Skip to main content
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ The Games, Movies, TV & Comics You Love
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
  • Games
  • TV
  • Movies
  • Hardware
  • Video
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Deals
  • More
    • PS5
    • Xbox Series X
    • Nintendo Switch
    • Nintendo Switch 2
    • PC
    • Platforms
    • Tabletop Gaming
    • Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • SFX
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Newsletters
    • About us
    • Features
Total Film
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
View
Trending
  • Summer Game Fest
  • New games for 2025
  • Upcoming Switch 2 games
  • Switch 2 stock
Recommended reading
Snake stands next to a giant ape mech in the Mesal Gear Solid crossover between Metal Gear Solid 3 and Ape Escape
Stealth Games "My first line was 'Snake Vs Monkey'", says Metal Gear Solid 3's David Hayter: "I could only ask, 'Why am I saying this?'"
GearGrit art of green skinned goblin girl Tansy punching the air
Platforming Games Naughty Dog won't do it, so this AAA dev and his wife made their own Jak & Daxter-inspired retro platformer – it feels great and crushed its Kickstarter goal
A screenshot from the reveal trailer for Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow.
Action Games 11 years since the last stealth title, Thief returns with a VR game this year called Legacy of Shadow
Bumpkin and Sprout demo screenshot
Co-op Games If you want Little Nightmares 3 without the nightmares, Bumpkin & Sprout is the 3D Mario-style co-op platformer I need you to wishlist
Cropped key art for Revenge of the Savage Planet showing two player characters running away from lots of green goo, flanked by various googly-eyed wildlife
Action Games Revenge of the Savage Planet review: "An underrated sci-fi platformer gets a beautiful third-person sequel, but I'm left cold by shallow busywork and an over-reliance on toilet humor"
Out of Words
Platforming Games This co-op platformer was a "boyhood dream" for the self-taught stop-motion animator now directing it, and it might just rival It Takes Two with a more earnest story and action less likely to destroy your relationships
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance
Action Games This Metroidvania-tinged old-school 2D action game is more than another Sega retro revival: it's the highlight of my Summer Game Fest
  1. Games
  2. Platformer
  3. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time preview - A blast to the charming past

Features
By Lucas Sullivan published 6 December 2012

Gotta go back in time

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Page 1 of 13
Page 1 of 13

Page 2 of 13
Page 2 of 13

Page 3 of 13
Page 3 of 13

Page 4 of 13
Page 4 of 13

Page 5 of 13
Page 5 of 13

Page 6 of 13
Page 6 of 13

Page 7 of 13
Page 7 of 13

Page 8 of 13
Page 8 of 13

Page 9 of 13
Page 9 of 13

Page 10 of 13
Page 10 of 13

Page 11 of 13
Page 11 of 13

Page 12 of 13
Page 12 of 13

Page 13 of 13
Page 13 of 13
CATEGORIES
PlayStation Platforms
Lucas Sullivan
Lucas Sullivan
Social Links Navigation

Lucas Sullivan is the former US Managing Editor of GamesRadar+. Lucas spent seven years working for GR, starting as an Associate Editor in 2012 before climbing the ranks. He left us in 2019 to pursue a career path on the other side of the fence, joining 2K Games as a Global Content Manager. Lucas doesn't get to write about games like Borderlands and Mafia anymore, but he does get to help make and market them. 

Thieves can't really steal from other thieves--they can only liberate that which has already been stolen. Such is the practice of the eponymous raccoon thief in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, the fourth installment in the sneaky platforming series. Sucker Punch Productions moved on to other projects seven years ago and haven't touched the Sly franchise since, but rest assured that it's in good hands with the team at Sanzaru Games, who’ve maintained the whimsical spirit of this animal team’s collaborative heists.

We got the chance to play through the game’s prologue (essentially a tutorial) set in Paris, before getting out burgling mitts on the entire first episode of the game. The premise is as lighthearted as ever, and told through the same charming animated cutscenes as the previous games. Picking up where Sly 3 left off, the old gang of Sly, Bentley, and Murray reunites when it’s discovered that the pages of the hallowed Thievius Raccoonus, a manual for master thieves, are are mysteriously turning blank.

Bentley concludes that a time-traveling villain is behind it all, warping to the past and imprisoning the proficient thieves in the Cooper bloodline. With that, the trio rigs Murray’s hot rod-van hybrid to go back in time to restore history and the honor of the Cooper Clan. You better believe that the game includes Back to the Future nods, complete with a smoking, spinning license plate left in the wake of the first time jump.

You may like
  • Snake stands next to a giant ape mech in the Mesal Gear Solid crossover between Metal Gear Solid 3 and Ape Escape "My first line was 'Snake Vs Monkey'", says Metal Gear Solid 3's David Hayter: "I could only ask, 'Why am I saying this?'"
  • GearGrit art of green skinned goblin girl Tansy punching the air Naughty Dog won't do it, so this AAA dev and his wife made their own Jak & Daxter-inspired retro platformer – it feels great and crushed its Kickstarter goal
  • A screenshot from the reveal trailer for Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow. 11 years since the last stealth title, Thief returns with a VR game this year called Legacy of Shadow

Playing through the first episode, set in 1603 feudal Japan (and appropriately named “Turning Japanese”), all the fun of the PS2 classics came rushing back to us. As with the previous sequels, all three members of the villain-robbing crew is playable: Sly’s an agile jumper who sticks to the shadows, Bentley uses his high-tech, handicapable wheelchair to hack consoles and knock out enemies, and Murray uses brute strength to plow through tough baddies. But, thanks to time-travel, a fourth character is playable in each era--whichever Cooper ancestor you’ve come to rescue, once you’ve freed him from captivity.

Sly’s great-great-Japanese grandfather, Rioichi Cooper, was the temporary addition to the crew, playing similarly to Sly but using dual canes instead of a single hooked staff. A renowned sushi chef and undercover ninja, Rioichi invented the Ninja Spire jump that’s so frequently used throughout the franchise’s platforming segments. But he also had access to a move all his own: the “Leaping Dragon,” which propels him great distances between perch points. This allowed for some great level designs that had us zipping between skylines, avoiding lasers and collapsing platforms as we went.

The modern-day Cooper wasn’t without some new tricks of his own, mainly through the introduction of a disguise system. Judging from what we saw in the gang’s hideout, each time period will have a unique suit of armor which can be worn in any era. To blend in with the Japanese surroundings, Sly stole the pieces to assemble a suit of comically oversized samurai armor. This let him do such nifty things as resist fire traps and reflect fireballs back at the cannons that shot them, as well as blend in with enemies that would otherwise beat him to a pulp.

Bentley and Murray also play significant roles. The brainy turtle Bentley still packs his sleep bombs and tranquilizing darts, and facilitated three amusing hacking minigames. The first was the typical strafe-and-shoot affair, the second was a comical side-scrolling shoot-'em-up starring a Rambo-looking Bentley, and the last was a nerve-wracking-but-enjoyable Marble Madness-style game using the controller’s motion-sensing Sixaxis functionality.

Murray provided equal parts bad-guy-walloping and comic relief, including a mission involving him dressed up in Geisha drag. This led into an uncomfortably long rhythm minigame in which the lady-like Murray danced onstage to the delight of some lovestruck enemies. While tip-toeing around enemies, each character (all voiced by the original actors) has little inner monologues riffing on what’s happening around them, adding to the cast’s lovability factor.

The level design is classic Sly: your hideout leads to a large hub world, where all of your missions take place. Overall stage designs are still top-notch, looking like the vibrant backdrops out of a Saturday morning cartoon, and they’re packed with hidden collectibles in the form of bottled clues, time-trial treasures, and floating Sly emblems. One of the levels had the most original obstacles we’ve ever seen in a video game: a hallway lined with sumo-sized cat dolls that smashed into each other with their electrified stomachs. Only in a Sly game could you find such a laugh-inducing deathtrap.

It all culminated in a classic boss fight with the episode’s big baddie: El Jefe the tyrant tiger (voiced by Nolan North, naturally). The battle perfectly captured what made the old Sly fights so fun, with exactly the right balance of difficulty, variety, and pattern recognition. It’s both the big and little ways in which Thieves in Time captures the same addictive, reliably enjoyable platforming of the PS2 classics that has us so excited for its release. Get ready to obsessively search for every last clue bottle when the game’s released on February 5, 2013, in the US and March 2013, in the UK.

See more Playstation Features
Read more
Snake stands next to a giant ape mech in the Mesal Gear Solid crossover between Metal Gear Solid 3 and Ape Escape
"My first line was 'Snake Vs Monkey'", says Metal Gear Solid 3's David Hayter: "I could only ask, 'Why am I saying this?'"
GearGrit art of green skinned goblin girl Tansy punching the air
Naughty Dog won't do it, so this AAA dev and his wife made their own Jak & Daxter-inspired retro platformer – it feels great and crushed its Kickstarter goal
A screenshot from the reveal trailer for Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow.
11 years since the last stealth title, Thief returns with a VR game this year called Legacy of Shadow
Bumpkin and Sprout demo screenshot
If you want Little Nightmares 3 without the nightmares, Bumpkin & Sprout is the 3D Mario-style co-op platformer I need you to wishlist
Cropped key art for Revenge of the Savage Planet showing two player characters running away from lots of green goo, flanked by various googly-eyed wildlife
Revenge of the Savage Planet review: "An underrated sci-fi platformer gets a beautiful third-person sequel, but I'm left cold by shallow busywork and an over-reliance on toilet humor"
Out of Words
This co-op platformer was a "boyhood dream" for the self-taught stop-motion animator now directing it, and it might just rival It Takes Two with a more earnest story and action less likely to destroy your relationships
Latest in Platformer
Crash Bandicoot PS1
Long before the Super Mario Bros. movie grossed $1.3 billion, Sega's president tried making a Crash Bandicoot movie but was told "video games is like a toy business"
Donkey Kong Bananza Donkey Kong looking angry with his arms raised
Nintendo relents, confirms Donkey Kong Bananza is being made by the Super Mario Odyssey team after weeks of fans guessing just that
Yakko, Wakko, and Dot of the Animaniacs.
'Nearly complete' prototype of cancelled Animaniacs GBA game surfaces online after nearly two decades
Donkey Kong Bananza gamesradar+ summer preview 2025 DK and Pauline looking scared
Donkey Kong Bananza is a destructive delight that's basically Super Mario Odyssey+, and I can't believe it wasn't a Switch 2 launch title
Sonic Adventure 2
It's so over: Sonic boss Takashi Iizuka says there are "currently no plans" for Sonic Adventure remakes as they would take "as much time and energy as it would to make a new title"
Sonic movie
Early test footage of the first Sonic movie shows how the original design could have been even worse than what we saw
Latest in Features
Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl, and Mister Miracle as the Justice Gang in Superman
The Justice Gang explained - The non-Justice League in James Gunn's Superman may be influenced by team of classic DC supervillains
Team Fortress 2 characters looking at a map
I have 464 games on my Steam wishlist, 23 games in my Steam Summer Sale shopping cart, and I can feel my already overstuffed library giving me the side-eye
Heavy Metal Death Can demo screenshot
I got a nicotine rush and set zombies on fire in this PS1-style survival horror demo, and it's basically Resident Evil on a submarine
A PSVR 2 review image next to the marketing reveal image of the Meta Quest 3S, separated by an orange line
Xbox finally has a VR headset, but it's not the PSVR 2 rival I was hoping for
Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster image showing a giant city built upon a hill by the sea
Bravely Default's remaster is secretly the Switch 2's must-play RPG, but it's still flying under the radar
Rematch players celebrating in a large stadium
"The essence of football is not in the rules": Rematch's creative director on nailing that five-a-side feeling and making a game "about kicking a ball rather than kicking heads in"
  1. Sam fires at the ghost mech squid boss in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
    1
    Death Stranding 2: On the Beach review: "This tarpunk delivery epic is more Metal Gear Solid than ever, for better and worse"
  2. 2
    Rematch review: "As with Rocket League, the just-one-more-game pull is magnetic"
  3. 3
    Tron: Catalyst review: "Disc slinging is a thrill in this gorgeous rendition of the series, but I'm let down by a time-loop story that falls flat"
  4. 4
    FBC: Firebreak review: "A disappointingly bland multiplayer FPS that's missing far too much of what made Control special"
  5. 5
    Dune: Awakening review: "Both extremely compelling and extraordinarily boring, sometimes at the same time – yet still a true Dune love letter"
  1. A T-rex in Jurassic World Rebirth
    1
    Jurassic World Rebirth Review: "An unscary sequel that needed a little more time in amber"
  2. 2
    M3GAN 2.0 review: "A bold sequel with a slightly underwhelming conclusion"
  3. 3
    28 Years Later Review: "Enough terror, splatter and suspense to satisfy”
  4. 4
    Predator: Killer of Killers review: "Great characters, thrilling action, and gorgeous Arcane-esque animation"
  5. 5
    From the World of John Wick: Ballerina review: "Brilliant action, even if the plot gives you a sense of déjà vu"
  1. Lee Jung-jae as Gi-hun in Squid Game season 3
    1
    Squid Game season 3 review: "A staggeringly excellent final season wraps up one of the greatest Netflix shows ever"
  2. 2
    Ironheart review: "A relic of Marvel's content-at-all-costs era"
  3. 3
    Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 review: "The show's most assured run of episodes to date"
  4. 4
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 8 spoiler review: 'The Reality War' is "a mix of the good, the bad, and the truly baffling"
  5. 5
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 7 spoiler review: 'Wish World' is "an exciting and ambitious" start to the season finale, with hints of WandaVision

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...