Monkey Business (Ape Escape (PS))

Member Name: rhough

Product:	Ape Escape (PS)
Date:	13/12/00 (89 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It'll make you laugh

Disadvantages: Need a Dual Shock Controller

Ever wondered what those new sticks are on the Playstation Controller are for?
Well meet Ape Escape. A 3D-platform game of the highest quality, and all will be revealed.

The idea of Ape Escape is to rescue A LOT of monkeys for 25 MASSIVE Levels. I stress - massive, it really is big. A Huge fun 3D worlds set in various times in Jungles, Arctic (yes lots of ice to slip on) and beaches.
In this case the evil monkey is called Specter and our hero is called Spike.

A Big disadvantage of this game is it has to use a Dual shock controller. So if you haven’t got one, look for the pack which contains both the game AND the new controller. As a side note the controllers are very good, and most useful for lots of other games.

But back to Ape Escape. The game is funny. You use one of your analogue sticks to move your hero and the other to swing the gadgets you find lying around to help you. If the monkeys see you they run off, giving you the task of chasing them round swooshing your monkey net behind them trying to catch them. In other circumstances this could be annoying, but in this case the biggest problem is trying not to laugh too much...

There are lots of different types of gadgets at your disposal. The Monkey Net (obviously), a catapult, radar to detect monkey positions, and lots of objects to interact with.

The most amusing of these has to be the rowing boat - you hop in, and have to rotate your sticks in opposite directions to move forwards and backwards. In true rowing boat style this takes time to master and you end up going round in circles (again laughing uncontrollably at your own feeble efforts)

I would say the game is for everyone. You can move to and from levels as you catch more monkeys, but you don’t have to clear a level to move to the next, so lots of exploring available. You wont get stuck early on and not see any other parts of the game. For you veteran gamers though, there are som
e very tricky monkeys in very hard to get places that will really push you to your gaming limits. (But for us novices we can just leave those be)

The best game to compare this one too would be Mario 64 on the Nintendo. I'll stick my neck out now and say this is better (Gulp). I just feel it takes an original game and improves on it.

The best platform game on the Playstation. Enjoy.

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