Games Played 05/27/2009

Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom - X-Box 360
Mortal Kombat Trilogy - PlayStation
Way of the Samurai - PlayStation 2

RANDOM GAME OF THE DAY:


Ape Escape 2 (2003)
Developer: Sony Computer Entertainment Studios Japan
Platform: PlayStation 2
Purchase Date: 07/03/2003


So what was the first thing the apes built to promote their newfound freedom?

When it comes to sheer fun, Ape Escape 2 never falters. In the game, you play as Jimmy who is tasked to retrieve all the monkeys who have gone wild thanks to his own blunder for accidentally sending the intelligence-boosting monkey helmets alongside the new sets of monkey pants to a monkey sanctuary. Under the leadership of the smartest ape in the bunch, a white monkey named Spectre, the monkeys sudenly become more of a threat instead of just merely a nuisance. The structure of the game is pretty straightforward: catch a certain amount of monkeys in each stage and you can go back to the previous stages to completely capture every single escapees. All of the monkeys have their own individual personality and character statistics - now that's what I call attention to detail - and you can view them in the Monkepedia at the stage hub. You use many strange devices to help you capture the monkeys and the task gets progressively trickier as you go along. The graphics are still absolutely beautiful! It's bright, colorful, and it even has widescreen support! When you are able to capture a monkey, the whole screen is darken, the action is paused, and pretty colors just burst out everywhere on the screen to really capitalize on your accomplishment, turning what really is a repetitive task into something truly rewarding. The stage designs are ingenious, featuring many platform elements and crazy themes. The continuously upbeat soundtrack is filled with infectious, memorable tunes. And then there are the magnificent boss fights - how can they make fighting a bunch of crazy monkeys this epic? A great game indeed.

LIBRARY STATUS: 5 out of 5