My Favorite Video Games of 2006, Part 3

Welcome all you faithful readers. You have tuned in just in time for the third installment of "My Favorite Video Games of 2006".

Next on the list is...... (drumroll, please).....

Sly 3:Honor Among Thieves is the third game in the Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus series. For those of you (probably all of you) who aren't familiar with the series, Sly is a raccoon who is the head of the Cooper Gang, a gang of three master thieves. What is a master thief, you ask? A master thief is a sort-of Robin Hood type character who will not stoop to stealing from ordinary folk, preying instead only on master criminals.

Sly is the last in a long line of master thieves, and his family has amassed a vast vault filled with treasure over the generations. Sly discoversthat a villain named Dr M has discovered the vault and is unsuccessfully attempting to crack it. Fortunately for Sly, it will only open with Sly's own special cane, handed down from generation to generation of the Cooper family.

To stop the mad Dr, Sly must recruit the help of some old arch-rivals, as well as some other new allies who are specialized in the kind of help that he needs. He is also joined by his old pals Bentley the turtle (who is confined to a wheelchair following a terrible accident at the end of Sly 2), and Murray the hippo(?). Sly, Murray, and Bentley parted ways after the accident, as Murray blamed himself for it, so Sly must also round the two up and enlist their very necessary help in this mission.

It's a 3-D platformer, although it's very unique in the sense that the emphasis is on stealth and not being seen by the "bad critters" a lot of the time. It's also a game made up of many, many minigames as Bentley, the brains of the gang cooks up some pretty strange, off-the-wall schemes to accomplish what needs to be done.

Thus, it earns a spot on my list. Stay tuned for the final two!