Ape Escape Academy

Written by Matt Swider  on July 11, 2006

Review: Oh my gosh, I was wrong! It was WarioWare with apes all along!

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You may not have noticed, but apes have slowly been learning and mimicking what human characters do in videogames for a couple of years now. Just look at the facts. Mario spearheaded the first 3D platform game only to have Ape Escape follow in his footsteps with a very similar title. Then, he decided to host a non-stop series of party games, but the apes impersonated the plumber there too in Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed. The latest ape-on-human victim is Wario. These very same apes infringed upon his line of WarioWare, Inc. games with Ape Escape Academy on PSP. Like their previous offerings, the apes aren't man enough to take the genre anywhere new, so while the game is fun, they aren't poised to take over in Planet of the Apes fashion.

Ape Escape Academy is structured as a series of short minigames that take less than a minute to complete. Among them are typical monkey sports like boxing, soccer, bowling, hockey and dodgeball. There are also a number of expected spot the odd one out and trivia questions, all of which have multiple choice answers. Only a select few minigames break from the monkey-see-monkey-do formula by presenting you with something unique. Monkey Matador, for example, gives your monkey a red cape and places him at the end of five lanes full of charging bulls. As you start off in the middlemost lane, you avoid being hit head-on by waving your cape over an adjacent lane by repeatedly tapping the X button. Doing this speeds up the charging bull to your right or left and spins you into that neighboring lane and out of harms way. It's easy to do once, but a challenge to avoid all of the non-stop bulls over time.

Besides the need for more unique minigames like Monkey Matador, this ape school also needs better directions before each minigame begins. Sometimes, you're only told that the D-Pad is used to move, but never informed of where to go or what the objective is. Some might argue that this is all part of the fun and it's a trial and error type of process. However, when you're monkey hide is on the line in Academy Mode and you're trying a minigame out for the first time, it'll make you go ape.

Academy Mode represents the monkey meat of the game in which you pass through different grades to learn how to go from a misguided monkey to a scholarly ape. In each, you're given a block of nine minigames in the form of a tic-tac-toe board. Win a game and you're rewarded with an УO.Ф Lose and you receive an УX.Ф Each grade requires a certain number of lines to be formed to graduate. Oddly, if you're unable to form the needed lines, the game doesn't stop you from continuing on despite the fact that you have no chance of passing. Dropouts should seek the R + L + Start + Select button combo to restart the game.

In addition to Academy Mode, there's a tougher Game Collection mode in which you can replay your favorite mini-games in an effort to make and break records. There's also a Vs. Mode for up to four players. It's a thrill to see that in addition to WiFi, the game includes a share mode so that multiple players can enjoy minigames sharing one PSP system. Usually, the D-Pad and L button act as the controls for first player and the four face buttons and R button mimic that setup. However, most of them are limited to two players. On top of that, only 13 minigames are available in the share mode and just four minigames made it to the multi mode.