The Crazy Japanese Exclusive Ape Escape Games
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 มิ.ย. 2024
- I've been a long time fan of the Ape Escape series and played through the main numbered entries quite a few times. I've even played a few of the spin offs that were released on the PSP, so I consider myself to be something of an ape connessiour. However, in the back of my mind, I've always known that there's a whole set of Ape Escape games I've never had access to and the reason for this is because they never released outside of Japan.
Even though I'm unable to play these games in their intended way though, using the power of emulation, I've finally tracked down all of these pesky games and I'm ready to play through them all with you. So join me on my quest to play every single Japanese exclusive Ape Escape game!
Introduction - 00:00
Ape Escape 2001 - 00:55
Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed - 06:12
Ape Escape: Million Monkeys - 11:41
Ape Escape Racing - 19:05
Ape Escape: SaruSaru Big Mission - 24:23
Conclusion - 29:30
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I have a translation team. I'm really interested in tackling a Million Monkeys and SaruSaru BigMissons.
If you could somehow translate them that would be absolutely incredible. A lot of Ape Escape fans would be very grateful! We've gone so long without a translated version!
Something tells me that there's some kind of complication with translating them though, otherwise surely it would have been done years ago? Maybe something to do with how the games were coded or something? I have no idea!
Million Monkeys definitly should have came out. I love the concept. Wild, yet makes a little bit of sense.
I wonder if Sony have a fully translated version of Million Monkeys just sat there somewhere... It was actually supposed to release in Europe afterall...
But yeah! I love the wild concept with it, it's probably the most wacky that the series has ever got!
You had one job, Sony.
I have actually played it recently. and it was absolutely hilarious that the game was like all the main story related cutscenes ARE ENGLISH DUBBED. and there's no real story going for it so it's perfectly playable without having it to be english dubbed.
One thing about million monkeys that is often overlooked is the gadget creation system. As you finish the game’s levels, your custom character will be given these computer chips. You can fuse these chips to get new gadgets, upgrades for gadgets, monkey summons from Pumped and Primed, and even costumes for each character. I think this makes the gameplay more engaging as it lets you expand and upgrade your character as you progress. Especially since each character has different kinds of gadgets in their arsenal.
Ape Escape had always been wild, but a game where you vacuum off their pants? That's another level.
I thought that was pretty crazy too and then when I got to Million Monkeys that just took things to a whole new level of insanity!
I remember being hyped for Million Monkeys back in the day (it was actually scheduled to be released in Europe at one point). I finally played a few years ago and was a tad disappointed that the game isn't a traditional platformer but rather an Earth Defense Force clone. Still a pretty interesting game.
As for Big Mission, I actually had a hacked PSP as a kid and I randomly stumbled across it one day. Realizing that it was by all intents and purposes a fourth mainline Ape Escape game was pretty cool.
It's such a shame that it didn't come to Europe, especially considering it's one of the more difficult ones to play due to having a lot of menus. I enjoyed it for what it was, but yeah I wouldn't say it's my cup of tea either really. I think the wackiness of the story kept me playing it though haha! It does actually have a similar vibe to Earth Defence Force doesn't it! Only without the giant ants!
That's awesome! I wish I could have played all of these games on the actual hardware. It never quite feels the same when you have to emulate stuff.
Also, I'm pretty sure that I replied to this comment a week or so ago, but apparently TH-cam just didn't actually post it haha! So sorry for the late response! :D
@@PixelPursuit No worries :)
Hi, greetings from the Ape speedrun community.
First of all; racer.
I did a blind race with BmaN at one point, and it was messed up for us too finding out what to do. But you need to repeatedly do cups to fill up a bar, then race one of the pipotrons who are really difficult. After that, you unlock the next 4 tracks. Repeat twice and you properly reached the credits.
But like you said, there are only 4 themes, but with 3 tracks in each of em. It does get boring and it took me 5 hrs+ (bottom of the leaderboards, wr is 3.5 hrs).
Big Mission is what we call internally Ape Escape 4, or 3.5 actually. Definitely a must play, together with piposaru 2001.
Thank for this video.
Hello! I still haven't watched any Ape Escape speedruns yet! I need to get on Twitch and sort that out!
Oh... That explains why I couldn't progress through the cups then! I probably didn't fill the bar enough. I didn't even notice a bar to be honest 😅 at least it's not super long, but still 5 hours straight of playing probably got a bit tedious!
Yeah, I can see why you would label Big Mission as 4 or 3.5, it's the closest that we've got to a true sequel at this point. I'm really glad I finally checked it out!
No problem! I'm really glad you enjoyed it 😀
That Million Monkeys game is wild. I did not expect Ape Escape to have its own version of Shadow the Hedgehog. :P
I definitely wasn't expecting it to be anything like that! I loved the live action cutscenes though and I feel like if you played it in short bursts it probably wouldn't feel as repetitive either!
Awesome video! Never knew that Pumped and Primed was localized in English and I didn't even know Ape Escape Racing existed!!
Thank you! Yeah it's pretty crazy how many Ape Escape games there actually are once you start digging a bit deeper! Ape Escape Racing has got to be one of the strangest ones for sure!
SaruSaru looks really fun, and definitely punches above it's weight for PSP
It's definitely worth a shot if you don't mind emulating it!
Could’ve also mentioned the Ukki Ukki Disk…that I just learned about today. Also the McDonald’s disc, haha.
Great video!
I had no idea either of those existed even after doing loads of research for this video!
Was thinking about these games the other day, excited to dive into this video!
That's a strange coincidence! I hope you enjoyed the video! 😀
Pumped and primed Actually has 2 player for story mode. Player 2 can join on the character selection screen.
Oh damn, it does? They could have made that a bit more obvious 😅 how does that actually work? Is it co-op or is it still like you're against each other? I'll have to test that out, that probably would make it more enjoyable!
Still, luckily I don't think it will alter my opinion on the game dramatically so I think the video is still accurate besides that!
@@PixelPursuit just have someone use the 2nd controller on the character selection screen in story mode.
@@PixelPursuitit's actually pretty fun, i played it with my brother all the time, just like you said it's a party game, but there are boss battles where if you play co-op you fight on the same team, i do also think you're technically on the same "team" if you do play co-op
Both me and my cousin only had Ape Escape Pumped and Prim in the context of extra games and assumed that was the only extra other games until we got older. (Beacuse we weren't Japanese.) Otherwise we were in love with Ape Escape 2 but i grew up to fall in love with Ape Escape 3 instead of two, but he stuck around in favoritism for number two. In Ape Escape Pumped and Primed, he always loved to play as the Pipotron Monkeys, so he would pick one of them meanwhile i was always picking Casi; unfortunately we don't have it anymore. We don't remember much anymore about it, but it was amazing for our Ape Escape childhood.
To be fair Pumped and Primed basically was the only extra game in the west! And us Europeans didn't even get that! We did get some of the PSP games though later on I suppose, so at least there's that!
I love the entire Ape Escape trilogy but I actually think the first one is the best one! I do really like 3 as well though, but 2 is probably the weakest in my opinion. Like I say though, they're all incredible!
That's awesome how you played Pumped and Primed together like that though, I feel like if it had come out over here I would have played it for hours, it would have been one of my go to co-op games most likely!
@@PixelPursuit Such a shame you couldn't play the games beacuse they weren't released there, but it's good you got to play some of the PSP. Although i can't judge on Ape Escape 1 beacuse i've never been able to play it beacuse it's not released at all around here, if i could then i would trust me lol. There's just no other game like Ape Escape in my opinion, i mean where else are you going to find games that have you suck pants off monkeys?! Lol!
Fantastic video. Subscribed. Always love to see more Ape Escape content
Thank you! I want to do another video on the Ape Escape series but it would probably take me a while to tackle everything I want to talk about haha!
The racing game is very reminiscent of kinetica. It had a similiar "vehicle" design. Which was based on a relatively growing hobby at the time. Where people had outfits and little wheel handles amd wheel led shin braces and bombed down hills.
I hope million monkeys gets far with the fan translation i really wanna play it
I don't think the people working on the translation are still active unfortunately 😢 but maybe someone else could attempt to translate it at some point!
I even completed Ape Escape Saru Saru Big Mission!
Oh nice! I didn't get 'that' far in this video, but I got a lot further afterwards, I still need to go back and finish it though!
I always thought it was strange how they planned to release million monkeys in Europe and not America when it’s technically considered a sequel to pumped and primed and that game was released in America and not Europe. But pumped and primed was also published by Ubisoft for the US release. Sony had nothing to do with it, so that’s probably the only reason it came out in America because that was the same case with ape escape 2 in North America
I wasn't aware of Ape Escape: SaruSaru Big Mission and Ape Escape Racing... I'll download and try them on my PSP. Thanks!
You're in for a treat with SaruSaru Big Mission! I really liked that one! Racing is okay too, but I personally found it to probably be the least enjoyable of the ones in this video. It's still worth a go though 😀
Both of them are great!
Missing your gaming room setup videos, btw am gonna play ape escape 2 for the first time
The game room isn't actually all that different from the last time I showed it. There's a couple of changes but nothing too major. The next changes I make are going to be bigger ones that will cost more money, but I might do a video talking about all that soon!
You'll definitely have fun with Ape Escape 2! Have you played 3? I probably prefer 1 and 3 to 2, but it's still an awesome time! :D
Great video 😃
Thank you! This was a very fun one to make!
Interesting stuff, man. To be completely honest I know nothing about the Ape Escape series. It totally flew under my radar back in the PS1/PS2 days. I bought a cheap copy of Ape Escape 2 a few years back but I have still to play that. It seems that this franchise was fairly invested upon for a while but eventually it was left dormant. Probably Sony shifted their attention to franchises with a more serious and darker tone.
It really doesn't get the recognition it deserves, all three of the main games are phenomenal platformers, however I would probably say that the second game is the worst of the three. You can get the first game for quite cheap on PS4 and PS5 now if you wanted to give them a go! The first one is also my favourite of the bunch!
But yeah it definitely seems like Sony focuses more on the darker stuff now doesn't it, although they did recently publish Sackboy's Big Adventure and Astro's Playroom, so maybe there's still hope!
Not gonna lie: Feels strange without your occasional cutting to live action Rob.
Yeah I was trying out something a bit different with these videos to see what people thought! So far you're actually the only person to point out that I don't appear in live action haha!
My childhood 😢❤
Looking at the entire series something tells me that they regret creating Jimmy and the siblings from Ape Escape 3 xD
They almost don't exist outside their own games.
At least we saw them again in the PSP game! It would be nice if there was a remake of the first game but they made the 2 and 3 protagonists playable too, I mean they do have access to a time machine after-all!
That's ashame cause I felt like Big Mission should've allowed you to switch protagonist rather than just playing as Spike by default just cause he's the og.
What Pumped and Primed isn't Japanese only!
Source: I own it.
Haha, I know! It's just that I kinda needed to talk about it to set Million Monkeys up and it wasn't released in Europe so I've sort of grouped it together with the Japanese exclusives because it was inaccessible to me for so long!
My favorite game series! ive had my ape escape 3 since release, never knew how EXPENSIVE theyre nowadays!
You have amazing taste in games! Ape Escape is up there with my favourite series too! I love Ape Escape 1 and 3 in particular! I've got physical versions of 1 and 3 but I don't have 2 unfortunately I should probably get it before it becomes so expensive I'll never be able to afford it :D
@@PixelPursuit same here, im based in finland and ive got all of them except 2. hard to find
I think 2 is actually easier to find here in the UK than 3 is. If I happen to see it soon I might have to get it just to have the complete trilogy 😀
@@PixelPursuityea I got a copy of ape escape 3 in CEX for £30 a while ago and copies of ape escape 2 were much cheaper, around £18
@@poy110 If I see it for around that price, I'm going to be very tempted to get it! At the moment I have the digital version on PS4/PS5, but it doesn't feel the same as having it on the original hardware!
I actually cleared Ape Escape Racing. I even got to Rainbow Banana Class.
Nice! I'm not sure why I couldn't work out how to progress further into the game 😅 I still enjoyed what little of it I did manage to play, even if it was a bit flawed!
@@PixelPursuitI looked at your driving techniques, and I found out that you tackle the whole track in Normal Mode. But in reality, on the straightaways, you should hold the L and R buttons to shift into Long Mode to speed up, and on sharp corners, tap the Square button to shift into Wide Mode and Drift the corner. Here's a Speedrun I did for all the tracks, and see if you can learn from it.
th-cam.com/video/l8yR6NkkXis/w-d-xo.html
Yeah, a lot of the footage I used in the Ape Escape Racing segment was before I figured out how to use the long mode to go faster. I did eventually figure that out though and got a fair bit better as I played it more. I think I actually watched your speedrun already! I was looking for videos on the game and came across yours! In fact it might have been your video that made me realise that there was a long mode!
Good video well done
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it! :D
its a shame saru saru mission wasn't ported over here, it looks a cracking game.
It is extremely good. I definitely recommend it if you've played the main trilogy and you're looking for more! Obviously it's a bit tricky to get your hands on though, and it's a bit hard to understand given it's in Japanese 😅
@@PixelPursuit yeah, i struggled "learning" french at school, i've got no chance with Japanese lol
Pumped and prime did have 2 player campaign tho
Yeah I got that totally wrong, another commenter pointed that out to me too and I'm really annoyed that I missed that somehow when I played it for myself. I've actually just attempted to use the TH-cam video editor to cut that bit out of the video completely, so in a few hours the part where I complain about that might be gone so the video will be completely accurate. Hopefully that actually works!
Another great video. Do you stream at all? If so, do you have a streaming schedule so I can catch you live? Ty
That is an extremely good question and this is something I've been meaning to get better with for ages now. I really want to more consistently stream, at the moment it's extremely sporadic! When I do stream it's over on Twitch and I'm hoping to stream quite soon because I'm off work for a while now. I tend to post on Twitter when I do stream, so if you want to stay updated you can follow me on there!
As for a schedule, I don't have one at the moment because I need to get more consistent with it before fully committing to that!
@@PixelPursuit thankyou - I'll be sure to drop you a follow 🙂
OMG I need to get a copy of SaruSaru Big Mission
What could "pumped and primed" possibly mean in the context of apes
I've never really thought about that! I guess we're all just excited and ready (aka pumped and primed) to catch all of those apes :D
Happy New Year Rob. Looking forward to more awesome content this year. As a side note, I've just bought a Retrostation component cable for my ps2 and also an S-Video cable for my ps2 so I can play ICO and Shadow of the Colossus more clearly. It's really made a difference compared to the PS2 to HDMI dongle thing I've been using. Just waiting to receive my Retroscaler from AliExpress, a more affordable version of the Retrotink 2x. It's a line doubler. I wondered if you have had any experience of using the Retrotink, and how you hook up your ps2 and ps1 games. Half way through Res Evil 1 now. Loving it. Take care Rob x
Happy New Year! That sounds like a much better setup than the PS2 HDMI dongle! I'm also using a third party component cable for my PS2 and it works amazingly. I've actually been using the RetroTink 2X for years now and it's incredible, it made such a drastic difference combined with the component cables that I could never go back to using the composite ones now!
My setup is actually ridiculously complicated, but the basic version is that my PS2 (which I use to play PS1 games too) has the component cables plugged into the RetroTink 2X and then the HDMI from that goes into the TV.
The more complicated version so that I can record and stream easily from either the main TV or my computer monitor is this... So the PS2 component cables go into a component switch box, also plugged into this same switch box is my Wii which I use for GameCube games primarily, from that box is another component cable which goes into the RetroTink 2X (effectively this upscales both the PS2 and the Wii at the same time), the HDMI from the RetroTink 2X goes into a HDMI switch box. Also plugged into this switch box is the PS3, PS4, PS5 and Switch, meaning that I can swap between any of those signals without needing to unplug anything from the TV. From this HDMI switch box a cable goes into a HDMI splitter, splitting the signal into two separate outputs which go to both the main TV and my capture card. The capture card has an HDMI output which then goes into yet another HDMI switch box. This other switch box has the HDMI cable from all of the consoles as well as my PC's HDMI cable, meaning that I can swap between my PC display and the consoles display for when I need to stream or quickly record something without using the main TV.
When I got a PS5 I encountered a lot of issues because some of my splitters and switch boxes weren't compatible with 4K video signals, so I needed to upgrade a lot of it to make it work. But that's all sorted now even if it was a complete pain!
Hopefully that makes a degree of sense! I doubt that you'd need anything like that if you're just casually playing games. Just a component cable and a RetroTink will do the job :D
@@PixelPursuit WOW! Thanks for that reply. I've now tried the Retroscaler from AliExpress and I'm really disappointed with it. The TV image is much clearer just connecting the ps2 to the TV with a component cable. Plugging component into the retroscaler then that into the HDMI on the TV degrades the image. the line doubler option looks fuzzy, the smoothing setting looks a little better, and selecting 'pass through ' which I assume bypasses all the upscaling and just converts component to hdmi is actually the best looking option but even that is not as good as simply connecting the ps2 to the TV with component cable.
Am I right in thinking your Retrotink 2x gives a better image than just using component? I'd love to know. I think this retroscaler is only good enough to use if someone does not have component input on their TV. I'm lucky enough to also have SCART and the ps2 S-Video cable plugged into that also looks great for playing ps1 games, or ICO
No problem! Yeah the cheaper upscalers can really affect the quality of the video quite a lot. Some of my earlier videos were recorded with a cheap upscaler and you can really see the difference compared to what I record now. Component cables are very underrated, I don't think most people know that these older consoles had the capability of looking as good as they can.
And yeah, the RetroTink improves the image even beyond what's possible with component, when I first got it I was really shocked at how much it was improved actually! Scart is actually the absolute best picture quality you can get from these older consoles, but the issue for me is that my TV doesn't have scart inputs and my upscaler doesn't support it either. This is one of the big reasons I want to upgrade to the RetroTink 5X because then I would be able to not only use scart but the 5X upscales the image even more. It's insane, it literally makes the games look like they're being emulated with maximum graphics settings! S-Video is good too, but I'm actually quite unfamiliar with it, I'm pretty sure that it's not as good as component but better than composite right? So from best to worst it's scart, component, s-video and then composite. Things were a lot more complicated before HDMI haha!
@@PixelPursuit hi Rob. Yes component generally looks better than S-Video and I would always chose component over S-Video, However, that is not an option for playing PS1 games on my ps2, or ICO, because the signal is not compatible with component, so I have to switch the cables around. I've also compared using the ps3 connected with HDMI to the TV to play PS1 games, but again, I get a better image connecting the ps3 using component cable and changing the ps3 display settings. I really notice the difference in dark corners in games like Resident Evil. There is more detail available. You can't even see any green herbs hidden in corners using HDMI but they are visible using component.
Will you eventually get a Retrotink 5x? I hope you'll do a video about it. Have you got a video about the Retrotink 2x? Is yours still working great? I've read some Amazon reviews which say the oscc and the Retrotink 2 stopped working.
Glad to see the beard is still off!
Hmm, I remember that being an issue for me at first too but then I found some kind of workaround for it. I can't remember exactly what that workaround was though... It's either that the RetroTink 2X makes it so that the PS1 signal works with component, or it's that the component switch box I'm using somehow makes the signal compatible. It's most likely that the RetroTink 2X makes PS1 games work through the PS2 with component though, probably due to the way it upscales it or something! So that's another reason to get a better upscaler!
I will eventually get a 5X for sure and when I do I'll definitely do a video on it. I don't think I actually did ever do a video about the 2X. I think I mentioned it in a couple of videos but I never went into any detail about it. My RetroTink 2X has always worked perfectly, I've never encountered a single issue with it at all, so maybe I just got lucky with it! Either that or they're referring to the new model RetroTink 2X which I think is called the RetroTink 2X Pro. I don't actually think they sell the original version of the 2X anymore, so I'm glad I got mine when I did!
Haha, yeah I'll probably leave it a while before I grow that again :D
Ape escape 2001 reminds me of Blinx Time Sweeper
How I miss playing ape escape saru saru lol remembering the time when I was 6yrs old navagating to the menu HAUAHAH
Have you reviewed the PSP Ape Escape games or that PS3 Ape Escape with PS Move features and if you haven't, will you review it?
I haven't reviewed them yet, but I definitely want to take a look at them at some point. I've never even played the PS Move one so that would be particularly interesting!
I would have bought a PSP if the last one was on it in English. Damn
We need an ape escape ps5 remake
A brand new game would be better tbh
Honestly I just want to see something from this series! Regardless of whether it's a remake or a brand new game! With the original game now being playable on PS5 and 4 though, I'm not sure that a remake is all that needed. Unless it was a remake of the entire trilogy, that could be interesting!
@Pixel Pursuit I mean if bubsy can get a new game why can't ape escape, even medievil got a remake 2 of them!?
I have always wanted to play saru saru big mission. But I’m afraid I won’t be able to enjoy the game to its full extent without it at least having subtitles. I like to know exactly what’s going on. I also hate how ape escape is being treated on the Ps5. There’s 3 games but not the ones you’d Expect. We have a Nice port of the original Ape Escape 1, but then we have Ape escape 2 but it’s a terrible sounding UK dub where the voices are terribly synced. I’m unsure why they felt the need to dub over a game that’s already in English. It’s the same game but with unfitting accents. Finally we have Ape Academy 2 for some reason. It’s such a weird choice. It would’ve made more sense to go with Ape Academy 1 or a different game entirely, like Ape Quest or something else. All I can do is hold out as much hope as I possibly have left for this series to get the treatment it deserves.
I totally agree, it would be so much more enjoyable if someone managed to create subtitles for all of these games.
Hey, at least we have some of the games accessible! A lot of other series have it much worse! I really expect that the reason Ape Escape 3 hasn't ever been ported or remastered is because of the Mesal Gear Solid minigame. They probably can't regain the rights to the MGS series in order to re-release it.
Wait, is the Ape Escape 2 dub the UK one even in the US? That's really weird! I wonder why they did that? Maybe because the UK dub uses the character's sort of 'official' Japanese names? I'm actually used the the UK dub because that's how it's always been for me haha!
It is really weird how Ape Academy 2 is the one they chose to port. Again I wonder what the reason for that is...
Either way, I really, really do expect that Ape Escape will make a comeback soon. Whether that be a remake or a brand new game in the series I'm not sure, but it's only a matter of time. If Gex and Klonoa can return than surely Ape Escape can!
@@PixelPursuit I just like the American version because of the voice actors being Ash, Misty, and Pikachu. It would’ve been better if they took the time to actually sync the voices correctly. It seems so lazily done. It’s so weird to have a Japanese game, voiced by people from the UK that was already in English, using their Japanese names.
And yes I totally agree about Gex. I didn’t even know Klonoa got a remake/remaster. It’s kind of unfair tbh. But you’re right. If those can get a remake, I think it’s Ape Escape’s turn. Then Jak and Daxter, even though I never played those games much. Maybe even Parappa the Rapper as well?
Now ape escape p is coming to ps5 lol
@@poy110 Ape escape P? You mean like the PSP version of ape escape 1 right? That’s the one I grew up with. I mean I guess that’s okay. They already have the original PlayStation 1 version of Ape Escape. Hopefully they release 3 on here too, since they came out at the same time
@@djneely2999 idk about 3 as they still have not added any ps2 games to ps4/ps5 since 2018, the ones on ps plus premium were added to the consoles years before
Daisakusen owns
It's such a shame it never came out outside of Japan :(
@@PixelPursuit absolutely agree. Even if it wasn't already one of the best games in the series, that ost is soooooo worth checking out.
Lmao, even ape escape can't escape the edginess of the early 2000's so they decided to go edgy as well
Wow so many japanese exclusives!
Yeah, I think Ape Escape is way more popular in Japan than it is in Europe or America, so it's had quite a few games locked to Japan! It was really cool to finally play all of these though, I've been meaning to give them a go for ages now!
@@PixelPursuitjapan being japan... btw rewatching Chivalry of a Failed Knight
I still haven't really been watching much anime. I have just started the 1997 Berserk anime though actually! But that's just because I'm really, really into Berserk right now haha!
@@PixelPursuit nice! Yeah I haven't watched anime in a while and my reading of the subtitles got slower
I've always been quite a fast reader, so subtitles have never bothered me very much! I know it can take a while to get used to for some people though!
Hi
Hello again!