Ape Escape is the first game to make you use the dualshock, and by god it wants you to know that. everything that can use the sticks, does. you move your character with the left stick (as god intended), but also moving the right stick swings your weapon, and its a little bit jank and some things could use some enhanced range, but its a fun novelty. you start out with nothing but a net and a stun club, the net catches monkeys and the stun club bonks things. personally, i found the stun club to be nearly useless when it comes to using them on the monkeys since if i can just swing it at a monkey, why wouldnt i just use the net to catch the monkey? you do get more gadgets as you go through the game though. a monkey radar to help you track nearby monkeys (not really useful until postgame but its nice to have), a slingshot with 3 ammo types (normal, explosive, homing) which is a bit clumsy to use but nothing too annoying. theres a hula hoop that makes you dash really fast when you spin the stick really fast for a couple second, personally that was my least used item and i only used it when i was forced to, theres also an rc car which is pretty fun to use as it can collect things, hurt enemies from a distance, you can use it while moving, its really cool, and theres also the sky flyer, which makes you gain some good air and even glide, once you get it and master it, you'll be using it the entire game. finally, theres something you can only get for beating the game, the magic punch. it destroys breakable walls, punches monkeys with better range than the stun club and well its really good, its just a shame you get it so late. as cool as most of these gadgets are, its not without its downsides, as you require use of many of them in a single level and can only have 4 assigned at a time meaning you need to constantly switch them around. i feel like this problem could have been somewhat avoided by allowing use of L1 and R1 as weapon slots as they are only used as alternatives to L2 and R2. it wouldnt totally fix the controls as there would still be 2 items you would need to alternate, but as i said earlier, the hula hoop and the monkey radar got little use from me until i really needed them. being a late 90s early 3d platformer, you do need to collect everything before getting the true final boss and real ending, which is a bit annoying considering you literally cant get most the monkeys on your first attempt at a level, and even if you could, the level ends after you collect x amount of monkeys, meaning you'd still need to come back for more, and even then theres monkeys you can only get with the final gadget you get from finishing the game, so its a bit annoying being forced to go through all the levels again just to hunt down the few remaining monkeys just for the final fight. there are also tokens you can collect in each level that earn up to 3 minigames... the first one wasnt very good, it was skiing where you use the sticks to change the angle of the skis to move, and i didnt try the rest. there are also time trials, which you get for 100%ing a level, and they seem to unlock nothing. all that adds up to your save file completion percentage, but i dont think you get anything for getting 100%, so i had no motivation for tokens or time trials.
that said, the levels are pretty fun. good themes. you go from jungle to icy mountains, to futuristic town, to japan, etc, maybe not the MOST creative levels out there, but whats in is utilized very well. if i had to say some complaints, well the lives system is kinda pointless. it just sends you outside the level but still saves your progress so its kinda just a mild annoyance if you game over. theres one boss thats just.... really bad, its the racecar one, its just awful. catching monkeys can be kinda finnicky and jank. the races you sometimes get can be bs. there are some monkeys that were a little too annoying to find, the roller coaster in the final level was real bad since theres this slight delay to your jumps and also you cant see obstacles until you need to jump so you just need to be way too perfect with your timing to not get hit, and the camera is just plain bad, it barely works, and the voice acting is atrocious. slightly better in the pal version but that would be at the cost of playing the pal version (no thank you). but besides all that, ape escape is a pretty fun and unique game, i can see why it became a beloved franchise and im looking forward to seeing what the sequels and spinoffs have to offer.