Ape Escape 3 offers much more humor than its competitors, while maintaining the high quality of the platformer genre.
At first, the most obvious and unique aspect of Ape Escape 3 is its gameplay: you use the face buttons to choose your item/weapon, while the right analog stick serves to use item/attack. You tilt the stick in the direction you want, and the action is performed in that direction. The shoulder buttons are used to jump and camera options.
The main focus of the game is to walk around in a level destroying minor robots and searching for apes (the same apes of the title). When you find an ape - usually thanks to your trusty ape-radar -, you have to catch him somehow. Until one point of the game, the only way to catch apes is with a net. Basically, get close enough to the banana-eater, stun him if you wish, and tilt the right analog stick towards him (or towards "it", in case you don't think the apes are so cute they have their own personality). This process is never the same, thanks to a great simian-AI that quickly dodges many of your capture attempts. Also, after one point in the game you get several different ways to capture the monkeys - to avoid spoilers, these won't be mentioned. In total, there are over 400 apes to be caught, so there's a lot of fun guaranteed here.
One thing that greatly differs Ape Escape 3 from its predecessors is the fact that you can momentarily "transform" into different costumes. Each transformation has its own unique skills, therefore adding a load of variety to the game. By the end of Ape Escape 3, once you have all the transformations, it'll be hard to choose your favorite.
If the player needs more reason to play this game, that reason may be the humor. For as good as the gameplay is, it doesn't beat the unique sense of humor in every corner of Ape Escape 3. The game tries to make things funny as often as possible, meaning that the player can be found constantly laughing while playing. Also, many references can be found throughout the entire game - from a strong satire of today's TV to a Resident Evil 4 mockup, just about anything can be found if you look well. The satires in Ape Escape 3 deserve a lot of credit for being indirect; making small jokes and leaving the rest to our imagination.
Another two things have to be mentioned when describing this game. The first of them is the horoscope system. Basically, each ape has a birth date; once you find the ape who shares the same birth date as you, use the game's calendar to find that ape and see what luck has in store for you. You can also go to the horoscope by signs (Leo, Pisces, Aries, etc.) and get a more detailed version of what's going to happen to you. Just know this: the horoscope rarely makes mistakes. The other thing that has to be mentioned is the way Ape Escape 3 throws boss battles at you. There is a total of 7 boss battles in the game (maybe an extra one if you try hard enough), and each one is extremely enjoyable - given that you use the right transformation in the fight.
The length of Ape Escape 3 isn't groundbreaking. There are 25 levels, many secret apes to find, a Time Attack mode, and basically A LOT of unlockable content; but after all is said and done, you'll hardly have more than 15 hours of gameplay. While this doesn't sound so good, the entire package is delightful, so it's well worth your time and money.
Unfortunately, graphics and sound aren't as good as the rest of the game. Sure, the art style is incredibly colorful and living, but not quite detailed enough to be wonderful. There are a few great songs in the music, but many are boring and repetitive. That somewhat spoils the audio, alongside cheap voice acting by the heroes of the game and some annoying sound glitches.
If you stick with the game long enough to see how enjoyable it is, you'll definitely want to go all the way through. Once you're done with Ape Escape 3, it will feel worth the time invested.