Review: Ape Academy 2 (PSP)

Apes, along with dragons seem to hold a special place in gaming. Our fascination with hominoidea primates knows no bounds, with them popping up in all sorts of releases across a wide range of genres, over the years. Ape Academy alongside Ape Escape, is Sony’s offering to this unique and burgeoning digital appreciation society.

Those familiar with the Playstation 2 Ape Escape games should not expect a wonderful adventure with Ape Academy 2. This series is a sideline that takes the cute visual nature of the PS2 offerings, and dumbs down the gameplay for the younger generation. Like its predecessor this release is firmly based around quirky mini-games, in a style trail-blazed by Mario Party and WarioWare Inc. At least this instalment maintains the tradition of a wacky story outline, which is an excuse for the mischievous apes to run riot, and for you to put the PSP buttons through an extreme workout.

Last time around Ape Academy was just a series of mini-games without much inbetween. Gamestyle soon lost interest, as there was no development of weapons or capturing of the primates to keep us entertained, which are staple features of Ape Escape. This time SCEI has seen fit to introduce the card dynamic, as seen in releases such as Baten Kaitos. Except such a facility allows for greater depth in an RPG setting, but how is that going to work in a puzzle release we hear you ask?

The answer, quite simply, is not very well. The concept is interesting, but the implementation is half-hearted. Although there are over 300 cards to collect, if you want to catch ‘em all, it’s only for the most stubborn of players. By completing mini-games you receive a card and this in turn denotes a unique game, and shows either a rock, paper or scissors enhancement. Gamestyle is getting ahead of itself here, as first you must play a game of rock, paper, scissors and the winner picks the card, which in turn selects the mini game. The flaw here is that you in essence need to win twice to gain any victory and given the range of mini games on offer, your chances of being good at everything is very unlikely. Compounding this feeling is the lack of a practice mode to brush up on your skills.

Then there is that consistent flaw with rock, paper, and scissors. Yes, the game is based purely on chance and requires no skill at all to either lose or win. However those young enough will probably lack the insight into such an underlying flaw, which is probably why SCEI created a game around the concept. For older players it’s just frustrating and unrewarding, knowing whatever approach you take, the outcome is purely down to luck.

At least there are over 100 mini-games on offer here, but with such a sizeable range many are hit and miss. Again these have a random quality to gaining victory. The flaw with most mini-games in general is simply their obvious size and once experienced, there is no need to return. Ape Academy 2 can be fun in bite-sized chunks, but it’s far removed from the rewarding title it should have been, and Gamestyle likes to capture these critters not engage in shallow mini games.

Visually matters are somewhat better, with the PSP playing host to a vibrant colour scheme and accompanying sounds. It can be an eye-catching title with the emphasis on detail and speed. In spite of the numerous cards and games, Gamestyle cannot help but feel this would just sit on a Playstation 2 release as a bonus mode. Some attempt has been made to broaden the experience with a wireless mode and sending a mini-game via Game Sharing, but your pal will soon want to move onto something far better than Ape Academy 2 for multiplayer thrills.

Ape Academy 2 is symptomatic of the PSP software catalogue that is currently struggling to gain an advantage over the Nintendo DS. While visually attractive, there is no addictive game play or enticing experience to make this title standout from the countless, faceless, PSP games loitering on shop shelves. The apes deserve better, don’t encourage their bad treatment here by buying into this experience.

Rating: 4 / 10

Words by Jason Julier