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The Lowdown
Pros: Equally great gameplay and humor with enough improvements to keep
the series from getting stale.
Cons: The soul of the title is a glorified collect-a-thon, with a main
mode that can be beat in less than ten hours.
 Purchase
at Play-Asia
 Purchase
at Lik-Sang
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It's been a couple of years since Specter and his crazy monkeys have
run on a rampage, but after years of development Ape Escape 3 (Sarugetchu
3) is finally
out. Sarugetchu 3 doesn't reinvent the wheel, all of the stun baton to
monkey action is here. You take on the role of either Saito or Sayaka in
a quest to catch monkeys with your power net. The only difference
between the two characters is cosmetic, Saito is a boy and Sayaka is a
girl.The Ape Escape series has two hallmarks: analog control and
wacky gadgets. Like the first and second title you use the left analog
stick to move your character around and the right analog stick is used
for your stun baton. If you swing the stick horizontally, your character
will react accordingly and swing the baton with a horizontal swipe. If
you move the right stick in an overhead motion, your character will do
the same. It's a neat control set up that works well when you're using
the stun baton or the net. Gadgets are also controlled with the right
analog stick. The control works perfectly when you're trying to maneuver the RC car across a small bridge or when you're
scanning an area with the monkey radar. The dash hoop, which allows your
character to run at super sonic speeds, is controlled by rapidly
spinning the right analog stick to charge it up. If you're familiar with
the series you may have noticed that a lot of the gadgets from other Ape
Escape return in Ape Escape 3. Sarugetchu 3 doesn't add in new gadgets,
instead it adds in a new costume system.
Throughout your adventure you'll obtain "costumes" allowing you to
temporarily transform your character into an armored fantasy knight or
nimble ninja. Once you get your first costume (after five levels) you
can transform by holding down R1 and R2. As soon as you transform the
green meter above your cookie themed health bar starts to deplete. A
full meter lasts thirty seconds, but you can pick up green vials to
recover your transformation time. Being in a costume really changes the
gameplay of Sarugetchu 3. As a fantasy knight you have a large stun
baton that can whack multiple monkeys and a new special move that brings
your baton crashing to the ground to stun surrounding simians. You also
have an area capture spell, which you can use by pressing R3, to capture
multiple monkeys at once. The cowboy/cowgirl costume dons your character
with dual pistols with unlimited ammo and a shotgun net to catch monkeys
from a distance. One of the more unique costumes is the Arabian themed
magic dance costume. When you transform you'll get a genie to help you
out. By spinning the right analog stick you'll make the genie start
dancing, which causes all monkeys and enemies to dance too. This move is
perfect when you have a lot of foes to face. The mystical ninja has more
practical skills. When you transform you can run along the side of some
walls, glide down large slopes and tip toe across a tightrope. While
you're transformed you won't be able to use any of your other gadgets,
so there's still some point in being regular Saito or Sayaka.
There are slightly under thirty levels to complete, each with their
own theme and tons of monkeys hidden in each level. Since Ape Escape 3
has a Hollywood spoof theme going for it you'll enter to movie set of
Titanic, a dinosaur level, and a television studio. The theme gives
plenty of opportunities for jokes and Ape Escape 3 takes every chance it
gets. In each level there are cameras, when you step on them you'll
replay a movie spoof with monkeys. We've seen a Spider-Monkey spoof,
Titanic redone with monkeys and a scene with a monkey Santa Claus. You
have to be careful and not catch monkeys over zealously if you want to
collect all the movie scenes. Once monkeys that are part of the scene
get caught you'll miss out on viewing the mini-movie. Besides being on
camera the mischievous apes have one more trick up their sleeve, they can
steal your tools. When a monkey gets angry it can steal your baton and
whack you with it or worse catch you with your own net, costing a life.
Seeing one of the apes catch a human is kind of funny and probably worth
wasting a life over once...maybe twice.
Ape Escape 3 looks better than Ape Escape 2001 and slightly better
than the second game. The game is surely more colorful and textures are
more rounded. Ample monkey diversity also makes the game look sharper.
Instead of catching the same looking monkey over and over, SCE has
monkeys dressed up in all sorts of costumes. Like the second game,
Sarugetchu 3 features full voiceovers for the cast. The actors fit the
bill at keeping the cut scenes hilarious.
The main game can be completed in a mere seven hours if you rush
through it, maybe ten if you're taking your sweet time. While it is
pretty short, it's fun the whole way through. Beyond capturing Specter
you can re-enter levels to catch all of the monkeys. It's a challenge
that will extend the game a few extra hours. If you really want to do
"everything" you can spend your coins purchasing monkey collectables,
songs and movies in town. The most coveted item to purchase is the
Mesaru Gear Solid mini game. This unlockable has you play through Metal
Gear Solid as an ape infused with Solid Snake's DNA. It's a really cool
extra to have, but to play it you need to beat the game once.
For platform gamers you can't go wrong with Sarugetchu 3. It's got
good level design and hundreds of monkeys to catch. With so few standard
platform games, Ape Escape 3 is a gorilla sized release for the genre.
Probably the most crucial part of the game you'll be missing out on
is the text based humor. The game is fairly easy to figure out,
even easier to jump into if you've played any Ape Escape title before.
Tutorials on how to play the game are in Japanese, but show a PS2
controller with what buttons to press. The visual aids make learning the
controls a snap.
US Bound?
It would be a shame of Sony didn't bring this awesome title over. If
they don't Ubisoft will probably pick it up. Although neither publisher
has announced that they are going to translate Ape Escape 3.
Overall
Sarugetchu 3 is one of the best, if not the best, platformer on the
PS2.
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