Apparently monkey catching

Ape Escape 3 was my next miniature project following Klonoa and unlike Klonoa I'd been having it waiting in the wings for awhile since I purchased it used not very long ago. I haven't played Ape Escape 2 yet, but I did play the first and in general not much seems to have changed. That's not really a bad thing, although I can't say I particularly like the analog stick-focused gameplay. In a way that's saying a lot of my feelings for the game in a nutshell, because this type of gameplay is such a prominent feature of the game. However, despite not being very fond of the controls it was still more or less enjoyable. It's still fun to frantically run around catching or sneaking up on the game's monkeys with all the same gadgets.

One strong, positive feeling I have of the game is for the level design. The premise of the game is that monkeys are using TV to take over the world and put everyone into a trance. Levels the player visits are all movie sets responsible for the broadcasts. The number of genres and environments represented as well as references to specific movies and shows is staggering. While the individual levels each follow a sort of theme, even within individual levels there is a great deal of variety. An example is a level that starts off with kind of an Indiana Jones theme in sort of a rugged, mountain area with a water fall. Up from this area are some ancient ruins, and beyond those is some sort of transporter that goes up into the sky to an Olympus- or heaven-like area with angel monkeys flying around.

Graphics are simple looking and generally cartoonish, but that's not a bad thing. The look works well for the game. I've already talked about the levels, which are a plus for the graphics because so much looks fresh when you can see it rather than the same thing over and over. Music is mostly upbeat and somewhat catchy. The English voice acting is where Ape Escape 3 hits a big snag when it comes to sound though. Just by playing through the levels I can tell the game is supposed to be completely ridiculous and funny, but the generic and lifeless voices given to the characters are adept at sucking away all possible humor whenever they pop up in cut scenes and tutorials. On that topic, the tutorials are needlessly redundant and numerous, although at least it's not usually a big problem to skip through them.

A new element to the Ape Escape series this game brings is the morph ability, which allows the player to temporarily become something like a knight, ninja or western gunslinger. Each offers corresponding abilities that are generally an upgrade to both catching monkeys and doing damage to the rare boss. I guess I can't exactly say I dislike these morphs, but there is something about them I'm not crazy about even though it's hard to describe what exactly that is. It almost feels like cheating to become one and then spam one technique over and over to bypass the regular gameplay. They do go along with the game's theme of traveling through many different TV genres.

Overall Ape Escape 3 was a better game than the first if only for the diverse environments. Otherwise, it's the same monkey catching action, which as I've said isn't a bad thing.