Hands-onSly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

Sony dropped by to show off a newer build of the company's upcoming platformer, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus. The focus of the visit was a level that will likely end up being the second or third section of the game. This section of the caper sends Sly and his support team off to Mesa City, a casino town that has been taken over by the evil doglike boss, MuggShot. This section of the game will put you through a lot of different segments of MuggShot's property, including a run-down section of the casino, which has been flooded with water. Here, Sly will be hopping from roulette wheel to roulette wheel, all while avoiding the conveniently electrically charged water. Another level called Vertigo gives you a different perspective of the standard Sly action, as it takes place from a 2D side view that emulates the platformers of old.

We also saw a couple of Sly's minigames, which will pop up at various sections in your quest to reassemble the Thievius Raccoonus. One puts Sly at the controls of a large turret, which you must use to keep Murray, your purple hippo buddy, safe from an onslaught of enemies by sniping them before they can attack. Another puts you behind the wheel of Murray's van, and in a slight homage to Atari's Super Sprint, you must race around a track and beat five other cars to win one of the game's many keys.

Both graphically and gameplaywise, Sly Cooper is shaping up to be one of the more impressive PlayStation 2 titles scheduled for a 2002 release. We'll have more on Sly as more information becomes available.