This is my first time playing the Ape Escape series, and while I don't know the original control scheme or how it really played out, the remake does it best to bring it portable and make it more than a fine addition to your psp collection. I do think there is some problems with it's hit boxes, camera controls, and button layout, but making such a game portable at the time feels like an equal trade off to me.
On The Loose showed me everything I need to know to love the Ape Escape series as is, and effectively shows me why my current girlfriend loves it too! It has a fun charm of seeing apes run around and cause havoc while you try to corral them all to beat a level. It challenges the player to solve fun little puzzles of either getting to or stopping the apes from escaping. All the environments and levels in the game are fairly unique so it always stays fresh when you get a new level to explore, this is especially enhanced by levels getting more difficulty and lengthy as you progress through the game. While boss battles are often sparse, they were always a delight from the change of pace it brought, and I hope future games in the series give me more to enjoy. Overall Ape Escape: On The Loose is just a very good sandbox puzzle platformer that understood that 3D can't be as linear as 2D is. Honestly, the fact that you only need to capture so many Apes while still having more in the level also adds into a replay and speed run factor that just continues to make the game far more interesting to me compared to other 3D platformers at the time like Croc or Crash Bandicoot.
Ape Escape: On The Loose may not be the best port out there, but what it did for me still made me like the series compared to driving me away. Perhaps Ape Escape is just that whimsical of a 3D Puzzle Platformer? Maybe the environments are just far too neat or music far too bouncy to really get hindered by the PSP control performance issues, or maybe people just don't like to do extra work in using the controls they are given. Regardless, Ape Escape is a 3D platformer done right. While I'm glad I have 2 other games to explore; overall this was a great start to a series that deserves far more love than Sony ever gave it.
On The Loose showed me everything I need to know to love the Ape Escape series as is, and effectively shows me why my current girlfriend loves it too! It has a fun charm of seeing apes run around and cause havoc while you try to corral them all to beat a level. It challenges the player to solve fun little puzzles of either getting to or stopping the apes from escaping. All the environments and levels in the game are fairly unique so it always stays fresh when you get a new level to explore, this is especially enhanced by levels getting more difficulty and lengthy as you progress through the game. While boss battles are often sparse, they were always a delight from the change of pace it brought, and I hope future games in the series give me more to enjoy. Overall Ape Escape: On The Loose is just a very good sandbox puzzle platformer that understood that 3D can't be as linear as 2D is. Honestly, the fact that you only need to capture so many Apes while still having more in the level also adds into a replay and speed run factor that just continues to make the game far more interesting to me compared to other 3D platformers at the time like Croc or Crash Bandicoot.
Ape Escape: On The Loose may not be the best port out there, but what it did for me still made me like the series compared to driving me away. Perhaps Ape Escape is just that whimsical of a 3D Puzzle Platformer? Maybe the environments are just far too neat or music far too bouncy to really get hindered by the PSP control performance issues, or maybe people just don't like to do extra work in using the controls they are given. Regardless, Ape Escape is a 3D platformer done right. While I'm glad I have 2 other games to explore; overall this was a great start to a series that deserves far more love than Sony ever gave it.