Editorial Review: What's more fun than a barrel of opposable-thumbed simians? How about the silly--but challenging--Ape Escape? While not the first game to offer enhanced control with Sony's dual-stick analog controller, Ape Escape is the first game to require either an analog or dual shock controller to play. That requirement ensures that players will have full control of their hero, Spike. One stick moves Spike in any direction, while the other swings his monkey-catching devices.
In Ape Escape, a circus monkey named Specter stumbles upon a scientist's prototype intelligence-enhancing helmet, turning him into an evil monkey genius. As Spike, the professor's young friend, you must travel through time to clean up all of the monkeys Specter has sent back in his attempt to repopulate the world. If that's not enough to make you laugh, then chasing his goofy monkey minions as they scurry from your clutches will certainly tickle your funny bone. You'll discover a variety of gadgets to help you in your quest, including monkey radar, a slingshot, and a propeller for flying. Spanning 25 huge levels, Ape Escape is approachable for novices, and offers added challenges for veteran gamers. One such challenge is to lure a dinosaur near a rocky cliff, and then jar the monkey off his back and into your net. Note: no monkeys were harmed in the creation of this game. --Jeff Young
Pros:
Unique control scheme brings new challenge to the PlayStation
Massive game has plenty of replay value
Cons:
Unique control scheme requires some ramp-up time
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Video fun
This game was fun for my kids for a little while, but they quickly grew bored with it.
Rating: - Awsome game, for a game about monkeys
This game was so cool it nearly gave me a heart attack... literaly! The mad man none as Specter who puts on blinking red, yellow, and blue helmets with sirens. The blue sirens mean they don't hear or see anything. The yellow sirens is when they hears something. And the red sirens is when they see you or if your chasing them. So Specter put the helmets on them and formed a monkey army to destroy Spike and Jake. And you can get thounsands of Gatcha Gagets and I'm not telling you what they are. And Gatcha coins and Specter Coins. YOU HAVE TO PLAY THIS GAME!!! Also play these games Ape escape 2 & Ape escape 3.
Rating: - Ape Escape is great!!!
This game is great.If you want a game that is fun, challenging, but not so challenging that you cant play it, Ape Escape is the best.
Toward the end you try to save Spike's best friend Jake who has been captured and turned evil by the evil mastermind Spector. He has plotted to change history so he can take over the world.
Collect specter coins to unlock cool minigames to play, one time I played the first minigane for a whole hour.Some monkeys including Spector hide and are hard to find, while others are out in the open. You dont see Spector until you are closer to the end.
The Profeser gives you gadgets to help you play. Natily helps the Profeser, but is kind of snoty to you.Make sure you buy a memery card for this one. Now it is time to save man kind as we know it!!!!!
Rating: - monkys
the main problem with the game is that its just too hard and dificult
it will take a time to finish it 100% and catch all the monkeys
but the graphics are are very good and its pretty funny and fun game
Rating: - It was good in the late 90's, its still good now.
The source of the Ape Escape series, the game that started it all. And pretty much the best of the lot.
We know the story, a Professor builds helmets for the monkey's at a park to increase their IQ's but the first monkey to try a helmet on not only grows smater, the evil in his heart surfaces and so the maddness begins.
The monkey, Specter, then uses the helmets to control all the other monkeys and begins his first step on world domination. They break into the Professor's lab and use his latest invention to travel through time and space and rewrite history so monkeys rule. Though on the same day the young 10 year old friends of the Professor, Spike and Jake come over to see the invention but are sent into the past along with Specter's followers. Jake's lost for the time being and so its up to Spike through the help of the Proffesor and his helper Natalie to catch all the apes and save the earth.
Armed with gadgets from the Prof., Spike will travel through time catching the monkeys and exploring many historic views along the way from the dawn of time, to the ice age, midevil times, it goes on!
The game came out in 1999 so of course the graphics are a little dated and the voice acting wasn't the best, but the game was just to much fun to nock off points for that. The game's difficulty ranges from normal to hard from time to time, and you have plenty of replay value with catching those little guys and getting 100%
One thing I also thought was cool was the control set up they chose, it actually makes for some pretty cool game play control.
For 10 bucks or less, I recomend this.
- Video fun
- Awsome game, for a game about monkeys 
- monkys
