Alter Ego

Alter Ego is a hacking minigame featured in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time and Bentley's Hackpack. It gets its name from the avatar Bentley uses, which is depicted as a muscular, gun-wielding version of himself (i.e. an alter ego). The music in this minigame is a remix of that from the "Bentley Comes Through" mission from Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus.

Gameplay
Alter Ego takes the form of a sidescrolling, twin-stick shooter. The objective is to navigate the adversarial computer system and destroy the CPU core at the end of the level. Your weapon is the "binary package," fired with. Throughout the minigame, you can collect ion bits to level up. Collecting five yellow ion bits or one red ion bit increases your level by one. At higher levels, the binary package fires rockets in addition to the standard turret. A single shot of damage drops your level by one. Power-ups known as logic bombs appear occasionally throughout the minigame. Collecting and using one (by pressing ) destroys any enemies or barriers within a short distance of Bentley.

There are three types of enemies in Alter Ego, with the standard type being purple nano-bots. Though they spawn infinitely, these enemies follow a set path and are destroyed with a single shot. Purple nano-cannons are the second type; they are fixed onto walls. They fire one shot at a time, but their shots are non-homing and can be avoided rather easily. The third type are translucent blue nano-bots, which are spawned by the CPU core, which only appears at the end of the minigame. They slowly move toward the player and detonate once they are close enough.

In Thieves in Time, an Alter Ego hack is completed by reaching and destroying the overclocked CPU core. This enemy is hostile and will attack you with a laser beam. The core periodically forms a shielding barrier around itself. However, after shooting a laser beam the shield falls briefly, allowing you to deal damage. After defeating the CPU core, Bentley takes control of the system, and the hack is complete.

In Bentley's Hackpack, not every Alter Ego hack ends with a battle. More often than not, the minigame is completed by simply entering a portal at the end of the level.