PS3 Review: Ape Escape

Are these apes moving or brain dead?

Ape Escape has been a Playstation classic for years and has sold millions of copies and numerous sequels, but can Move add a new dynamic to the formula? After a long hiatus, the apes are back, but sadly for the worse…

Ape Escape uses the Move controller to become a net which will nab the monkeys heading towards you through a series of levels, to make it more confusing there’s an odd anime storyline to go with it that makes no sense at all. I guess the problem is that the game is far too basic and limited, oh sure you can unlock a few fun mini-games, but these are hardly worth the price of admission. The game becomes stale and samey after just a few minutes.

The levels are all on-rails and are mixed between shooting targets to capturing the apes in the net. The difficulty will increase to apes that can throw explosives at you, but it’s still pretty easy and very repetitive. There’s no variety at all and the mini-games aren’t much better either. It also looks very average for a PS3 game; it actually looks like a PS2 game that’s been upscaled to 720p, which would explain a lot. The voice-acting is also pretty bad and the story is just bonkers.

Each level has a different theme like a house, a theme park or an ice world with dinosaurs (what the hell?) and last roughly 5 minutes each, so you’ll breeze through the game in no time at all and apart from trying to get higher scores each time, there’s no incentive to replay other than for trophies.

The Verdict

Ape Escape on Move is a shallow experience that is short and repetitive by nature. It gets old very quickly, but the good news is that it’s over almost before it begins.