i think at first glance ape escape 2 felt like a return to the fun of ape escape 1 that i really really loved, but as the game went on it began to show it couldn't really live up to the standard ape escape 1 set.
i do think ape escape 2 has some good to it. i think the regular ape escape formula of capturing monkeys through various platforming challenges and puzzles works well and it remains in this game. top that off with the same goofy cartoonish story and artstyle that retains a lot of the charm of the first game. not to mention, a stacked english voice cast with the english voices of ash, misty, and yugi. as an adult i got hype when i could tell those VAs and i bet as a kid i probably would've had the same reaction. there are also good additions to the formula of ape escape like real boss battles that don't just feel like souped up enemies like some of the "bosses" in ape escape 1 outside of the final boss. i was undoubtedly having a good enough time with this game, i went and caught all the monkeys in every stage to get the true ending if that's any metric. i also think in the way this game doesn’t really hand out health pickups or lives as much as they did in the first game is honestly something i liked a lot. while this game still is relatively easy enough on its own it at least feels more challenging that way and for once actually made me think ooh getting a game over is actually a real possibility. with the way lives and health pickups were changed, they also added a gacha machine in the games hub where you can put the coins you earned in the machine to get a bunch of cool things like concept art, little stories, comic strips, and plenty of other stuff. i really like things like that in games but its also easy to just not feel like looking at the extras menu in some games to see stuff like that. when you win these prizes in the gacha machine the game shows them to you, so if you interact with the gacha machine in any way you’re forced to look at all of that stuff and i actually really like that, makes you have a deeper appreciation for what things do or don’t get put into the game or how the development was for this game. at the same time though the game does show itself to just do some things worse than its predecessor and it was a bit disappointing considering i thought if they kept up with what they did in that game, they'd have another banger on their hands.
one of the big things i felt about ape escape 2 as i played through it was that it really just felt like a hodgepodge of ideas at times. one example of this is the game's theming of it's levels. the theme of ape escape 2's levels is that you're traveling the world to different major landmarks that have been taken over by the monkeys, landmarks like the statue of liberty and the pyramids of giza or just general levels that are supposed to represent countries/areas of the world like japan and europe. some of these ideas of these geographical locations are a little muddy, like the japan level being more historical and there being ice levels that are supposed to represent places like the north pole, but you kinda get an idea of what they're going for. at the same time though you have levels like dinosaur land, a beach with pirates that leads into a random volcano, and dracula's castle?? on top of that there isn't really any structure or order to where these levels are placed, one level you'll be in historical japan and the next you'll be in an ice level and it feels like this is something they had figured out in ape escape 1 that they ditched really quickly here, with ape escape 1 having a handful of worlds that each got three levels pertaining to different time periods that the monkeys were sent to since that game's whole theme was time travel. with ape escape 2, it all just feels like this big pot of ideas they threw in but didn't really know what to do with. another example are the new gadgets like the water blaster and the magnet. the water blaster is strictly for putting out fire obstacles that are very obvious, same goes for the striking blue and red blocks that are really only placed in levels from when you get the magnet onwards. these gadgets don’t really have any application in capturing monkeys, they don’t stun them or do anything to them to help you capture them, they’re just used in places for platforming that are very clearly screaming at you USE THE WATER BLASTER. these gadgets really just didn’t feel that necessary or interesting to use especially considering how much they want you to use them. maybe if there had been any use case for these gadgets in capturing monkeys i’d be singing a different tune, but there already is a new gadget that does that in the bananarang that actually has use in capturing monkeys, and even though i didn’t use it much in my playthrough i still thought it was really neat, it just makes me thing the magnet and the water blaster could have not been in the game and nothing would have changed. also, after beating the first final boss in this game, the game gives you a “see-all scope” that just shows you random breakable objects or walls that you might not have thought to break before where monkeys are hidden. this was one thing that really disappointed me because it made revisiting some of these levels and capturing some monkeys feel really unrewarding because the game just directly tells you where they are instead of having you try to figure it out with the context clues from the monkey radar or something other tell. it felt like they couldnt think of where to put more monkeys for the player to catch and just said uhhh yeah fuck it put this one in a random pot surrounded by like 4 other breakable pots, except this one pot is only breakable by the gadget you get in the post game. it’s big things like this that most stuck out to me that gave me that feeling of ape escape 2 faltering a bit from the original.
while ape escape 2 does have its share of issues with making some elements more cohesive and making some of its ideas feel justified for being in the game, i still had a good time with it. i was actively wanting to play this game to try and capture more monkeys because like i said, the core gameplay loop of ape escape is just a lot of fun. this game still has good platforming challenges and that sound of your character catching an ape is like crack, one of my favorite game sounds ever. ape escape 2 still feels like ape escape deep down, but just kinda loses itself and needs some help. i hear good things about ape escape 3 so im looking forward to that one hoping it picks up the little bit of slack from this one.
i do think ape escape 2 has some good to it. i think the regular ape escape formula of capturing monkeys through various platforming challenges and puzzles works well and it remains in this game. top that off with the same goofy cartoonish story and artstyle that retains a lot of the charm of the first game. not to mention, a stacked english voice cast with the english voices of ash, misty, and yugi. as an adult i got hype when i could tell those VAs and i bet as a kid i probably would've had the same reaction. there are also good additions to the formula of ape escape like real boss battles that don't just feel like souped up enemies like some of the "bosses" in ape escape 1 outside of the final boss. i was undoubtedly having a good enough time with this game, i went and caught all the monkeys in every stage to get the true ending if that's any metric. i also think in the way this game doesn’t really hand out health pickups or lives as much as they did in the first game is honestly something i liked a lot. while this game still is relatively easy enough on its own it at least feels more challenging that way and for once actually made me think ooh getting a game over is actually a real possibility. with the way lives and health pickups were changed, they also added a gacha machine in the games hub where you can put the coins you earned in the machine to get a bunch of cool things like concept art, little stories, comic strips, and plenty of other stuff. i really like things like that in games but its also easy to just not feel like looking at the extras menu in some games to see stuff like that. when you win these prizes in the gacha machine the game shows them to you, so if you interact with the gacha machine in any way you’re forced to look at all of that stuff and i actually really like that, makes you have a deeper appreciation for what things do or don’t get put into the game or how the development was for this game. at the same time though the game does show itself to just do some things worse than its predecessor and it was a bit disappointing considering i thought if they kept up with what they did in that game, they'd have another banger on their hands.
one of the big things i felt about ape escape 2 as i played through it was that it really just felt like a hodgepodge of ideas at times. one example of this is the game's theming of it's levels. the theme of ape escape 2's levels is that you're traveling the world to different major landmarks that have been taken over by the monkeys, landmarks like the statue of liberty and the pyramids of giza or just general levels that are supposed to represent countries/areas of the world like japan and europe. some of these ideas of these geographical locations are a little muddy, like the japan level being more historical and there being ice levels that are supposed to represent places like the north pole, but you kinda get an idea of what they're going for. at the same time though you have levels like dinosaur land, a beach with pirates that leads into a random volcano, and dracula's castle?? on top of that there isn't really any structure or order to where these levels are placed, one level you'll be in historical japan and the next you'll be in an ice level and it feels like this is something they had figured out in ape escape 1 that they ditched really quickly here, with ape escape 1 having a handful of worlds that each got three levels pertaining to different time periods that the monkeys were sent to since that game's whole theme was time travel. with ape escape 2, it all just feels like this big pot of ideas they threw in but didn't really know what to do with. another example are the new gadgets like the water blaster and the magnet. the water blaster is strictly for putting out fire obstacles that are very obvious, same goes for the striking blue and red blocks that are really only placed in levels from when you get the magnet onwards. these gadgets don’t really have any application in capturing monkeys, they don’t stun them or do anything to them to help you capture them, they’re just used in places for platforming that are very clearly screaming at you USE THE WATER BLASTER. these gadgets really just didn’t feel that necessary or interesting to use especially considering how much they want you to use them. maybe if there had been any use case for these gadgets in capturing monkeys i’d be singing a different tune, but there already is a new gadget that does that in the bananarang that actually has use in capturing monkeys, and even though i didn’t use it much in my playthrough i still thought it was really neat, it just makes me thing the magnet and the water blaster could have not been in the game and nothing would have changed. also, after beating the first final boss in this game, the game gives you a “see-all scope” that just shows you random breakable objects or walls that you might not have thought to break before where monkeys are hidden. this was one thing that really disappointed me because it made revisiting some of these levels and capturing some monkeys feel really unrewarding because the game just directly tells you where they are instead of having you try to figure it out with the context clues from the monkey radar or something other tell. it felt like they couldnt think of where to put more monkeys for the player to catch and just said uhhh yeah fuck it put this one in a random pot surrounded by like 4 other breakable pots, except this one pot is only breakable by the gadget you get in the post game. it’s big things like this that most stuck out to me that gave me that feeling of ape escape 2 faltering a bit from the original.
while ape escape 2 does have its share of issues with making some elements more cohesive and making some of its ideas feel justified for being in the game, i still had a good time with it. i was actively wanting to play this game to try and capture more monkeys because like i said, the core gameplay loop of ape escape is just a lot of fun. this game still has good platforming challenges and that sound of your character catching an ape is like crack, one of my favorite game sounds ever. ape escape 2 still feels like ape escape deep down, but just kinda loses itself and needs some help. i hear good things about ape escape 3 so im looking forward to that one hoping it picks up the little bit of slack from this one.
Rp nutella 2