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.