After a good play through, I think it becomes rather apparent why SCEA opted not to localize Ape Escape 2, this most fine formulation of monkey madness, which I thought was going to be a mystery for the ages. Though the original Ape Escape became a modest success - along with being one of the best games ever made to boot - it also had that curtained main priority of getting the world to come to rubbery grips with the newfangled Dual Shocks, so a game with an appeal more cosmopolitan than usual was necessary. Then the Dual Shocks became standard issue and then what was to separate the series from everything else? Now left to their own devices, sequels started to get released and their true colors were shown and these games were, as they say, turning (too) Japanese. In this one for example, we have the quirked humor (most of the non-simian enemies are monsters made from a combination of cute little piggies and spirals of feces), an iridescent fantasia of an introduction FMV with a chorus of “Saru Getchu” (the Japanese name of the series) singing in the background, capsule toy collecting, pages of comic strips in kanji, and monkeys dancing in traditional hosiery, all of which can seem very foreign, stopping just short of a sumo monkey (and there are one of those thrown into this mix, by the way) stomping around and yelling, “Dosucoi!” Though SCEA allowed the heavy foreign influence to slide by in ICO, letting it to chalk to mysticism and mythology for that game, I guess they were wondering how they would be able to pull it off with this one. That the act of catching rambunctious monkeys - such beloved iconic, sometimes ironic, animals in the States - is not as American as we were all led to believe in 1999.

So bless the stalwart souls at Ubi Soft for looking past regional differentials and releasing this - which really isn’t much of a gamble in the first place considering how closely Ape Escape 2 sticks to the winning formula of the first. Nearly all of the heroes and villains return, though Spike is replaced by his younger cousin, Jimmy, who’s sounds a lot like Pokemon’s Ash Ketchum and carries over that same precarious distinction between heroic and rose-colored (“They look like they’re having fun,” is the first thing he says of the monkeys after accidentally giving them all a shipment of brain augmenting helmets). The goal to catch all the mischievous monkeys and ringleader Specter with a net, the hub system and the themed levels, the control scheme and the game mechanics; all of it’s back, so I guess everything gold can sometimes stay. The proud adhering kinship won’t sit well with some, being cited as unoriginal and uncreative undoubtedly, but when you’ve made one of the most accessible and enjoyable 3D platformers ever, and, more importantly, haven’t even been topped since, why bother losing any sleep trying to make another groundbreaking experience? But it’s still sneered upon and I suppose the blame rests squarely on the world’s voracious appetite for novelty - whose bib is now stained with satellite dishes, broadband connections, electronic phantasmagorias - where everyone now isn’t just looking for the new thing, but the new kind of thing. How else could you logically account for the unpopularity of contemporary Woody Allen films?

As a possible form of reparation, Ape Escape 2 does offer more replay value than the first, but anyone not willing to participate or chase these extra funs (and why wouldn’t you?) will feel severely shortchanged. Along with the fact that seeing the end credits doesn’t necessarily mean the job’s done, we are also presented with the Gotcha Box, an enormous capsule machine where sundries can be exchanged for gold coins collected in the levels, which include, among other things, concept art, translated comic strips, FMVs, musical tracks, and Monkey Fables. All of these can then be accessed from the entertainment shelves, which also has a jukebox for the enormously irresistible and catchy soundtrack. If there’s any justice in this world, songs like “Monkey Hot Springs” and “Snowball Mountain” will be uttered in the same company of “Magical Sound Shower” and choice cuts from Mega Man 2 as the musical greats.

The minigames, unlocked through the Gotcha Box, are much more than the fillips they were in the first and are far meatier than your average A1 Game. There’s a monkey soccer game, a rhythm game parody, and a cruel, difficult Crazy Climber parody. In the soccer game, the monkeys Jimmy catches are then drafted onto the team, so the farther a player progresses in the real game, the stronger the soccer team gets and thus, the more fun it gets.

In addition to the original nine, there are three new gadgets (which are once again given to the main hero in-between specific levels and can then be assigned to the main four buttons for quick access): bananarang (draw out monkeys that are hungry from their hiding places), water cannon (douse out flames; drench and bother monkeys), and electro magnet (move or attach to blocks of metal). Though there are some inspired moments of platforming using the electro magnet where Jimmy has to crane across deep abysses while attached to floating blocks of metal, the former two are woefully underutilized, and is an extra shame for the water cannon since conflagration fighting could’ve put an extra dynamic on the gameplay. It is instead used to put out wimpy campfire obstacles, most of which can be run past during the short cushion of invincibility from a previous injury.

So the monkey radar, which scopes out the general location of monkeys and allows the player to see the monkeys in their natural element, remains the best gadget and is one of the feathers that continues to elevate the Ape Escape series above others. Though it’s great to play the part of the hero, it’s also important to consider the role of the Goodall-wannabe, as the very core of the game’s charm is to see the monkeys strut, sneeze, yawn, and do whatever it is smart monkeys do when they think no one’s around. And then there’s even more amusement in seeing the absurd ways they try to defend themselves, some of them with success, some of them with hilarious miscalculations.

The interesting device is that most of the monkeys don’t seem to realize they’re doing anything wrong at all and that they’re not really doing anything bad at all, which might’ve been a little sad to return them to captivity had the game not been so insouciantly blasé about it. So instead, it comes off as endearing and cute. The monkeys build statues, relax and watch television, dance to disco music, hit the slopes, push gondolas around waterways, sip coffee, while the really smart monkeys (or would it be the other way around?) get aggressive and defend the simian empire. These monkeys, they’re much smarter now and to kick it off, they partake in the same routines and activities that humans do. Obviously some kind of commentary. Hey, if these monkeys are getting captured for doing the same things that we do, that probably doesn’t reflect too particularly well on us. So down the road, will some supreme evolved being net us up and throw us back into the zoos we broke out of? If that be the case, I just hope no one catches me when I’m in the middle of watching something starring Renée Zellweger and Keira Knightley.

· · · Sqoon