Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time Vita preview

As the plane took off I could see the fading lights of Entebbe, Uganda. This was my second time spending Christmas and celebrating the new year in Africa, and like the previous time my stay was filled with animals. The first time I was in Africa I was a volunteer spending my days with lions. That was quite amazing. This time though I was a measly tourist doing tourist-y things like visiting chimpanzee sanctuaries and getting up early for game drives on the savannah. Later one day we took a boat up the Nile and we watched the hippos enjoy life like only hippos can, and when we got back to our guest house we had to wait for a herd of warthogs to leave the premises before we could get in.

 

I thought I had my share of hippos and warthogs but I was wrong. The seat belt sign dimmed and I fished out my Vita, ready to play some Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. I wasn’t too far into the preview build before I saw Murray in a Geisha costume performing a rather disturbing dance in front a bunch of warthog samurais that were – to be honest – a little too much into it

I’ll be the first to admit that my history with Sly Cooper is rather non-existent. I didn’t bother with them back in the day, but I bought the HD collection when it came out. After playing the first one for some time I put it away because the controls gave me a slight headache. This is usually not reason enough for me to put a game away, so I can only assume that there might have been other games around at that time that didn’t bother me so much control-wise. Playing Thieves in Time on Vita, on the other hand, feels tight. I do find myself accidentally jumping into chasms and water, but at a rarer rate and I’m promptly rewound back in place by the game.

 

My time in the game was spent in Paris and Japan. Each location has a hideout where you have your character selection, replay options, treasure chamber and mini games like an arcade and table tennis. The Paris job works as an introduction to all the regular characters and their abilities, as you seamlessly progress from one character to the next without going through the hideout. The mission is to find and steal the missing piece of your upcoming time traveling endeavors: a dagger with awesome powers. You start off as Sly sneaking about avoiding spotlights as you find your way around the museum. A simple tap on the rear touch pad will display the direction you’re supposed to go, in case it’s unclear.

 

The platforming in Sly is pretty basic with your standard single and double jump. A shiny blue spot marks interactive objects that you can latch on to or otherwise interact with to get around. Pushing circle activates them.

Next up is Bentley. He’s the guy you’ll be doing the most mini games with, aka the hacks. These are mostly old arcade like games like R-type and such, and they switch between using regular controls and motion controls. He will of course be participating in the regular platformer style play as you hover longer distances with his wheelchair, blow shit up and smack the living daylight out of your enemies.

 

 

 

Murray is the last regular character and he’s the muscle. You will find yourself punching your way through whatever hurdles you encounter rather than be subtle about it. A few wrestling moves is available in the beginning, but common for all characters is that you can buy new moves and upgrades through the thieves net between jobs. These are unlocked by progress and bought with coins as you obsessively smash up every single thing in a level.

 

 

 

As you head for feudal Japan you’re tasked with saving your relative Rioichi. A ninja who’s not only been captured by a rather mean looking tiger, but also had his sushi joint shut down. Fishy business indeed. You pick your character from the hideout and then go nuts in the hub level where you can find your current job or simply mess around finding collectibles, smashing up stuff for coin or just kick ass. The hideout will tell you what characters have available jobs and you can easily find them by following the pointer on the screen once you’re in the hub level. The jobs leading up to the rescue are fun and varied; ranging from recon missions with your Binocucom, to stealing a samurai uniform so you can blend in with the baddies and infiltrate the joint where Rioichi is held. When Rioichi is finally rescued he becomes a playable character with his own set of jobs and skills. Missions are introduced with fun cut scenes that also appear mid-mission and at the end. They are also sprinkled with amusing banter between the various characters and presented by rather good voice acting.

 

While the singstar-like mini game featuring Murray in his geisha cover dancing up a gang of samurai warthogs slightly overstays its welcome, most other mini games know when to stop. Bentley’s R-Type hack is short but awesome, and includes stuff like weapon leveling and upgrades which is really cool. And details like these are found in most nooks and crannies in the game. The funny gesture your enemies do when Sly walks by in samurai cover or your characters doing all kind of quirky things when you idle keeps things interesting. These are all small details but it makes the game feel richer. Some of the loading takes a bit longer than I like, but at least the loading screen is filled with details like your trophy progress and collectible status so that should keep the hoarders happy.

 

Japan culminates with your team going after that evil bastard Jefe. You will switch characters as you progress through a brawl and then a platform extravaganza of crumbling structures and spitting fireballs. You will be slightly excited as you evade certain doom, and you will mutter curse words as you accidently fall into said doom over and over again. You finally chase down Jefe and engage in a multi tiered battle where learning attack patterns is key, and giving him a good smacking comes second. You will utilize your samurai costume to reflect his fire attacks and jump around to evade his lightning sword before giving him the whopping he deserves and sending him back to the slammer.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time is a fun addition to the Vita library and my time with it so far has been great. The fact that you get it for free when you buy the PS3 version is a no-brainer that you should take advantage of. It supports cross-saves, does not overdo the motion controls (they are mostly used in the mini games) and also has some AR-functionality in it. It looks pretty good, plays well and the controls are tight enough to prevent you from accidentally making a mess of things all the time. The system with the shiny hot spots might make it too convenient for hardcore platformer fans, but you will still find yourself miscalculating certain jumps. Whenever you make a mistake the game will rewind you back a few seconds and chip away at your health. When your health is depleted you will simply respawn at the closest checkpoint and you’ll be able to continue from pretty much your current position.

 

The game is set to release February 5th in the US and March 27th in Europe, and hopefully by then, we’ll have a full review of both versions. You can check out more screens and trailers for both the Vita version and the PS3 version right here.