No Watter What People Say, Catching Monkeys Is Still Fun....
Skipping over the storyline (Spectre’s back to his old tricks again, and taking over the land of television); this iteration, while rooted in what made the previous two games great, features some unique gameplay additions that more than make up for what was lacking in the previous game. The first big addition is the inclusion of different forms you can use to beat certain puzzles, enemies or to help catch lots of monkeys really quickly. The way this works is that above your health bar, there is another bar that slowly fills up over time (or by collecting powerups). When it fills up, you activate a form by jumping into the air using the R1 and R2 buttons, and through a scrollable wheel, choose the form you want. These can range from such fantasies such as Knights, Ninjas, Cowboys, Superheroes, Genie Dancers and Martial Artists. Each form provides new abilities (such as being faster, being stronger, having the ability to attack from range etc.), as well as providing the solution to blocked off objects or hard to reach locations or obscured monkeys. It’s a great addition, but it makes the game too easy, especially during boss fights; in some cases, you can win in under a minute.
The other additions aren’t as game-changing. There is now a random chance that a monkey can actually knock a weapon out of your character’s hands and use it against you. This can range as something as unimportant as your slingshot to something as vital as your monkey-catching net. In fact, if a monkey gets his hands on this weapon, and uses it against you, they can send you back to the games hub level. While it adds a much needed boost of challenge to the game, it also provides some frustration, especially in the longer levels in which you really need to spend time in order to get back up to the point you were on previously. Finally, there is also a choice to now select a boy or a girl to play with. While there really isn’t much difference between the two, aside from cosmetic differences, it’s still a different and interesting choice (in which you would be stuck with the one character in previous games).
In terms of game mechanics, Ape Escape 3 still feels as solid as its two predecessors. The tried and true dual analogue sticks control method is still here, and still works as well as its always have been. The controls still feel solid, and you don’t feel like you get cheated into death (although there are some moments when jumping doesn’t feel quite right, and you get screwed out of making a jump). The only time when the controls don’t work is when you’re taking control of the various vehicles in the game. Otherwise, they work and they work well. Switching over gadgets is now as simple as pressing a button twice and cycling through selections. No menu is required, and is an excellent addition to the game mechanics. Special mention has to go with the level design; particularly the level which takes sees you in the skies, amongst a gigantic fleet of planes.
There’s also a large amount of extra materials to be unlocked. You can unlock a variety of movies, music, mini-games, imagery, stories, music for the Genie Dancer, designs for the RC Car and more. Aside from catching all the monkeys, it will take you some time to unlock every single item present. Thankfully, the best unlockable in the game, the Mesal Gear Solid mini-game is worth the price you pay for it. A throwback to the Snake vs Monkey mini-game in the PAL version of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (and the later Subsistence re-release). Without giving too much away, it’s Metal Gear Solid but with monkeys. And the game does a great job in creating a Metal Gear-esque game without most of what makes a Metal Gear game (i.e. convoluted storyline, crazy characters etc.)
Unfortunately, the only thing that ruins the game is the uneven difficulty. For some reason, the game can’t seem to decide to either be too hard or too easy. Example: It’s entirely possible to make it through half of the game without hitting the game over screen, but when you’re running low on health, the game doesn’t seem to be so generous in offering you anything in the way of health. Then there are slight things like jumps not being as accurate as you want them to be, but these are only slight things in an otherwise solid and competent platformer.
Visually, Ape Escape 3 is solid. Everything is colourful and nothing far too distracting. Character models are solid, and don’t look offensive, although follow the strict Japanese young boy/girl character design of lots of weirdly coloured hair in unique positions. The monkey designs are a treat, especially the ones that get dressed up in specialized costumes. While there isn’t anything that completely blows away any visual perceptions that people might have about the now seven year old PS2 (i.e. like God of War 2), the visuals do a competent job.
The same can’t be said about the audio however. While the music and sound effects are decent, the voice acting in this game is terrible. While the PAL version doesn’t feature the same voice-actors as Pokemon’s Ash Ketchum and Misty (in Ape Escape 2), this particular version of the game makes every character that has a speaking role sound English. Despite the human characters being Japanese and the monkeys being well, monkeys (even the boss monkeys that put on faux accents), they all sound like the kind of person you would meet in merry old England (no offense to any English readers). Next is the fact that Sony didn’t change the names for the human characters, and thus are still in their original names, and pronounced excruciatingly (i.e. Satoru, the main human lead doesn’t become Jack for the English release). What’s worse is that whenever these names are pronounced, they just sound plain wrong. Then comes the overall performance of each character. Best thing to do would be to mute your TV or sound system and turn on the subtitles. It’s not that great, and barely tolerable. And the biggest travesty of all the voice acting? The lack of the real voices of Solid Snake and Roy Campbell for the Mesal Gear Solid mini-game. Otherwise, the audio is solid, just as long as you ignore the terrible voice-acting.
Despite any negativity that has been displayed, Ape Escape 3 is definitely worth checking out. It feels and plays like the previous two Ape Escape games, no bad thing in itself. The formula of catching monkeys never gets old, but you might feel a little cheated out because of the somewhat schizophrenic difficulty. It’s a solid game visually, and the less said about the audio, the better. Couple all this with some great extras (Mesal Gear Solid alone is worth a look) and you have yourself a quality package right here. Now if you excuse me, there’s some Monkey’s that need catching....