What game are you most looking forward to playing next week, and why is it the 1999 triumph Ape Escape?
We’re fast approaching the local release of Sony’s largest refresh to their online Playstation Plus service since it began, and it has been quite a ride. A launch of this magnitude didn’t even appear to be on the cards a mere year ago, despite expectations being set by both Microsoft and Nintendo with their own take on the Netflix-style subscribe-to-play service. Sony will be the last of the three to join this particular market next week, and their plans are certainly ambitious. Boasting 400-500 games from most Playstation consoles available at launch and more rotating monthly, the new model could be both a huge financial success and a celebration of all that came before if it manages to hit the ground running. I personally have my eyes on a few games from the initial lineup, but I will lie to no one when I say I’ll undoubtedly play through all of Ape Escape before the anything else.
As a marketing tool, nostalgia is my absolute kryptonite. Full remakes of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon? Sold. Vaguely polished ports of the old Final Fantasy games? Add to cart. Ocarina of Time rises again? Take my money. There’s something I can’t resist when it comes to a classic I know and love, and I’ve stopped trying to fight it. I can almost always look past the aged visuals, controls and themes because these games and I have history. I know them like the back of my hand, and each of them were legends of their time. Ape Escape is, admittedly, a little different. I personally have a soft spot for the time-travelling, monkey-catching adventure, however it’s understandably not to everyone’s taste. Without that nostalgic pull, it’s not as easy to recommend this one as some of the games previously mentioned. In fact, I’ll just come out and say it – playing Ape Escape today is a rough time.
You play as Spike, a boy caught up in the accidental release of dozens of apes who have since fled across time and space. Thanks to helmets that boost their intelligence, each monkey has its own personality, strengths and abilities. As you travel through time to catch them, some will defend themselves by training dinosaurs, flying UFOs or turning an assault rifle on you in chilling Planet of the Apes fashion. While the plot is absolute marbles, the visuals also haven’t aged too well over the decades. Ape Escape has plenty of polygonal points and bright colours across its environments, and then there’s the trademark PS1 fog that hides everything until Spike comes within a few meters. Some of us can look past these flaws as a sign of the times, but the toughest pill to swallow is still the inexplicably difficult controls.
The game was initially designed to help familiarise Playstation owners with the new Dualshock controllers, given thumbsticks weren’t rolled out for PS1 consoles until the late 90’s. While we’d later perfect how these thumbsticks should be used, Ape Escape made a right mess of it. Picture this: a weapon wheel tied to the face buttons on the right of the controller. To use one, you need to push the right stick in the direction you want to strike. Where’s the camera then? The d-pad of course. Don’t forget the jump button as well, hidden back there on one of the triggers. Nothing is where your brain would like it to be, and it adds a whole extra layer of difficulty to even the most basic tasks. Add occasional first-person shooting and steering cars into the mix, and you have a recipe for sheer chaos.
I fear at this point that I’ve not presented much to like about Ape Escape, but rest assured the real magic comes from the gameplay itself, and the pure moment-to-moment bedlam of it all. Once you’ve wrapped your head around the controls and graphics, the game opens up into a charming roller-coaster of platforming and puzzle solving that rewards you for sticking with it. There’s a monkey based on Rambo, another a simian Schwarzenegger. Some are tame, while others have backstories that would most certainly not make it into a game of this rating today. The entire package is a zany, colourful and bizarre adventure that tricks you into looking past its shortcomings in favour of finding out just where it could possibly take you next.
Or maybe that’s just me. In a sea of hundreds of other games launching with the service, there are plenty of options that are far easier to look at and to physically grapple with. My rose-tinted glasses are my own, and I’m sure many will have their own nostalgic weaknesses that come calling at one point or another. But as you scroll past Ape Escape in the new catalogue next week, at least spare a thought for me out here in the trenches. Despite everything else on offer, I’ll be staring at a pixelated “Game Over” screen, unsure of which emotion to feel after being done in once again by a well-armed chimp in cheap sunglasses.
Playstation Plus Essential, Extra and Deluxe tiers are available in Australia from June 22nd on PS4 and PS5.
