Intensely solid game that has aged surprisingly well in terms of its mechanics and gameplay loop, filled with nice visuals and some bumpin' music to keep you company. Unfortunately, draw distance issues and sometimes-finnicky camera (I wish you could HOLD L1 to keep the camera centered on Spike) bog the game down, lest we not forget some painful enemies. Toward the end of the game, projectiles and aggressive monkeys are just thrown at you relentlessly at points and it gets obnoxious fast. The final level also takes about an hour, and this is with me saving time with save states, I can't imagine trying to deal with this on real hardware.

I can't say this is one of those games held together with glue and sticks, because it's much too intricate and well-thought-out, elegantly simple to its core. If nothing else, this perhaps pushes the PlayStation and any accepted theories on how to design a 3D platformer to the limit. It's a good thing the franchise wouldn't stay here for long...