Hands On: Ape Escape

GameSpot News took a trip to Sony Computer Entertainment of America on Thursday to look at Ape Escape and meet with its producer, Susumu Takatsuka.

If you don't already know, Ape Escape is all about running around with a net and several other gadgets trying to find and capture super-smart monkeys that have escaped from the zoo. You locate monkeys on any of the game's 24 levels by using the monkey radar, a gadget that sends you in their direction. Once you locate a monkey you capture it by using the net - a good way to do is to sneak up stealthily on them by crawling on the ground. As you can see from the screenshots, the game has an incredibly crisp and bright look to it. The 3D landscapes look great, and a subtle fill-in effect hides any erroneous pop-ups.

While the game certainly looks good, the game's best feature is its control. In a bold move, producer Susumu Takatsuka decided to make the game compatible only with analog controllers. The reason? He wanted to let consumers have as much fun as possible and his idea of fun was to fully utilize both sticks. Everything you do in the game basically requires you to use both analog sticks at once. For instance, when you're piloting a raft, each stick controls an oar. Hence, the dual control gives players a cool "rowing a boat" feeling.

The game includes lots of extras to reward good players. The biggest of which are minigames, such as a full-blown skiing and boxing game.

Ape Escape is scheduled for release on June 22. Look for more info on the game in our updated preview.