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!