Ape Escape Academy
Score: 85% ESRB: Everyone 10+ Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment America Developer: Sony Interactive Entertainment America Media: UMD/1 Players: 1 - 4 Genre: Party/ Puzzle/ Arcade
Graphics & Sound: Much like the genius who realized that donut holes were as good or better than the actual donut, the rise of "mini-game games" was a great moment in gaming. Mini-games went from being loadtime time-killers to being a game form in their own right. Ape Escape Academy uses a host of mini-games to tell the story of an aspiring rampant monkey who needs to sharpen his skills. The concept of a narrative framework for a collection of mini-games isn't new (Incredible Crisis), and is done here on a relatively small scale compared to something like a Warioware. What Ape Escape Academy does get right is that it manages to entertain through a combination of hilarious monkey visuals and monkey sounds. I think that crazy "eeep!" sound would be enough to get a belly laugh out of me, every time, regardless of what the monkey was actually doing. Each of the mini-games in Ape Escape Academy runs smooth and loads quick. The action is fast and frantic, and the perspective on screen is diverse enough to keep things interesting. There are great sound effects and musical treatments in each level that always fit the theme and help the games tie together.
Gameplay: You thought your school was tough? Think you've got too much homework? That's nothing compared to playing dodgeball over steaming hot lava... Or diving out of a plane without a parachute... Or standing in the street waving a flag at a bunch of raging mad bulls... Truly, school in Ape Escape Academy would be more than most of us could bear. But for the Apes who hope to be part of the evil Specter's team, bear it they must. Like most evil geniuses, Specter blames his failings on incompetent minions, and decides to do something about all these poorly trained monkeys. You'll get a chance to work through six "years" or levels of training that cover games in multiple categories. Each category represents a different skill, and each new graduation brings harder games and more demanding teachers. Offering some great multiplayer options, Ape Escape Academy can be a party game as much as a fun solo jaunt. Either in a shared multiplayer on the same PSP or through wireless networking, gamers can team up to play some of these great mini-games. Unlike a traditional game where the learning curve might be an hour or two, Ape Escape Academy gives you about 10 seconds to review the instructions, another few seconds to practice and then it's off to the races. Games are split between those that use your brain, those that require some special technique and those that are essentially twitch or arcade games. Once you've taken a crack at a game in "Academy" mode, it becomes playable in a different interface. Win the round, and you may earn a figurine of a monkey you can save and look at later. Since you only get one shot to get it right in "Academy," the practice you do makes getting up in grades a whole lot easier.
Difficulty: The training offered is basic, and the instructions for some mini-games are a little inscrutable. The point isn't to have you read the instructions and ace every mini-game. That would steal the fun out of this game. As you jump in and try a mini-game, you learn something new, either as a moderate twitch skill or a gameplay strategy. Without detailed instructions in the manual or in the game, part of "winning" is learning how to play. Unlike real school, you can flunk as many times as you need to, in order to master a skill and make a comeback.
Game Mechanics: Playing in the multiplayer modes is simple, and the mechanics of playing a game on the same PSP at the same time are brilliant. Basically, Share mode turns the PSP into a game board, with games that require simple button combinations. Each key is assigned to a player, for games that have repetitive button mashing as their main component. Share mode is a nice toy for demos at the store, but the regular wireless mode on multiple PSP units is better. Up to four players can get in and compete, even wager figurines they've won in the single player game. The wagering is a funny addition, and I imagine we'll be trading monkeys for cash on eBay in the very near future... My greatest disappointment was that the controls aren't often explained as well as they might be. The instructions on how to control the next mini-game are flashed up on the screen quickly and disappear. Unlike more simple hardware (Gameboy), there are a lot of buttons and analog functionality on the PSP, and Ape Escape Academy uses everything. I was brought back to the first Ape Escape game, which was a marvel of creativity. On the downside, I wanted to see more mini-games. The feature that allows playback, and the fact that some games must be unlocked provides challenge, and not all the mini-games are puffery. Some are really challenging, either mentally or as twitch games. The ability to save favorite games and return to them later means that if you like the monkey action, you'll like to keep this one around for a while. Ape Escape Academy includes some of the most creative and fun mini-games I've seen in a while, and more of a good thing would have been good. As it stands, we'll just have to wait for download content to a game like this, which would be a really phenomenal feature. Until then, my advice is...let the monkey win!
-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock
PQ: Practical Intelligence Quotient MVP 06 NCAA Baseball