Musical Monday: Sly's Tango

I bought my brother Sly Cooper 4 a few weeks ago.  It's EXACTLY how a Sly game should be, so it's good.

And, while I heard some good music in the game,

So I'll just pass along to one of the best sequences from the second game.

Sly 2's Tango.

 A well done Tango set to fantastic music.  I really wish this would come back.

The Bechdel Test

The Bechdel Test is really more of a guideline, but it is quite important.    The rules are exactly as stated.  There are some alterations (some rules require the women to be named.  Others refuse men to be mentioned even in the abstract)  but as guidelines they are vital.

Why am I saying guidelines?  Because Lesbian porn automatically qualifies and (keeping with the movie theme) Movies that take place in World War II men's prison camps do not.  For example, Stahlag 17.  A BRILLIANT movie about a captured American soldier who is trying to find the German spy in his bunk area.  While Women appear, it is for a few comedy routines and are seen through a telescope. 

While games are a bit MORE likely to fit in the rules, it is still a bit hard to accomplish.

Final Fantasies?  Generally they accomplish it.  There are traditionally 3 female characters and with the saving of the world being something on the forefront of people's minds, they talk about getting it done. The most obvious examples are Fang and Vanille talking, since they talk a lot.  InFamous 2 has Kuo and Nix, and while they often talk about Cole, the also discuss powers and how to react to situations.  And when Shanoa takes the lead with Castlevania, she talks to all sorts of people about many different things, Dracula and her brother being just two options.


But, that's just three options.  Sly Cooper?  Nothing.  There's only one main Female Character (Carmelita Fox) and she's not playable until this game.  As it stands now, I don't know if she will talk to any of the female characters and - while she is quite devoted to the law- her arc also revolves around Sly Cooper himself. 

Kingdom Hearts 2 does have Selphie and Kairi talk to eachother briefly, but they only talk about Sora and Riku.  All other female characters do not cross paths with eachother, or if they do, they don't talk to eachother.

While Peach has her own Arcs in the Mario RPG series, independent of Mario and the other male characters, she generally does not talk to other female characters. 


This will need more research, but the next time you play, keep an eye out for this.  The standards are low, but how many pass does say a lot. 

Deleted Content - Sly 2

It is prfoundly frustrating when you KNOW you have seen video of deleted content, but you can not find it.

Anyway, Sly 2 had deleted content.  For a while, there was to be a level that took place in Monaco.  At one point Bentley would have rammed a dock with a ship.

From what I remember, everything (except the PC character model and a few guards) was in the "Grayscale" stage. (It was just the basic buildings, nothing was colored or textured)   The area was very open and was not textured.  There were guards from interpol around.  There was some sort of director commentary over the stage too.  I think one of the guards was a cat of some sort.  There was a guardhouse on the docks. 

I really wish I could show it too you.  I wonder what would have happened in that level and why it was cut.  Any ideas?

Musical Monday Sly Cooper 2

I know I love JRPG's, but my FAVORITE game is Sly 2.  Everything just comes across as perfect.  Story is decent, it has some good twists, gameplay is fun, the characters have great interactions.  I could play it over and over and over....

So, here's the main theme!

Sly Cooper techniques

Or, successful integration of story and gameplay.

Sly Cooper is searching for his family book, the Theivius Raccoonus. Storywise, each of Sly's ancestor adds a technique and then Sly can use it after he finds it. After finding Ruichi Cooper's page, he can ninja spire (land on spires and perch there).  His father's page allows Sly to slide on laser beams.

This is a good integration because Sly has to unlock each of these techniques (by finding the page) before he can use them.  A few of them are mandatory, but you can ignore the pages if you wish or collect all of them.  They help, but they are explained in story and you can only collect the techniques when you find them.