Regular readers will probably have noticed that none of the games I’ve reviewed were released in Europe before the mid-late nineties. This is because I was one of those who’s first console was the Sony PlayStation, and even then, I didn’t get one of my own for quite some time. In fact, I believe I was among the first to get the DualShock controller as a pack in. So when a lengthy demo for a game that SOLELY used DualShock was making the rounds, a lot of people wanted to play it on my console.
When I myself bought Ape Escape, it was one of those games that just DEFINES one’s childhood, a bit like Contra or Super Mario 3 is for a lot of people.
When the PSP was released, among the launch titles was a spinoff called “Ape Academy”. That was shit. However, in the US they got “Ape Escape: On the Loose”, a remake of the PS1 original. I recently downloaded this off PSN (remember, if you haven’t been able to use PSN, it’s your own fault) and...well. Let’s just see how they compare to each other, and which holds up the best, nostalgia aside.
Premise
You travel through time, hunting hyper intelligent monkeys armed with a butterfly net and a Lightsaber. Yeah. A Lightsaber. Levels are based around platforming and capturing a certain number of each level’s monkeys in order to progress. Periodically, you receive gadgets to make this task easier (or harder). This is true for both versions. There are SOME stealth elements, but you can usually just run up to each monkey, club them with the Lightsaber and net the bugger.
Story
Ah. Now THIS is where it gets a little bit subtle.
PS1 Version
You play as Spike who, with his friend Buzz, is going to see if the unnamed German Professor has finished his time machine. When you arrive, you find that the Professor and his schoolgirl assistant Katie have been restrained by some monkeys wearing “Peak-Point Helmets”, which the Professor designed to enhance intelligence. The monkeys activate the time machine, and you and buzz get sucked up with them. Spike awakes in pre-history, and has to capture the monkeys before they change the future. It later emerges that the apes are under the command of Specter, an albino monkey who got his hands on a Peak-Point helmet when Katie and the Professor were at the zoo. He has built a much more powerful version of the Helmet, which makes him smart enough to speak, and has kidnapped Buzz, using technology he has developed to keep Buzz in his psychic thrall.
Ape Escape P
Buzz and Katie are now Jake and Natsumi, although curiously both versions have a text box referring to the character as “Natalie”, no idea why. Peak-Point helmets are now called “monkey helmets”, which begs the question as to why the Professor invented them in the first place. Now the really subtle change. The Professor warned Specter that the Peak-Point’s limits were there because increasing intelligence further could prove dangerous. In the PSP version, Specter’s Spiky helmet is said to be an unstable prototype. This could work, except the opening cutscene still shows Specter putting on a normal Monkey Helmet before becoming evil. It’s a bit of a plothole, unique to the remake.
Voice Cast
This is what really bugs me. Now, the PS1 version wasn’t exactly top tier storytelling, or indeed voice acting. But it was better.
PS1
Spike and Buzz both sound very much like they are being voiced by women, which is standard for pre-pubescent boys. They and Katie DID have at least Acceptable English accents however, if a tad wooden. The Professor’s German accent meshed pretty well with his character design. Specter, however, had one of the best hammy villain voices ever. A perfect mix of polite bond villain and total psycho. The monkey’s went “Eek!”
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| Men call me MAGNETO! |
PSP
Oh dear. The voice cast is very obviously American, though it only REALLY shows when you hear isolated phrases and grunts. Jake sounds more Australian. Natsumi also has an English accent, for as we all know, red-headed Japanese schoolgirls are a major ethnic group in the UK. The Professor is the only one who can maintain the accent consistently, and the character does suit the accent, so no complaints there. But Specter. Oh, dear sweet Christ Specter. I would say he’s a poor man’s Kefka or Dhoulmagus, but that does it no justice. The Man who’s Kefka this is is so poor they can’t AFFORD to sell their vital organs or turn tricks on the street. They’ve turned this ruthlessly intelligent, delightfully hammy villain into something that sounds like the old ladies in any given episode of South Park. I don’t care for it.
Gameplay
Well, to be fair, Ape Escape isn’t really about the story. There are some apes, and they have escaped would probably be a fair enough summation of everything I’ve said so far. So, onto what really matters.
Basically, the PSP version feels a lot easier by dint of being on the PSP. In the original, all gadgets were controlled by rotating or otherwise moving the right analog stick. In the PSP however, you just press the appropriate face button, occasionally tapping or holding depending on the item in question. Let me explain how this takes away the challenge.
Less than halfway through the game, you receive the Sky Flier, essentially, a propeller that can be spun to increase height and duration of your jumps. As a result, there’re more than a few monkeys hanging around ledges with no other means of access. Now, in the original, getting them would require selecting the Sky Flier, rotating the right stick while jumping in the right direction, continuously rotating the right stick until you’re where you want to be, pressing the face button for the net/Lightsaber (usually, you stun then catch them), and then swinging the right stick in the direction of the monkey. This IS a fairly quick process, but it does take a little bit of time. In the PSP version, you jump, start tapping a face button, then press another face button. You don’t need to recreate these conditions yourself, since the entirety of the process on the PSP is two of the steps for the PS1. Also, tapping a face button continuously is FAR less strenuous than rotating the right stick. Remember Lulu’s overdrive from Final Fantasy X?
However, there is one way that the PSP has improved the gameplay, though that’s down entirely to intuition. The camera controls for both versions are identical; snap the camera behind you with the L button (L1), and when you need to, you can fine tune it with the D Pad. This was perfectly fine when this was the only game in the world that required dual thumbstick controls, but when I replayed it recently, I found I kept impotently swinging my sword as I tried to move the camera to where I needed it. My hands automatically associated camera with the right stick. It’s even worse than when the axes have been inverted from what you normally use. Having had a PSP since launch, I’m used to using L and the D Pad to move the camera, so it felt a thousand times more natural.
Verdict
Don’t take my word for it. It is impossible for me to be objective here. I loved Ape Escape when I was a kid. Hell, I’ve never even played any of the sequels, because I KNOW that they couldn’t possibly compare to how I’ve built them up over the years. I used to play at Ape Escape with a friend in the school playground, waving around fruit shoot bottles as nets and lightsabers. I honestly can’t even say for a fact that this game is any good. So get whatever version you can, if you’re at all interested. You’re far more qualified to voice an opinion than I. If you get the US PS1 version, I’m told that most of the voice actors are the cast of Pokémon. So that’s neat.
PS: Apparently, a movie is coming out soon. They’ve done the usual adaptation decay stuff, I think Spike is a scientist or something, and the monkey’s gain intelligence from a standard “genetic experiment” plot, and time travel isn’t going to be touched on til the sequel, and the even changed the title, but it’s all there. Hyper Intelligent Apes have Escaped, and are going to usurp humanity.
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| *sigh* The Movie always get's the best parts wrong... |
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