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Ape Escape

Posted by: j_john | From: October 12, 2005

Now that I'm in possession of a PSP (and without the ability to play via emulation) I figured I'd give one of the legitimate games a shot. Even though nothing has really jumped out at me (GTA: Liberty City Stories is still a couple weeks away), I picked out Ape Escape: On The Loose from the crowd because I had recently been exposed to these cute little monkeys in the strange child-friendly mini-game in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

The Ape Escape series began with the original PlayStation in 1999 as the first game to utilize the new Dual Shock, analog-equipped controller. I never gave it much of a look because at the time it seem derivative of the 3-D standard, Mario 64. 6 years later, and thanks to my intuition to trust Hideo Kojima for knowing a good series when he sees one I am quite enjoying this neat piece of platform gaming. It has a bunch of fun elements to recommend--cool gadgets, fast-paced gameplay, likable characters, and did I mention the monkeys?! They are undeniably super-cute.

Sure, there are some inevitable camera issues, and the loading times can be kind of long, but this game plays much better with the analog control on the PSP than say, Mario 64 DS with just the D-pad. Actually, my biggest complaint is the title--sure it's fun to rhyme, but you are not actually capturing apes, these are monkeys, and it even says so in the game. Maybe I've just been going to the zoo too much, but come on, it reminds me of those dumb people that say "Squish The Fish" at Miami Dolphins games. Oh well, I'm gonna stop and get back to the game--gotta catch 'em all (err, whatever!)

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