Ape Escape Academy
is not a fun game to play. Considering
that this is an off-shoot of one of Sony's
most entertaining properties, it comes as something of a surprise to see how
broken Ape Escape Academy is. On paper it might not seem like a bad idea --
show the training methods of our simian friends (and foes) through non-stop
mini games -- but sadly you aren't
playing this game on paper, this is a PSP game and it's
one you might want to avoid.
We've seen this type of game before, Ape Escape Academy is definitely cribbing off of games like Wario Ware$ on the Game Boy Advance and
Nintendo DS. If you've played through
the Wario games then you know that a game full of mini games can be hours of
fun, it's a game that gives you almost no time to think between exercises and
won't let you put it down. Unfortunately
Ape Escape Academy doesn't reach the
same heights as Wario, this is a game that tries as hard as it can but just
can't come together to create an entertaining experience.
The problems with Ape
Escape are apparent from the first minutes.
In the very first task you are forced to sing a song while marching with
your class of apes, you do this by pushing the buttons it tells you, not unlike
how you control Parappa the Rapper (and so many other subsequent music games). But while Parappa was full of style and funny
to listen to, Ape Escape Academy feels
more like an exercise, and you better believe that I forgot the song the moment
it was over.
Anybody can be excused for starting the game off with boring
Simon Says-style mini game, but sadly the games found here in Ape Escape Academy aren't very
good. Sony has poisoned the game by
offering a list of games that just aren't fun.
It's diverse and sometimes funny (I can't deny it, monkeys make me
laugh), but most of the games just aren't worth your time.
Ape Escape Academy
is split up into a six year curriculum, each featuring a new instructor made up
of bosses from previous Ape Escape titles.
Each year features nine different mini games, three rows of three. If you win the game you get an "O"
in that box, fail and you get an "X", your goal is to match three in
a row (be it across, up and down, or diagonally). Congratulations, now you know how to play
both Ape Escape Academy
AND Tic-Tac-Toe.
Ape Escape Academy
has a total of 45 different mini games, each forcing you to perform some unique
task. You'll be answering trivia
questions, counting monkeys, bowling, boxing, fencing, and yes, even
juggling. This sounds like a good recipe
for a portable experience, but the developers at Shift manage to undermine
nearly every mini game. Some are
entirely too long, others are far too frustrating, and others won't be very
clear until you've failed them a few times.
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