Sly Cooper (character)

Sly Cooper is the title character of the Sly Cooper video game series, developed by Sucker Punch Productions for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita consoles. Sly is voiced by Kevin Miller in the video games and by Ian James Corlett in the upcoming film adaptation. Sly is a raccoon who is descended from a long line of master thieves and uses his skills, with the help of his friends Bentley and Murray, to pull off heists.

Characteristics

Sly, voiced by Kevin Miller in the games and Ian James Corlett in the upcoming film, is a gentleman thief raccoon who is descended from a long line of master thieves who specialize in robbing from legit criminals as opposed to innocent bystanders, thus making them vigilantes. The Cooper clan has ancestry coming from medieval Europe, feudal Japan, and the American Western frontier, tracing all the way back to Ancient Egypt as well as pirates, making him of multi-racial descent. When Sly was eight years old, his father and mother were killed by a gang called the Fiendish Five. The gang stole the "Thievius Raccoonus", a book containing the Cooper family's thieving techniques and moves. Sly was sent to an orphanage. There he met Bentley, a genius turtle, and Murray, a comically self-confident and brawny hippopotamus.^[2]

Sly is extremely agile and uses his skills and enlists the help of his two allies Bentley and Murray to assist him in illegal activities or even when infiltrating and intercepting other convicts. Sly carries a hooked cane which is a long-standing family heirloom he inherited, and he uses it in many of his maneuvers, as well as a blunt weapon. Sly also has abilities such as walking on ropes, climbing pipes, and sneaking around in order to pickpocket guards for keys or loot. Another of his skills is using disguises to his own advantage to get across areas that are impossible to access alone.

Sly, as a thief, is cunning, devious, and secretive, but also loyal, true, brave, friendly, and his heart is very strong, as he prefers his relationship with his friends, Bentley and Murray, and his, if rather complicated and unrequited, love for Carmelita, over loot and riches.

Appearances

Sly made his debut appearance in Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus. The game starts out by telling his backstory. Sly breaks into detective Carmelita Fox's office and takes a case file about the Fiendish Five. Sly and his friends, Bentley and Murray, then set out on a journey to collect all of the stolen pages of the book. In the end, Sly defeats Clockwerk, the leader of the gang who killed his father and stole the book.

The second game, Sly 2: Band of Thieves, focuses on a new set of villains: the Klaww Gang. The gang is revealed to have stolen the pieces of Clockwerk. Sly and the gang then seek out the members of the Klaww Gang and steal back the parts. However, the real villain of the game is revealed to be Constable Neyla, who seems to be Sly's ally until she betrays them, and merges with the Clockwerk parts to become Clockla. Sly then fights Clockla, and as Bentley goes to get the chip which lets Clockwerk live, the mouth closes down and cripples him.

The third game, Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, takes place roughly a year after Sly 2. Sly's main enemy is now Dr. M, a mysterious mandrill scientist who attempts to claim the Cooper family vault for himself. Sly and Bentley recover Murray, who has been in hiding ever since Bentley's accident, which he blames on himself. The gang then goes to find new members of the gang to help them in the heist of the Cooper vault.

Sly appeared alongside Bentley in PlayStation Move Heroes, along with Jak and Daxter from the Jak and Daxter franchise and Ratchet and Clank from the Ratchet & Clank franchise. He also appears as a playable character in the crossover fighting game PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. In PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, his in game rival is Nathan Drake. Sly's storyline begins outside the Cooper Van with Bentley alerting Sly to the fact the Thievius Raccoonus' last pages were ripped out. Sly sets out to find the culprit, and after arriving in the boss stage by parachuting in, he finds Drake with the pages trying to figure out what they mean. Sly lands and quickly taunts him about carelessly handling the pages, Nathan responds by challenging him to a fight. After defeating the boss of the game, Sly returns to Bentley and Murray with the pages, and Bentley promptly notices that they've been translated into ancient Mesopatamian, and the only translator that Bentley knows of is in Istanbul. Using the all-star power to enhance the Cooper Van's performance, they set off for Turkey.

Sly reappeared in the fourth installment Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. The plot centers around not only Sly, but also Bentley, Murray, Carmelita, and his ancestors, as they team up together and travel through time to restore the Thievius Raccoonus from being destroyed by their new, time-traveling enemy; Cyrille Le Paradox and his henchmen. Despite some rather close calls (including a twist revealing that Penelope, Bentley's girlfriend, is working for Le Paradox), Sly ultimately manages to defeat all of Le Paradox's cohorts and restore the Thievius Raccoonus; however, in the final battle with Le Paradox aboard his blimp, with his time machine malfunctioning, Sly ends up being transported to Ancient Egypt as the blimp explodes, leaving him trapped in the ancient desert.

Overall, Sly is one of only two known characters to appear in every single incarnation of the franchise (the six games and the film), with the other being Bentley.

Reception

GamesRadar listed Sly on their list of "The 25 best new characters of the decade", stating that "'Gentleman thief' is an archetype that’s woefully underrepresented in videogames".^[3] They also listed him on their list of "The sexiest new characters of the decade", saying "Sly's the kind of character romance-novelists wish they could write".^[4] Sly won an award at the Game Developer's Conference for the best "Original Game Character of the Year" in 2002.^[5] In 2012, GamesRadar ranked him as the 74th best hero in video games, calling him "the Danny Ocean of gaming."^[6]

References