PlayStation Move Ape Escape

Back in the day Ape Escape was Sony's way to showcase their new Dualshock technology. The game was a tech demo expanded into a fun and fast-paced game. There would have been some nice symmetry if Sony used the franchise to showcase PlayStation Move. Instead, a year after the device launched, Sony releases PlayStation Move Ape Escape, a short, boring, on-rails shooter that is the opposite of what Ape Escape should be.
In PlayStation Move Ape Escape, monkeys crash land on Earth and start attacking. They aren't hiding. They aren't running. They aren't escaping at all.

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It's really PlayStation Move Ape Attack. Some girls want your help catching them, because their grandma used to have a monkey that got launched into space – that's the premise. There are some cool anime cutscenes to tell the story, which is decidedly more ambitious than a game about catching monkeys dressed as salarymen requires.

To catch these pernicious primates (see what I did there?) you're armed with a fan, a slingshot, and a butterfly net. Ape Escape is entirely on rails, so you shoot at floating bananas and mischievous monkeys (I did it again!) until the game halts you. From there those abject apes (ok last time) start charging you head on as you swipe them with your net.

Did that sound exciting? No, right? Because it isn't. It's really boring. The game feels like a mini-game that drags on for hours. PlayStation Move Ape Escape is missing a lot of shooter fundamentals like additional weapons , co-op, and challenge. The game spreads over 16 levels, with the very occasional change like a boss fight, but it's an extremely repetitive one-trick pony.

Closing Comments
There are numerous shooters that use PlayStation Move. Time Crisis: Razing Storm and The Shoot are on rails, and games like SOCOM 4 and Killzone 3 also offer Move support. All of them are better options, and all of them offer multiplayer, either locally or online. PlayStation Move Ape Escape is an embarrassing, shovelware shooter that feels more like a bargain bin Wii title than a first party affair.

by: Jack DeVries

Posted in: Action