Ape Escape is probably unlike any platformer you've ever played, and that's what makes it such a good game.
Story - 8/10
The professor has made an awesome helmet that gives its wearer unparalleled intelligence. But unfortunately, a cheeky monkey by the name of Specter, who lives at the local amusement park, has gotten ahold of it and is using it for evil purposes! With copies of the helmet produced and worn by his minions, Specter aims to control the world with his monkey army! But how does he do it?
Well, he invades the professor's lab, and with the help of his minions discovers a time machine and seizes the opportunity to send his simian friends into the past into various time periods to make monkeys the dominant species.
Little does Specter know one of the two boys headed to the professor's lab to check out the inventions the professor made is ready and willing to put a stop to it all! Spike, whom you control, goes into the past with the machine's aid as well, armed with gadgets the professor made to help capture those monkeys. With all the necesary tools, Spike is set to save the world from monkey madness.
However, Specter isn't going to sit back and watch his plans go to waste. Specter manipulates Spike's friend Jake to help him stop Spike, causing the two to but heads in various parts of the game.
The story is light fun, and has a few interesting twists to help keep it interesting, but very few of the characters show much growth over the course of the game. The hysterical nature of the monkeys helps keep one entertained, and Spike's journey to save the world from a unique threat is still admirable, but the ingredients don't quite come together enough to push it into an "amazing" story, simply a great, enjoyable one. However with the confrontations with Jake and Specter, there is a good plot to be had.
Sadly, much of it is hampered by terrible voice acting, mostly on the part of Spike. Specter sounds fittingly rebellious in a childish way, but Spike can come off as too cliche and his dialogue can often found to be delivered in a laughably bad fashion. Thankfully more of this is able to be set aside when the plot itself is so intriguing for most of the game.
Gameplay - 10/10
Ape Escape is one of the most unique games I've ever played, and also one of the most entertaining. Your goal is not the normal bullet point of getting from Point A to Point B, but rather finding, confronting, and capturing so many monkeys in a stage.
The game is controlled with heavy reliance on the two analog sticks. The left one controls movement, the right controls your gadgets (explained a little later). The R1 or R2 button are your jump button, which feels a little funny but is easy to get the hang of. The 4 face buttons (X, O, Square and Triangle) allow you to swap between your actively equipped gadgets. Spike can also perform other helpful manuevers such as crawling and curling up in a ball to avoid being detected by a monkey.
Spike has a life system, like any platforming hero. Spike has T-shirts, which represent his life count. Each life comes with 5 cookies, one of which is lost whenever you are hit. If you lose all your cookies, you lose a life. You can find a cookie in various areas and even a few cookie jars with infinite cookies to replenish your life source.
To catch the monkeys, you need gadgets. You begin the game with 2 gadgets: the Monkey Net and the Stun Club. The Stun Club is your all-purpose "hit things!" gadget. If you need to stun a monkey to then capture, or you need to beat an enemy that's pestering you, use that. The Monkey Net is obviously to catch the monkeys. You will get other gadgets every few levels, from a radar to find the monkeys, to a slingshot for hitting faraway targets, to what's called the "Sky Flyer", which helps traverse the terrain easier. All of these unique pieces of technology are helpful in their own ways, and nothing you obtain is ever truly useless.
You'll traverse a series of time periods, each three levels long. Each level you must nab a specific amount of monkeys to progress further into the game. The levels grow bigger as you go deeper into the game, and all the levels are a blast to explore. From a dark ruins, to the inside of a monster, to a japanese temple, all of the colorful worlds ooze adventure, inviting you to explore each inch of the area.
There are 8 worlds (one of which is a secret unless you've capture every monkey in the game), with 6 of these sporting 3 levels each and the last 2 worlds holding 1 level each. There are 204 monkeys in the game total, distributed nicely throughout the different time periods. No level usually feels like a chore that drags on forever, and with the exception of the first level or two, no level feels too short. The levels range from an oceanic paradise to a medieval era, to the present day of the game. Many of these levels are memorable ventures you can have fond memories of.
There are also a few encounters with Spike's friend Jake in the game. There's 1 race against Jake every 2 "time periods", and these are races with a certain gadget helping you throughout a course. These races are a nice way of breaking up the gameplay of the monkey-catching stages, and facing off against Jake can be a challenge if you don't know how to handle the course, but these face-offs with our friend are no less entertaining than other levels in the game.
Late in the game are several boss battles, with bosses being noticeably absent for much of the game. The boss encounters are also fun and use the gadgets quite well, with reliance on your various offensive gadgets; the stun club, slingshot, and super hoop, a hoop that lets you run faster and harm enemies simply by bumping into them. There's only a few bosses, but they are large in scale and give a nice challenge at the end of a zone that would normally just be another fun monkey-catching segment.
There's also a few minigames you can unlock, if you find "Specter Coins" in levels. These minigames are a fun diversion when you don't quite feel like going monkey-hunting, and are deep enough to warrant taking a look at.
After you've beaten the main 6 zones, you face Specter in a vast amusement park level spanning multiple themed attractions, until you confront him in a sky fortress, all within the same level. Even after your confrontation with his threatening machine, it is learned Specter is still at large, and until you catch every monkey (which is much easier a task than one would think) the game is not over. But once you do catch them all, you are treated to a fitting final battle in a quaint space station in the middle of the galaxy where you finally go toe-to-toe with Specter himself, without any aid. This fitting end wraps up a brilliant game.
Presentation - 9/10
The game is neatly put-together. The menus and various interfaces, the levels themselves, it all comes together nicely. There's not a whole lot of depth to the game outside of finding and catching monkeys, but it presents itself very well. The ability to equip any 4 gadgets to the 4 face buttons any way you choose is a nice touch. The way the life system neatly fits into the more childlike layout the game presents is cute and clever.
The level select menu is simple and clean and the main hubworld is to-the-point with a save point in back that also holds a record book of all the monkeys you've caught. On the left and right are an area to train with your gadgets and a room to play minigames. In the front of you is the transporter. This simple yet easy to-get-into layout helps move the game together along nicely. Altogether the game is presented great, but a little more depth would've been greatly appreciated.
Graphics - 10/10
For its time, Ape Escape's graphics are truly top-of-the-line. Everythin pops with such flare and pizazz it's hard to know where to begin describing it all. Animations for enemies and monkeys are surprisingly impressive and Spike's repertour is equally commendable. The sheer scale of some levels can put a look of amazement on a player's face and the scenery is true eye candy. While other games in the PS1 era had great graphics, Ape Escape goes above and beyond with great atmosphere and pep to boot.
Sound - 8/10
The soundtrack to Ape Escape can oftentimes be described as "great". Each theme is a sincere effort to fit the level it is tailored to. All of the music is varied and lovely to listen to, all of it adding to the identity of the game as a whole. Sadly, a few songs can be quite forgettable, and a few still just aren't as entertaining to listen to as others, but overall it's a soundtrack not to be overlooked.
The sound effects are great overall and don't drift too far from what feels like an "Ape Escape sound effect". Each sound is crisp and cool, with only a few being possibly annoying. Sadly as mentioned before the voicework is merely average at best, with several of the characters having laughable dialogue. But other than this it doesn't interrupt a great experience audio-wise.
Tilt - 10/10
Ape Escape is a blast, a unique game that sets itself apart. With over 200 monkeys to catch, many fun levels to explore, and a dozen good gadgets to use, the game doesn't stop being a funfest of monkey-nabbing and baddy-beating. Varied gameplay levels like the Jake face-offs and the few later boss-oriented levels are a great pace-breaker that provides fun without compromising the gameplay. It's such a shame more people haven't played this game, because it is thoroughly entertaining.
The Breakdown:
Pros and Cons
+Unique gameplay you can't find anywhere else
+A blast to play
+Great, poppy graphics
+Good music
-Occasional, slight frustration with a few tougher monkeys
-Voicework is laughable
Overall - 9/10
Ape Escape succeeds at being a unique thrillride. With great music, presentation, graphics, and especially memorable gameplay between the gadgets, monkeys, and levels, I can't think of anyone that likes platformers that shouldn't try this game out. If you like unique games like Katamari, this could be right up your ally in its own way. I never thought chasing down and grabbing monkeys would be so fun, but believe me, it is. And once you've played it you might think on why other platformers don't try to stand out like Ape Escape does.