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Ape Escape still holds up.

I played Ape Escape back when the hype for PSASBR was there. I beat it and still remember thinking the game was about to end for the game to throw a twist at me and boom, another level. Which isn't a bad thing since the longer the game the better. All I know is that I had to retry on every duel against the rival, I would always mess up somehow. Most of the time I messed up because of the controls of the underwater jet gadget.

Fun game and a pretty good platformer. Just wish the game didn't use the right stick so much.
 
Ape Escape 3 is my favorite even though it's the easiest of the series. Movie references galore!

With that said, I really, reeeeeally hate the redesign, especially the one they used in PSA.
 
Was this the game that Dual Shock launched with? I remember all the items used the right stick in some kind of gimmicky way, I loved it.

Yep. It was weird getting used to all the attacks being mapped to an analog stick, but once you did it felt really natural.

Game was a blast. I've beaten it about 3 times.
 
Man, it kills me that there isn't another full-fledged Ape Escape game. I got the first one on JP PSN and I agree, it is still really fun to play.

An Ape Escape on Vita would be such a perfect fit (especially after Sanzaru did such a good job with Sly 4)
 
Why has Sony not done PSV/PS3 HD Collection of the PS2 games yet? Throw in the JP-only ones, and release Big Mission as a PSN game.
 
And still my favorite game in the series. Monkey catching never got old. I loved the clever use of the duel analog controls. I also had a lot of fun reading the bios of the captured monkeys. Fun times.

Please release on US PSN Sony
 
Why has Sony not done PSV/PS3 HD Collection of the PS2 games yet? Throw in the JP-only ones, and release Big Mission as a PSN game.

I thought Million Monkeys was the best "spin off".

The camera control was horrid for the series though.
 
I would be fine with an Ape Escape 4 Vita exclusive.

Ape Escape 1 was a perfect game outside of its camera.

I can say with some certainty that AE1's OST shaped my taste in music progression.
 
Where is my Ape Escape 4? Hell, where is my Ape Escape HD Collection. It's the only Sony IP that has more than 2 titles that hasn't gotten one.

Now I just made myself sad....
 
This game was to me what many people consider Mario64 to be, their first great 3D game. I play this pretty much every year. If all you have is a PSP/Vita I recommend the remake Ape Escape On the Loose.
 
I loved that each ape had a different personality

This was such a cool little detail....the all had a name and a bio, and their actions reflected that...

Love the Ape Escape series, was not a fan of 3 though...well I liked it, just not the main characters and clinical art design.
 
Where is my Ape Escape 4? Hell, where is my Ape Escape HD Collection. It's the only Sony IP that has more than 2 titles that hasn't gotten one.

Now I just made myself sad....

Err: Jumping Flash, Gran Turismo, Hot Shots Golf, Medievil, Syphon Filter, Patapon, LocoRoco, Wild ARMs, Ark the Lad, Popolocrois, Parappa the Rapper, etc.
 
Err: Jumping Flash, Gran Turismo, Hot Shots Golf, Medievil, Syphon Filter, Patapon, LocoRoco, Wild ARMs, Ark the Lad, Popolocrois, Parappa the Rapper, etc.

There were more than two titles (not including remakes)...also there are no HD collections for PS1 games
 
Err: Jumping Flash, Gran Turismo, Hot Shots Golf, Medievil, Syphon Filter, Patapon, LocoRoco, Wild ARMs, Ark the Lad, Popolocrois, Parappa the Rapper, etc.
Yeah, there's those. But I always put AE in the same league as Jak and Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, and Sly Cooper. In terms of popularity at least.

Speaking of which, if love a Wild Arms HD collection.
 
There was an Ape Escape kart racer? :O

It's a real shame that Sony treated the AE sequels budget releases in the west. Ape Escape 2 wasn't even published by Sony in the west. After the first, they never gave the series the same attention as SCEA's platformers (Jak, Ratchet, and Sly). The MGS3 tie-in in Ape Escape 3 had so much marketing potential.
 
This was such a cool little detail....the all had a name and a bio, and their actions reflected that...

Love the Ape Escape series, was not a fan of 3 though...well I liked it, just not the main characters and clinical art design.

They could have a trophy in Ape Escape 4 called "Know Thy Enemy" for scanning X amount of apes and seeing their personality.
 
I haven't played any of these games, but today I was looking around YouTube and I found a random video review. The controls sound pretty awkward. The shoulder buttons are jump?
 
But we did. Our standards improve. It's not a matter of the technology getting better, but the design. A lot of games from back in the era might have been amazing fun at the time because they did something you'd never seen before or perhaps it was one of the few games you had so you played it obsessively or maybe you were just so young everything was fun to you.

It happens with all things - games, movies, music and literature.

Sometimes I revisit old games I adored as a kid only to find out they are terrible by my more refined standards. Othertimes, I find they only improve with age.
you are confusing a few issues here. not everyone was a child when ape escape came out.

and games are a young media compared to music, film, and literature. you can't really compare them.

yeah some games may not have aged as well due to technological advancements, but a good game is a good game. same with other types of media.
 
Yeah, there's those. But I always put AE in the same league as Jak and Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, and Sly Cooper. In terms of popularity at least.

Speaking of which, if love a Wild Arms HD collection.

SCEE and SCEA not localizing every entry should've been your warning bell.
 
I love the first three Ape Escape games. As much as I love Sony's other platformers, the AE games always felt the most original in gameplay.
 
SCEE and SCEA not localizing every entry should've been your warning bell.
Ehh. The only reason some of those Ape Escape games didn't get localized is because most of them were side stories or mini game compilation. Plus the fact that Million Monkeys was released at the end of the PS2's life cycle and we had just gotten 3.
 
The first one was a greatest hit.

And the first Arc the Lad sold a million copies just in Japan, a feat no Sony published title has achieved in the past 10 years. Unfortunately, SCE has a hard time building brands. Ape Escape would've been a good example of that, except for all the janky spinoffs.
 
That was a series that the idea sounded good to me but the gameplay looked really bland and boring. I think I played a demo of one of the games but that was it.
 
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Yes, fucking incredible music.

AE1 is still my favorite. The right amount of difficulty, amazing music, and some aspects of the gadget controls hold up incredibly well. The Hand-copter controls the best here out of the entire franchise.
AE2 was a bit bland for my tastes (losing Soichi Terada as the composer didn't help). and the Pokemon VAs were jarring.
AE3 is my second favorite, although it erred on being to easy with the transformations. I'd avoid using them just to get an extra layer of difficulty.

What a shame Sony JPN seemingly spammed this franchise into the ground with so many PSP and Move releases. As much as I hope for an AE4, it doesn't seem likely :(
But the 15th anniversary of the franchise is coming up, so who knows?
 
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