Thrifty Thievery | The Sly Cooper Collection Review

<p>The Playstation 2 had some of the best platformers out there&comma; something last generation and the new generation are sorely lacking&period; Instead of having a huge array of <em>Ratchet and Clanks<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Jak and Daxters<&sol;em> and <em>Sly Coopers<&sol;em> to play&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;re given a couple really great <em>Rayman<&sol;em> games&comma; and not too much more&period; Sony being very advantageous with their blu-ray technology and their Vita systems has opted to bring back some of these great platformers for newer gamers to enjoy in beautiful HD collection quality&period; <em>Sly Cooper<&sol;em> is the newest HD collection to grace the Vita system&comma; and boy is it a doosey&period; This collection allows you to play through the original PS2 trilogy before you snag <em>Thieves in Time<&sol;em> for your PS3 or Vita system&period; The only downside to some gamers is the fact that you have to download the third game to your Vita memory card&period; So take heed&comma; if you buy <em>The Sly Cooper Collection<&sol;em> on Vita&comma; you may have to get a memory card to go along with it&period; Other than that&comma; the collection is a great trip down memory lane for an older gaming generation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;05&sol;05102210&sol;Sly-PS3&lowbar;Safe&lowbar;04-1280px-50p1&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-62096" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;05&sol;05102210&sol;Sly-PS3&lowbar;Safe&lowbar;04-1280px-50p1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Sly Cooper" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sucker Punch and Sony did a great job making Sly look great on the Vita&&num;8217&semi;s larger screen&period; The cel shading aged very well and if you didn&&num;8217&semi;t know the games were almost ten years old you&&num;8217&semi;d think that Sucker Punch took a break from <em>Infamous<&sol;em> and graced gamers with some nice platformers to enjoy&period; Unfortunately that time in my gaming life I was more of Xbox connoisseur so I rarely played my PS2 and I missed out on these platforming gems&period;  I tried them out a few years ago on the PS2 and enjoyed my brief moments with them&comma; knowing that I have some awesome backlog platforms to get to&period; Now with the Vita I can relive some great platformers from gaming&&num;8217&semi;s yester-year&comma; and do so on the go&period; Like I said the games run and look great on the Vita&&num;8217&semi;s big screen&comma; there are no hiccups in the cut scenes and the game flows great&period; Had you not had to opportunity to purchase these originally or on the PS3&comma; the Vita is your chance to get in on the action&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The stories haven&&num;8217&semi;t changed over the years&comma; in <em>Sly Cooper<&sol;em> you have to fight against your nemesis Clockwerk and see that he is surely defeated&period; In <em>Sly 2<&sol;em> you have to make sure that Clockwerk stays defeated and finally in <em>Sly 3<&sol;em>&comma; Sly must recruit all of his friends to defeat the evil Doctor M&period;  The stories keep you engaged as you sneak around mansions&comma; ships&comma; and museums to steal the best loot to save the day&period; The humor that Sucker Punch has injected the game with sometimes make one laugh out loud&comma; and it&&num;8217&semi;ll surely do the same for a younger gamer&period; Just the opening scene in <em>Sly 2<&sol;em> was enough to make me chuckle out loud before I got to all of the sneaking&period; This humor is in all of the games and you&&num;8217&semi;ll find yourself laughing out loud multiple times&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;05&sol;05102225&sol;image&lowbar;314799&lowbar;fit&lowbar;620&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-62094" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;05&sol;05102225&sol;image&lowbar;314799&lowbar;fit&lowbar;620&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Sly Cooper" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"349" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The controls ported over very well to the Vita&comma; the dual analog sticks allow you to move Sly quite nicely with very little mistakes&period; The camera moves fluidly with the right stick and Sly runs in the direction you want him to run with no hiccups&period; I didn&&num;8217&semi;t find myself getting hurt as much or dying as much from what I remember from my short time with the originals&comma; so that&&num;8217&semi;s a bonus with the Vita&period; Unfortunately they didn&&num;8217&semi;t implement many touch controls with the games&comma; which would have made for a nice switch for those who have already played the game&period; In Sly 2 if you tap the back touchpad you get to see waypoints and how many collectibles you have gathered&period; If you touch the front screen you are put into first person viewer mode to scan where to be sneaky&period; While none of this is groundbreaking&comma;  it takes nothing away from the game&comma; it would have been a nice addition is all&period; The fighting gameplay works great&comma; all you have to do is mash square or triangle and you will fell all the enemies&period; You still have to hit circle to climb a pipe&comma; to balance on a beam and to shimmy over thin ledges&period; None of the controls really challenged me at all&comma; and if you do get stuck a nice little tutorial pops up on the top of the screen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sly Cooper was born to be played on the Vita&comma; the only negatives that I could see came with the original games&comma; so there was nothing to be done&period; The games transferred over amazingly&comma; unfortunately the one hit kill followed <em>Sly Cooper 1<&sol;em> with it&comma; but the game is still a joy to play&period; For those who have not picked the game up in a few years&comma; this would be a great refresher to the time when platformers ruled the land instead of first-person shooters&period; Or for first time Sly Cooper fanatics this is another great way to experience it on the go&comma; while the PS3 collection is a bit better looking&comma; the Vita plays the same and looks pretty amazing on that little screen&period; Not to mention you get three full length games for a nice tidy price&comma; about 45 hours of gameplay if shoot for all the trophies and collectibles&comma; which I usually do&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t really think immediate replay for these titles is a big seller for the game&comma; but I can see someone dusting these off every five or six years just to remember the good old days&period; Should you have some nostalgia for the series or want to start a new adventure in it&comma; this collection is a definite must for any gamer worth their salt&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;