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All images taken from MobyGames’ Ape Escape 2 page

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There is something to be said about the feel of games from certain eras, in certain genres. Settling into point and click adventures on classic PC hardware. Random encountering your way through pixel art JRPGs on the SNES. And the focus of today’s conversation, yelling at a busted camera as it causes you to miss a jump in a 3D platformer during the early 3D era. Delicious.

I was on the ground level when Sony released the brand spankin’ new dual shock controller for the original Playstation. In fact, some younger gamers may not even realize the PS1 controllers released without analog sticks initially. It was a revolutionary thing to hold in your hand. TWO whole joysticks?! Madness. And Sony, as is the case even today, was not about to release a new piece of tech without giving us a gimmick-filled excuse to showcase what it’s capable of.

Enter Ape Escape.

A tremendously entertaining, clever game that took a familiar genre and twisted it into something wholly original and unique. Instead of using the second analog stick to control the camera (something that was not made standard for years to come), it was instead utilized as a movement tool for various gadgets you get throughout the game. Need to swing a net in a certain direction to catch a monkey, you have to do so using a tilt of the stick in that direction. While it was, admittedly, janky as hell, it was still incredibly fun and unlike anything we’d experienced before.

So, despite my love of the original Ape Escape, I have a painful blind spot when it comes to the rest of the franchise. And while none were as warmly remembered as the original, I can’t imagine they’re TERRIBLE. Right? Thus, I popped Ape Escape 2 into my PS2, and got ready to shoulder button tap my way through rough cameras while swinging wildly at lil’ monkeys as they slap their ass at me. Real gamer shit.

Escape 2, as I shall now be referring to it as, doesn’t feel all that dissimilar to the original. It keeps most of the gadgets and concepts that made the first fun, and expands it’s level design and level of detail thanks to the new, stronger hardware. It didn’t take me long to fall back into the habit of running frantically at monkeys and swinging my net wildly like an idiot as they dodge me and leave me face-first in the polygonal dirt.

What Escape 2 does best, however, is up the charm tenfold. The monkeys are even goofier and sillier than in the original game, with plenty of great easter-egg environmental details to look out for as you traverse the decent-sized (especially in the second half of the game) levels searching for your simian prey. Each level is designed in a way that feels unique and separate from previous levels, all while keeping up new ways to unearth monkeys to net. Mix in some vehicle sections and genuinely challenging boss fights to break things up, and you have a platformer that never lets up on the gas until the very end.

I was delighted to hear the voices for the two main characters, and instantly recognize who was behind them. The player character Jimmy is voiced by Veronica Taylor, who most people my age will fondly remember as the original voice of Ash Ketchum in Pokemon. And who joins her as our assistant Natalie? None other than the late, great Rachael Lillis (RIP, gone way too soon), who worked side by side with Veronica as Misty in Pokemon. Neither of them are even doing different voices. Every cutscene is just Misty yelling at Ash and it’s a warm hug for us Olds who remmeber the original seasons of the anime.

I do feel it’s very important to discuss one other thing in regards to this otherwise very enjoyable little platformer search-em-up: it’s busted as all hell.

As you can imagine, when both analog sticks are tied to movement, and the face buttons are all used to select gadgets, that leaves very few buttons for, you know, jumping. That crucial element is tied to the R1/R2 button (make sure to vomit somewhere it’s easy to clean up after reading that), which is as rough as it sounds. Throw in the fact the game has unrelentingly difficult to time jumps at times, and you have a recipe for frustration. And you know what… I missed that about games.

To embrace Escape 2 is to come to terms with how games used to be. Most games of this era were a little on the prickly side when it came to controls. We hadn’t quite homogenized and standardized controls in a 3D space yet. Level design was not fine-tuned down into something easily taught in developer schools across the world. Sometimes overcoming a game’s limitations was it’s own challenge, and that’s simply not going to mesh well with some people.

I, however, found it a stark reminder of where we came from and what it felt like to marvel at where we could go in the future. I cut my teeth on games that today are considered absolutely unplayable. Gex: Enter The Gecko, Spot Goes to Hollywood, fuckin’ Bubsy 3D. Oh Bubsy 3D… All games that if you played now, it’d take quite awhile to adjust back to faulty camera systems and unresponsive controls. But I simply didn’t mind it.

Sure, there are plenty of moments I found myself considering buying another PS2 controller just so I could have one to smash to pieces on my floor. The final level in particular is a gauntlet of tough platforming, aggressive enemies and monkeys, and a lengthy run to a final boss. The bosses too are quite challenging, not only in figuring out what to do, but in execution as well. I jokingly pointed out that Souls-hard means nothing when it’s compared to “final level in a 3D platformer during the PS1/PS2 era” hard. I swear, developers hated kids back then. But despite all that, finally succeeding felt rewarding in it’s own way. Builds character, ya know?

There was just something nice about dipping my toes into the nostalgia that era of platformers brings me. It’s a genre that I feel doesn’t always get the credit it deserves outside of the Mario’s of the world. And a lot of that comes from the fact that the time it was most prominent, it was struggling to even function half the time. I urge people to try platformers outside the popular ones, because they tend to be worth struggling through just to see the sheer level of artistic creativity and expression they usually harbored.

So where do I stand after capturing every monkey and finishing Ape Escape 2? It’s a pretty great game, honestly. Loaded to the brim with the silliness of the first game, and lovingly created from the ground up to be a world to soak yourself in. While it’s definitely clunky and messy at times, it’s never too annoying to not merit pushing through to the end. I did not, however, do any time trials ’cause I don’t hate myself that much.

Hopefully, Sony does something with the franchise again. It was very nice seeing a level dedicated to it in Team Asobi’s recent smash success Astro Bot. And hell, maybe they could take a stab at the series someday? Someone should, at least, because it’s a concept that should not be left to the past. There are always more monkeys to catch…