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Review:

9th March 2003:
Ape Escape 2
Come and monkey with us as we go and catch em all with Sony's amazing Ape Escape 2.
Posted by John Wasabi - PlayStation 2 - UK and Europe

The original Ape Escape was released in 1998 for the PlayStation and made quite a name for itself as the first game that required the use of a Dual Shock or equivalent controller. Ape Escape is to this day one of the most delightful and thoroughly enjoyable platformers available. A sleeper hit, dark-horse if you like and the game's quality brought about a considerable following, and many gamers wished for a sequel which is now here on the PS2.

Ape Escape 2 casts you in the role of Hikaru, the cousin of the main character from the original game, Spike. Basically, a number of hats have fallen into the hands of monkeys following an explosion at the professor's laboratory caused by Hikaru. These hats make the monkeys highly intelligent who are soon led by a mad dictator monkey with one thing on their mind, to take over Earth. It soon becomes his responsibility (yours really) to retrieve the hats by capturing the monkeys with a special monkey net before the professor returns.

Specter (mad monkey dictator), returns in the sequel, and this time he's intent on staying and taking over Earth. As you progress through the game's 20 levels you will notice that areas are set all around the world, rather than areas scattered through time, definitely a nice touch. You'll be catching a certain number of monkeys per level, collecting a number of gold coins for bonus items and fighting 5 main boss characters from Specter's gang, before finally confronting Specter himself.

Ape Escape 2 is one of the best platformers available on the PS2, the game controls just like the first title and may take a while to get use to if you have not played the original- the left analogue stick moves your character, the right analogue stick controls the swing and direction of your melee attacks, the R1 and R2 buttons allow you to jump, and the L1 and L2 buttons control the camera. The four face buttons can be assigned to various different items named Gotcha Gadgets, kind of like assigning weapons on The Legend of Zelda on the N64. These gadgets will be earned as you progress through the game and it is these gadgets that are vital in the assist of capturing monkeys or doubling back to capture a monkey that was inaccessible early on.

No other platform game provides the sheer quantity and fun with gadgets than Ape Escape 2, you'll start with 2 initially but soon old favourites like the radar dish (allows you to find the nearest monkey), the aqua net (allows you to capture monkeys under water), the dash hoop (provides short bursts of speed), and the slingshot will make the basis of your inventory. Three new Gotcha Gadgets such as the water pistol (used for dousing fire), the banana boomerang (attracts hungry monkeys) and the magnetor (used for moving large metal objects) make the list of new gadgets and with good reason; you will definitely need them as they work ingeniously with later levels if you want to progress.

The levels are fantastically designed - simple, fun to play and very rewarding. Fans will be pleased to hear that the levels are fairly larger here than in the original game. The game's 20 levels wont take that long to get through (roughly 15 hours if you've played the original, but much longer if you haven't) but the developers have gone to extra lengths in adding a fair amount of extra content that really helps to extend the game. It wont take you long to finish it, but to get the complete ending, you will have to catch all 300 monkeys and some of them are immune to the radar device, which means, plenty of backtracking after you've finished. In addition to capturing every last monkey for the special ending, you'll have the option to replay completed levels for best times, play mini-games you've unlock or purchase a wealth of Ape Escape-related content with the gold coins acquired in the levels such as concept art etc.

However, Ape Escape 2 like the original has its faults. Camera angles can hinder more than help which has on a few occasions caused me to plummet into a bottomless pit thus losing health or caused subtle frustrations as you lose sight of a monkey just as you are about to catch him, but fail miserably because your back was facing a wall and the camera decided to flip you to a new position. It may not be the best-looking PlayStation 2 game and its Japanese style of graphics will put certain gamers off, but they do make up for it with some wonderful special effects like the bullet time camera that goes into slow-mo and spins as you capture a monkey.

The main character voices have been dubbed in English with British accents for the European release, music is catchy with Japanese pop influence but despite all the good that's been said about Ape Escape 2, many gamers will pass it by which is a travesty because there really is no other game quite like this in the platform genre. Do yourself a favour, if you loved games like Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank and Sly Racoon, you can do no wrong with Ape Escape 2 as it does surpass the games I have mentioned in certain areas if not all.

John Wasabi

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Review Summary:

Do yourself a favour, if you loved games like Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank and Sly Racoon, you can do no wrong with Ape Escape 2 as it does surpass the games I have mentioned in certain areas if not all.

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Ape Escape 2
for PlayStation 2

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