Ape Escape - Sony is Bananas For Ditching The Iconic Monkeys 

I didn’t mention this in the video, because its just my opinion, but I think another big reason the series died out is because of the marketing around the game. Very early on in the series it was always about the apes moreso than the actual characters or even the gameplay. As time went on, it got worse, and the apes sort of became the Minions or the Rabbids of their time. The series went away from introducing new gameplay mechanics and good characters to focus more on just the apes being goofy. That hurt it in the long run, because “monkeys doing silly things” isn’t enough to build a whole franchise out of. Another problem is that after 3, the West only got the crappy party games while the more traditional Ape Escape games like Million Monkeys and Big Mission stayed in Japan, and were made for the PSP instead of PS2 or PS3.

Even if this franchises is dead, I will always campaign for it's return, no matter what, and I will always cherish the childhood memories I got from playing ape escape 3 and ape escape Pumped & Primed.

Sony has such disrespect for their old IPs, that it's genuinely heartbreaking. I feel like we wouldn't have all these Crash and Spyro games had they not gone third party, and the only reason IPs like Ratchet & Clank and Gran Turismo are still around is because they continue to sell well, despite their highs and lows. But the fact they were able to feature Spike in Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale and not do anything with the IP since, is just sad.

Those monkeys were everywhere during the first PlayStation generations and now I really miss having them around. Mesal Gear Solid was brilliant

Ape Escape was to my knowledge early on marketed as a game that hyped up the Sony Dual Shock controller. That was strictly its main focus. However the game is fun and could have been invested in a lot more.

I was thinking about how much I missed playing Ape Escape. Then YT read my mind and recommended this!

I think now would be a decent time to revive the series with a remake of the first three games like they did for Crash and Spyro. Tbh i'd much rather have that than Croc getting a remake, im surprised that of all ps1 platformers is getting a remake.

To this day I still enjoy playing through the original Ape Escape, and the soundtrack still holds up really well. Ape Escape 3 was a joy to play through, too. If Sony would remaster part 1 and then follow it up with Ape Escape 4, that would be amazing.

Ape Escape, Gravity Rush, PaRappa, Bloodborne and frankly Japan Studio as a whole were way too good for Sony to treat them like this. SCE simply didn't deserve these IPs. The ones that sold well were completely ignored and forgotten, and the ones that sold poorly only did because the marketing was horrendous or non-existent. It's really, really disheartening.

thank you for reminding me that this game series exists

God I need ape escape to come back 😭😭 really good work here tho man very underrated channel, you got my sub

Great video dude! Very well done. There was nothing like that first Ape Escape! When I was a kid I couldn't get enough of playing that demo. It was one of PlayStations major showcases and the game to introduce players to the analog stick controller. Who would of thought we would never see a remaster and we should at least if ever the series is to be revamped. I'm so glad that I own the original and the PS2 copies of 2 and 3 as well. I'm glad that I at least have them and all I can say is we have to treasure them for those of us who own them. What was so cool is the mini games in addition that make them fun to always go back and play still to this day!

Interestingly I grew up playing the PSP version of Ape Escape. Even though it only had one analog stick I still really enjoyed it. It’s too bad that Sony has completely abandoned so many of their old IPs. They could probably make a decent amount of money by doing MCC (Master Chief Collection) style collections of their older games with remastered graphics you can switch between. That way newer and older fans would be able to enjoy them. They should also start porting them ver a bunch of their older games to Steam so they can be preserved and more people can experience them. It would also be awesome if we got some Resident Evil/Dead Space style remakes of their older ips. Stuff like Killzone and Resistance would benefit greatly from this. Unfortunately, all of these things would actually make sense, and modern Sony has been doing the opposite of that. With the Activision Blizzard purchase by Microsoft you’d think they’d be looking back into their catalog of games for stuff they can resurrect to stay competitive.

Ape Escape 2 was published by Ubisoft in North America, but Sony Europe published the EU version. That's why they used different voice actors and localization. No one ever mentions this in videos about it. Don't know why

I want them to go ahead and add Ape Escape 3 to PSN already.

I'm annoyed that they haven't even added Ape Escape 3 to PSN.

I had pt 1 & 3 and brooo its disrespectful that they completely ditched this franchise especially with how creative and unique it was. I will always stand ready for new Ape Escape games

What do you mean this dude just made his channel 2 weeks ago? This is top level stuff you got here. Instant sub here, and hoping this channel continues to grow!

Shining Gundam in the background. We got a man of culture here.

Hey, man, I just discovered your channel, as someone who grew up with PlayStation during the mid/late 90, these videos are meant for me, lol. Glad to know I'm not the only one who misses Ape Escape, RIP Japan Studio. 💀 Anyway, keep it up, man. 👍

Sadly there isn't a lot of Japanese influence at PlayStation. People like Herman Hulst are actively against it and are likely the reason Japan Studio shut down.

They’ve gotta be cooking something up for this franchise, they’ve re-released most of the (translated) games on PS4/5. They’ve also used the monkeys as digital figurines on the PS App, and they were the first

Funny I was just trying to piece together what became of all the key developers behind these wonderful charming games, and came across a strange dead end with Naoto Ohta, his credited work seems to just end with Ape Quest, but his LinkedIn and twitter profile indicate he moved back to Capcom to act as a producer on Monster Hunter since the 3DS games around 2012, however I cannot find any trace of him in the credits of any games since then, perhaps he's under a special NDA or uses a pseudonym? Also, I suspect there may be something along the lines of a union or royalties-related reason for the different British and American dubs, because the NA PS4 PSN release of Ape Escape 2 only offered the British version, and they only more recently offered Ape Escape 1 at all during the roll out of the current multi-tiered version of PS+.

insane that you pulled up folklore of all games

Hope your channel blows up in popularity, dude. Your video essays are a treat!

Man pumped and primed was so awsome id love for them to add that to Playstation

It's so painful being an Ape Escape fan, especially in the US. It was my first 100% owned game too and I was so proud and happy. Somehow I have three copies now and it's by far my favorite Sony franchise. I would kill to have it come back. Sigh...Sony really sucks today... I really hope they at least do a reignited trilogy one day. That's probably very unlikely, though.

its such a shame how sony treats this series ape escape 2 was one of my go to ps2 games as a kid

The most shocking thing for me is that Ubisoft actually did something good. And useful. However, this is me speaking as a 34 year old who knows what they become. Time is weird on corporations like that. I actually think Ape Escape will be dusted off eventually. Nothing nowadays stays dead forever. And Sony has a big backlog of IP's to draw from should they need to rotate their stock. If this happens, I'll be excited, but terrified if they don't assign someone to it that understands why AE 1-3 worked. Regardless, even if I'm wrong. Emulators exist for a reason. So I can play the games to my heart's content.

Good video, I'll be watching more. Good luck with the channel.

um... the protagonists are aged 9-12 actually.... yeah THE PROFESSOR AND GANG SENT LITTLE CHILDREN TO DO THEIR DIRTY WORK 💀💀💀💀

10:09 Ape Academy 2 got a North American PS4 port, but as a digital-only game.

0:51 Spike's 10 years old as of Ape Escape 1, and the apes wear pants, with the color determining their style of combat and evasion. Naked apes don't appear until you reach the Hot Springs level of the Ice Age time period.

We gotta acknowledge how hard the sountrack goes tho

So ape escape was basically a new hardware testing games series I can live with that.

Anyone remember PaRappa the Rapper

Ape Escape Academy was awesome though. Also my first Ape Escape was On The Loose on the PSP. Controlling it was kind of annoying but not terrible.

Ape Escape 2 is one of my favorite childhood PS2 games. I played the North American version.

Nice work! These were great games. I bought the original PS1 game at the time it was released and I knew nothing about it, but it looked intriguing and I remember thinking, "finally! A game that uses that right analog stick for something". lol The entries on PS2 were brilliant as well. They really expanded on the individual unique personalities of each ape.

Come on, Playstation, make a new ape escape game, tell asobi Studios to make a new one people will love it

A new ape escape platformer, remake or original, is my half life 3 tbh.

Ummm... Nice job of using my footage there.

I remember when I saw Ape Escape when it first came out and was like ugh I cannot play it as I need this weird controller called an Analog Stick controller. And it was required. When I finally did get an analog controller and finally did play it, it was my favorite game for the system. And yeah I stopped looking or playing with Ape Escape Academy I did like Ape Escape On the Loose though. But yeah after the Academy games it was not the monkey catching like I liked in the first or other main games. Some of the games I would not mind trying out though some of em did look interesting to me.

I don't mind if Ape Escape returns with a physical (and digital) HD collection of the first three mainline platformer games, and (maybe) add online play to the hidden mini-games. If it happened, many more modern gamers would open their minds and try these classics in updated form. If the compilations sell well, I could see expansions of the series' established mini games come out as brand new standalone games that would help the series go forward. One of my favorite mini-games, Ski Kidz Racing, is dying to get its own standalone game.

We NEED a new ape escape.

Ape Escape 1 is masterpiece at the time compare to other 3D platformer, Ape Escape 2 is good game but in my opinion its have to many gadget that I barely use, Ape Escape 3 is the best.

Lore of Ape Escape - Sony is Bananas For Ditching The Iconic Monkeys momentum 100

if Sony can't make a new Monkey escape, at least hope to some one make a "spiritual sucessor" of this game

Man i was really excited to listen to this video until you got an easy fact wrong. Ubisoft published Ape Escspe 2 in America while Sony published it in Europe. Ubisoft redubbed the entire game with American accents before they released it here. Good video and editing style but please do a little more research before finishing the video.

Sony should just sell this IP to Nintendo to put to good use.

15:15 you're actually wrong on this one because in this mini-game we play as Solid Snake instead of Naked Snake because in the Codec call of Snake vs Monkey. Colonel Campbell called Solid Snake for this mission and Solid believed he was going to destroy another Metal Gear which those weren't even a thing in the main story of MGS3. The developers didn't gave him his iconic suit for it including Ape Escape 3 because a few people were misunderstanding Solid Snake with Naked Snake because of his camouflage pants in that one

I thought Ape Escape seemed really cool! Although I only got the opportunity to play the game maybe an hour or less - to this day I would love to go back and play it again when I get the time/money!!!

I miss this franchise to death