There's something about Ape Escape that's so charming and fresh. I'm a massive fan of the original, which makes my opinion on the sequel slightly harsh.
While the gadgets here are better than in the original, I think AE1 is a much better game. The levels, the music and the overall quality of the game is consistent throughout.
That's not to say that the above is bad in AE2, it's just that AE1 set such a high bar that I feel was quite difficult to follow.
The voice acting for Jimmy and Natalie (voiced by the same actors who portrayed Ash and Misty in the English Dub of Pokemon) give the game a very "Saturday Morning Cartoon" feel which makes it all the more nostalgic, and takes you back when games were quirky and videogame companies weren't afraid to take risks.
The Dual Analog control scheme makes a triumphant return in this game as well, and I'm an extremely big fan of how the game controls; it just makes sense. Nothing beats flicking the right stick to knock an enemy, prompting a satisfying sound effect or capturing a monkey and getting that 360 camera pan.
Some problems I had with the game is that I felt it leaned more towards a traditional platformer than 'Ape Escape' at times, and that the overall difficulty was quite low.
The game is great to plow through in a sitting or two, but I highly recommend you check out the original first!

One of the best "value for money" games you can buy. There is so much content in this game which has ridiculous amount of effort put into it, as well as a top notch dramatic story which clocks in around 30hr of playtime.
The characters are extremely memorable and likeable, and the writing strikes a perfect balance of serious and silly. The combat was decent enough (Majima is absolutely broken) but I felt like it was a little clunky at times and could be improved on. My only other gripe is that while the story is top notch, there are times where the characters yap way too much for me.
As my introduction to the Yakuza series, I'm excited to see how the rest of the series unfolds.

I wanted to absolutely love this game, but I couldn't.
While the game looks absolutely amazing, the world, atmosphere and music are on point, I had a lot of problems with the overall gameplay loop.

Full disclosure, I played this on Normal difficulty and I wish I hadn't. My biggest issue was that I felt the main enemies were absolute bullet-sponges. Fights would become less of a skill requirement and more of an exercise in patience. I only died around 5 times in total in the game (3 of those being the penultimate boss which also suffered from this ridiculous issue), so difficulty wasn't a massive problem for me.
The transition from 2D to 3D Metroid was done pretty well for the most part, although I felt like the game needed to hold my hand a little more, personally. I felt completely lost most of the time after picking up an upgrade, and had to have a walkthrough on standby on occasions where I'd be wandering around for ages.
I know the game does give you a hint after a while, but even then the map is a little annoying to navigate.
To conclude, I was a little disappointed with my experience with Metroid Prime, but I wouldn't be reluctant to try other entries in the 3D series, I just think the 2D games are more my cup of tea.