Ape Escape is sick, it's probably most notable for using dual analogue in a fairly ingenious way requiring the right stick to be used to swing a net or spin a propeller, also you can compress the stick to crawl and dive. I like the quirks and adjusted to the controls easily.

The mini-games you unlock use the dual sticks further, like a skiing game where you control where each ski independently to race a course.

Story is straightforward, some ape called Spectre gets a hat that makes him smart, he hijacks a time machine or something and you're tasked with collecting apes and catching up with Spectre to save the day.

The apes themselves are fairly funny, I like that it is a collectathon where you have to strategise a little, going in guns blazing could be chaotic whereas using a stealthy approach may trivialise some ape encounters. I can see how they became a mascot character going into the Eye Toy era, they're also sorta proto-Minion in many of their behaviours.

I don’t listed to much Drum and Bass but Soichi Terada has an absolute belter of an OST, I’d recommend listening to Sumo Jungle and Sun Showered to hear a broader selection of his music.

I had a good time playing through the game originally, but upon beating the final stage you're told to collect all the apes for the true ending... problem is I often prioritised apes sitting at the beginning of a stage, this meant I had to play through full stages to find the remaining apes which is a real turn off, especially given the length of many of the late game stages.

As of April 18th I have collected every ape and finished the second Spectre fight , I have no time for Spectre coins and time trials.