Ape Escape 2

"Durn them monkeys"

Ape Escape 2 is the sequel to one of my favorite plat formers for the original Play Station, Ape Escape. This time around, the game has been chocked full of mini games, soundtracks, new gadgets, more monkeys, stories, pictures, concept art, movies, and more! Now on to the review...

Game play - When I first started playing the game, it soon hit me how easy it was. That is not necessarily bad, but it tends to make for a short game. I was flying through levels left and right with no problem. The controls are still the same from the first, you use the left analog stick to move, and the right analog stick to attack. There is also a nifty button-mapping system where you can map four different gadgets to the action buttons: triangle, square, x, and circle. There is no real variety between the levels. All of them pretty much require you to do the same thing, catch a certain amount of monkeys, solve some easy puzzles. There are boss fights, but once again, no real difficulty. You can also go back and catch remaining monkeys and try and beat your record for the level using a time trial. This is still a very fun game though.

Overall - Nice controls, easy game, cool gadgets.

Sound - The sound is nice in this game. I usually don't have a problem with sound in games, and this one is no exception to that.

Overall - Authentic monkey sounds.

Audio/Video - The music in this game is really catchy. I often found myself humming along with the tunes and getting them stuck in my head. The graphics are solid. It kind of has an anime feel to it. The only problem with the graphics are the dubbing problems.

Overall - Catchy tunes, nice graphics, old kung-fu movie dubbing. Nice voice acting too.

Replay - This game has replay value if you didn't get everything the first time through. Like I mentioned before, you can go back to previous levels and try to get a good time record or catch the remaining monkeys. The ''Gotcha Box'' is neat, and there is some replay value in that.

Overall - A one time through thing unless you feel the need to master this game and get everything from the ''Gotcha Box.''

Buy or Rent? - I recommend this one as a renter. Due to how short it is, you might feel like you wasted $50 after beating it in an afternoon.

Overall - Rent this one unless you love monkeys and have and extra $50 that you don't mind spending.

So there it is, my review of Ape Escape 2. I hope this helps anyone who has doubts about it or wanted to hear a peer's opinion.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/10/03, Updated 07/10/03