For one thing, it was the first game to use only the two dual shock sticks. Well the face and shoulder buttons were used, but only to switch between tools and jump and stuff. But those cavemen among you who still use the d-pad would have had to adjust and possibly stop smashing tapirs over the head with bones. And if you ever pressed X for jump (which I admittedly did once or twice or 50 times) you might have fallen down a big hole or been shot by a mad monkey wearing shades.
Aaaah, yes. The monkeys. Some of the funniest characters ever to grace a game. The apes had escaped and it was up to you to catch them again. As Spike, a spiky-haired little boy with a rather annoying voice, you made use of an ever-growing repertoire of monkey-catching gadgets, to (you guessed it) catch monkeys. The right stick was used to control the gadgets, either pointing it a particular direction or rotating it as fast as you could. The face buttons were for selecting gadgets and the shoulder buttons for jumping and checking your status and all that platforming shiznit.
But Ape Escape was no mere platformer for little kiddies. It was actually pretty hard, especially for completists who absolutely had to catch every monkey (which was very difficult – I think I came close). There were vehicles for your pleasure, all designed around the Dual Shock. A tank’s left and right tracks were controlled by the respective sticks, as were the left and right oars of a rubber dinghy. It wouldn’t work on anything other than a Playstation. It’s just designed around the pad. Some might say the PS2’s pad is rubbish because the left stick’s not in your thumbs usual resting place. Well, here’s one game that does work on the pad. So there, haters.
There’s been a sequel, and a party style game, and an eyetoy game, but obviously neither of them are as revolutionary. Well, Ape Escape’s not exactly revolutionary, but it’s one of my favourite Playstation games. And it is, of course, because of the story, which was one of the finest plots in history on any game, film or book. Some scientist bloke had made some kind of hat thing that made monkeys clever. But the monkey he tested it on was evil (naturally, because it was white and all white animals are evil)! And this monkey, Spectre, let all the other monkeys out of the zoo! And gave them all clever-hats! And gave some of them guns! And for some reason a little boy had to catch them all with a net! Riveting, I assure you.
Well, who cares about story? It’s not an RPG. It had some cool things. After collecting a certain amount of stars, or bananas, or t-shirts, or something, you unlocked some mini games: a shoot-‘em-up using one stick for moving and the other for shooting, a boxing game using a stick for each hand, and a skiing game using each stick for a ski pole. The skiing game was pretty rubbish, and comparing it to the boxing or shooting game made it seem even worse. Oh, how we laughed as the monkeys smashed each other’s heads in.
Overall, I give it Ape out of Ten. Hardehar.
