M, a villain who has taken control of the island and tried many times to break into the vault. Sly must reunite with his old partners and recruit new members to defeat new villains and reclaim his family's history. He must also stay on the run from Carmelita. This game includes some levels that can be played in 3D mode. The PS3 version in The Sly Collection (2010) allows the full game to be played in 3D.

The Sly Collection (called The Sly Trilogy in PAL regions) is a remastered version of the first three games in the series. It was released in November 2010 for the PlayStation 3 on a single Blu-ray disc as a Classics HD title. Sanzaru Games remastered the games, and Sony Computer Entertainment America published them. On November 29, 2011, The Sly Collection was available as a digital download on the PlayStation Store, with each game in the collection sold separately. The collection also includes a set of minigames. On May 27, 2014, the collection was released for the PlayStation Vita. Sly 1 and 2 are on the game card, while Sly 3 is accessed through a download voucher.

For the remastering, all three games received updated graphics to support modern 720p resolution. In 3D mode, the games run at 30fps, while in normal mode, they run at 60fps. Each game includes trophies, with one platinum trophy each. The Collection supports PlayStation Move mini-games, 3D mode, and trophies. Completing all three games unlocks a teaser trailer for Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time ("Sly 4").

However, these features are not available in the downloadable version.

Sanzaru Games impressed Sony with a demo for the then-unannounced Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time and was later asked to port the PlayStation 2 games to the PlayStation 3. At that time, the original developers, Sucker Punch Productions, were working on the inFamous series. The Sly Collection was announced in June 2010 and released on November 9, 2010. It became available on the PlayStation Store on November 29, 2011. On April 20, 2013, the PlayStation Vita version of the collection was revealed after receiving an ESRB rating. It was officially announced on February 10, 2014, with a release date of May 27, 2014.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time was announced during Sony's 2011 E3 Keynote and released on February 5, 2013. Sly Cooper and his gang return for a new adventure on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. The pages of the Thievius Raccoonus are disappearing, and Bentley, now the book's keeper, must gather the gang to save the Cooper Clan's legacy. Using Bentley's new time machine, the gang and Carmelita travel back in time to stop the henchmen of the main villain, Cyrille Le Paradox, who wants to replace the Coopers as the world's master thief. Along the way, the gang teams up with Sly's ancestors, while Sly deals with Carmelita discovering he faked his amnesia at the end of the previous game. The game was developed by Sanzaru Games, not Sucker Punch Productions, who focused on the inFamous series. Unlocking the game's secret ending shows a clip hinting at a future game, but Sanzaru Games later stated they are not making a new game.

Bentley's Hackpack is a collection of hacking mini-games from the main campaign of Thieves in Time, with added levels, challenges, and prizes. It was developed by Sanzaru Games and released for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita alongside Thieves in Time. The game is part of Sony's cross-buy initiative, allowing PlayStation 3 buyers to get a free PlayStation Vita copy through the PlayStation Network. It was released for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita in 2013. A version for iOS and Android was released in 2014.

It received a 7/10 rating from Destructoid.

Related media

A children's book titled Sly Cooper: To Catch a Thief was published by Scholastic Corporation on January 31, 2007. The book was written by Michael Anthony Steele and takes place between the events of Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus and Sly 2: Band of Thieves.

Plans for a Sly Cooper movie were first discovered in 2012 when a user on NeoGAF found listings for Sony Interactive Entertainment games in a film financing database. The project was officially announced on January 28, 2014, by Brad Foxhoven, a producer at Blockade Entertainment. Sly Cooper is Blockade's third movie based on a Sony video game series, following Heavenly Sword and Ratchet & Clank. At the time of the announcement, a teaser trailer was shared. It was revealed that Kevin Munroe, the director of Ratchet & Clank, and Rainmaker Entertainment, an animation studio, would lead the movie, which was planned for a 2016 release. The film is funded by Film Financial Services, with support from Jiangsu Broadcasting Corporation in China and Rainmaker Entertainment. International distribution is handled by Cinema Management Group. Asad Qizilbash, a senior director at Sony, said, "We are excited to bring Sly Cooper's story to the big screen for the first time. We have a strong partnership with Rainmaker and Blockade Entertainment and look forward to sharing Sly's story with fans and new audiences." Sucker Punch Productions, the creators of the Sly Cooper game series, are involved in the film.

David Wohl, vice president of development at Blockade Entertainment and producer of the movie, said the film will not focus on Sly's early life. He explained, "Sly and his friends are already together, though they are not yet experts at their work." The story will follow Sly, Bentley, and Murray, with Carmelita and Clockwerk also appearing.

Unlike earlier versions of the game series, which used a style called cel-shading, the movie will use modern computer-generated (CG) animation. Foxhoven said, "The film market often prefers fully CG animated movies. While we love the cel-shaded look of the game, we believe it might not work well on the big screen." He added that working with the creators of Sly Cooper would help the movie's design "stay true to the characters and world."

At Wondercon 2016, Kevin Munroe said the film had not yet started production and doubted it would be released that year. He said, "I'm waiting for the phone call to begin work." On October 26, 2016, he shared on Twitter that he had not worked on Sly Cooper in over a year and a half.

In September 2016, Michael Hefferon, president and chief creative officer at Rainmaker Entertainment, said the company would need to rethink the timing, plans, and budget for the Sly Cooper movie due to the poor performance of Ratchet & Clank. In 2017, Rainmaker left the project.

On June 14, 2017, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced plans to create a Sly Cooper television series with Technicolor Animation Productions. PGS Entertainment would manage the brand. The series was to include 52 episodes, each 11 minutes long, with half planned for release in October 2019 and the rest in July 2020. However, the network for broadcasting was never decided.

On May 20, 2019, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced the opening of a new film and TV production studio called PlayStation Productions on the Sony Pictures Entertainment lot in Culver City, California. The studio will develop and produce projects based on Sony's more than 100 video games. Sony Pictures will distribute these projects, while Sony Interactive Entertainment will handle production. Fans speculated that the Sly Cooper TV series might move to the new studio, as other projects like the Uncharted movie also relocated there.

Reception

Sly 1 was nominated for GameSpot’s 2002 "Best Game No One Played on PlayStation 2" award. By July 2006, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus had sold 800,000 copies in the United States, with the Sly trilogy selling a total of 2.2 million copies. Next Generation listed it as the 78th best-selling game for the sixth generation of video game consoles in the United States between January 2000 and July 2006. GameSpy ranked Sly Cooper as the 5th most underrated game of all time in a 2003 list.

Sly 2: Band of Thieves often appears on lists of top PlayStation 2 games. It was ranked number 23 by GameSpy and SVG.com, number 24 by IGN, and featured on unranked lists by Digital Trends and VG247. In 2022, Jesse Lab of The Escapist wrote that the series kept its original identity by the second game, moving away from simple level challenges to open-world gameplay with multiple missions and tasks.

The game is also unique compared to other video games, especially stealth and action-adventure games, because of its cartoon-like style, humor, and light-hearted, heist-themed gameplay. IGN’s PlayStation 2 ranking, which highlights this view, praised the series for combining family-friendly content with stealth and "genuinely funny" comedy. Gameplay often includes scenarios similar to those in heist films like Ocean’s 11 (1960) and The Italian Job (1969), which are common in realistic open-world crime games such as the Grand Theft Auto series (1997–present). USgamer’s Jeremy Parish noted that Sly is a rare heist game that successfully balances required tasks with player freedom. Players must complete certain heists to progress, but they can choose how to complete them.

In other media

PlayStation Move Heroes, announced at E3 2010, is a game that includes characters from the Sly Cooper series, Jak and Daxter, and Ratchet & Clank. The game features Sly and Bentley as characters that players can control. It uses the PlayStation Move motion control system. The game was released on March 22, 2011, in North America.

Sly Cooper is a playable character in the crossover fighting game PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. In the game’s arcade mode, Sly discovers that pages from the Thievius Racconus have been stolen and fights other characters to find them, including a competition against Nathan Drake. A version of Paris from the Sly Cooper series appears as one of the game’s stages. Bentley helps Sly with his Level 3 Super attack. Murray is a character that can be unlocked and appears as part of Sly’s Level 1 Super attack. Carmelita is a character that can be downloaded and appears as a hazard in the "Alden’s Tower" stage.

Sly Cooper appears in Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart when players obtain the RYNO 8 gun, which creates rifts that may drop items from above. These items can include the Cooper Van, Sly Cooper, and Bentley. The game includes an audio log, Entry III, that describes mapping a first dimension and mentions a creature that resembles a lombax, like Ratchet, but with smaller ears, a mask, and a cane. The log also notes that someone may have been performing a heist, a reference to Sly Cooper.

Sly Cooper has an outfit in Ghost of Tsushima. To unlock it, players must first obtain Gosaku’s Armor and trade 10 flowers for the Ocean’s Guardian dye. Next, players must find the Crooked Kama Headband, which has Sly’s cane, at Jogaku Temple. Then, players must acquire the Sly Tanuki Sword Kit, which includes a raccoon tail and colors inspired by Sly Cooper, at the Pillar of Honor in Kamiagata. When all these items are combined, players earn the Cooper Clan Cosplayer Trophy.