Retro|Spective 164: Ape Escape

[Neon Ignition]

Ape Escape - 1999
The original game was a leading showcase for the arrival of Sony's Dual Shock controller to the previously digital only PS1 pad. Controlling Spike you travelled through time with a range of gadgets including your trusty net and hunted down and captured the newly semi-intelligent Apes.




Ape Escape 2 - 2002
Arriving on the PS2, the new sequel continued from where the original left off by offering new gadgets and better visuals as players set out once again to find the troublesome chimps.




Ape Escape 3 - 2005
The third and final mainline entry also arrived on PS2 and was largely more of the same barring the inclusion of the cross over mini-game Mesal Gear Solid, this was also the last of the main games in the franchise with none of the subsequent generations ever seeing a true sequel.




Other Entries:
-Ape Escape: On the Loose
-Ape Escape 2001
-Ape Escape: Million Monkeys
-Ape Escape Racing
-Ape Escape: SaruSaru Big Mission
-Ape Quest
-Ape Escape: Pumped and Primed
-Eyetoy: Monkey Mania
-Ape Escape Academy
-Ape Academy 2
-PlayStation Move Ape Escape


What are your Ape Escape memories and which entries have you tried and gone Banana's for?

[Cepp]

I purchased a Dual Shock controller just for Ape Escape back in the day. The control scheme feels a little dated today but the gameplay is still there. Never played the sequels but I still love the original.

[QualityChimp]

Same, I got a DualShock when I bought my PlayStation to play Gran Turismo and Ape Escape.
Pretty sure I just played the AE demo, but I absolutely caned it.

When I bought MGS3, I never actually played the game, only the Ape Escape minigame.
I literally started playing the actual game for the first time this year!

I really liked the original game and the cheeky chimps were pretty charismatic.

[Asura]

This always reminds me of the short-lived analog controller for the PS1, which I had, as it was cheaper than a Dual-Shock at the time.

[QualityChimp]

Yeah, I think I had that one.
Is that the one with the button where you can turn the analogue off?

[Asura]

Yeah, I think I had that one.
Is that the one with the button where you can turn the analogue off?

I think you can do that with both - but the Analog Pad has a concave indentation on the sticks:



I always remember that it got released with G-Police as its kinda demo game... Which makes me wonder. G-Police just didn't benefit from it, really, and I'm curious if the original design for the game allowed you to control the verniers of the craft with one on each stick, kinda like Cybersled or Virtual On.

[QualityChimp]

I remember getting berated by my uni flatmate's girlfriend as we raced on Gran Turismo because we always seemed to steer fully in one direction and never just a little bit and bloody hell she was right and it still hurts to this day.

[Asura]

I remember getting berated by my uni flatmate's girlfriend as we raced on Gran Turismo because we always seemed to steer fully in one direction and never just a little bit and bloody hell she was right and it still hurts to this day.

Yeah, I remember doing this when I first got it too. Tack-tack-tack-tack instead of just pushing the stick gently

[wakka]

Yep, I also did that! It was force of habit after playing racers with digital controls, where of course you had to tap to get any sort of fine control over cornering.

I don't have any memories of Ape Escape except the fact that it reviewed really well, and I wanted it but couldn't get it as I didn't have the pad. But, I guess it's kind of relevant to talk about the pad? So I'm going to do that.

By the time my birthday rolled around in '99 and there was an opportunity to get one, Ridge Type 4 was the new hotness, having come out a couple of weeks prior. So that was the game I got with my Dualshock (in transparent green ). Ape Escape was thusly passed over and, 22 years on, I've still never played a game in the series.

No regrets though, because Ridge 4 was an absolutely blinding game and I loved it to pieces*

The other game I remember benefitting from the Dual Shock was Cool Boarders 3, which I got some time after. I really liked that at the time but I can only imagine what it would be like to go back to now. Unplayably dated I suspect.

Are the second and third Ape Escapes good? I remember they got a fraction of the attention of the first game in the magazines of the time. Interested in impressions if anyone's got them and which, if any, of these games are worth trying today.





*to this day when racing towards a deadline at work the announcer's voice echoes in my head. "It's the final lap - keep your cool!"

[Leon Retro]

I remember buying another PlayStation at the time, which came with a DualShock controller. There was quite a lot of buzz surrounding Ape Escape being something special, so I grabbed a copy. I thought it was a great looking game that's full of charm and fun to play.

I have really positive memories of that later period[98-2000] for the PlayStation where the machine got some really impressive games. Driver, Gran Turismo 2, Crash Team Racing, Ape Escape, Vagrant Story etc... were all something special.

[Asura]

for the PlayStation where the machine got some really impressive games. Driver, Gran Turismo 2, Crash Team Racing, Ape Escape, Vagrant Story etc... were all something special.

The PS1/Saturn/N64 era was honestly really exciting in that regard, in terms of how every season, new games came out which smashed preconceptions from the previous season.

I know this is beating a dead horse here, but honestly many of the bigger early games on the PS4 look/play so similar to the last ones, whereas you can hardly even compare Daytona USA to Gran Turismo 2.

[saif]

Ape Escape (PS1) came out in the summer and, iirc, Sony released their games at £30 rather than £50 at this time and I rather excitedly bought this and Anna Kournikova's Smash Court Tennis (also a fantastic game). I was hugely impressed and really enjoyed the way it worked with the two sticks. There was a bit where you had to row a boat with the two sticks which was fun at the time (though silly).

The way you caught these comedy monkeys was also rather fun and it even brought in the Metal Gear-esque stealth mechanics to catch some of them - especially the black pants monkeys.

Ape Escape 2 (now available on PS4) was a much more "complete" game and I have played it recently and it holds up well. The issue around jumping felt odd cos the jumping is on the shoulder buttons but the controls were always fun. AE2 also had a few minigames and the football one is genuinely excellent. In fact, I remember introducing to some people at a meet up for NTSC-UK in Reading

[Neon Ignition]

I know I've played Ape Escape 2, 3 and 2001 but it's without question the original that stands out for me. It's interesting as well because it had a unique approach to platforming action but people seem to gravitate to things like Croc, Spyro and Crash which were all effectively worse versions of better experiences available elsewhere. It's a franchise that is a bit sad to see left alone without a true fourth game because Astrobot shows Sony can be inventive enough to get more out of this and it remains a thousand times more charming than Sackboy who's been allowed on three generations of hardware also. Bluepoint, your turn