The Ape Escape Thread

[Dee Dude]

I should have made this thread a while ago.

 

Ape Escape is a video game series made by Sony Computer Entertainment in which started the franchise in 1999. 

The gameplay in general of this series is that you must use your set of gadgets to capture mischievous trouble making monkeys that are loose. There are currently 3 main games set in the main story and core gameplay. I'm ignoring all the spin-off games for now.

The first Ape Escape game was developed by SCEI Japan Studio. This game was known for being the first PlayStation game to support the use of the Dual Analog Controller which features 2 analog sticks required for the gameplay. A remake for the PSP was made in 2005.

Ape Escape's gameplay was very different and unique from usual platformers, the left stick moves the character while the right stick uses whatever gadget the player is currently possessing. Rather than pressing X to jump, you must use both the R1 and R2 buttons to do it. The shape buttons are used for selecting your gadget.            

Let's move on to the story!

The whole thing started when a white circus monkey named Specter puts on a experimental Pipo helmet which increases his intelligence but unfortunately also turns him evil which causes him to free all of the monkeys at an amusement park thus causing a rampage for world domination.

Our main hero Spike along with his best friend Jake arrive to the laboratory to check out the new Time Machine created by the Professor and his granddaughter Natalie only to find them captured by Specter and the monkeys sending Spike back time. Spike is assigned by the Professor with his gadgets to capture all the monkeys, save his friends and stop Specter!

The game was a big hit and was on par with Super Mario 64.

Ape Escape 2 was made in 2001 in Japan and 2003 in Europe and America. Obviously being the sequel to the first game, nothing has changed much gameplay wise aside from a new gadgets.

A few years after the first game, the Professor goes on vacation assigning his granddaughter and Spike's cousin Jimmy to watch the laboratory and deliver a pack of pants for the monkeys at the park. Unfortunately, Jimmy accidentally also sends Pipo helmets to the park causing the monkeys to wear them and Specter becoming evil again to once again take over the world.

This is our new protagonist Jimmy who happens to the previous hero Spike's cousin. After his mistake, he must stop Specter ruling the world once more! He also has a cute lil monkey partner named Pipochi.

The game also introduces a Quirky Miniboss Squad of monkeys called the Freaky Monkey Five who are all more stronger and intelligent than the average monkey.

Last but not least...

Ape Escape 3 is the third installment in the franchise released in 2005 in Japan and 2006 in America and Europe.

The gameplay has added quite a few new features. Instead of playing as just one character, you can play as two characters and to make up for fewer gadgets. The game introduces transformations which are limited but can make fighting bosses and catching monkeys a breeze.

The story this time is that Specter has once again returned but has also hired a human scientist named Dr. Tomoki because.....sure why not? Anyway the monkeys are back but this time their plan is to broadcast their tv shows worldwide to hypnotize everyone including the Professor and the previous protagonists leaving our new heroes siblings Kei and Yumi assisted by their aunt Aki to stop Specter and Tomoki and save the world once more.

Kei (right) and Yumi (left) are a brother-sister duo who are the new main protagonists of Ape Escape 3 who were the only ones capable of stopping Specter since Spike and Jimmy were affected by the broadcasts. Yumi has a slight advantage, she is a rather popular pop star in training so some monkeys will be stunned by amazement if they see her.

Fun Fact: A Metal Gear Solid parody mini game called Mesal Gear Solid appears in the game after beating it and Snake and Colonel guest star in it.

Again, I have no interest in discussing the party and spin off games, maybe next time.

What are my thoughts on the games? Being honest I never played the 1st or 2nd game but the 3rd I used to own and I LOVED it! It was so fun and addicting, not to mention the music was great, very anime feel to it. 

So yeah, I really want Sony to revive this franchise, It was really popular in Japan but even then they didn't have any new games either. This series has lot of potential to be popular in other countries too and I would really love an Ape Escape 4 for the PS4 to see if the series can leave an impact not only in Japan but in the U.S. and countries as well to give the popularity it deserves!

So what are your thoughts?

[Agie]

I've played a good chunk of the games, and they're all fun. Even Pumped & Primed is great.

And now that I finally have a Japanese PS2 (thanks, PayPal!), I can play Million Monkeys...whenever I get it.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I should probably mention that Sony is planning to re-release Ape Escape 2 on PS4, so there's a good chance Ape Escape 3, and perhaps some of the other Ape Escape PS2 games might follow suit.

[TheOcelot]

I've actually never played any of the Ape Escape games. Just never taken an interest. My only experience comes from the MGS3 Snake vs Monkey (Ape Escape parody).

[Sean]

It's been years since I've played any of these games but I really didn't like 3.

The transformations were needless additions. They're there to make catching monkeys easier when that's really not true; in this game, monkeys have a tendency to dodge your net half the time or even steal your equipment. Being a veteran of the original Ape Escape, I decided at first to never use any of the transformations, but I realized I had to rely on them almost all the time to the difficulty with catching things with the standard time net

2 was alright, but felt much less interesting to me than the first. It introduced the Freaky Monkey Five all whom I fucking loathe. They also changed the composer, so the soundtrack's not that great. 3 brought back Soichi Terada, but the music he did for it was a lot more anime/Jpop-ish compared to 1's breakbeat/techno style it had going for it. Both soundtracks are good, but 1's was better by a wide margin.

The first game on the PS1 is a classic, and it's by and large one of my favorite all-time 3D platformers. Also Spike > the rest

[JeffCharizardFlame]

7 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

I should probably mention that Sony is planning to re-release Ape Escape 2 on PS4, so there's a good chance Ape Escape 3, and perhaps some of the other Ape Escape PS2 games might follow suit.

Yeah, but I wish the first game would come to the US PSN or EU PSN. Being available only in Japan sucks. Although I guess you could use a Japanese PSN account since the PS3 isn't region-locked. But anyways, I also enjoy the Ape Escape series, albeit only having played the first game. It's weird, but I can't play the the American version of the game due to my tendency to favor Japanese voices in some games that were developed in Japan.  I don't know why. I hear the British dub is a good one, but emulators tend to freeze on the European version after the title screen shows up. As a side note, the name of the series in Japan is Saru! Get Chu!, pronounced Saru! Gecchu!.

[PC the Hedgehog]

I loved all 3 Ape Escapes. One of the few trilogies I've found that gets significantly better with each game. Soichi Terada did a fantastic job composing, and while the different composer for 2 was jarring, he did a pretty decent job. And the dubbing was pretty darn great to boot. Let's talk about that a little.

The original Ape Escape had some of the worst casting I've ever heard in a video game. It's like they pulled random people off the street and told them to voice the characters. Spike, Jake and Natalie all sounded like adults semi-trying to sound like kids, and the professor sounded like he smoked a few too many cigarettes. The only voice that even remotely passable was Specter, and even then, not by much. The acting itself was decent at best.

Ape Escape 2 worked with a NY voice cast and did much better in the casting department. Sure, having Veronica Taylor as Jimmy and Rachel Lillis as Natalie was obviously an attempt to bring in fans by saying "hey look, guys, Ash and Misty!", but they worked.

Ape Escape 3 went with an LA dub, which was also well-casted. Steve Blum as Monkey Yellow was a hoot and a half.

The remake of Ape Escape 1 also had an LA dub, giving us Richard "ZIIIIIM" Horvitz as Spike. The breakout performance was easily Dee Bradley Baker as Specter. Specter had a different voice in every single Ape Escape game, and Baker was far and away the best. That man can make Specter both delightfully silly and downright sinister. Probably, in my humble opinion, one of his best roles. The man was born to play an evil monkey.

Why Sony seemingly just gave up on this series, I don't know. I'd kill for an Ape Escape 4.

[MegasonicZX]

The only ape escape i've played/have is 3 (I watched my cousin play ape escape 2 once but thats about it) and I love this game, the transformations are all fun to use and each and every one of the levels is a treat to go through because they all have different themes and are all big and very explorable. Probably the only thing I didn't like about the game was the fact that it was pretty easy for the most part but then again its been a while since i've done a fresh run of the game so maybe that opinion might change.

[nintega137]

Ah now this brings back memories. I used to love this series. Still do. Who would've thought a game about catching a bunch of monkeys could have so much charm, be full of so much personality and also just be hella fun. 

[Agie]

There was one annoying thing I find about this English dubs, at least the American ones (haven't listened to the British ones, so I can't speak for them); the inability to keep a single set of voice actors.

I swear, certain characters sound almost completely different between games. Even Playstation All-Stars had this, though they get props for being able to bring back Dan freakin' Green as the Professor.

Natilie's probably the most consistent; she still had constant changes, but most of her voice actresses, to me at least, sounded at least similar enough. Most of the others don't even get that.

That said, the people they hire tended to be pretty good, and I'd love an Ape Escape 4; I was actually hoping for one on the PS3. No dice at this point, but I hope it happens on the PS4.

[JeffCharizardFlame]

7 hours ago, SurrealBrain said:

There was one annoying thing I find about this English dubs, at least the American ones (haven't listened to the British ones, so I can't speak for them); the inability to keep a single set of voice actors.

I swear, certain characters sound almost completely different between games. Even Playstation All-Stars had this, though they get props for being able to bring back Dan freakin' Green as the Professor.

Natilie's probably the most consistent; she still had constant changes, but most of her voice actresses, to me at least, sounded at least similar enough. Most of the others don't even get that.

I totally agree. I think the Japanese voice cast was consistent across every game if I recall correctly. And with the anime-esque look the first game employs, the game really benefits from the anime-style voices in the Japanese version imo.

[Dee Dude]

Just a heads up. You can talk about the party games and spin-offs if you have played them before, I just haven't which is why I don't want talk about them since I haven't played them to judge them.

I have played a demo of PlayStation Move Ape Escape before though.

It's ok I guess. The first person rail shooter genre fits pretty well for a game catching monkey in pants but platforming works much better because it's more fun in my opinion.

The story and characters are pretty lame though, I don't if this a way of rebooting the series but that better not be the case. The main character.... is hardly a character at all, he doesn't have a name, they never show his face for some reason.

He also barely talks (go figure) but even when he does "talk", it's only in text...he doesn't even have a voice actor! Seriously?

Oh yeah there's also these two sisters called Tohko & Tsukushi help him and want to see to their grandmother again or something I don't know.

The only character from the main series to appear in this game is Specter.

Yeah not digging it at all..... Don't ask why he's in a astronaut suit, it's part of the plot.

The only thing I do like about the game are the graphics and that the monkeys are a lot more expressive now.

For the record, I do want to play SaruSaru Big Mission and the Academy games. They look fun but sadly I don't own a PSP.

[PC the Hedgehog]

Pumped and Primed was a great spinoff. It was a party game that played pretty much identically to the main games, so you don't really have to even learn any new control configurations for it.

Plus, it had great new remixes by Soichi Terada and Crispin Freeman as Specter. CRISPIN FREEMAN AS SPECTER.

[Sean]

Never played P&P but this reimagining of the Coral Caves theme is the best:

 

[LunarEdge]

Pumped and Primed had a ballin' ass "remix" OST.

 

Ape Escape 3 will forever be my favorite single player AE and I really hope they re-release 2 and 3 for the ps4 sooner or later. I remember one day my friends and I were looking for more 4 player games to play and came across Pumped and Primed by chance and I instantly fell in love. We played it for a very long time and still do from time to time when we get together.

So happy this thread was made