Good, clean fun...even if the initial playthrough only lasts a few days.
FORMAT
There are five hub worlds to explore, each containing 8 levels: an intro level, 6 key levels, and a boss level. 4-6 of the levels in each world contain from 20-40 clue bottles to collect and a fancy safe to crack when you find them all.
In one safe, you find blueprints to that world revealing the location of charms, 1-ups, coin sources, and clue bottles. In the rest, you recieve a page from the Thievius Raccoonus, and you gain a new thief move(i.e. the Explosive Hat Technique) that you can use to get around better.
The same levels contain a beat-the-clock challenge in which you have to complete the level in the required amount of time.
PROS
- The replay value is excellent, allowing you to scan the game three times over with the different challenges in each level.
- The game is slightly more difficult than that of it's prequels, one reason being that unless you have a lucky horse-shoe, you're beaten with one hit.
- The storyline is very charming, the characters are very cute, and levels hold more variety than might be expected.
CONS
- The game only takes about 8-12 hours to beat, and in some places where it should've been noteably tough, is ridiculously easy.
- The cutscenes and character models are more sloppy, being that this is an older game.
- The gameplay has some problems with lag/slowdown in a few of the worlds, and some of it can really interfere with the player's experience.
FINAL VERDICT
Rent it or buy it? The answer's fuzzy. The cost between the two options varies from a few bucks to nothing at all. It really depends on whether this is a game you'd like to keep.