Ape Escape did not age well

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I have finally been giving Ape Escape a try these last few days. It seems to be generally accepted as a good game. I can see a game here, but holy hell did it age badly.

The controls are not very smooth, despite being designed especially for the analog sticks.

I am not a stickler for graphics, but damn they are horrible in this game. Ultra low resolution textures and an insane amount of popup make my eyes hurt.

The gameplay is okay, however even 8 levels in, I have yet to be challenged. Also, I despise how the game boots you out of the level as soon as you acquire the minimum number of monkeys. Many times I actually have another monkey on the screen when it happens.

The book of monkeys is mildly amusing, but the hoops you have to jump through to save your progress are not.

I am going to give it one more session to see if it can hold my interest.
 
I remember an old video game magazine did a top 100 list of PSX games back in 98' and this was very high on the list (I think somewhere around 2 or 3). I do remember it beat out Castlevania: SOTN which is a game that only got better with age. I guess the innovation was what secured it's high spot.

Honestly I never cared much for Ape Escape. It was interesting enough for a quick play through 10 years ago, but I've never gotten the urge to pick it back up.
 
[quote name='Zing']

The controls are not very smooth, despite being designed especially for the analog sticks.

I am not a stickler for graphics, but damn they are horrible in this game. Ultra low resolution textures and an insane amount of popup make my eyes hurt.

The gameplay is okay, however even 8 levels in, I have yet to be challenged. Also, I despise how the game boots you out of the level as soon as you acquire the minimum number of monkeys. Many times I actually have another monkey on the screen when it happens.
[/QUOTE]

Back in the day, the game wasn't something you could pick up and play at first since it was the first game to really make use of dual analog sticks and actually made use of pretty much all of the buttons on the Dual Shock. But by now, most of us have become pretty used to dual analog controls, not to mention pressing 5 buttons at once, so obviously you're not going to find it very challenging.

As for the controls not being very smooth, that was an issue back then too. I remember the controls being a bit mushy.

As for the graphics, they are what they are. They were good back then (not great though) but you can't expect these things to hold up very well. Very few polygonal games hold up well graphically.
 
[quote name='willardhaven']I think PS2 games hold up very well, but yeah most PS1/N64 games look awful.[/QUOTE]

That's because the PS2 is only one generation old. Wait until the PS4 and the Xbox whatever#.
 
Oh man, this brings back memories.

The first real game I got for my PS1 back in the day was Ape Escape and I LOVED that game. I played through it so many times.

But even being a 8 year old, with no gaming experience, I remember it being pretty easy. I do remember thinking the graphics were really good though. :lol:
 
[quote name='Rodimus']I remember an old video game magazine did a top 100 list of PSX games back in 98' and this was very high on the list (I think somewhere around 2 or 3). I do remember it beat out Castlevania: SOTN which is a game that only got better with age. I guess the innovation was what secured it's high spot.

[/quote]


If I remember correctly, it was PSM and they made a point to say "bet you didn't see that coming" when they named it the number 1 game for the year.
 
I loved Ape Escape. I played it not to long ago again as I still have my copy, and I think it aged fine. It is certainly one of the better looking PS1 games, and the graphics still look good to me. Maybe it is just because I'm not a graphics whore, so I can enjoy a game as long as it has good gameplay, which Ape Escape has.
 
Ape Escape was a lot of fun. I also got it for the PSP (thanks to TRU's 90% off green tag sale and EB's trade 3 games get 1 new PSP game for free deal, it effectively cost me $7) when it was released but wasn't as much fun using just 1 analog controller.

I haven't played it on Playstation in years but I could see the graphics not looking to great today. Some games I guess still don't look as bad as others. Wipeout XL for example still looks amazing 13 or 14 years later.
 
[quote name='GuilewasNK']If I remember correctly, it was PSM and they made a point to say "bet you didn't see that coming" when they named it the number 1 game for the year.[/quote]

Yes it was PSM. I don't agree with that call but PSM was a great mag.
 
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