I've spent a lot of time raving about Sony's many platformer trilogies from the PS1 and PS2. However, it's finally time to get to talking about my favorite Sony platforming trilogy... again. I've already praised the series to high heavens in my Million Monkeys post, but now, I'm going to really go deep into why I think the Ape Escape trilogy is as close to platforming perfection as you can get.
The first Ape Escape for PS1 is far and away the most influential and highly-regarded entry in the series, and for many, it's the best game in the series. While it's not my personal favorite, AE1 is incredibly close behind and stands out as one of the biggest stone-cold classics on the original Playstation.
The main premise of Ape Escape is pretty simple. Monkeys are running wild across different time periods, and you play as a kid named Spike who time travels around to catch all of the monkeys. AE1 introduces a lot of major characters within the series, and as a whole, has easily the most iconic cast out of any of these games. Accompanying Spike, we have the bumbling Professor, his snarky assistant Natalie, and his friendly AI program Casi. Meanwhile, on the villains side, there's the wonderfully hammy main antagonist Specter, and Spike's rival Jake. It's a solid cast, but AE1 in particular has some pretty comically amateur voice acting compared to every other game in the series. Don't get me wrong, it's absolutely hilarious, but it does make it hard for me to take the story or these characters all that seriously compared to the later entries. That being said, at one point, Natalie and the Professor get kidnapped by Specter leaving you alone with only Casi to guide you. And you know what, I genuinely kinda missed them. Despite the poor voice acting, the characters were endearing enough that I did actually get pretty invested in them by the end, and Casi in particular ended up becoming one of my favorite Ape Escape characters because of this part of the game.
Ape Escape was the first game to require the use of the PS1's dual-stick Dualshock controller, it's a game entirely built around twin-stick gameplay in pretty much every way. You're given a wide range of gadgets that you can use to catch all the monkeys in each area, ranging from a simple net to a slingshot to an RC car to a propeller, and they all utilize the right analog stick in some way. There's even a whole bunch of vehicles like tanks and boats that also utilize both of the joysticks. The controls are certainly a bit unconventional nowadays, you use the trigger to jump rather than any of the face-buttons, but I think it's still really intuitive once you break out of that standardized mindset of how platformer controls should be. I've seen many people say Ape Escape is the Sony game that feels the most like a Nintendo game, and I think this design philosophy is exactly why. Ape Escape took a singular idea of building a game around the Dualshock, and used that to inform every aspect of its design, and a result, we got a seriously addictive gameplay loop out of it.
The level design in all of these games are generally pretty good, offering up increasingly large areas for you to explore and hunt for monkeys in. The first game, however, really uses its time travel theme to introduce a ton of inventive environments, ranging from prehistoric fields, to mysterious ruins, to the inside of a giant fish, to the Great Wall Of China, to a castle, to a futuristic city. However, as far as levels go, I think AE1 has one notable standout, the last one. Specter's Castle is an absolute behemoth of a final stage, starting off in an amusement park where you visit a bunch of attractions to save your friends, before transitioning to you climbing up into space to fight off Specter. It's a lengthy and brutally difficult gauntlet that tests you on everything you've learned throughout the game, and it stands out as both the highlight of AE1 and one of my favorite final levels ever made. Both of the sequels would also introduce pretty large-scale final gauntlets like this, but none of them really captured the same magic for me.
Ape Escape 1 also introduces the series' tradition of having a metric ton of side content, even beyond the impressive 204 monkeys you need to catch. Each level has a bunch of hidden Specter Coins to find to unlock three surprisingly fleshed-out minigames, each taking advantage of the Dualshock in their own unique ways. I think AE1 has the best overall roster of minigames in the series too, none of them are all that weak. Add in a hefty postgame where you get one super powerful gadget called the Magic Punch you can use to get the last few monkeys, and a Time Trial option, and you get a game that just feels like a complete package all around. The presentation of Ape Escape is also incredibly polished. All the games in the trilogy look colorful and clean, utilizing charming chibi character developments and cartoonish environments to great effect. However, the Mega Man Legends-esque low-poly look of the first game allows it to hold up remarkably well, and I'd honestly say it's still my favorite game in the series in terms of purely art direction. As for the soundtrack? Well, you know where this is going. Ape Escape's soundtrack is an incredible house album by Soichi Terada, a mainstay composer within the series. It's a defining PS1 soundtrack, filled with quirky, catchy, and frenetic jungle music. There's a ton of fantastic tracks, but highlights for me have to be Time Station, Dark Ruins, Cryptic Relics, Stadium Attack, Coral Cave, Sushi Temple, Crumbling Castle, Specter's Factory, and Specter's Castle.
Ape Escape 2 is often regarded as the weakest of the trilogy and I'm inclined to agree. Being sandwiched between the far more influential first game and the far more inventive third game will do that to you. That being said, AE2 is still one of my favorite 3D platformers on the PS2 and has a hell of a lot of strong points.
Ape Escape 2 takes place directly after a spinoff called Ape Escape 2001 that released only in Japan, where you played as Spike and had to suck up all the monkey's pants so the professor could wash them (it's not as weird as it sounds, I swear!). Introducing continuity to the series, AE2 introduces Spike's cousin Jimmy who accidentally sends back the monkey helmets back with the pants, causing the apes to start running loose again. This game starts the trend of each entry in the trilogy having new protagonists, and I'd actually say Jimmy is my favorite Ape Escape protagonist. Where Spike is more spunky and has a serious attitude, Jimmy is just kind of a massive ditz, but with a big heart. The game focuses primarily on his dynamic with Natalie who returns from the first game, and their banter is an absolute joy to watch. It's especially enjoyable in the original US dub since they managed to get Veronica Taylor and Rachael Lillis to voice Jimmy and Natalie. That's right, they're literally Ash and Misty, all the way down to their personalities, interactions with each other, and the fact that you spend the game catching stray animals.
Putting aside the funny story quirks though, Ape Escape 2's gameplay is mostly just a refined version of the first game's. It doesn't add too much new to the table, but the original formula was already great and all AE2 really needed to do was clean up some of the rougher edges. The movement feels a bit more fluid, the monkey AI is more advanced and puts more effort into fighting back, the difficulty curve is quite a bit smoother, the Magic Punch-affected objects are now outlined making the postgame a lot brisker, and you get more gadgets on top of the entire roster from the first game. The level design is based on different countries this time around which isn't quite as varied as the time travel from the first game, but they're still consistently fun to explore and feel further increased scope compared to the original stages. But the biggest gameplay improvement in my opinion is the addition of dedicated boss stages where you fight the Freaky Monkey Five, a newly introduced elite team of monkeys. I'd actually say AE2 has the best boss roster in the series, most if not all the boss fights here are a ton of fun, with the highlight being the singing fight against Pink Monkey.
I praised the first game for being absolutely flooded with content, but Ape Escape 2 manages to go even further with it. As usual, there's a whopping 300 monkeys to catch, three unlockable side minigames of varying quality, a beefy postgame that has you revisiting old levels with the Magic Punch, and Time Trials. However, Ape Escape 2 also introduces a gotcha minigame that you can invest coins into to get a ton of items ranging from tips, to skins for your RC car, to monkey-themed fables, to concept art, to my personal favorite unlockable, the manga pages. In case you wanted to spend even more time with the fun cast of Ape Escape, AE2 has some incredibly charming mangas that were always a joy to unlock. But easily the best bit of side content in the game is a New Game+ where you play as Spike, having all your gadgets from the start of the game but with the monkeys being far more aggressive. None of the other games in the trilogy has something like this and it's a damn shame because AE2's New Game+ is awesome.
One of the most polarizing elements of Ape Escape 2 is definitely its soundtrack, which was done by Koji Hayama rather than Soichi Terada like all the other Ape Escape scores. On one hand, yeah, it's kind of a shame considering how much Terada's jungle style formed Ape Escape's identity as a series. On the other hand, I think people really sleep on AE2's soundtrack because it's a serious bop that I return to constantly. If Terada tried to capture the chaotic nature of Ape Escape's gameplay through frenetic drum n bass, Hayama managed to achieve the same effect, but with quirky dance pop with sampled monkey sounds. The entire soundtrack is charmingly goofy in its instrumentation, but the melodies manage to be ridiculously catchy as well, with highlights being Liberty Island, Gadget Trainer, Ninja Hideout, Vita-Z Factory, Viva Apespania, Skyscraper City, and especially Pirate Isle. Besides, any game soundtrack with a vocal track composed of Veronica Taylor singing monkey puns for three minutes is automatically a 10/10.
As good as the first game is, though, Ape Escape 3 is my favorite game in the series. While AE2 is a great refinement of the original game's formula, Ape Escape 3 expands upon the series' gameplay loop in some truly wonderful ways.
Ape Escape 3 is the first and only game in the series to give you two protagonists, Kei and Yumi. Being able to pick your character's gender is always a plus, and I like that both of these characters have their own unique personalities (that being said, Yumi is way more entertaining). However, aside from that, I actually think AE3 has the weakest story of the trilogy. It goes for a denser and wackier tone, leaning a lot harder on goofy comedy, and the new villain Dr Tomoki doesn't really do much for me. Otherwise, though, I think the presentation is still great. The visuals are probably even better than in 2, with the colors popping way more in this one, and Soichi Terada returns for yet another fantastic soundtrack. The music in AE3 is a bit more muted than the previous two games, but it keeps up that typically frantic Ape Escape energy and offers its fair share of fantastic bangers like Fantasy Knight, The Big City, Bootown, Western Village, Mount Amazing 2, Arctic Wonderland, Mirage Town, Eversummer Island, and Tomoki City 1/2. Mount Amazing 2 and the Tomoki City tracks in particular just scream the early-mid 2000s, they're such a vibe.
In terms of the gameplay though, I think Ape Escape 3 manages to be a soaring improvement over its predecessors. Ape Escape 3 introduces a new costume system which allows your character to briefly change forms and gain new abilities. There's a solid variety of costumes each with their own unique movesets, like a cowboy costume that primarily uses pistols to take out monkeys, a ninja that can run on walls, or a kung fu costume that lets you use melee combos on the apes (yes, it's very similar to Princess Peach Showtime). You can only use these costumes for a limited amount of time, so you're encouraged to go fast and get as many energy pick-ups as you can to hold onto the costume for as long as possible. It's a really fun system to use especially because of how fluidly many of these costumes control, and with the monkey AI getting even more complex and devious, these costumes give you way more options in dealing with them. It's also just charming to see all the different costumes, especially since some of them have gender differences between Kei and Yumi. For example, Kei's Cyber Ace costume is a tokusatsu hero, and Yumi's Cyber Ace costume is a magical girl.
The real highlight of Ape Escape 3, though, is the level design which easily stands out as the best in the series. AE3 is primarily themed around movies, so each level is based on a genre of film, from fairy tales, to horror, to children's media, to sci-fi, to civil war, to Asian action cinema, to noir, to superhero. One particular highlight is a level that takes place in an entire TV studio filled with a variety of different sets you can hop in and out of, AE3 really runs with its premise and it's filled to the brim with charming movie references. But even more than just the theming, these levels are massive. Some of the earliest Ape Escape 3 levels already start to rival the last few levels of the first and second games in terms of sheer scale, and they are absolutely filled to the brim with side areas, hidden nooks and crannies, and entire location shifts. Mount Amazing, for example, starts on a mountain before taking you to up to some kind of heavenly shrine. If there were any things I like better in the previous games, I prefer the Magic Punch to the Super Banana costume you get in the postgame, and the bosses were a bit better in 2, but aside from that, I feel like Ape Escape 3 is just a far more vast, substantial, and mechanically rich game than the previous two.
And once again increasing the scope from the previous games, Ape Escape 3 is one of the most content-rich videogames I've ever played. The monkey count has been upped from 300 to 476, but that's only scratching the surface. The Gotcha Box has been replaced with a full-on shopping district to explore which brings back some of 2's collectibles like concept art and RC car skins, but also introduces some new ones like nonfiction stories, trading cards, and channel guides. Sadly, there's no manga this time. Each level also has a camera that you can use to shoot a cute movie with some apes hanging around the set, and once you get all the movies, you'll unlock a full-on movie editor in the theater, which you could easily waste hours tinkering around with. There's also a Survival Mode where you have to run through each stage in one go, a fortune telling mode with a number of unique fortune types to mess around with, and the introduction of Free Play which lets you replay levels with all the apes spawned in. But easily the best side mode in not just Ape Escape 3 but the entire series is one of the minigames, Mesal Gear Solid. The other two minigames are pretty much standard fare, but Mesal Gear Solid is a 1-2 hour long Metal Gear Solid crossover game where you play as an ape, culminating in said ape meeting Snake in person. This was part of a mutual crossover, with MGS3 getting an Ape Escape-inspired side mode of its own, and it's probably still the greatest crossover in all of gaming? Like not only is it utterly hysterical in how incompatible these two series are, but the fact that we got two genuine quality side modes out of it makes it all the better.
The Ape Escape games are just fun. Everything about them feel meticulously designed so that the player can have as much fun as humanly possible. The levels are so welcoming and fun to explore, the characters are so immensely charming and likable, the music is consistently catchy, the gameplay loop is addictively simple, and each game in the trilogy has increasingly more content to dig into. But what really solidifies this trilogy as my favorite out of Sony's platforming series is that it stays consistently fantastic from start to finish. There's no slow start or slightly underwhelming finish, Ape Escape knows what it wants to be right from the first game and just keeps refining the formula from there.
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