I'm not sure I understand this game.
I'm sure someone would want me to bring up the PS1 version, so let me say that the games look about the same, but PS2 definitely has bloat that's kind of inoffensive to me, and some long load times. So that aside...

This game makes me confused as to what some developers thought a platformer should be back in the day. I kinda like the feel of the game, Rayman has a nice jump. But there's weird parts where there's just silence, and it's deafening (I appreciate it's trying to be a dynamic soundtrack in general, but it's weird.).

The platforming is really straight forward.... You don't want to glide much because it's slow, but the game makes you glide more as it goes. Jumps aren't threatening. You have a lot of health. Your monkey-bar climbing is slow. The swinging is cool but the game doesn't demand a lot...

You need to do plodding tasks like carry balls and barrels around. You need to walk with and escort Clark and Glowbox. The combat is really mediocre. Destructible things (or even cages) don't really stick out much visually.
I hate controlling the Walking Missile, with its shallow, delayed jump and weird collision, and I hate taming it to do it all over again. The swimming isn't really much. I don't get why we're fighting Pirates, of all things...

The game is a collectible nightmare, since you need to do whole level over if you really wanted those few lums you missed, which you might've definitely missed while riding a missile or going on a slide (I didn't have a compulsion to do this, but I did a few times)...

And then it was the Sanctuary of Earth and Fire that really made me give up.
The plum is a neat idea. But it's also another barrel/orb... and I'm just standing there shooting... So I can move this thing... and it's not really going as fast as I'd like...... And the level is really really long. And then we get to the slide and I'm trying to steer this stupid thing at speeds, that on the other hand, it shouldn't achieve when it's asking you to avoid insta-kill lava and ride walls to get lums...

I was just kinda done with it. And I'm kind of left wondering what part of the game was supposed to really be fun. What it was going for, exactly. It wasn't that bad though, I guess. I feel like I'm not really the right person to judge this game, in a way.

If I'm going to talk about this game, I'm going to have to say some things about Ape Escape 2 I might change my mind about at some point. But I think I'm okay with that. I want to give more positive reviews and takes on here too. But that takes a good amount of time and effort sometimes.

Ape Escape 2 was kind of disappointing to me, it felt like a pretty average platformer. The vibes and music weren't great, the way the game felt wasn't to my tastes (the jump and the hover gadget especially arent smooth), they made the Slingshot and RC do stun less, there's less puzzles or creative thinking with the gadgets, the monkeys are really hard to deal with, the level design was made into something really tunnely with the most basic of platforming, which makes stealth less encouraged as well...
It was just really disappointing to me. A lot of the things that made the first game special were just sapped from the second, and I felt like I was going through the motions.

Ape Escape 3 didn't exactly change the general approach in design. It stuck to being kinda similar to Ape Escape 2. But if the games were gonna be like this instead of how Ape Escape 1 was, then 3 really manages to perfect what 2 was trying to do.
The levels have a stronger identity and theme, there's a stronger and more active sense of pacing to the levels and what you're doing with a larger sense of fun, they shave off the gadgets that didn't matter (well except--...RIP the Water Cannon) but add transformations which act as gadgets all of their own and were probably a ton of fun for kids especially, the monkeys are made less strong (especially the missile monkeys), the levels are bigger but don't feel elongated...
It almost feels a bit intangible as to what makes this game better. And I do feel 2 can be more creative at times, and it also has a much much stronger final few levels. But the game is undeniably solid and a ton of fun.

To get into more specifics would be a lot though, especially for that reason. And I already make these kinda long. But there's a lot of thoughts I had about the nuances of the game in general.
Like, part of why Morphs are so fun for example is because it really doesn't feel like the game forces them on you much at all outside their first appearance, but if you want to you can almost be morphed for the majority of a stage (Not my style really). It's very freeing. But the game also puts a lot of teleborg enemies around monkeys which makes you feel pressured to use them, or else go about things a lot more slowly. Additionally catching monkeys with any of the Morph tools is a lot more reliable and quick than your time net, and it eliminates some of that thrill of trying to catch a monkey the old fashioned way, but when monkeys will just dodge your nets a lot...... All in all what I'm getting at is I wondered if I was almost forced into liking the Morphs, because otherwise I'd come up against tension and things that I wouldn't like.
Teleborg enemies can be annoying in general, but also you do get better and better at just getting them on their wind-ups that one shot them. So I feel a bit two-ways about them too.
While Ape Escape 2's gacha machine was a bit of a pain, the Monkey Stories and things were a lot better in that game. The mini-games are also slightly less creative in 3, but they're also a lot more fun (Mesal Gear Solid aside, which is. Wow. So cool).
And one last thing: The boss battles are awesome (maybe not enough health) and you can do Monkey White, Blue, Yellow and Tomoki in under 25 seconds. Princess Ace and Miracle Ninja are crazy good for most things.

It feels like to actually talk about the game in full depth, I'd have to go into a million of these kinds of things. But that's the kind of thing that is a good sign for a game or franchise being interesting.
Ape Escape 2 and 3 in general make me feel like Ape Escape has a lot of missed potential as a franchise, if I'm honest. But I had a lot of fun being able to play these games in general, and I had a lot of fun with this game! It's fulfilled something I've always wanted to do, and I can't replace that. Definitely replaying all of them, but especially 1, in the future.

My laptop is fucked up cause of bullshit. So I went back to my Switch; Got some stuff on there I ought to play anyway.
Saints Row seemed like a good game to kinda soothe my emotions but… boy. The mood of this game is bad, it does not feel fun and Im not into the matrix stuff. The game also does not control well.
Feels like it throws a bunch of bullshit to do at you too without ever properly settling you in. Cops and aliens on your ass are annoying, collecting clusters is busy work. And… The game doesnt really have many choreographed missions?

It makes me wanna go back to 3 just to see if it holds up. I assume the controls are still about the same there but it isnt an issue when you dont have super powers, and I assume the missions are still good and cool.