Ape Escape 2

"Go get 'em Spi...er...Jimmy?"

Where do I start? Ape Escape 2 was fun. uh...that's about it. Sure it looks good and there are more monkeys and gadgets, but other than that I must say that it is delightfully unoriginal. And now for the proverbial break down.

GRAPHICS/SOUND: For the most part this section did pretty well. It could have been SO much better though. The graphics were smooth, though a tad overly comical, and the environments were acceptably interactive. I had i little hang up with the camera work though. The only manual control you have of it is in First Person View, otherwise you just have to hope that it doesn't swing around too much so that you can't see your next target which, thankfully, it hardly ever did. Now, i'm not sure if Ubi Soft thought that the music and sound effects that they put in this game were cute or something, but they weren't. Far from it. They were usually just childishly annoying and ridiculous. And listening to Jimmy's Ash Ketchum voice was enough to have me vomiting nostalgically. If anyone can sit through so many chimes and whistles then crank up the volume cause your in for the ride of your life. Anyway, i give this section a 7.5/10.

GAMEPLAY: Exactly the same as the first game. Oh, except that you're not playing as Spike. You play as his carbon copy cousin Jimmy. I swear they're clones. Now, i'm not saying that keeping the same gameplay features as one of the best selling games in Playstation history is necessarily a bad thing, quite the opposite actually, the controls are simple and ingenious, I just wish they had spiced it up a bit more. They added a few more gadgets, but that's to be expected, and you are accompanied by the mini monkey Pipotchi, when your not busy saving him that is. Whatever...8/10 for this section.

STORYLINE: This is where I was gravely disappointed. Specter gets his helmet back and redistributes all the helmets to the other apes. Ooo, ooo, and he feeds Vita Z bananas to five special apes, turning them into, wait for it, SUPER MONKEYS! grrrrrreeeeeaaaatttt. So, get the picture? Same bad guy does the same bad thing and you, Jimmy, the cousin of the good guy who beat him last time, have to do exactly what he did. You can see why I am typing sarcastically...i hope. 6/10.

REPLAY VALUE: This is actually one of the games strong points. With the addition of the "vending machine" feature, which allows you to use the coins you have collected throughout the levels to obtain concept art and secret photos and other such yummy collectibles, and the three mini games that eventually pop out of said vending machine, and of course the hundreds upon hundreds of naughty monkeys to catch, you will be spending plenty of time goofing around in this game. 9/10 suckas.

OVERALL: Though hardly original, it is still an enjoyable romp through video game land. I would definitely suggest either renting it or borrowing from a friend, but at least try it out before spending the cash needed to add it to your collection. 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/31/05