Last Post Update for 2011

I haven't been able to update my blog for the past month due to schoolwork and finals.

I won't be posting anything on Youtube and DeviantART from December 2011 to March 2012 since I am going to be traveling overseas to Asia. I am finally getting the chance to go to Japan, and I have been wanting to travel there for a very long time.

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Motorcycle Chase (Team Fortress 2)

What to expect in the future

Youtube:
-Two Team Fortress 2 remixes of soundtracks from the Ape Escape games.
-Blue Monkey vs Jimmy (Team Fortress 2 Edition)
-A Mega Commentary Video about what should be in the next Ape Escape platforming game.

DeviantART:
Megaman Legends X SaruGetChu
- Two underdogs in the video game industry undergo a huge crossover.
   - One drawing with Ape Escape characters dressed up as Megaman Legends characters
   - One drawing with Megaman Legends characters dressed up as Ape Escape characters.

Note: I am not gonna draw every single character from each franchise. Only some.

Dates for all of the above: TBA

Ape Escape Cartoon - Egghead (Team Fortress 2 Edition)

Future Videos to be posted on Youtube

My voice is almost back to normal. This update is give a heads up on what commentary videos I would make in the future. Like I said before, I find that it wasn't so bad voicing in my review of Saru Saru Daisakusen.

Here are the next two commentary videos that I will be doing in the future:

Top 5 Most Confusing Ape Escape Plots
Counting down to see which plot in the Ape Escape franchise has the most plot holes and confuses me the most. It's so confusing that you hurt in confusion.


Top 5 Creepiest Saru Get Chu ~On Air~ Characters
I appreciate the anime for making the Ape Escape characters more complex and fun to watch, but I think they are taking things a bit way too far to make show be "suitable" for children. In this countdown, I will be listing the Ape Escape characters in the anime that would really creep you out.

Hint: I know what you are all thinking of, but it's not a monkey.

PlayStation Move Ape Escape Japanese Theme

Does this song sound farmilar?

Listen to Bach's inventions #13 and Dr. Tomoki's battle theme, and hear the similarities.

Bach - Invention #13
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_aQWK-Uc20

A really good and FAIR review of Playstation Move Ape Escape

In contrast to IGN and Gamespot's review on PS Move Ape Escape, GameGuru's review of this game gives me a sense of satisfaction. Unlike most game reviewers who harshly criticized the game, GameGuru reviews the game for it is.

http://www.gameguru.in/reviews/2011/01/ape-escape-for-ps3-review/

This video here demonstrates the capabilities of the PS Vita and features the monkeys from Ape Escape as a demo. Very amusing demo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U2aqN3LoDw

I almost forgot...

My niconicodouga account:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/user/22736469

Now my videos are open to the Japanese audiences!

FeelSoFeelSoGood

Ukki Red Old Spice Commercial

サルゲッチュ～オンエア～ 2nd Episode 12

Ape Escape: Saru Saru Daisakusen Video Review

Upcoming videos and drawings for the next 3-4 months

Videos that are coming soon:
-Yappari ScoutGetChu, a Team Fortress 2 remix of the song: Yappari SaruGetChu
-Saru Fortress ~On Air~ 2, a sequel to Saru Fortress ~On Air~ 1
-Saru Saru Daisakusen Concept Art gallery video
-The Ape Escape Vault: Otoko no Nazo (The Mysterious Man)
-Saru Saru Daisakusen Video Review

Drawings to be made:
Valve X Saru Get Chu Projects:

-TF2 X Saru Get Chu
After seeing how well I did with making Charu be a Medic and received praise for the quality of the drawing, I have plans to do even more characters and classes. I have already planned out who I am going to draw, and what class they will be. This will be a big project, I have no idea how long it will take and I want to make this project special by doing it at my own pace.

To give you an idea, here are all of the Saru Get Chu characters appearing in TF2 X Saru Get Chu (Decisions made are NOT final):
RED team: Kakeru, Hikaru, Specter, Pipotron Red, Hakase, Akie, Charu, Haruka and Satoru
BLU team: Sayaka, Pipotron G, Player character from PS Move Ape Escape, Pipotron Blue, Touko, Natsumi, Tsukushi, Ukki Blue, Hiroki

-Portal X Saru Get Chu
Saru Get Chu characters appearing in Portal X Saru Get Chu (Decisions made are NOT final):
Dr. Tomoki, Akie, Natsumi and Charu.

-Half Life X Saru Get Chu
Saru Get Chu characters appearing in Half Life X Saru Get Chu (Decisions made are NOT final):
Player character from PS Move Ape Escape, Touko

1000 VIEWS MILESTONE

No Snake vs. Monkey in MGS HD Collection

http://www.siliconera.com/2011/09/28/metal-gear-solid-hd-collection-has-monster-hunter-missions-but-no-snake-vs-monkey/

Saru Fortress ~On Air~ 1

SUPER MARIO CEREMONY -The 30th Anniversay Medley-

My head exploded out of pure awesomeness and the awesome-o-meter of this video could not be calculated with the laws of physics or integrals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-DaJGGDoNI&feature=feedf

Video Projects Currently in the Works

ApeSkau

As of now, the only video project that is currently in operation is Apeskau, a series of videos where each Ape Escape character will sing to the song: Moskau. There is a voting poll on three Apeskau videos I might make on Specterskau that I gave everyone to choose. So far, it's a tie, and the tie has to break. Please vote.



Duel of the Voices

Duel of the Voices will be a video where I compare two different voices for the same character and see which one suits that character. I am not limited to comparing English voices and Japanese voices, I am also comparing voices from the games and the voices from the animes based on those games. The video series will be similar the Nostalgic Critic's Old vs New, but this is comparing voice acting instead of comparing the old and new version of movies. Another thing that will make it different from his, is that if I find both voices to be good, each side will have 1 point. Both sides will have equal number of comparisons, and points are determined by each character's voices.

I have not yet thought about future videos for Duel of the Voices, but I have one comparison that I want to do in mind.

Date release for 1st video: TBA

The Ape Escape Vault

The Ape Escape Vault (AEV) is a reboot to an abandoned video series that I made: Ape Escape: The Forgotten Legend. Looking back at it now, I feel ashamed that I ended a series that everyone loved and I think it's about time that it gets resurrected.

However, the video series will be done in a different manner. Instead of going in chronological order from the 1st game to the last game, each video will talk about different parts of the franchise. For example, there will be like a video that talks about Charu or Haruka. The series will be done in the same way The Epic Mickey Files done by ElectricDragon505. I think he does a great job at doing these videos and presenting his research, and his videos inspired me to bring this long dead video series back to life. I believe that by doing this series in the same way ElecrticDragon505 did, it will put less stress on myself and I don't have to strictly follow everything in order.

Unlike last time, now that my Japanese has greatly improved, I am able to access information about Ape Escape that has never been translated into English before. I have already decided what my first video for AEV is going to be. I am still researching on it and it will take a while because most of the research is in Japanese and I do not know how long it will take for me to translate. Some of the kanji symbols are ridiculously hard to translate, especially if they are in JPEG!

Date release for 1st video: TBA

Saru Saru Daisakusen Video

This video is my biggest priority because I have already finished the game, a lot of research has been done on the game in comparison to the other two video projects that I mentioned earlier, and the script for the video is almost ready to go through voice recording.

Date release: End of the year.

A long time ago...

there was an Ape Escape movie short that once appeared on the big screen....in Japan. This short was played before Beyblade the Movie is shown.

This is Ape Escape: Battle for the Golden Pipo Helmet. Although it only lasts for 20 minutes, it's the first short to feature the characters from Ape Escape 2.

Project "Sarupedia"

Just recently, I just got an iMac and I finally downloaded SDK from the Apple Store. SDK is a development tool that be used by anyone to make iPhone applications. I don't have intentions to start making games right away, and I want to start off with something very simple.

The most basic iPhone application that I know on the App Store has got to be the game guides. I have a Super Street Fighter IV Guide App on my iPhone and I would really like to do something like that but it won't be Street Fighter-related. I really admire that app because its beautiful user interface, details about the moves, stats on each character, and frames per minute for each move.

I was browsing around the internet until I came upon Ape Escape Wiki. Unfortunately, that site has been dead for months or years and barely anything has been updated on that site ever since. Pretty much, Wikipedia and Sony (not really in my opinion) are the only reliable sources for information on Ape Escape. What I would like to do is to make an iPhone application that has all of the information about Ape Escape and every detail about the franchise itself. Think of it as MarioWiki or Bulbapedia on an iPhone application.

I have yet to try out SDK, but I will love to get started on it. As of now, I am currently drawing out what the app should have and how it should look like.

Please note that the app that I am making is just for fun and to establish my foundation in making iPhone apps. The app will not be sold for profit and I am intending to make it free for everyone to download on the App Store. It has yet to have an official name.

Updates to the blog:
-Animation and Manga Page has a new notice board. I do not wish to annoy viewers by the two words: "Coming Soon".
-Saru Saru Daisakusen's score was changed to 4.3 out of 5. I just finished the entire game. Surprisingly, I finished the game in 8 hours. Sometimes I do change scores on my game reviews after I finish playing the games, but I will try to do a review after I finish playing a game for future games.
-Project Saruskau is confirmed on my latest deviantART journal entry (Double Video Day). Read it for more details about it.

Specterskau

Happy Sensation in a Nutshell

If you listen closely, 5 out of the 7 languages in the video are playing together at the same time.

Korean Mario

I laughed my head off through out the entire video, especially at the ending.
Comes with English subtitles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbCwJ7M6RBg&feature=related

The development behind Meet the Medicharu

With Team Fortress 2 (TF2) reigning all over the internet and the gaming community, video game fans enjoy looking at TF2 parodies done by artists on art community sites such as deviantART, as well as artists who also enjoy drawing them.

The most common and simplest TF2 type of drawing that exists in the art community is dressing up different characters from other video games, cartoons and comic books or their own characters as Team Fortress 2 classes such as the Scout, Medic and Heavy. This is also known as a crossover. The last TF2 crossover that I did was with Street Fighter by dressing up Sakura and Ibuki as BLU Scouts stealing the intelligence from Zangief as the RED Heavy. I was originally going to make a sequel to that drawing by drawing Ibuki as a BLU spy because of the Spy's new Kunai weapon from the Shogun Update. Unfortunately, I didn't have much inspiration for drawing it because of the difficulties of drawing a female version of the Spy's outfit.

Just recently, I got my interest back into Ape Escape due to Playstation Move Ape Escape's release in North America. Not too long ago, I made a video called "No Dinner For You!" where I used the Heavy's quotes to be the Professor's voice and the Scout's quotes to be Kakeru's voice. That was when I decided to make a crossover between Team Fortress 2 and Ape Escape.

There were a few challenges that I have to overcome when I drew "Meet the Medicharu". The challenges were:
1) Choosing which Ape Escape character to draw
2) What class should that character be?
3) If the character is female, how would the female edition of the outfit look like?

1) I thought of dressing up the Professor as the Heavy Weapons Guy due to their similarity in physical shape. It was a good idea but I did not enjoy drawing the bullet vest around the Heavy, so the idea was scrapped. There were two other Ape Escape characters that I considered: Charu and Kakeru. I thought of drawing Kakeru as the Scout and giving him the hat the Scout got from the Uber Update, but it was immediately scrapped due to the difficulty of drawing Kakeru's hair. I do not want Kakeru's hair to get in the way. I may consider drawing him one day. In the end, I chose Charu because she is compatible with two possible TF2 classes: The Engineer and The Medic, which opens up numerous options. Moreover, I drew her more than any of the Ape Escape characters so I was very familiar with her.

2) Between the choice of making her dress up as the Engineer or Medic was a somewhat difficult thinking process. She could go well with the Engineer because she has the capability to carry heavy equipment and utilize her right hand as a weapon. She can also go well with the Medic because she is the only Ape Escape character to wear glasses in the anime [She wore glasses in Episode 18, Season 2]. It seems that dressing her up as the Engineer is the obvious choice, but there is one big reason that made me choose to dress her up as the Medic instead of the Engineer. Charu is designed to assist people around her, somewhat similar to how the Medic is trained to help heal his teammates in the battlefield. She is not meant to build and operator heavy duty machinery like the Sentry or Dispenser. Haruka is more suitable to be an Engineer than Charu.Therefore, the Medic class was chosen.

3) In my previous TF2 parody, I didn't much problems with drawing Sakura and Ibuki's outfit since Ibuki's doesn't need to be altered, and Sakura's lower part of her outfit was changed to a skirt. For Charu, I wanted to give her a long skirt like how she wears her maid outfit in the anime. The idea of giving her a long skirt was scrapped because I don't want to deal with the folding and cloth marks on the long skirt. I later on thought of giving her a short skirt, but it was scrapped because a Medic in the frontline needs to be fully covered to protect him/her-self. Finally, I decided not to make any alterations to Charu's Medic outfit and made her wear the Medic's original outfit. Her glasses is based on her glasses from Episode 18 in Saru Get Chu ~On Air~ 2nd, and I made the color of the glasses to have the same color as the Medic's glasses frames in TF2.

Concept art for Meet the Medicharu

The drawings on that paper above are the concept art and samples that I did prior to drawing "Meet the Medicharu". I was not very familiar with drawing the Medic so I drew some samples, choose which would look good in my final draft and fit them together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Pencil draft of Meet the Medicharu

This is the pencil draft of "Meet the Medicharu" before I edited it on Photoshop. The development behind her expression was interesting. I was thinking of giving her a friendly and helpful look but it wasn't fun because I find it to be the most overused and boring expression in the art world. I watched Valve's "Meet the Medic" numerous times to grasp the Medic's mad emotions and expressions, and I realized that his expressions when he said: "Let's go practice medicine." and when he healed the demoman were the ones that I wanted.

The most noticeable and only change from the pencil draft and the one that I posted is Charu's left glove. I was not satisfied by how it looks like a glove made of cloth instead of rubber. Her left glove was the most difficult part of the drawing because I never drew or colored rubber before and it took me a longer time than I expected.

At the last minute, I thought of adding blood stains onto her clothing and the background but it did not turn out what I wanted on Photoshop so it was cut off.

Final Draft of Meet the Medicharu

I really had a lot of fun drawing this tribute to my favorite First Person Shooter: Team Fortress 2, the world's most underrated video game franchise and android/computer program, and the late Tomoko Kawakami (She did Charu's voice from the first Ape Escape game to Ape Escape: Million Monkeys) who lost her battle with ovary cancer two months ago. It has been a long while since I last drew anything. I also hope that this drawing will motivate Team Fortress 2 fans and Ape Escape fans to come up with numerous ideas of Ape Escape and Team Fortress 2 crossovers. Ape Escape has a lot of potential when it comes to drawing crossovers and parodies, and it's a huge untapped gold mine waiting to be mined. One day, it may get the big break that it truly deserves in the video game industry.

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,
TechieWidget

Meet the Medicharu

The only way to stop this doctor is to sap it.

Momi the Maid

This is an old drawing that I did in Spring 2010. Only the inking was done and it was in the process of being colored but it stopped due to lack of interest. Feel free to color this as long as you give me credit.

Summer 2010 Doodles

Prior to Pokemon Black and White's release in Japan, I was wanting to draw and color Touko, the female protagonist of B/W. I also drew Touya (not in this doodle) but he didn't turn out the way I wanted so I scrapped the idea of having to draw both Touya and Touko playing DS's.

I was also practicing on drawing chibi Mario and Rosalina, and I drew Momi for fun. I attempted to draw Mijumaru and my attempt failed.

My thoughts on Ape Escape Million Monkeys

Ape Escape Million Monkeys is arguably the best Ape Escape game outside of the main Ape Escape platforming games (Ape Escape 1, 2 and 3). It is the most intense monkey-catching game Sony has ever made, and it proved to be a huge hit in Asia, selling over 25 million copies as of 2011 despite its average reviews. Unfortunately, it never got released in North America. It almost got a release in Europe, but it was postponed due to Ape Escape 3's release and got cancelled later on. This game came out on July 13th 2006, around the same time when the first episode of Saru Get Chu ~On Air~ came out. 

Gameplay (5/5):
Ape Escape Million Monkeys is a combination of the main Ape Escape series' monkey catching gameplay, and Pumped and Primed's action-based gameplay. Sony does a wonderful job at combining the two of them together. They also removed the sky flyer and replaced with a jet pack so they can make one extra room for the monkey net and an extra gadget for Coliseum Mode. The monkey net is one of the best gadgets in the game. Not only you can catch monkeys in front of you, you can catch monkeys from a far distance. Million Monkeys is the hardest Ape Escape game on a home console. Harder than Ape Escape 1, 2 and 3. In the main Ape Escape games, the monkeys would normally run away from you until you caught them. However in Million Monkeys, you really can't let that monkey get away or it will teleport away. Million Monkeys is also one of the few games where you fight a boss in the first level. The other game I know where you fight a boss in the first level is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Besides monkeys teleporting away from you when they lose their armor and weapons, they have a huge arsenal of weapons from giant robots to tanks to throw at you!! Even on Normal Mode, it is very difficult but it's really fun.

Sony also added a combo system and gives players the ability to juggle their opponents in Story Mode, Multiplayer Mode and Coliseum Mode. The one huge feature that Sony added into this game is the crafting system. By using a customized character and after beating every round, you win two computer chips. They can be used to make weapons, vehicles and costumes. There are numerous combinations of objects you can make in the game, so it greatly enhances the replay value and makes players play the same levels again to get the chips they want. There is so much content in this game that I couldn't describe every single thing in the game.

Million Monkeys offers a larger roster of characters than Pumped and Primed. To my knowledge, this is the only Ape Escape game where you can play as the franchise's main villain: Specter. He is playable in both the story mode and coliseum mode. Pipotron G, Dark Specter, Dark Hiroki, Virus Charu, Volcano (monkey) and Legend (monkey) were also added to the roster but they are only playable in Coliseum Mode. 

Ever since the day I got this game, I never dropped the PS2 controller and it kept me playing for months or a year and a half. A combination of two different types of gameplay proved to be a great combination.

Story (3/5):
Ape Escape Million Monkeys has the darkest and the most interesting storyline in the franchise. Not only you can play as the main heroes: Kakeru, Natsumi, Charu and etc, you can also play as Specter. It doesn't matter which path you take. Although they both share the same ending, each have different cutscenes based on their perspectives on the storyline. This is the only game where Specter is not the main villain.The only things that I don't like about the plot is the lack of backstory for the Super Pipotrons (J, Meta, Kraut and G) and the Man of Mystery. Even from the guide book, it doesn't give much information about the Man of Mystery except that he is a cruel man who created J, Meta, Kraut and G, access to really advanced technology and it didn't say anything about his intentions of conquering the world. He's more likely used as a plot device or he could the same guy who made the Pipotron Brothers. Also, Pipotron G is the only Super Pipotron to have a back story which shows that he was once a gorilla. This is also supported in the later episodes of the first season of Saru Get Chu ~On Air~. Overall, story is not bad but it has a number of plot holes and characters' names that were never explained in the game.

Controls (4.5/5):
The controls are similar to Pumped and Primed. The four shape buttons have your gadgets, you use the analog sticks, left for movement, and right for using the gadgets. The jetpack can be used by holding down the jump button. The camera angle is not bad, but it can be somewhat hard to see some of the escaping monkeys in Story Mode with using the camera.

Graphics (5/5):
The graphics in the game is a major improvement over Pumped and Primed's. The characters look a lot better than they did in Pumped and Primed, and the development team does a great job at using real-life actors in this game. It's not as awkward as Pumped and Primed's interview with the Professor, where you have a real-life person talking to an inanimate person. The live-action cutscenes almost made it look like this is happening in real-life, and the monkeys in the live-action cutscenes do not look like they are out of place.

Music (4.5/5):
The music in the game is great. This is definitely one of Soichi Terada's best works. I love how the music in the title screen excites the user, and the large variety of music in the game. It's almost as good as the main Ape Escape games' OST. A big improvement over Pumped and Primed's OST. I recommend listening to the complete OST from the game (Link to download the Complete Soundtrack for Million Monkeys is at the end of this review).

Overall Impression:
Million Monkeys has got to be the best Ape Escape spin-off outside of the main platforming games. Its unique gameplay brings fun and excitement for months and the replay value is really high. In comparison to most of the Japan-released Ape Escape games, this game demands a higher learning level of Japanese for those who are learning the language than the other games in the series. As a fan of Ape Escape, I highly recommend importing this game and getting the guidebook. The guidebook will be really helpful and it's a nice addition to your Ape Escape collection. It's sad that this game never was released in the US/Canada and it was so close to being released in Europe. If you are planning to get this game, this game ONLY works on Japanese PS2's. If you want to play it, you have to mod it to break the region code or get a Japanese PS2. If you plan to get a Japanese PS2, make sure Million Monkeys isn't the only game you're getting.
I really love this game and I had tons of fun with it. It's a game worth reviewing.

For the final grade, I give Ape Escape: Million Monkeys:
4 stars out of 5

Finals are over!

My way of saying thanks for viewers visiting my blog and watchers in my deviantART account.

Project "Saru Show"

If you have endured Specter's evil laugh for 5 entire minutes while Annen Polka was playing in the background and saw Ukki Yellow, that was a small hint of a new video series that I am planning to make.

I haven't come up with an official name for the series, but its project name is called "Saru Show". It will be a series of 1:30 minutes videos composed of hilarious comedy. I could have done 5 minutes videos but I want to reduce the compression time, I don't know if this would be a hit and it would make way for more sequels.

I have extra good news today. I dug up my old DVD back-ups and I finally found the episode where the Freaky Monkey Five first appeared, the episode where Ukki Red gets his butt kicked by Charu, and the episode where Ukki Blue goes on an adventure with a group of monkeys. Thank god for DVD Back-ups! This is the power of DVD back-ups! Always have a back-up whenever your computer goes hay-wire! I hope to find all of the episodes and store all of them on DVD. YESHHH!! YESSSSSHHH!!

I also found the lyrics for the song "Yappari Saru Get Chu". I hope to translate the entire song into English by September 2011 and put them on annotations and in the video description. It's a long song and I have never translated a Japanese song into English before.

Update: This project is currently in hiatus, because I am transitioning from Vegas to iMovie atm.

My thoughts on Ape Escape: Saru Saru Daisakusen

*Throughout this review, I will be using the Japanese names of the Ape Escape cast. This is also the first time I review on music. I did not review music in my review of Playstation Move Ape Escape because I never heard of the music.*

Ape Escape: Saru Saru Daisakusen is one of the 6 Ape Escape games that never got released in North America. Since its release in 2007, this game sold 500,670 units and got Best of Series for PSP. This is also the last game that both Daisuke Gouri (Voice of Red Monkey/Ukki Red) and Tomoko Kawakami (Voice of Natsumi/Natalie) worked with Sony before they both passed away in 2010 (Gouri) and June 2011 (Kawakami). This is the only spin-off Ape Escape game outside of the main platforming series where you fight the Freaky Monkey Five and share the same graphic engine as Ape Escape 3.


This game was released around the same time when the Freaky Monkey Five first appeared in the Japanese cartoon: Saru Get Chu ~On Air~ 2nd, and the cartoon had numerous references to the game, such as the use of the lab helm, and the designs of the Freaky Monkey Five for their appearances in the show. At first, I thought Saru Saru Daisakusen was a sequel to Ape Escape 3 because of its similarities in terms of graphics, and it has everyone from all of the other games such as Hikaru (Jimmy), Aki, Satoru (Kei) and Sayaka (Yumi), but it isn't because of the differences in gameplay.

Gameplay: (3.5/5)
Saru Saru Daisakusen is different from most Ape Escape platforming games, but it has the infectious charm that makes it a part of the Ape Escape franchise. Instead of catching monkeys, you get to control a monkey by placing the lab helm on top of the monkey. Your objective to control every single monkey in the level and get to the end of the level. It may sound simple, but the levels in the game are packed with numerous challenges. Some of them are easy, and some of them are hard. I think the idea of placing a lab helm on a monkey is a good substitute for the Gotcha Net in most Ape Escape games. I hope to see the lab helm again as a gadget next time in a future Ape Escape game.

Despite the simple gameplay and how easy it looks, the game can get difficult. I drowned numerous times when I accidentally fall into the water, and it's not very easy to get back on shore. Once you start drowning, you're done for. In some of the levels, when I begin a level, I have to be quick to get control of a monkey before I ran out of battery from the lab helm and lose a life. Of all of the Ape Escape games, I never got so many "Game Over" screens. I kept drowning and falling. Despite the difficulty of some of the levels, once you get over it once, it's not that hard but you do need a moderate amount of patience to get through some of the levels. I think there are only like around 20 levels in the game, so I guess they compensated the short number of levels by cranking up the difficulty a bit, and giving you only 2 lives when you load your game after getting a game over. I don't recommend choosing to Continue where you left off after you get a Game Over, because you will only get ONE LIFE from it.

Every three levels, there is a boss battle. I have only played up to Ukki Pink as of July 28th 2011. There are 7 boss fights in the game: 2 with Specter and one each for each Freaky Monkey Five member. The difficulty in the boss fights are different from each other. The easiest boss has got to be Ukki Blue, and the hardest boss to me is Ukki Yellow. I got like 2 Game Overs from Yellow. The boss fights are quite fun. I have yet to see how tough Specter would be at the end of the game.

This game also comes with a minigame, and a small shop to buy goodies such as music, videos and concept art. I would go over it in the Youtube version of this video game review. I haven't tried the minigame, but reading from the instruction manual, you can buy cards by using the coins and use them to play with someone else who has the same game. The minigame can play up to 4 human players, and you can play this minigame online. Once I figured out how the minigame works, I will do a video on it.

I think the gameplay is really fun, but I wish the game is longer. There are only 199 monkeys and 21 stages in the game, and I was expecting around 300 monkeys and at least 30 stages. I really like how each monkey has a different health bar which may factor on the game's difficulty and the different moves each monkey could do. The only thing I don't like about the gameplay is the amount of time it takes to load up each section of the overworld (Inside the lab). I find it somewhat frustrating to wait for the game to load up the shop or load/save screen in the overworld, where in the main Ape Escape games, it doesn't take 10-20 seconds to do it.
 

Story (3/5)
The story is really simple in this game and it's not as exciting as the plots in the platforming Ape Escape games. It's not that special. Specter has a huge nano cannon on the moon that can shrink anything. He uses his nano cannon to shrink the Ape Escape human characters, and his plan is to shrink the world along with the human population so he and his monkeys can rule the world. In addition, he also kidnapped Hikaru, Aki, Satoru, Sayaka and the Professor. It's up to both Kakeru and Natsumi to collect the nano cards from each of the Freaky Monkey Five, save their friends, defeat Specter and grow back to their normal sizes.


Controls (5/5)
The controls are very responsive. Although I don't like the PSP's diminutive circle pad, it responds well. The camera angle is very-polished, and I don't have problems with the square, triangle, circle and cross buttons.

Graphics (5/5)
I love the graphics in the game. It demonstrates the full capabilities of the PSP's graphics, and I like how it doesn't butcher the graphics from Ape Escape 3 (a PS2 game). The levels are very colorful, the monkeys look great and I like the themes for each level.

Music (4.5/5)
The music is composed by Soichi Terada who has been composing music for all of the Ape Escape games except for Ape Escape 2. I really like the music in the game. The quality of the music is not as high as music from Super Mario Galaxy, but the music is as good as Mario Kart music. I kept thinking that these songs should be in a Mario Kart game. Some of the music from the game also come from previous Ape Escape games such as Haruka's theme from Pumped and Primed and Million Monkeys.

Overall Impression:
Saru Saru Daisakusen may not be the best Ape Escape spin-off in the franchise but it still has the good old Ape Escape experience that is in every game. I still think Million Monkeys is the best spin-off in the franchise. I highly recommend importing it if you're an Ape Escape fan. It may cost more than most PSP games in the market, but it's worth the money. I got mine for $64.00. Although it doesn't sell as well as Piposaru Racer or Million Monkeys, it doesn't mean it's a bad game.

Other Notes:
I realized that after finishing the game, Sony has been really lazy on the development of this game. The final boss is the same boss but without the body, and the two fights with Specter use the same stage even though it was supposedly destroyed in the first battle.

For the final grade, I give Ape Escape: Saru Saru Daisakusen:
(3.5 stars of 5)

I have intentions to do a full video review of this game once I figure out everything in the game and have the time. In my video review, I will be talking in the video, showing you the game's cover box and the UMD itself, explaining in detail about the layout of the lab in the game, and showing some gameplay footage.

I hope to get Piposaru Racer one day and do a video game review on it.

Saru Saru Daisakusen GETTO!

I just got Saru Saru Daisakusen from the mail, and so far it's a good game.

I have only beaten Ukki Red. I found the 2nd and 3rd level to be tough. I always thought all monkeys could swim but they don't in this game. I lost a life by drowning in the water. ROFLMAO.

The boss battle with Ukki Red is not that hard, but you need a lot of patience to beat him. He's very unpredictable with some of his attacks, and it's hard for me to dodge his shock waves with the parachuting monkey.

A video review of the game will be made after I beat the entire game once. I really want to do a game review on this really fun game.


I thought this game looked easy, judging from the playthrough someone made on Youtube, but I underestimated the difficulty. xD

Extremely Rare Ape Escape DVD. Only Released in Japan around end of 2002.

I was searching through Google hoping that there will be a DVD collection of Saru Get Chu ~On Air~ and 2nd episodes when I encountered this article (Link is at the bottom of the post).

Not many Ape Escape fans outside of Japan know about this DVD which came out 9 years ago when Ape Escape was around. The DVD was also advertised in the Japanese Ape Escape 2 commercials, and came out 6 days before Christmas 2002.

According to the web page, it comes with 76 animated shorts (45 seconds each) that were aired by TV Tokyo, a movie that was released in Summer 2002 called "Ape Escape: Battle of the Golden Pipo Helm", a video that teaches you how to dance to the song "Yappari Saru Get Chu" and an exclusive Afrosaru game card that is not sold in public (There exists a card game based on Ape Escape 2). 

You can still buy it online for 2800 Yen on sites like play-asia, ebay or amazon.

There are some of the animated shorts from the DVD that were posted on Veoh, but these are the dubbed versions.

I have not seen the movie, but as a fan of Ape Escape, I would like to.

This is where I found the information about the DVD: http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20021119/saru.htm

Ape Escape Cartoon - I Scream (Improved Edition)

 The original video did not have any sound effects or background music, so I decided to add background music and sound effects to make it sound better and did it in my own style with all of the Team Fortress 2 sound effects I have and music that I have.

My reaction to Megaman Legends 3's cancellation

Two days ago, Capcom announced that Megaman Legends 3's production was cancelled, and the Megaman fan community just snapped.

For an average gamer like myself, I was horrified. I never expected something like this to happen to a popular video game franchise like Megaman. I have friends who were looking very forward to the game, and they are mad at Capcom right now. A few days after MML3 was cancelled, a Facebook group that calls for the game to be back and need 100,000 supporters appeared and it gained a lot of popularity over the past 2 days. As of July 23rd, its population is over 20,000. I also heard that a second party developer may consider to help continue the production of MML3, so there is still hope. I am proud of the Megaman fan community for putting a lot of effort to bring the game back into production, and I hope it does.

Plans for doing a review on サルゲッチュ～オンエア～ (Saru Get Chu ~On Air~)

With the Specter's Music Video series finally coming to an end, it's time to move on with newer ideas.

This is a review that I am more likely intending to do in the future. Although I do have plans to do video reviews of Playstation Move Ape Escape (based on "My thoughts on Playstation Ape Escape"), Ape Escape Academy, Ape Academy 2, and hopefully Piposaru Racer and Saru Saru Daisakusen, I am holding them back until I get Piposaru Racer and Saru Saru Daisakusen and when I have the time and have enough research material to do the reviews.

I saw James Rolfe's reviews on cartoon shows (You can watch them on cinemassacre.com. They are very well done and reviewed) and I feel inspired by his videos to do a review of one of my most favorite cartoons based on video games and that would be: サルゲッチュ～オンエア～　(Saru Get Chu ~On Air~).

Currently, I am writing a script and I have no idea when I will ever get this into production. I did not see anyone do a review of this show, and I think this show deserves to be known by anime fans and video game fans outside of Japan.

I am ONLY going to review the first season of this show. Although I have watched both the 1st and 2nd season of the show, I am slowly taking one step of a time. My review of サルゲッチュ～オンエア～ will be in two parts, because there are so many things to go over in just one season. I bet the 2nd season will be even longer.

To tell you guys ahead of time, here is what I am going to go over in my review in chronological order:
Part 1:
1) Introduction
2) The characters
3) The story
4) The 1st episode
Part 2:
5) Best moments in the 1st season
6) The last episode of the 1st season (Episode 26)
7) Last impressions.
8) Conclusion

My thoughts on Playstation Move Ape Escape

Although I don't have as much interest as I used to back when I was using my previous deviantART account, I can't help but express what I think of the new Playstation Move Ape Escape game for the Playstation 3's Move.

Before I saw any pictures or videos of the game, I thought it would be a great comeback for Ape Escape in North America and places outside Asia. It has been a while since Sony released an Ape Escape game (Ape Escape 3) outside of Asia. To them, it's probably time to bring it back to North America and Europe, but to me, they are somewhat too late. I mean, they didn't released 3 Ape Escape games outside of Asia over the past 5 years, and those are frigging good games (Ape Academy 2 came out in Europe, so it's not counted).

I could go on with how the other 3 games should be released outside of Asia, but I don't want to get carried away and focus more on this game.

Gameplay (2.5/5):

After watching the gameplay footage of the game, I was somewhat disappointed with the new gameplay. I am not going to jump on the bandwagon and hate this game. To be honest, the gameplay is not that bad, but it doesn't feel like a big game. It's more like a mini game in Wii Play or Wii Party.

It's great for new gamers or casual gamers, it's questionable for an Ape Escape fan, but I don't recommend it for hardcore gamers.

The rail-on shooter gameplay is not bad, but couldn't they make the game harder? This game is way too easy. To make it even more easy, they removed the health bar. You would be bored after swinging the Move controller for an hour and you can only swing in 2D. Why can't I use my net to reach out for a monkey from a far distance (3D depth) and why are they coming to you? Shouldn't the monkeys be running away from you because you have a net? Instead they are just mindlessly running at you. I thought those Pipo Helms have made them smarter, but in this game, they made them dumber. From what I heard the difficulty increases constantly, and that the last levels can make you swing your Move controller all over the place.

I think Sony should made more use of the motion sensing. Ape Escape has so much potential when it comes to motion-sensing. Back when the Wii came out, I had so many great ideas about how Ape Escape can revolutionize the gaming world with motion sensing. After all of these years, is this the best Sony can come up with?! A rail-on shooter game style and all you have to do is wait for those crazy monkeys come to you so you can catch them? This game makes the Wii Remote look more superior than the Move and Mario Party 8 more fun.

Story (4/5):

I was looking at the game's main website and I was surprised that the only character that came back was Specter. There are four new characters in the game, two teenage female twins named Touko (Did the name made you think of Touko/Hilda from Pokemon Black and White) and Tsukushi, a professor named Haru and this mysterious blue-haired guy. I don't know who is that, but I assumed it's Kei/Satoru from Ape Escape 3 due to their similarities in appearance. The characters are not bad, but I would like to see characters from previous games.

The storyline is surprising heartwarming. Specter doesn't seem like an evil villain but more of a lost and confused monkey who was launched into space by mankind in order to win the space race to the moon. I have to admit, the story does compensate for the gameplay.

Controls (3/5):
The controls for this game isn't really much of a big deal. If you have played Wii titles like Zelda Twilight Princess or Super Mario Galaxy, this game would be super easy. Judging from the gameplay videos, I think there are only three to four gadgets to use in the game. I think the gadgets could have been better. The net needs a big improvement, the slingshot is not so bad, and I would rather use a fan to hit those
monkeys instead of debris in the air. Why are there ONLY three gadgets? In Ape Escape 2, you had 12 gadgets. In Ape Escape 3, you only have 8 gadgets but they compensate the missing four gadgets with a variety of transformations, but in the game there are ONLY THREE TO FOUR?!

Graphics(4/5):
The graphics for the PS3 is not that bad. It's really colorful for an Ape Escape game.

Overall Impression:
Overall, the game is more of an experiment and Sony playing around with since this is the first Ape Escape game that uses motion sensing.
I think this game would have done better if it was released in 2006. However this is 2011, NOT 2006.
By now, gamers already have an idea what a good motion sensing game is, since the Wii made a huge breakthrough
with motion sensing with games like Zelda, Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Party, and etc. For fans of Ape Escape in the US and Europe
who have dying for a US release of an Ape Escape game for 5 years, this game would only pleased a small number of them. I do not recommend getting the game, but I do recommend watching the cutscenes from the game. The story melts your heart. I don't think this game is a sequel to Ape Escape 3. At least this game is NOT as brutal and cruel as Ape Escape Academy. It's more of a spin-off, so fans of Ape Escape, please don't take this game too seriously and give this game a chance.

For the final grade, I give Playstation Move Ape Escape:
(3 out of 5 stars).

Now let's hope they release Piposaru Racer and Saru Saru Daikusen here before PSP retires.

My Other Comments:

When I watched IGN's review, I was terribly surprised that IGN or any of the game reviewers did not make any mentions about the 4 Ape Escape games that never got released outside of Japan over the past 5 years. D8

My impression of IGN's review of this game:
I think they are too harsh on this game especially by comparing this game to superior on-rail shooter games in the PS3 library of games. I saw the walkthrough of the game and I think it's an okay game.
It's not revolutionary, but it's not too bad. I think western video game critics and western fans of Ape Escape expect too much from Sony because it has been 5 years since Ape Escape 3. We were just too desperate for another Ape Escape game that our expectations for a new Ape Escape game has skyrocketed.

My recommendation is to listen to what the owners of this game have to say. They are better critics than IGN and myself. My review is based more on research, my own opinion, and people who own this game's opinion. I never own or played the game, but I have encountered games that have similar game to Playstation Move Ape Escape.

*Update as of July 20th 2011*
I decided to change my score on this game to 3 stars because 2.5 stars out of 5 is close to 3 stars out of 5, and decimals don't sound appealing in a 5-star rating system.

Playstation Move Ape Escape cutscenes

Specter's Music Video 10: In the Finale of the Night

Youtube Poop-No Dinner For You

Don't ever be late for dinner.

Specter's Music Video 10 Final Update

This is the last update for Specter's Music Video 10 until its release.

I can finally confirm that Specter's Music Video 10 will be out by July 16th midnight.

The official title for Specter's Music Video 10 will be called:
"Specter's Music Video 10: In the Finale of the Night".

I think the title somewhat gives away the song that will be in this final music video if you happen to be a fan of Don Bluth movies, and that it's really the final music video in the Specter's Music Video series.

*UPDATE* As of July 12th 2011
 -For Japanese viewers-

スペクターのミュージックビデオ１０のオフィシャルタイトルは：　

スペクターのミュージックビデオ１０：　イン　ザ　ファナレ　オブ　ザ　ナイト。

ドンブラフの映画を見たら、タイトルはたぶん歌のなまえを漏らすんだよ。

スペクターのミュージックビデオのほかのビデオを見ることがないと、僕の古いユーチューブのアカウントに、スペクターのミュージックビデオ１からスペクターのミュージックビデオ９までがあります。

このリンクは僕の古いユーチューブのアカウントのだ。
http://www.youtube.com/user/PipoMadness1992 

-For English viewers-
Specter's Music Video 1 and 2 has been updated to have their own titles to keep up with the series.
Specter's Music Video 1's new title is called Specter's Music Video 1: Monkey of Mystery
-Name is based off the Mystery Movie from Ape Escape 3.
Specter's Music Video 2's new title is called Specter's Music Video 2: Duel of the Apes
-Name is based off the song's name.

Important notice about future サルゲッチュ manga translations

This is a important post that concerns about the サルゲッチュ manga translations.

As a fan of Japanese mangas, I really like to translate mangas in English because I want everyone to know how great the mangas I read. As much as I want to translate these mangas from Japanese to English, I also want to respect the publishers and the authors of the サルゲッチュ manga volumes and the other mangas series that I have.

I am not going to stop translating them into English. I am going to perform a style of translating these mangas that will not let me get into trouble with copyright laws and satisfy western readers.

Instead of having to get my butt from the chair and scan each page from the volumes I own, I will be typing out a fully translated version of each volume in a Microsoft text document file.

How would this work?

I will be having one manga volume on one side of my keyboard, with Microsoft Office 2007 opened, an online Japanese dictionary and a hardcover Japanese dictionary (in case the online one doesn't know the word I am looking for). I will translate the Japanese text from the volumes and type them out in English on my computer.

Not only I will be translating the dialogue from the panels, I will also translate every single thing in each panel, including signs and etc. Explanations will be provided if I find a joke that can only be understood by the Japanese language such as puns.

Page numbers will be included in the document file so you can read along with the translation and have the actual book in your hand. I will make sure that it's organized so you won't easily get lost or confused.

The text document will be saved in .doc since not everyone has Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010.

I hope to get Volume 1 of サルゲッチュ translated into English.

If you happen to know a language other than English, it will be great if you can translate it to other languages like French or German.

*UPDATE* July 12th 2011
I removed the post that has a page from Volume 1 of サルゲッチュ to avoid getting in trouble with Corocoro Magazine.

Prepare for trouble

and let's make it double by showing a hint of a remake of Freaky Monkey Five and Specter's Double Trouble at the end of this video!

I made a video like this a few years ago but with Ape Escape 2 and 3 clips. Now with Saru Get Chu ~On Air!~ 2nd episodes! 8D

Future videos will be posted like this on this blog.

If this video can't be found, notify me and I will upload the video that is not linked to Youtube on this blog.

The most terrible and NOT legit removal notification I have ever seen in my life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1Khf2D_Yyo

I was looking at Saru-Getchu-FC's latest journal entry on deviantART a few days ago and saw a link to one of the trailers for the new Fury Fury Ape Escape game for the PlayStation Move. When I went to that link, I saw the most ridiculous removal notification I have ever seen. It's so bad that it's not even funny.

Of all of the removal notifications I have seen in my life, this notification is COMPLETELY made up of bullshit. First of all, Sega and Square Enix DO NOT own Ape Escape. Ape Escape is owned by Sony. Second, the word "sega" doesn't have a capital letter at the beginning. If they were to put Sega in the notification, they should put Sega Corportation, which is the official name of the company NOT "sega". Third, what the hell is "SEGA Ministry of Justice"? For crying out loud! Sega is a company, NOT a country. I even looked up on google and it didn't say anything about it.

This removal notification is a insult to the Ape Escape franchise, Ape Escape fans and the Sony Corporation. Whoever made typed this notification and made up this false crap needs to be brought to justice! 

Specter's Music Video 10 Sneak Peek Development

This is a special preview of the development for the final video of the Specter's Music Video series. Although it looks like it is completed, there is still some adjustments that are needed to fix and a few more additions are needed to be added.

This is to prove that Specter's Music Video 10 is in development, so fans of the series and subscribers would know that it's really on its way.

Specter's Music Video 10 will be released between July 14th to 16th 2011. There is no final date for this video and not everything in this preview may appear in the finished video. Some clips may be taken out in favor of better clips. A later update will announce the final official date.

While waiting for Specter's Music Video 10 be finished, here are the two videos that I mentioned in the trailer earlier:

Ape Fortress 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UcDHzXezXE&feature=channel_video_title

やっぱりサルゲッチュ(Absolutely Ape Escape)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S12ewiwjnfE&feature=relmfu