It’s been awhile, but this September we see the return of an old friend in the thieving business… no, no, not the big wigs at Enron, I meant a thief we all know and love.
That’s right, Sly Cooper returns with a brand new game in Sly 3 : Honor Among Thieves, and this is your first look at that upcoming game.

News, sadly, is a little low though so bear with me as we go through what I could get ahold of.
Previously, in Sly 2 : Band of Thieves, we saw Sly take care of some old business as he sought out the mortal remains of his old nemesis “Clockwerk” in order to bury his enemy once and for all… only to find his enemy’s remains have been stolen! The rest of the game is spent hunting down each and every last remain, only to have the whole set stolen by the true mastermind of the “theft”, only to have his work stolen in turn by another more devious “mind” who joins with the remains of “Clockwerk” to birth “Clock-la”.
The battle to defeat Clock-la is downright devastating, in more ways than one, and in the end it leaves one of the trio (Bently) crippled. But if there’s any justice it does see the end of “Clockwerk” as it’s hate finally takes the long sleep and vanishes from the world once and for all.

Thus Sly 3 : Honor Among Thieves begins.
The team is back in action, once again back on

the clock, but changed in the aftermath of Sly 2.
Sly is still Sly, but after getting in touch with his… ahem… feelings for his female police detective opponent maybe we’ll see something come of it…? Uh… probably not. This isn’t Saint Tail after all.
However just because Sly seems to be unchanged it doesn’t mean the others aren’t.
Bently came out the worse for it. He, after all, laid the charge that sealed Clock-la’s ultimate fate, but in that act he was crippled when Clock-la’s jaw slammed shut on him. Now wheelchair bound he most likely will not play an active role in this game… except don’t count on it since it seems that, yes, even wheelchair bound Murray is going to find a way to get into the action (at least from the screenshot I’ve seen it seems like that to me)!
The worse for wear from the events of Sly 2 seems to be Murray. Murray, the one carefree super hero inspired powerhouse, has suddenly found his life changed after what happened to Bently. Renouncing his former ways he has taken to a life of nonviolence and solitude after feeling responsible for Bently’s crippling injury, but he has come back along with Bently for this mission.

It seems that, like the first game, the target of the offense is the Cooper family tree.
However this time it’s not their secrets that is being targeted, but the family fortune itself.
Since the villains from Sly 2 seemingly reformed we now look towards

a new breed of villains, and new enemies to learn about, and take down one at a time. I’m sure the same tricks of Sly 2 will return, as will a whole new bag of tricks if I know Sucker Punch (and they do know how to make a damn good platformer from the way they’ve banged out the last two Slys!)

Amongst the new features will be…
A Time Machine mode
Now this, in gameplay, is supposed to allow players to relive levels again (using different moves, techiniques and disguises in order to obtain a better “thieving” rating).

The “thieving” rating - Somehow I think this is going to be something more significant than the percentage scores that rated performance in Sly 2 from the prominence it has on the description of the game.
However what the “thieving” rating will link to, and it’s relevance, is something only the game itself will reveal in September.

Multiplayer - Missing from last time, but now here, is a new multiplayer option which allows a whole group of players to go at it in either competitive mode, or cooperative mode! Now, mind you, this doesn’t say nothing about online support but I’m betting multiplayer means online, which means the Sly games are about to take the next step that have already been taken by another favorite platformer of mine, the Ratchet & Clank series (as of Up Your Arsenal). That should be something for you online players.

Now What I Suspect…
1-Just because Bentley is now wheelchair

bound that shouldn’t mean he’s out of the game… from the one screenshot I’ve seen it looks like he manages to get some action in the game even in his current state, and that’s good since he was fun to use the last time around.
2-Something tells me we might get some add on to the “relationship” between Sly and his female police counterpart… keep forgetting her name though… anyway we’ll see if raccoon and foxes mix or not.
3-New enemies means new locales… right?
4-Looks like Adam Sessler (X-Play) is going to be dusting off his Bentley impersonation shortly, seeing how much of a total fan he is of the Sly Cooper franchise… sheesh.

And that’s that. No need to tell you I’m hyped about this, as so you should be.
If Sly 3 plays as well as Sly 2, and improves on what I thought was already a fine platformer, then we’ve got ourselves a hot game coming in a few months!
Stay tuned! Once I get my hands on this puppy I’ll be bringing you a full review in the near future -- unless Blockbuster has something to say about it. Yeah, Blockbuster has become the killjoy of new game reviews lately since they’re slow as molasses in bringing out new games, and they’re irritating as all heck when it comes to getting them to be ontime with game deliveries. Yeah. The “new” Blockbuster… sucks.
Well, stay tuned, a complete review is coming this September or soon after! Promise!