An incredibly rough entry, which is horribly disappointing because it's so damn close to being as good as 1 and 3. The hyper-linear stage design really brings this one down. I adore Ape Escape and it's hard to make every monkey encounter unique, but almost every stage and monkey feels the same in this one. Worse, switching in the gadget system is slowww, which is also was in 1, but even more and more gimmicky gadgets in this one really kills it, as you'll be switching them around even more. Plus the Gotcha machine is impossibly slow, which truly brings down the joy of completionism significantly. I'll still probably 100% it, but begrudgingly.

Also, nightmare of a last stage btw.