Although I owned a PSOne—and a Nintendo 64 for that matter—back in the last system war, there was one acclaimed game I never got around to trying. Well, several actually, but Ape Escape was always one I regretted never getting around to. I would see it on the shelf at Blockbuster, on the shelf at Best Buy and on the shelf at the local used game store. It never seemed to click enough for a purchase, even though it was frequently hailed as the system’s answer to Mario and Co. on the rival Nintendo boat. A sequel has been a very long time in the making, and has even curiously switched hands to UbiSoft for distribution. While I can’t guess at the exact reasons for the switch, Ape Escape 2 is not the breakthrough title for its system that its predecessor was. The hype has been relatively low if non-existent, which had me fearing the worst, but everything turned out fine. Although it’s obviously aimed more towards the younger crowd both in attitude and difficulty, there’s plenty of quirky monkey madness for all ages… even if it’s no longer the hallmark game of its genre.

The plot is simple, if nonsensical: After the good doctor goes away, bumbling Jimmy the assistant manages to teleport lots of monkey helmets (along with pants) out into Monkey Park, where Specter (a clever play on the evil organization in the early James Bond films, perhaps?) and the other monkeys quickly grab them and become super-smart. Because we all saw in Ape Escape what happens to smart monkeys on the loose, it becomes Jimmy’s new responsibility to fix the mess. He’ll need to capture all 300 monkeys on the loose, and to do so, we need Ape Escape 2’s defining gameplay twist: the gadgets.

Every few levels, the player is given a new gadget to use in order to track down and capture the necessary amount of monkeys in each level. Some, like the Monkey Radar, aren’t entirely necessary but just make your job much easier. Others are very necessary for handling different situations, such as air and water-based critters, and you won’t beat a level without them. Sometimes the gadgets are just for plain fun, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Ape Escape 2 has an intriguing control layout, and having not played the first game, I can’t say if this is something entirely new. The gadgets are set by the player to the four face buttons on the PS2 controller, with routine platform maneuvers like jumping and centering the camera relegated to the shoulder buttons. The left analog stick controls Jimmy, while the right analog stick controls the gadgets. So a typical situation will have a player first selecting what gadget they need to switch to via a face button, running Jimmy to the monkey and then using the right analog stick to use the gadget in the appropriate direction. It sounds somewhat convoluted, but Ape Escape 2 streamlines the process down to the point where it’s almost too easy. The only control quirk I can really take an issue with is floaty jumping, which becomes bothersome in some of the game’s levels that have more platform tricks (like timed jumps) than usual. Mostly, it’s just good, fun chasing. Non-monkey enemies never pose a serious threat—although sometimes their annoyance makes their elimination necessary—and most of the game is running around a level with the Monkey Radar, trying to solve puzzles to get to hiding apes and capturing them once they’re found. While early on monkeys will basically just sit there and be taken, or perhaps give a slight chase but nothing fierce, later levels have increased difficulty in AI as the monkeys not only flee better, but they also fight back. Bombs, rocks, banana peels… the smart ones don’t go down without a fight. Or much of one; no matter how many obstacles Ape Escape 2 throws in, most older gamers will find the ride too short and lacking much serious difficulty. You’ll die a few times, mostly on boss battles, but the puzzles—while often being quite ingenious in concept—are never very hard, and the capturing of monkeys is pretty easy. This might be the best game for kids ever made, though, besides the obvious Mario and Sonic titles. It certainly plays solid, and there are few faults to be found in either the control or execution.

Ape Escape 2 is simple and charming, with it’s biggest benefit being a whacked out style. The English dub, which is flat out horrible and badly synched, actually adds to this odd feeling of being trapped in a very bad B-movie. The speeches the boss monkeys give actually led to many laughs around the room (laughing at, not with) and the level design features plenty of “spot the references” moments to keep eyes busy when there aren’t monkeys to be immediately caught. For a game obviously meant to appeal to kids, it’s got plenty for older teens and adults to like, too. After all, everyone loves monkeys, and what better than scheming, super-smart versions of America’s favorite species to occupy a game?

The graphics are honestly something that could be easily done on first-gen PS2 equipment, or even the latest PSOne releases. It’s attractively void of many jaggies, but the design and atmosphere of the game rely on bright primary colors and not much detail. The framerate may be solid and there are the occasionally neat special effects thrown in, but this wasn’t made to be a looker. It’s presentable and backs up the gameplay, but never adds to the experience—with the exception of the various monkey designs, which are all hoots.

And as mentioned above, the voice acting of the game is absolutely atrocious. Not only badly synched but bright and chirpy like the ‘best’ English anime dubs, Ape Escape 2 has an audio presentation that you really need to be in the right mood to enjoy. Adding to the voice work is a bright, cheerful soundtrack that combines to form a near overdose of sugary sweetness. While it’s obviously aimed at kids, the sound is either brilliant (if you take the game to be like a terrible B-movie in progress) or bad, if you actually judged the work on its own merit.

Ape Escape 2’s biggest problem, and the one that may keep it off the purchase list of older gamers, is the relative ease of difficulty and short time to travel through the game. It cheats for sure, by making the ‘capture this many monkeys to beat the level’ number always a few lower than the total amount of monkeys in the level, meaning if you want to catch them all—which the game encourages—you’re guaranteed to have to go through every level again looking for the few you missed because the game cut you off early. With twenty levels that might take some time, but the primary levels can be done within five hours. It’s a very solid game, perfect for the younger crowd and a delightful appetizer for the older crowd, but having some minigames, a Monkeypedia and other little throw-ins don’t extend the value much. If anything, it’s a sure-fire rental and a possible purchase. I would imagine the price would drop on this pretty fast, but if you do decide to buy it, you’ll be getting plenty of fun for the money at least. Or in Gene Shalit style—because I haven’t used enough monkey puns in here, you’ll go bananas for this ape-wild game that’s more fun than a barrel of monkeys!