This was the game I wanted on PSP, and the main reason I imported one from the US straight away. I've never played the 1st game on PS1, but the 2nd game, Ape Escape 2 on PS2 is one of my favourite games.
For the PSP version Sony have had to make a few alterations to the control system to make it work. In the past the left stick moved you, the right stick swung your net, the triangle, circle etc buttons used a gadget and the shoulders were used to jump and manipulate the camera.
On PSP the stick moves you, the D-pad moves the camera, X makes you jump and the net is with the other gadgets on triangle, circle and square. R makes you crouch, L centers the camera and goes to 1st person view to look around.
At 1st I found the set up a little fiddly but it works well with practice.
The graphics are very stable and colourful, they don't glitch or warp like some 3D platformers can. The camera is good too and easily maniputable.
The idea of the game is the same as ever. Catch the mad monkeys in a net. You also have gadgets to help you like a lightsabre to temporarily stun the apes, a sensor to hunt them out and some better stuff I won't spoil.
You collect little triangles, and when you've got 100 you get an extra shirt (life). Each level contains two goals. Collect enough monkeys to progress, and a second goal of collecting every monkey and spector coins.
There are lots of funky little mini games that have to be bought, each is purchased with the spector coins you collect.
All the mini games can be played at any time when opened or against other PSP owners, and you only need 1 disc I think. The manual doesn't state you need two, only talking of "Ad hoc" which I don't understand.
The mini games are snowboarding, boxing, a platformer mode and ping pong. I currently haven't got enough coins to open any yet though.
Retrying levels is essential for 100% completion for two reasons. The level automatically ends when you have the bare minimum requirements, so you have to retry to get everything.
Also some monkeys are in places that can't be reached until later in the game when you have new gadgets.
When you do retry you don't have to recollect everything though as the game stores what monkeys you've caught.
The apes themselves vary in intelligence and ferocity. Their pant colour indicates how advanced they are. Some are quite thick and won't notice you sneak up on them, even when you're crawling right in front of their eyes. Others will fight very hard and require a mixture of approaches to catch.
The load times are really quite bad. It takes a long time to get the game running, then it loads pre and post the hub sections and even has to load mid game sometimes for new areas like caves that you enter. This is the one area of the game that disappoints me.
Only very early impressions but I really like it, bar the loading.
Favourite bit so far was with the Petrodactyl dinosaur. The dino was swooping and flying above it's nest which was occupied with eggs. I hit one egg and noticed it was only half an egg upturned. So I hit another and out popped a monkey. The little fella then proceeded to run away from me and he hid in amongst the eggs again. Whilst all this hunting the ape down is going on the dinosaur is swooping down and trying to get you, presumably because it thinks you're an egg thief.
Not all the dinos are nasty though. One Lapras like one let you climb on it's neck and back. It then swam near a cliff to reach the higher ground where the monkey was hiding.
For the PSP version Sony have had to make a few alterations to the control system to make it work. In the past the left stick moved you, the right stick swung your net, the triangle, circle etc buttons used a gadget and the shoulders were used to jump and manipulate the camera.
On PSP the stick moves you, the D-pad moves the camera, X makes you jump and the net is with the other gadgets on triangle, circle and square. R makes you crouch, L centers the camera and goes to 1st person view to look around.
At 1st I found the set up a little fiddly but it works well with practice.
The graphics are very stable and colourful, they don't glitch or warp like some 3D platformers can. The camera is good too and easily maniputable.
The idea of the game is the same as ever. Catch the mad monkeys in a net. You also have gadgets to help you like a lightsabre to temporarily stun the apes, a sensor to hunt them out and some better stuff I won't spoil.
You collect little triangles, and when you've got 100 you get an extra shirt (life). Each level contains two goals. Collect enough monkeys to progress, and a second goal of collecting every monkey and spector coins.
There are lots of funky little mini games that have to be bought, each is purchased with the spector coins you collect.
All the mini games can be played at any time when opened or against other PSP owners, and you only need 1 disc I think. The manual doesn't state you need two, only talking of "Ad hoc" which I don't understand.
The mini games are snowboarding, boxing, a platformer mode and ping pong. I currently haven't got enough coins to open any yet though.
Retrying levels is essential for 100% completion for two reasons. The level automatically ends when you have the bare minimum requirements, so you have to retry to get everything.
Also some monkeys are in places that can't be reached until later in the game when you have new gadgets.
When you do retry you don't have to recollect everything though as the game stores what monkeys you've caught.
The apes themselves vary in intelligence and ferocity. Their pant colour indicates how advanced they are. Some are quite thick and won't notice you sneak up on them, even when you're crawling right in front of their eyes. Others will fight very hard and require a mixture of approaches to catch.
The load times are really quite bad. It takes a long time to get the game running, then it loads pre and post the hub sections and even has to load mid game sometimes for new areas like caves that you enter. This is the one area of the game that disappoints me.
Only very early impressions but I really like it, bar the loading.
Favourite bit so far was with the Petrodactyl dinosaur. The dino was swooping and flying above it's nest which was occupied with eggs. I hit one egg and noticed it was only half an egg upturned. So I hit another and out popped a monkey. The little fella then proceeded to run away from me and he hid in amongst the eggs again. Whilst all this hunting the ape down is going on the dinosaur is swooping down and trying to get you, presumably because it thinks you're an egg thief.
Not all the dinos are nasty though. One Lapras like one let you climb on it's neck and back. It then swam near a cliff to reach the higher ground where the monkey was hiding.
bloody love then cheeky ape's running a muck.
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