Honestly, playing Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time on the PS3 in 2026 feels like opening a time capsule from an era when Sony actually took risks on "mascot" platformers. It was 2013. The Last of Us was about to change the industry forever by making everything dark and gritty. And here comes Sanzaru Games, a studio that wasn't even the original creator, trying to resurrect a thieving raccoon who hadn't been seen since the PS2 days.
It was a gamble. It still is.
If you grew up with Sucker Punch’s original trilogy, you know that Sly 3 ended on a pretty definitive note. Sly faked amnesia to be with Carmelita Fox. Bentley was building a time machine. Murray was... well, being Murray. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time had the unenviable task of undoing that perfect ending without making fans feel betrayed. Did it work? Kinda. It’s complicated, and that’s exactly why we’re still talking about it over a decade later.
📖 Related: How to Join Fortnite Live Event: Why Most Players Miss Out by Waiting Too Late
The Sanzaru Shift: A Different Kind of Heist
Let’s be real: Sanzaru Games had big shoes to fill. Sucker Punch moved on to Infamous, leaving their "baby" in the hands of a team that had previously only worked on the Sly Collection ports. You can feel that fan-boy energy in every corner of the game. It’s vibrant. It’s loud. It’s obsessed with the lore.
But it also feels different.
The physics in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time aren't a 1:1 match for the PS2 classics. Sly feels a bit heavier. The double jump has a different arc. For some, it was a dealbreaker. For others, it was just the evolution of the hardware. The PS3 allowed for massive, sprawling hub worlds that made the old Paris or Venice levels look like shoeboxes. When you’re platforming through Feudal Japan or the Wild West, the sheer scale is impressive even by today's standards.
Why the ancestors mattered
The biggest selling point was the Cooper ancestors. We spent three games reading about them in the Thievius Raccoonus, and now we finally got to play as them.
- Rioichi Cooper: The ninja. His "Leaping Dragon" move is basically a teleport that makes Sly’s standard ninja spire jump look like a toddler’s hop.
- Tennessee ‘Kid’ Cooper: He turns the game into a third-person shooter, which sounds wrong on paper but feels surprisingly right in practice.
- Sir Galleth: A knight with a catapult move that’s honestly more fun to use for breaking the game's boundaries than for actual missions.
- Salim al-Kupar: The older thief who proves that retirement is just a suggestion when there’s treasure involved.
- Bob: A caveman. Yeah, a caveman raccoon. It’s weird. It’s goofy. It’s very Sly Cooper.
The Cross-Buy Experiment and Vita Integration
Remember Cross-Buy? Sony was really pushing the idea that if you bought the PS3 version, you got the Vita version for free. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time was the poster child for this. It was a technical marvel at the time—being able to sync your save file between a home console and a handheld.
Using the Vita as a "second screen" was another gimmick. You could use it to find hidden treasures or masks while playing on the TV. Nobody actually did that, of course, because it was clunky and required holding two devices at once, but it represented a moment in gaming history where Sony was trying to unify their ecosystem.
The PS3 version is objectively the better way to play, though. The Vita version struggled with some frame rate dips and the load times were—to put it lightly—brutal. On the PS3, those cel-shaded graphics pop. The lighting in the Medieval England level is genuinely gorgeous, even if the character models look a bit more "rubbery" than they did in the Sucker Punch era.
The Narrative Elephant in the Room
We have to talk about the ending. We have to talk about Penelope.
📖 Related: Getting Your Golden Armor Sons of the Forest Upgrade Done Right
If you haven't played it yet, look away. But honestly, the game is old enough that we can be blunt: the twist regarding Penelope’s betrayal remains one of the most polarizing moments in platforming history. Fans hated it. It felt like it came out of nowhere, undoing her character development from Sly 3 just to provide a shock.
And then there's the cliffhanger. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time ends with Sly stranded in Ancient Egypt.
Thirteen years later, he’s still there.
Sanzaru wanted to make a sequel. They had the ideas ready. But the sales weren't high enough, and Sony shifted focus. This leaves the game in a strange spot. It’s not just a sequel; it’s an unfinished bridge to a future that never happened. That gives the experience a bittersweet layer of "what if" that colors every jump and every paraglide.
Technical quirks you'll notice now
If you boot it up on a PS3 today, you’ll notice things that weren't as obvious back then. The loading screens are mini-games themselves, which was a clever way to mask the hardware's struggle with those massive levels. The motion controls for the "hacking" mini-games? They’re still a bit annoying. Using the Sixaxis to tilt a ball through a maze was a product of its time that we’ve thankfully moved past.
🔗 Read more: Why Legend of Zelda DS Games Still Frustrate and Fascinate Players Today
However, the soundtrack is an absolute banger. Peter McConnell returned, and he absolutely understood the assignment. Every era has its own musical identity—the twang of the desert, the flute-heavy tracks of Japan. It’s an auditory masterclass.
Is it worth playing in 2026?
Yes. But with caveats.
You can't go into Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time expecting the tight, focused masterpiece that was Sly 2: Band of Thieves. This is a broader, messier, more ambitious game. It tries to do too much. It has too many mini-games (seriously, the dancing rhythm games can be a slog). It has a story that takes some swings that don't always land.
But the core loop? The sneaking? The feeling of being a master thief in a world that looks like a Saturday morning cartoon? That’s still there. No one else makes games like this anymore. Everything now is either a 100-hour open-world RPG or a competitive shooter. A 15-hour character-driven platformer with a dedicated "binocucom" button is a rare breed.
Getting the Most Out of the Experience
If you're dusting off the PS3 for a replay, or picking it up for the first time via streaming services, keep a few things in mind to actually enjoy it.
First, don't rush the hub worlds. The real magic of this game isn't in the scripted missions; it's in the exploration. Sanzaru hid bottles everywhere. Collect them. Not just for the sake of completionism, but because the abilities you unlock—like the paraglider upgrades—actually make the movement feel significantly better.
Second, play as the ancestors as much as possible. Sly is the heart of the game, but the ancestors are the soul. They provide the gameplay variety that keeps the "collect-a-thon" fatigue from setting in.
Third, ignore the Penelope twist. Just... accept it as a weird fan-fiction-style detour and focus on the relationship between Sly, Bentley, and Murray. The banter is still top-tier. The voice acting is impeccable, with the original cast returning to breathe life into these characters one last time.
Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time isn't a perfect game. It's a flawed, passionate tribute to a series that deserved more. It stands as a testament to a specific moment in PS3 history where the industry was caught between its mascot-platformer past and its cinematic-narrative future.
Actionable Steps for the Modern Player
- Check your firmware: If you're playing on original hardware, ensure your PS3 is updated to handle the cloud saves if you plan on using a Vita.
- Hunt the Masks: There are 60 hidden Sly masks throughout the game. Collecting them unlocks "cheats" and secret items, including the paraglider from the original game.
- The Secret Ending: To see the "Egypt" cliffhanger, you have to earn every single trophy in the game. It’s a grind, but for a true fan, it’s the only way to finish the story properly.
- Download the DLC: There was a "Bentley’s Hack Pack" released as a standalone or DLC. It’s worth a look if you actually enjoyed the mini-games, though most people find them the weakest part of the main game.
The tragedy of the Cooper line isn't that they were thieves; it's that their story stopped right when it was getting weird. Until Sony decides to pull the Cooper Van out of the garage again, this PS3 gem is the best—and only—closure we have.