While Sly suffers from annoying mingames and difficulty, the game is still as much fun to play as it is to watch.
Sly is the last alive member of the Cooper family, who were master thieves. He is quite the likable character. He contradicts what most would imagine a criminal to be. He goes against concerns and makes fearless leaps quite constantly.
The supporting cast behind him are a pink Hippo, named Murray, and a turtle, named Bentley. Murray isn't the sharpest tool in the shed and isn't extremely courageous, but he pulls through. Bentley is the brains of the gang and plots courses and aids Sly through his missions.
Now let's review this baby:
Gameplay: The game's control scheme is setup pretty well. X to jump, O to preform thievious actions, Triangle is customizable and Square to use Sly's sweet cane. You'll move throughout environments with ease. However, the game does suffer from annoying minigames, they are completely necessary and are anywhere from racing to firing a flamethrowing boat. The minigames aren't usually easy and will frustrate you, because you want to do what Sly does best, not play some gimped Mario Kart. The second, and quite possibly only other, annoyance is the health system. One hit and you are dead, you can pick up a horseshoe or two, and get up 3 hits before Sly makes a humorous demise, but that is it. (7.5/10)
Graphics: It feels unfair to judge graphics from 2002, but I imagine these looked pretty good back in the day. No, the game is not any Square Enix pre-rendered good looking, but the cartoonish art style does do the game justice. (9/10)
Story: Sly watched his family killed as a child by the fiendish five, and after months of therapy, the now not chibi Sly Cooper wants to recapture his family's prized treasure, the Thievius Raccoonus. While there probably isn't anything largely important to playing the games successors, the plot is still interesting enough to make you want to continue playing, though that won't be long as the game can be speedrun in under 8 hours (More actually played 'cause of difficulty.). (8/10)
Soundtrack: The soundtrack is slick, and almost always fits the stealth theme of the game. The subtly of hearing strings plucked with each of Sly's sneaky steps when he's behind a guard are insanely appropriate. The only annoyances you may find are Sly's rather quiet dialouge and if you are unfortunate enough to have to listen to an alarm "Awooga" for too long. (9.5/10)
Finally score: 85%, 8.5/10, 4.25/5 whatever you'd like to call it.
Ultimate the game is fun, I hope the succesors fixed this game's mistakes.