This game is pretty instrumental to my childhood but it holds up tremendously well. I think it's the playstations mario 64 in the way that the act of controlling the character has so much appeal on its own. It's also a knockout in every category. The level design is great, the 90s anime aesthetic is charming and it has one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard. This might be my favorite 3D platformer. It really strips away the fat that collectathons can usually have and just makes something that's constantly engaging. Just make sure you get to the first final boss before you try replaying levels. It's made to do a casual run first and then you go back and do the completionist run second.

I played this around two months ago as of typing this, so pardon me if my memory on the game is a little bit hazy.

I always knew Ape Escape to be a beloved game, one that fans continually ask for despite having no expectations for it to actually make a comeback, and Sony showing no interest. I've heard it called one of the best platformers ever and one of the PS1's finest releases. Yet, I really knew nothing about it. At all.

So imagine my surprise when I start playing this game and it has the wackiest control scheme I've ever seen. This was the premier game for the Dualshock controller - a series of controller which stays updated and well-liked to this day - being the first game to outright require the controller. And boy do they make you use it. Nowadays, it's hard to think of the right control stick as anything but camera control unless a game has a locked camera to begin with, but here, it's required for a bunch of vital and basic actions. It's very interesting, and I mostly got the hang of it fairly quickly; my natural senses to use it for camera control would take over at times, but it was manageable, and even enjoyable, but I can see why this would throw some people off of enjoying the game. Control is important, after all. But I think Ape Escape understands that due to the fact that every single button on the controller has a notable use, and changes depending on what you are doing. I know that's kind of the case for most games, at least now, but there's something about Ape Escape that makes it more pronounced here than in your typical game today.

There is a big caveat however, that being the pretty awful camera. You can center the camera behind you at the tap of a button, which is a necessity since all other camera control is out of your hands. The camera would be not the best but still manageable if that was the worst of it, but unfortunately, all too often, the camera would be in a fixed position that I think is supposed to give you a good view of what's going on, but actually makes things much harder to deal with. And when you're trying to chase after some chimps, the last thing you want is for one to pull out a machine gun and shoot you, but the SECOND thing you don't want is to not be able to see anything in trying to catch said chimps. Funny enough, at times the camera would be pretty much directly overhead, and this was actually much preferred over the typical over-the-shoulder angle, but it was only when the game felt like it. That angle is how I like to play Pikmin, so I kind of wish it was a thing here, it's very handy for trying to get just the right angle to catch a monkey.

Speaking of the actual monkey catching, I must admit that this is also not a strong suit of the game until quite late. The baton and net they give you from the offset as your bread and butter for catching monkeys just feel like they always come up too short and require, what feels like, very precise angling, which makes even some of the easiest monkeys hard catches. This might be a personal skill issue, but I can't tell you how many times I let out a "Come on" in annoyance after putting down the net failed to connect despite looking like it should have hit.

Other than that, though, this game is fantastic. Well, ok, the story isn't good and the voice acting is funny-bad for everyone except maybe the professor. But it's a late 90s 3D platformer, is anyone really expecting greatness from either of those aspects? Specter is great, though. The music is fantastic, there's a pretty good variety of set pieces here, including bringing in a t-rex, hell yeah. The gadgets are also very fun to use. As soon as I got the slingshot, it was a staple of my kit, and I really liked using the hover stick thing (it's been a minute, I don't remember the names). The platforming is kind of awkward, sometimes outright bad, but successfully making it through a platforming segment felt earned. Oh, and once I unlocked the boxing glove, it was so over for the primates, that thing is so OP, it's no wonder they left it for the last ape cleanup before giving it to you, but it's extremely fun to use and made the dinky baton superfluous outside of needing to turn cranks from time to time.

One thing I definitely did not know about going into this game are the side modes. I'm a huge fan of weirdly ambitious side modes and Ape Escape was no exception. There's a skiing racing game that's clearly not super polished, but is shockingly fun and deep for what you'd expect. A monkey boxing mode which I didn't really understand but it was at least kind of amusing to see their rubber arms flail around like a Stretch Armstrong. And my favorite, a simple but addictive space shooter. There's no ending to it, you just go go go till you can't anymore. I put a good twenty or so minutes into it; it would have been longer, but I had other things to move onto so I had to force myself to stop.

So yeah, I'm quite impressed by this game. I'm always hesitant to dive into a very well-received game, because I tend to find them underwhelming compared to the hype. But not Ape Escape, it surprised me and pushed all the right buttons.



Also, I like how at the very end they just suddenly make the only girl character a huge asshole for no reason. She just very suddenly becomes really mean but it's actually really funny, especially with the line deliveries.

I'm normally not a huge fan of late 90s 3D platformers. I like Super Mario 64 a lot, but I normally think things like the Banjo games or the Crash and Spyro trilogies are just alright. Then there's Ape Escape. I love Ape Escape. This isn't a nostalgia thing since my first exposure to the game was the PS4 release of Ape Escape 2, but I still absolutely adore what the game is trying to do. I'm someone who likes controller gimmicks, so using the right stick for something other than camera control is more fun than annoying to me, and the variety of tools here coupled with the occasional vehicles meant that I was always having to think about what my hands were doing. Directional flicks for the net. Pull back and release for the slingshot. Circles for the hoop or propeller. It adds an extra layer to the gameplay of what would otherwise be a pretty standard, but charming, collectathon. The music has a kind of weird synthetic feel to it, but that fits a game where you're traveling through time to catch super smart monkeys that sometimes have guns.

I also just really like monkeys

This game is bananas!

^Initially that was gonna be my entire review, but this game surprised me without how much I like it so I'll give some brief thoughts.

Fantastic look and sound. I think this game has a real nice aesthetic even if it doesn't hold up as well technically compared some other games on the ps1(There can be slowdown at times and the draw distance is pretty low). The monkeys look really silly and helps make them endearing. The music by Soichi Terada is fantastic, really good. It constantly surprised me with how good it was. Crumbling Castle and the final boss theme are probably my fave songs from the game. The dub is what you expect for the time, pretty cheesy and stilted but it's fine. I think Specter's voice fits the character pretty well at least. The game feels pretty great to play, finding the monkeys was fun and replaying a level I already finished with new gadgets was really satisfying. It felt so good to skip parts of the level that took a bit of time the first time I went through with it. The camera did get in the way sometimes and the controls could feel a tad bit unresponsive at times even if I felt the game-feel was really nice overall. Some of the gimmicks like the boat felt kind of finicky too, but overall I really enjoyed my time with this game.

Here’s a little trivia question for all you frothing nerds with too much useless information in your memory banks: what is the first PlayStation game that forbade the use of the classic PlayStation controller model, igniting a downward spiral that soon rendered it obsolete and ushered in the age of the Dualshock that still persists today with Sony’s game consoles? Was it yet another innovation that the first Metal Gear Solid contributed to the medium? Is it perhaps the reason why Final Fantasy VII is still held in such high regard? Perhaps Crash Bandicoot needed the double analog control scheme to perform rude gestures with, obnoxiously sticking double barrels in the air at Neo Cortex upon dismantling his laboratory? If you guessed any of these classic titles on the original Playstation, you’d be dead wrong. However, if your guess was Crash Bandicoot, you’d at least be on the right track. The Playstation title that dared to reject tradition and embrace experimentation is the 3D platformer Ape Escape. While some well-versed video game historians might sometimes credit Ape Escape with its place as a dividing line between the beta model of the first 3D console controller and its more practical superior, the general public of gaming seems to have forgotten it. In fact, Ape Escape is seldom mentioned alongside its 3D platformer contemporaries such as Crash or Spyro, much less in the grand scheme of the entire era of the 3D platformer across all consoles that Ape Escape was staunchly a part of. Tis’ a shame, for Ape Escape’s reputation, is worthy of more than simply a footnote in the early history of Sony’s tenure as a video game console heavyweight.

Ape Escape’s premise is fairly self-explanatory. The monkeys have escaped from the zoo, and pandemonium ensues. Specter, their savior, is an albino monkey (even though he barely resembles the same simian phenotype of his peers) that has been granted the gift of superintelligence by an experimental helmet. His superior capacity for insight makes him realize that he and his fellow chimp compatriots are under an oppressive human shadow while living at the zoo. But simply liberating himself and the other monkeys from captivity is merely step one of Specter’s master plan. The bigger picture here is that while Specter and the rest of the apes are free from human confines, humans are still the dominant species on the planet. To usurp the biological throne from human hands, Specter uses the time machine built by the professor who also made his helmet, and sends fleets of apes across a myriad of past periods throughout time, rewriting the course of history and ensuring that the apes come out on top in the present. Fortunately, the human race isn’t doomed to be subservient to their pre-evolved species, for their fates lie in the hands of an adolescent boy named Spike who will chase the apes across time to put them in the rightful, diminutive places. The developers ostensibly skimmed over the plot premise of 12 Monkeys and didn’t bother to actually see the film in full while multiplying the amount of time-traveling monkeys by a factor in the triple digits.

Recapturing the apes involves using a net apparatus so comically sized that it’s fit for Dick Dastardly but hey, we’re catching monkeys here, not butterflies. Using the net on the field is (technically) not assigned to a simple button, for it and the other gadgets Spike needs to restore balance to the world coincide with Ape Escape’s innovative, dual-analog control scheme. The direction of the net’s downward swing depends on whichever 360-degree swing the player executes on the right analog stick. The same function also applies to the lightsaber modded as a stun stick to briefly subdue the apes whenever they run from Spike or when encountering other enemies scattered across each level. Spike’s gadget inventory is found in the pause menu, but he can assign a total of four of them to use in a roulette by each button on the controller. The saber and the net are already assigned to the triangle and X buttons, and the player should ideally keep the two on those buttons because of their constant usage. The other gadgets juggled around both the square and circle buttons include a monkey radar that tracks the general direction of nearby apes, a slingshot for projectile damage, a hula-hoop that gives Spike a temporary speed boost when swung around, and an RC car. I don’t know exactly how to compare the neon-glowing gadget that allows Spike to glide, but I always feature this gadget in an inventory slot because how it allows Spike to mitigate gaps between platforms. Obviously, placing the utility of each gadget on the right analog stick is unorthodox, especially since this is the first game that featured the use of the extra protuberance. In execution, using every gadget is surprisingly smooth, with the circular span of the beam weapon and the net as a testament to that. Rigidity is never an issue while using the gadgets. Relegating the jump mechanic requisite for all 3D platformers to the R1 button is arguably an even stranger facet of Ape Escape’s control scheme.

As innovative as Ape Escape’s control scheme is, it is ultimately the next page in the 3D platformer playbook written by Super Mario 64. I suppose Ape Escape verges more towards the collectathon angle of the genre, only if screeching apes that scurry away from Spike when they spot him count as collectibles. The objective in each level of Ape Escape is to catch an arbitrary number of pesky primates located all around the map doing various mischievous things. Ape Escape is cut from the cloth of the exploration-intensive 3D platformer, as Spike is dropped onto the landscape and is free to roam around it in whichever direction he chooses to seek out the rogue chimps. Despite its relatively free-flowing design, Ape Escape unfortunately borrows the boot-out system from Super Mario 64. Once Spike apprehends the number of monkeys that the game assigns in the objective, Spike returns to the hub located in the present day. The amount given in the objective will never be the total number of monkeys swinging around, so he will always leave the level incomplete. While I enjoy the fact that the game doesn’t force measures of completion upon the player, I wish the game gave the player the option of staying in the level if they so choose to wrap things up nicely and put a tight Christmas bow on their package of recaptured monkeys. Banjo-Kazooie existed a year before Ape Escape was released, so perhaps borrowing the totally free-flowing, sandbox design philosophy of that game would’ve fit Ape Escape more suitably as opposed to the initial 3D platformer influence.

Capturing monkeys encompasses the entirety of Ape Escape, save for the two racing missions placed in between two worlds. The gameplay variety isn’t exactly nuanced, but the game does its best to divvy up the constrained parameters of its main objectives. I claimed that the monkeys would bounce around evading capture, but the dynamic isn’t simply predator versus prey for each one. As the game progresses, the monkeys will resort to desperate tactics to maintain their freedom. The grunts of Specter’s operation will throw banana peels in Spike’s way so the boy will slip and fall, a wise use of classic money resources if ever. The higher-ups are stacked with some serious firepower that they must’ve somehow stolen from the modern military. Some have machine guns and energy blasters, and others will spurt a barrage of missiles at Spike from a backpack. The irritating bounciness of their jumping around and their no-nonsense weaponry is why I suggest using the element of stealth when approaching them if possible. Still, the variety of the monkeys, as ruthless as they can be at times, offer a fair and engaging difficulty curve in what becomes the standard grind of the game. Also, the enemy variety from the digging sprouts that shoot pellets to the winged creatures expands on that variety splendidly. The only other collectible is the golden Spencer tokens used to unlock minigames in the hub. Seek these out only for the steeper platforming challenges they offer, because the minigames do nothing but reference the potential of the dual analog sticks, which is something that we are more than familiar with in retrospect.

While the events of the past are firmly etched in the history books that ground them in some kernel of reality, at least a game developed at the turn of the millennium has a plethora of time periods to reference. Specter evidently went to the deepest measures of time to secure the ape’s place as top dog, for Spike reverts the time machine back millions of years in the past to the prehistoric ages. Because these levels occur long before the dawn of civilization, foregrounds are heavily naturalistic jungles that feature unkempt grass, water rapids, and sizzling volcanos. One level takes place mostly in the tender, spacious insides of a carnivorous dinosaur named Dexter, a personal highlight that certainly deviates from the rank humidity of the outside (what is with this era of gaming and its fascination with exploring the insides of giant creatures?) The ice age shifted the climate balance of the previous prehistoric levels on its head with roaring blizzards covering the land in a quilt of thick snow, but the overall topography still retains a dearth of man-made structures and a lack of a busy, congested atmosphere. Eventually, the levels that take place in the era of humanity involve Spike traveling to feudal Japan and the Xin Dynasty era of China, and then to a castle in the Middle Ages of England. After that, Spike returns to the present to find that Specter’s manipulation of the space-time continuum worked well in his favor, and Spike has to eradicate all of his adulteration in the bustling city streets of the modern day. While I appreciate that Ape Escape doesn’t permanently stick Spike in environments where he must wade through untouched wilderness, the developers failed to reach the full potential of Ape Escape’s time travel theme. I don’t think I have to tell anyone that there were several time periods between the Middle Ages and the turn of the 20th century. It would be marvelous to see monkeys riding in horse-drawn caravans on The Oregon Trail, see them perched on the Empire State Building in the 1920s, or storm Normandy during WWII. Alas, the restrained level themes along with the paltry amount of them make Ape Escape a brief experience.

Ape Escape is also probably too silly for its own good. It’s a game with a kooky concept of hunting time-traveling monkeys but even then, Ape Escape goes overboard with this premise in its presentation. Ape Escape has bar none the worst collective voice acting I’ve ever heard in a competently crafted triple-AAA video game. It makes the performances of the first Resident Evil game look like a production of Hamlet performed by the gilded Shakespeare Company, and that game is one of the most notable instances of wretch-worthy voice acting of all time. All dialogue from every character is choppy and sounds almost like the voice actors are treating every line facetiously. When a man is being pursued by a monkey on the city streets, his frantic line of “help me, help me!” is delivered as if it was uttered by someone making fun of him while people watching. Even if there was no one in the recording booth to offer guidance, absolutely no one should seriously think speaking any line with this total lack of delivery should be acceptable. Specter’s voice does not match his menacing, Clockwork Orange stare at all, making every interaction with the game’s primary antagonist laughable. By the time Spike reaches the final level of Specter’s carnival, the game attempts to funnel in a lesson of growth with Spike’s character and his soaring capabilities as a hero, but I’m not slurping this down as a point of narrative substance. Ape Escape didn’t need to be campy or profound: the base wackiness should already strike a tasteful balance. While we’re at it, I can’t think of a more useless secondary antagonist across gaming (or all media) than Jake, Spike’s blue-haired friend who is under Specter’s spell and starts to work for him. I don’t care how intelligent Specter has become, no amount of high cognition will ever give someone the ability to possess people. Perhaps Jake contracted brain worms from inhaling the fumes of monkey feces for too long? Whichever it is, the developers didn’t need to shoehorn him into the game as a villain to motivate Spike to save the world. I would think that preventing an alternate timeline of being a monkey’s neutered pet bitch would be a substantial enough incentive already.

Ape Escape’s colossal strengths as a 3D platformer lie entirely in its gameplay. What could’ve been just a glorified tech demo for Sony’s new controller model and its capabilities resulted in something that surpassed all expectations. The fluidity of the analog controls is impeccable, and the unique objective involving swiping up monkeys in a net never grows tiring. While I remain yearning for a wider range of level concepts with the time travel theme, at least the modest amount of levels on display are designed to foster an inviting sense of exploration. Ultimately, Ape Escape might have crumbled in the eyes of gamers because it’s kind of dumb. Yes, dumber than an orange marsupial conquering a mad scientist with nothing but a pair of jeans. Still, it’s dumb fun all the way through. If Ape Escape was the beta test to see if the Dualshock would be functional, then no wonder the controller still reigns supreme.

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Attribution: https://erockreviews.blogspot.com

My favorite 3d platformer of all time. Perfect visuals, soundtrack, and art direction.
Gameplay is tight and responsive. While the control method may seem unorthodox at first, you'll quickly get used to it and get into the rhythm.
You recieve a variety of gadgets throughout the game that each build upon the foundation built in the early game. The gadgets are integrated perfectly into the level design, and you'll rarely ever find yourself getting stuck.
The story is cute and cartoony and the characters are simple, but obviously this game isn't really about the story. The english voice acting is different in the US and Europe, and they are both very silly 90s performances. Personally I prefer the US dub and Spike's weird voice.
This game is puzzle platforming collect-a-thon excellence.
A must play for any platformer enjoyer.

Who knew catching monkeys would be so fun?? Ape Escape is such a unique game, it really goes to show how unique controls can be in a platformer while still feeling really good. This game is just light-hearted fun, catching the apes is so satisfying and the levels are well-built and fun to explore. The collecting and gadget use is so much fun, and even if the control scheme is so weird you get used to it so fast and realize why they chose to do it this way, it just works. This definitely stands out as one of the best 3D platformers on PS1, and I will come back to it very often :)

At first I wasn't totally sold on it, I disliked the fairly generic anime boy instead of the usual whimsical/weird protagonist that most of these platformer games have, the controls seemed unnecessarily weird and the ape catching didn't seem that interesting in the first levels. But the level design keeps getting progressively better: the apes start to use more tactics and are incorporated into the levels in really unique ways, add to that some really creative level themes, the gadget mechanics, and one of the best soundtracks of the ps1 and you get an extremely memorable experience.

I wanted to go back to my roots and play a fun monkey game. After experiencing Ape Escape, I don't think I've played a game that accomplished everything it set out to do so perfectly since Celeste.

Ape Escape is so fun and it's full of that old school ps1 charm. The premise is super unique and the art style is great and just fills you with that warm feeling of comfort that you can only get from a chunky ps1 game. The goofy voice acting comes around to being great and just makes the game all that much more enjoyable.

I don't think I've ever played a game that took as much advantage of the controller as Ape Escape either. It's obvious the game was designed with the dualshock in mind and the game does a great job of utilizing every feature of the controller without making it overly complicated.

The structure also feels unique compared to other 3D platformers. Going in, I was expecting it to play like a
collect-a-thon platformer, but I was surprised by how unique it felt. The gameplay style is hard to describe, but it feels like it's halfway between a 3D collect-a-thon and a more typical 3D platformer and it was very refreshing.

Each ape serves as a unique puzzle that has multiple different ways of approaching it, depending on the gadgets you like to use or the type of movement/approach you like to take which helps replays stand out.

It's not a perfect game, but my issues with it are so small they're just nitpicks. For example, I never fully got used to the menu UI. It's hard to describe, but the menu options default to undoing what you just selected, so for example, if you want to load a save and select that option, the first option in the subsequent menu is to go back to the previous page instead of confirming you want to load the save. This just really messed with my muscle memory from playing other games.

I'm also not a fan of how the time trials are tied to 100% completion. Time trial modes don't really appeal to me in general and in games like Ape Escape, where there is no reward for 100% completion, making the time trials contribute to the completion requirements just feels like padding.

Ape Escape has always been one of those bucket list 3D platformers for me and I'm just so happy that it lived up to the hype. It's not one of my favorite games at the end of the day, but it accomplishes everything it sets out to do so perfectly and is just so fun and unique that I can't help but give it 5 stars.

I had wanted to play this game for a few years and was excited to finally check it out. It's fun to try and figure out the best way to catch each ape, and the platforming is fun too. The graphics in this game look great for the PlayStation 1. The fact that each ape is unique and has a name and fun fact about itself is very cute.

I did not like how repetitive and overly energetic the music is. I also wish the levels were more consistent in length. The castle level and the final level dragged on and on, and I think together they took up 1/3 of the game's runtime (the game has 22 levels). The voice acting is abysmal and the cutscenes have no subtitles. I think if I had watched the cutscenes with the original Japanese voices and English subtitles, I wouldn't have been so disinterested in the story.

The camera is wonky too, and once you have a lot of gadgets, it is annoying having to constantly map them to your controls. Couldn't they have just added a second menu of gadgets you could switch to by holding a shoulder button?

Even though this game has a lot of clunkiness and weird design choices, it's still a fun time and I was glad to have this much fun with an older game. I may check out the sequels.

Ape Escape was one of the first games to require mandatory use of the DualShock controller, using both analogue sticks for gameplay.
It's a 3D Platformer, where you explore stages from many different time periods to capture monkeys, that are causing chaos, and stop their leader, Specter, from taking over the world.

The control scheme that this game has is quite odd, as the D-Pad controls the camera (which is pretty awkward), and the face buttons are used for the gadgets, but in order to use them, you use the right analogue stick.

With some of the gadgets, I think this is fine, but with others, it can get quite awkward, especially in some of the game's platforming challenges, where you need to use the Sky Flyer for that extra 3rd jump, and I guess you didn't rotate the stick enough.
Those sections can get a bit annoying, but eventually, you'll get used to it.

The PSP version was actually the first version of this game I played, a couple years back, but it was nice getting to experience the PS1 original.
And this time, I tried out the American version, which contains a different English dub than the European one.

Ape Escape might be one of the few games out there that has both an American English dub and a British English dub, depending on the version you're playing.
The American English dub kinda sucks, gotta be honest. It feels very stilted, and the actors barely give emotion behind it. I wonder how they were directed.

Also, in terms of presentation, the music is really fucking good! Not every track is a winner, but there are a lot that are, and the D'n' B-like songs really are a bop. And its art-style makes this game age really well in the graphics department.

Either way, one of the things that I like the most about this game are the monkeys! Capturing them is the main objective of the game, and you'll find them throughout the stages, but either they can be in a position ready to attack you... or they're relaxing and doing some activity, like playing snooker, and I find that very charming!

For a first game in the series, I think it was good, and I had fun with it!

O melhor: A jogabilidade original e a ótima trilha sonora
O pior: Controlar a câmera é sofrível em alguns momentos
O melhor/pior: A dublagem americana é bisonha, mas é do tipo que dá a volta e acaba ficando engraçada

Dos vários jogos de plataforma 3D da quinta geração de consoles, Ape Escape era um dos poucos que nunca havia jogado. É muito interessante ver essa abordagem nos controles antes da padronização de como utilizar dois analógicos que temos atualmente. Cada gadget é bem simples de usar e, tirando o incômodo de ter que acessar o menu para trocar algum dos quatro que podem ficar nos botões de atalho, é muito divertido usar cada um deles para explorar as fases, muitas delas surpreendentemente grandes para um jogo de PS1.

O visual é muito charmoso, apesar de limitações técnicas como o campo de visão mais limitado. E a trilha sonora é, em sua maior parte, excelente. Os pontos negativos ficam para o controle de câmera, naturalmente limitado ao digital devido a jogabilidade única do jogo, mas que pode ser bem problemático em lugares que exigem mais precisão na plataforma. E também para a dublagem americana, que é bem, bem ruim.

No geral gostei muito de Ape Escape, especialmente porque é muito bom revisitar as fases com todos os gadgets disponíveis em busca do 100%. Mais um clássico do PS1 do saudoso Japan Studio para riscar da lista. E também pretendo jogar as sequências de PS2.

Ape Escape is a classic early 3D title that favors experimentation over refinement. It's two main goals are to demonstrate novel uses of the dualshock's analog sticks and to be a collectathon where the collectibles themselves offer a unique challenge. While Ape Escape partially succeeds in these goals, it's only at a surface level. Despite being a first party title, Ape Escape makes a good argument for why all expansive 3D platformers of the 5th generation that were on the PSX would've benefitted from being made for the N64 instead. This might be one of the best games of the 5th gen I've played that suffers horrendously from such a small draw distance. Actually scanning the environment for apes is largely a fool's errand when you can't see 20 feet in front of you. The aggressive texture warping doesn't help either and makes the game a bit of an eyesore to play at times. Outside of Spyro, I don't think any PSX platformers I've played have managed to avoid the common stumbling points of the system's limitations.

The game's reliance on the dualshocks' analog sticks is probably the best counterargument to the game being a better fit for Nintendo's console, but I don't think the game makes a good enough case for its unique control layout. Being a collectathon, you're expected to freely move in all directions and search for secrets. Placing camera controls on the D-pad makes the process of simply keeping the camera looking forward more of a hassle than it has any right to be but that's not really a deal breaker for me. Bad cameras and 3D platformers go hand-in-hand, after all. My real issue is how the right stick is used for your assortment of gadgets, but very few of these would lose much if they were instead mapped to a simple button press. What does rotating the stick to use the hula-hoop accomplish? What's the point of flicking the stick to use the Ultra Hand? If performing these actions is supposed to further immerse you into the game's world, then I think all the times your gadgets fail to register your inputs should balance things out and make the effort moot. The only exceptions are the Monkey Radar and the RC car. Both of these allow the player to move and use the device simultaneously, which is of little use for the radar but admittedly is necessary for a few puzzles with the RC car. You could still map these gadgets to a single button and lock the player's movement during their use and the experience wouldn't change THAT drastically. While initially charming, this is a rare case where I can't really justify the unorthodox use of the right stick.

"But what about those funny apes?" These little gremlins are what would happen if you gave the power stars in Super Mario 64 legs, and maybe an uzi for good measure. Actually collecting an ape is a tad more involved than grabbing a standard collectable since they'll flee you on sight. It's up to you to decide whether you want to sneak up and get the drop on them or just chase them down like a rabid dog. The most interesting apes are the ones hidden behind unique fortifications. Sometimes this'll be a cage you need to find a way to open, while other times an ape might be riding the back of an animal and you'll have to knock them off. Without going back to count, I'd wager there's around 20 or so apes hidden in one-of-a-kind manners. With 204 monkeys to capture, these outliers add some nice variety but aren't enough to stop the act of catching monkeys feel a bit rote after a few worlds. Too many monkeys are placed on small platforms with nowhere to run, making the whole act of having to chase after your collectibles feel arbitrary. I'll give credit to the game for giving each monkey a name and a small one sentence description. They tend to be pretty generic but occasionally you'll find a funny fact, like how one is afraid of the ocean, despite being in the water-themed world. These extra details, along with the impeccable soundtrack and colorful environments, help give the game some extra character which does go a long way in a subgenre that tends to focus so heavily on this front. I only wish the game leaned harder into the sneaking and chasing aspects and made more of the monkeys stand out instead of so many of them feeling like a formality. Still, I had a fun time and would recommend Ape Escape if you're looking for more early 3D platforming fun.

Side Tangent: The hardest thing in this game for me was the collapsing bridge in the hot springs level. You need to run at that bridge perfectly straight on or you ain't making it.

Impressively sleek game design for a 3D platformer of this era -- chock full of gimmicks, but able to back them up at every turn.

Seriously, if you told me that you have to twirl the right analog stick to hover jump in this game, I'd have laughed at you... but it works. It works well. Everything in Ape Escape feels deeply thought-about, playtested, crafted just-so. (In another world where anyone cared about cutsey 3D platformers, I would love to see an Insomniac take on this).

The difficulty curve is almost the most impressive thing. It was essentially a rule back in the Playstation era that your game had to have some absolutely ridiculous, frustrating spike near the end, something that you'd have to look up a GameFAQ guide for, or get a friend with mysteriously-way-better skills to help you complete; but Ape Escape walks the tightrope between that and so-easy-it's-sleepy. Every ape capture feels just hard enough to provide a little jolt of satisfaction, but not so hard you want to throw your controller, and the later levels are masterful in their scattering of brisk, bite-sized challenges.

The controls here are from an alternate dimension: R1/R2 to jump? Right analog stick for all actions, and face buttons only to... select different gadgets? And it feels... fucking great?

Nothing could be more indicative of how in-a-rut we are with current AAA games, how beholden we are to a specific set of withered conventions and muddy aesthetics, than playing this game for a while. It's a cliche, but it's true (and it's all the more impressive considering I never played this when I was younger!): it made me feel like a kid again.

I’ve always loved games like Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie, that let you loose in cool 3d spaces to find some MacGuffin. I was never quite sure what a star or jiggy was or what it had to do with saving the day, but reducing the goal of gameplay to “find the things!” beautifully centered the game on the joy of exploration and traversal. It also - in a quiet, casual, effortless way - was as nonlinear as anything that would later be billed as Open World.

Ape Escape might be the best of these.

The genius of Ape Escape is that it asks, "What if the MacGuffins were the story?" The narrative, for the purpose of gameplay, is beautifully simple ("The apes have escaped. Catch them.”). The monkeys can be anywhere, in any kind of zany environment and requiring any kind of shenanigans to catch. But unlike Mario's stars and Banjo’s jiggies, catching a monkey in Ape Escape always feels like it matters. The monkeys overflow with personality and fight back. They are rebels, reckoning with their newfound sentience, and creating havoc in the process. Placing a net over each one has profound consequences for both the ape and the story. While you are "saving the world", you are by no means clearly the "good guy", but simply playing a role in a larger drama. This perfect synthesis of narrative and player action culminates beautifully in the final battle after catching all 205 monkeys: reducing Specter to helplessness, and finally putting a net over that little bastard. I cannot express how satisfying this was. It was also oddly poignant, especially when preceded by the revelation that Specter missed his trainer, painting a portrait of a tragic hero who, in his last moments, questioned whether he even wanted the freedom he so desperately sought.

And, of course, all this is to barely touch on the gameplay, which is as fun as anything I have ever played. (Spin the right stick to helicopter, or use it to independently remote control a car!) And the inspired locales and art design. (Seeing a mammoth walk out of the fog in the ice age level was one of many moments that took my breath away. And those skyboxes and weather effects!). Ape Escape is peak PS1 hotness, forging into the unknown territory of dual analog 3d gaming with artistry and verve. The series would produce more classics - Ape Escape 3 is also a masterpiece, and Million Monkeys a hidden gem - but Ape Escape 1 remains a unique and thrilling encapsulation of the most exciting era in video games.

The All time great. A marvel created at the Apex of the platformer popularity, utilizing the all important collection-goal oriented design and presenting them as iconic mascots with their own personality.
A killer soundtrack with killer sound design that still echoes in my head to this day.
The pioneer of the analog stick. You may complain about the strange control scheme from the time but without it's success the control schemes of today may still be using triggers to move the camera.
This game is perfect and you can't tell me otherwise

Pretty wonderful until the home stretch of future stuff becomes fatiguing and highlights the PS1's particular 3D clunkiness (the roller coaster section specifically feels unplayable with this game's zero draw distance), I'd be lying if I said I wasn't just waiting for it to be over at a certain point. And the NA version's voice acting is some of the worst you'll ever hear. That being said, this is still a fun and extremely inventive gameplay loop - with controls that feel sophisticated for their time (maybe aside from the heavy, delayed R1 jump that never really feels good to use), vibey music, and poppy level design. One series that actually needs a remaster/remake - a modern version of this would rip.

This is going to be kind of more of a personal anecdote than just talking about Ape Escape. Ape Escape isn't a game I have childhood nostalgia for, I never had a PS1 growing up and was always more of a Nintendo (and for a while Xbox 360) kid. I played it once quite a few years ago and I can't exactly recall when, but I know that I was playing it while sitting in a call with friends, some that I still know today and some that I don't really know where they went off to afterwards. Maybe it was when we were still on Skype too before Discord? I'm not fully sure. I know that at the time I had thought it was cute and fun but I also hadn't really paid it too much mind and again stopped at some point without finishing it. Years passed since then, and I hadn't really thought about the games besides the Discord server with my closest friends having a goofy little GIF from one of the games set for our server icon. I've been dealing with my own life issues after graduating from my community college several months ago with games and my friends having been both an escape and way to pass time as I wait anxiously for hopeful good news on things like jobs, but a problem I've slowly grown to notice has been my utter lack of patience with things in general.

I used to think about it jokingly with friends but as of late I feel like it's began to directly affect things I enjoy including media and entertainment. A lack of patience with little annoyances in games that grow exponentially more than they really needed to that I would reflect back on later and think "I didn't need to be that harsh towards that", or the growing frustrations I've had from my own addictions to social media. I don't like saying that modern gaming sucks because I genuinely don't believe that and think it's an absurd overexaggeration; there's massive issues with this industry, but the same can be said for other media like film and TV. There's more of it than ever before alongside a wider audience that's also more vocal than ever before thanks to how prevalent and almost unavoidable social media has become. That constant attention to social media, the need to endlessly scroll through posts and comments no matter how incessantly obnoxious and stupid it can get, the constant feed of news that angers and annoys in the personal hobbies I follow and care about. I personally do and should know better than to be opening up Twitter on my phone and end up scrolling that "For You" tab because it continues feeding that cynical cycle of frustration, but I continue to do it anyways out of habit and it finally came up to a breaking point recently. Making myself read posts from people I don't know and don't like talking with their head up their ass about things like tech or, with this industry, how game development supposedly works or how one platform is so much worse than the other and how dare you for enjoying something from name brand here. How dare I be excited for something that I want to play because it came from so-and-so and because it's so chock full of bad thing this and bad thing that. There was a realization I had that I had this feeling, this need to defend the opinions I had, that I somehow had to justify why I felt the way I did on media I played or watched, like I needed to convince others of my own feelings towards something.

The cynicism of social media and more especially within the video game community made that feel like justifying myself was something I had to do even if it was towards my own friends, towards my boyfriend when I absolutely did not need to. And while it's an incredibly silly feeling to be writing such a long wall of text about all this (and especially when at the time of writing, it's plainly obvious I'm mad about how much pure vitriol Twitter loves to push to me about Starfield, a game that I'm excited for because I just vibe with everything I've seen of it and just want to play for myself regardless of what I hear about it), there was a point where I needed to just make myself stop looking at those feeds. I tried to make myself stop opening Twitter or Reddit that much late at night and if I was going to stay awake that late, I should just go play a game that I could take the time for and just try to enjoy, feel the vibe of, let the little frustrations relax themselves and just spend time playing and appreciating.

Ape Escape came to mind first. It might have just been because I saw somewhere that it was relatively short, it might have been remembering that it was kind of fun for a platformer, maybe I had a curiosity for playing PS1 stuff again and I wanted to just play something from that console on an emulator trying to make it as faithful to the original experience; good old 240p and none of the enhancements DuckStation allowed for. It was probably all of those things but regardless of the reasons, what I hadn't expected was just how much this time around, all this time later and purely on a whim needing a break from everything, Ape Escape was the game that I think I needed most right this moment.

Ape Escape isn't just a game that is "full of charm", it's utterly bursting at the seams with such a love and care for pure joyful experimentation down to a player input level. The colors have such intense vibrancy to them, with not just every world theme being uniquely distinct but even down to a per-level basis that exudes playfulness in these time periods that you travel between. These places never feel generic thanks to not just distinctions like one level in the first world being in a rainy swamp with lots of water navigation to the next having you climb up to a volcano area where you try figuring out how you're going to capture a monkey that's riding a dinosaur, but also a soundtrack that absolutely pops the fuck off. I have no idea how it came to be that they picked the composer they did for this game, and I have no idea how it led to a 3D platformer that's full of high upbeat electronic music with a slamming drum and bass but it works to such a genius degree. The handful of levels that catch you off guard too like the one where see this big beast that's just, chilling out inside a wall on the beach; there's no music, just ambience as you walk around exploring a bit, realizing that oh the next area is inside it, and once you're in the music just suddenly kicks in and blasts off with this high intensity strangely electric sounding tune that I just can't get enough of oh my god

But what made my time with Ape Escape so joyful and wonderful was how much passion you could feel emanating from the developers in the final product just playing it. Every single creative choice here was clearly made because the developers thought it would be fun and unique, something that you wouldn't have seen in another game like it at the time even within the 3D platforming genre. A lot of it stems from the forced requirement of the DualShock controller which at the time, most developers didn't really know what to do with and Sony themselves needed something that would sell the accessory. Before the standard for making that second stick work the camera was made years later, Japan Studio's solution was to go absolutely hog wild and see what weird ideas for tools and mechanics could involve using the sticks for and it's such a creative approach to game design that not only have I not really seen even in today's games, but one that has still aged shockingly spectacularly well. Every single tool in your arsenal on the hunt for catching monkeys makes you use the right stick to use them, but it never feels gimmicky or unintuitive because every tool just makes sense to do so. Your saber for hitting enemies and stunning monkeys can be swung in any direction, but twirling the stick makes you spin around too which has its own uses for stuff like switches in the environment or keeping yourself safe from multiple enemies. Being able to swing the net in any direction regardless of if you're standing, running or crawling, and importantly regardless of the direction you're facing doing any of those makes capturing monkeys feel snappy and precise; I never felt like I was fumbling with my movement in difficult areas to catch something in the heat of the moment, and mistakes that were made were purely my own fault. The ideas for other gadgets are just as strange and creative, but they never feel out of place in the full arsenal like an RC car that of course you control with the right stick that works wonderfully for puzzles and hazards that make you multitask, or a hula hoop that you spin around to go faster and hit enemies with, or the slingshot that makes you pull back on the right stick to ready and fire. These tools don't just fit the playful tone that the game aims for across the board, it importantly makes them feel natural to use at all the right times rather than gimmicks.

And even then, the times the game does want to have gimmicky stuff that plays with the controls, they never really annoyed me in any sense and I still found joy in the times the game wanted to use them because they further express that creativity and experimentation. Sure, the rowboat is janky as hell and is next to impossible to steer straight forward consistently, but it's never punishing to actually use and it's still entertaining in its own way! Did the tank need to use both sticks to move and turn? Not really, but it felt silly and somehow satisfying to eventually get the hang of using the thing and especially that one time the game made me try to drive it along a narrow track which felt great to make it to the end of. This playfulness even extends to the three optional minigames you unlock for just exploring and collecting the big tokens you sometimes come across, all of which experiment with the controls in fun ways that match up with the rest of the game. Hell, there's still more insane attention to detail and fun like every monkey in the game being named and having silly little descriptions that would regularly get a laugh out of me along with stats if you spend the time to check the radar on all of them. The developers didn't need to put these little extras in or needed to go this hard with a game that was meant to just "show off what the DualShock was capable of", but the passion to do something special and creative oozes out of every part of Ape Escape in a way that I can't help but utterly admire.

It didn't really matter those brief couple of seconds now and then when something didn't go the way I expected or a platforming mishap because of the sometimes janky depth perception given by a sometimes nutty camera and wobbly polygons the PS1 was known for, or maybe that last level that goes on for just a wee bit too long for my liking. Even during those moments, the sheer joy Ape Escape has was a vibe that I could just continue to jive with in a way that made me respect it so much more. It was enough so that even after the credits had rolled, I still kept playing because I wanted to catch every monkey on the second go-around for that extra secret final boss. Even if I don't really want to bother with 100% completion (because that involves doing the time trials which, yeah no thanks lmao), I'm more than okay with that. It seems silly sitting here now heaping so much praise onto a goofy little 3D platformer collect-a-thon where you run around capturing monkeys with silly outfits and sometimes silly weapons, but it was the right game I needed at the right time. It's the game I needed to just sit back and take a break from things, and play something that dances to the sound of its own tune hoping that you dance alongside it. I'm glad I did all these years later.

I remember when I was a kid, I came home to my dad having bought me a game that he thought I would enjoy. Apparently, the person who he talked to at the store told him that this would be a good game for me. I have to admit that as a dumb kid, I was more than a little hesitant to play a game being recommended by my dad. I mean, he’s a dad! Who didn’t even grow up playing any video games! What could he (or any other adult) possibly know about what good video game is? I put the game aside, until eventually with all options spent, I just decided to give it a shot.

Ape Escape, a platformer on the PlayStation developed by Japan Studio and released in North America on June 22, 1999.

To this day, I am so grateful to both that store employee and my dad for putting that game in front of me. Ape Escape has ended up becoming one of my all-time favorite games of my entire life. An unexpected gem of a game. Ape Escape established a standard early on in my life for how video games should be.

Ape Escape, beyond being a nostalgically cherished game from my childhood, stands out as a monumental title for its gameplay, engaging audio-visual presentation, and offering an experience that endures to this day; redefining a standard for video games.

The gameplay mechanics are unique in that Ape Escape is one of the earliest titles on the PlayStation to make full use of both joysticks (specifically requiring a DualShock controller be plugged in before allowing you to play). The controls feel very natural and each button on the DualShock controller is given a purpose.

There are awkward moments: particularly in vehicles like boats and tanks, but nothing torturous once you get the hang of it. Objectives are simple: catch the required number of monkeys to move on to the next stage. Rinse repeat. You accomplish this through the use of various “gadgets” that the game provides to you as you progress throughout the game.

You start with two basic gadgets: a net to capture the monkeys and a club to stun them with. Later your gadgets become more sophisticated, helping you adapt to new challenges and opening up more areas of the levels to explore. You access levels using The Time Station hub where you can not only select stages, but also play mini-games, redo gadget training, or save/load your game. You can even browse a fun monkey book about all the little apes you catch on your journey!

The story of Ape Escape goes like this: you (Spike) and your friend (Jake) go and pay The Professor, who studies apes at the local amusement park, a visit one morning and on arrival you’re confronted with helmet wearing ape’s who have tied up The Professor and his assistant. The apes are being led by one particularly intelligent and cunning ape, named Specter, and manage to hijack The Professor’s time machine. They use it to send themselves, as well as you and your friend Jake, back in time to rewrite the course of history.

You as the main character must now help The Professor locate and capture all the apes (including Specter) to prevent Specter’s world domination plans.

There isn’t much in the way of character development. Characters remain largely the same throughout the game and don’t have any real arcs except for Jake, who gets brainwashed by Specter into being a mindless slave. You do eventually learn what Specter’s problem with humanity is, but it doesn’t really reveal itself until you 100% the game.

The plot takes itself seriously (perhaps a little too seriously) and I think it does a good job of imposing the seriousness of the situation onto you. A kid friendly version of trying to prevent a Planet of the Apes situation by goofy looking, silly-billy monkeys. A pressing matter for sure, but there’s still plenty of room for humor and slapstick antics.

The time travel aspect of the plot is also a nice concept! Going through different time periods provides the game with unique settings and keeps things from getting boring.

The graphics are amazing especially when you consider the time period the game was developed in. Stages are very colorful and bright, others are darker, and all reflect the historical periods and settings that they take place in. Nothing about the game looks like they cut corners when it came to visual quality.

The audio design is also solid. The monkeys yelp when they notice you, you can hear the whirring of machinery, each gadget has its own distinct audio profile, and enemies react to you in similarly unique ways.

The music! Oh my god the MUSIC! Soichi Terada brings his absolute fucking A-game here, his magnum opus, to Ape Escape. I didn’t know it was possible for me to imagine what the appropriate type of music would go along with being inside a T-Rex’s body, but Terada is the best to ever do it. Every song fits perfectly within the stage it’s supposed to represent. Every track is banger. Terada brings a now emblematic, drum and bass style to the game and it works spectacularly.

Ape Escape is just a very pretty and audibly impressive game. I have no doubt that you’ll find something about this game’s visual and audio feel that will charm you. There’s a lot to see and do here.

The game won’t take you weeks to finish, especially on a casual run. I’d say 9-10 hours max if you’re really taking your time. Maybe a little more if you’re going for 100% completion, which is where the replayability of the game is going to factor in. The two main driving forces of which are collecting all the monkeys (204 in total) and collecting all of the Specter Coins hidden within each level that unlock mini-games in the Time Station hub area.

Ape Escape scratches that monkey-brained (no pun intended) part of me that just yearns to collect and sort. I can’t help but be drawn to wanting to capture every single monkey in the game no matter how many times I play through it! It’s a certain type of collect-a-thon game that you just don’t see much anymore. Which is a shame! Ape Escape really shines in this aspect and is where most of the fun comes from. You’ll find yourself coming back to Ape Escape even after finishing and seeing everything it has to offer.

One shortcoming is due to the PS1’s limitations the game can experience some slowdown and sluggishness at times from simply too many things happening at once. Nothing about it is grating or unplayable, but it is something to keep in mind. There’s jank here, but manageable jank.

Some gadgets and vehicles take a bit of getting used to at first. It’s hard for me to put into words exactly what I mean by that. I’m reminded of a phrase my parents used to say: "Todo tiene su chiste" a Spanish phrase that translates to "Everything has its trick". You just have to feel it out and eventually it will just click in your head how they work and function. Almost like you’re developing Ape Escape motor skills.

The best comparison that I have for Ape Escape with other games would have to come from Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon; two other PlayStation collect-a-thon platformers from the same era.

Where Ape Escape stands out from both of those is the full use of the DualShock’s capabilities, but also from the gadgets themselves which give the player more to do like puzzle solving or navigating levels. You have to put a bit more thought into the game than you normally would for Crash and Spyro.

I had a lot of fun playing Ape Escape from start to finish and if memory serves me correctly it was the first game I ever truly felt the urge to 100%. What stood out in particular to me was how much character the Ape’s had. Their personalities distinguished by the color of their pants was already a genius concept by itself, but giving them each a small bio via the Monkey Radar gadget added that little bit of charm and cuteness that gives Ape Escape its fun personality.

And that’s ultimately what Ape Escape is in its rawest, purest form; just plain fun and that’s what video games are supposed to be. Ape Escape isn’t just a good game, it’s a great game. Ape Escape holds a special place in my heart. When I die, bury me with a copy so that when I get to the afterlife I can enjoy it for eternity.

Ape Escape is an example of a game that combines good gameplay mechanics, and a remarkable audio-visual experience. Its use of the DualShock controller was engaging and demonstrated its capabilities.

The story, while simplistic, is engaging and well-executed. The graphics and audio, particularly the music by Soichi Terada, are exceptional for its era, and enhance the experience.

Furthermore, the game's replayability and content, highlighted by the collect-a-thon nature and charming details, make it a game that continues to draw me back again and again. Despite some technical hiccups and a learning curve with certain gadgets, Ape Escape is a game that you cannot miss. A game that transcends nostalgia to stand as an example of how fun video games can be when they’re done right.

Whether you're revisiting it or experiencing it for the first time, Ape Escape is a game that promises and delivers so much. A must-play beyond any shadow of a doubt.

Such a fun game. The premise is really silly - a bunch of apes mind-controlled by a super-intelligent ape are sent to different time periods and you've gotta travel back in time to capture the escaped apes. I love it. This game is so colorful, lively and fun in every aspect, the apes are very entertaining little fellows and capturing them is infinitely satisfying.

One thing that's really interesting about this game is the control scheme. It's one of the first, if not THE first, games to require the DualShock and the devs were really excited about that. It's really weird to think that the dual analog sticks that we are so used to by now used to be a revolutionary, exciting feature. They are used to the fullest extent here, not for controlling the camera, but instead for controlling the various gadgets and vehicles you come across. Some real original stuff here.

The game really didn't age too bad. The camera is not even half as bad as I would expect from a 90's 3D platformer, I never really found it to get in the way of my enjoyment and the control scheme, while unusual, is easy to get used to.

I'd recommend giving this one a try.

Крайне оригинальный платформер, который использует возможности дуалшока по полной программе.
Местами игра довольно душноватая (будь то из-за неудобной камеры или дизайна в целом), но большую часть игры было весело.
Музыка просто супер. По моему здесь нет ни одного саундтрека, который был бы плохим. Геймплей - пушка. Ловить обезьян при помощи гаджетов одно удовольствие, хоть и попадаются сомнительные моменты. Графика красочная и работает на атмосферу каждого уровня. Попалась бы игра в детстве, то возможно могла быть одной из любимых.

Из реальных минусов отмечу до смешного дебильную озвучку на английском. Ее хоть на мемы режь.

Playing the game for the first time in 2024 is an interesting experience. The biggest barrier to entry is the control scheme, it's experimental and does not quite feel natural with the way that things have evolved. However, you can adjust to it quickly and the skill barrier is low enough at the start that it's not really a problem in the early game. I hesitate to call it good, but it's so different that it's unfair to criticize it just because 3D gaming has gone in a wildly different direction.

Some of the tools are a bit difficult to use, but the game has generous amounts of apes in each level and does not make you catch all of them to progress, so you can tailor your experience pretty well. I think it is fun to hunt down these apes, and I really wish there were more games with this kind of objective. It's wild that a game that is so immediately fun and interesting doesn't really have imitators.

I am not the type to want to collect everything, but the joy of seeing the apes doing funny, unique things really pushed me along to want to see "just one more level". After about 90 minutes I definitely got my fill on this game and am happy to put it down for a bit. Now that I have a feel for it, I'm sure I'll be able to jump back in any time.