When a scientist and his kid are kidnapped by a mysterious villain, their pet monkey tries to save them. Unfortunately, the villain kicks the monkey and makes off with the people. The monkey then drinks some kind of super-potion that turns him into a musclebound, ape-faced, pro-wrestling humanoid. He then sets off to rescue his owners from the hordes of animal-costumed thugs and breakdancers.
The game was subject to an elaborate hoax in 2005 when a person named Paul Brown announced to the Digital Press forum that he had found a working prototype. After a Flame War erupted over whether he should dump the ROM or sell it, Paul posted a picture that revealed that he had smashed the cartridge due to all the problems it caused. The hoax started a small meme involving a supposed Blob Monster enemy that was made out of butter.
In 2010, however, the Vaporware website Lost Levels
were notified by Paul Brown himself of a REAL Bio Force Ape prototype being sold on Yahoo! Japan. After buying it, the team dumped the ROM and released it onto the Internet.
More info can be found here. Digital Press hoax thread can be read here.
Not to be confused with Bio-Meat: Nectar.
The game provides examples of:
- A Winner Is You: You see the monkey reunited with his owners with "THE END" above them. Then it shows your fastest times.
- Animal-Themed Superbeing: Most of the bad guys you face seem to be these. Two of the weirder ones include a crocodile man whose suit is worn with his legs inside the jaws and his head inside the long tail, which he uses as a whip; and a kangaroo man whose legs are inside the tail, with his arms where the kangaroo's legs would be.
- Beast Man: The player character is a monkey transformed into one.
- Boxing Kangaroo: The kangaroo men are an odd example, appearing to stand up on their tail to fight you with kicks. But it's actually a man in a bizarre kangaroo suit who fights with punches, with his arms where the kangaroo's legs would be, and his own legs inside the tail.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: The villain has no explained motivation for kidnapping the professor and his child.
- Hyperactive Metabolism: Of the "eat food and regain health" variety. Except lobster.
- Joke Character: The breakdancer dances and only dances. He is not a Dance Battler. He is incapable of harming you, and he is defeated in a single hit.
- Makes Just as Much Sense in Context: For no apparent reason, you are fighting a bunch of guys in animal costumes and the occasional breakdancer. And the Big Bad has nuclear missiles for some reason. And he can turn into a palette swap of the ape.
- Mirror Match: The Final Boss turns into a palette swap of the ape.
- No Name Given: Nobody in the game is given any real names, although the hoax names the kid "Sarah."
- Poison Mushroom: Cooked lobster takes away health.
- Super Serum: The hero drinks one to become a superpowerful humanoid.
- Super-Speed: Some of those platforms are impressively fast for the NES.
- Time Trial: The whole game seems to be one, since it goes by fastest times completed, not highest scores.
- Unique Enemy: The breakdancer only appears in the second level.
- Wrestler in All of Us: The ape knows a few pro-wrestling moves.
The hoax provides examples of:
- Blob Monster: The Butter Monster is literally a blob of talking butter.
- Fartillery: The ape was given a farting attack that actually made the game glitch. Paul said he was surprised that no one caught on then.
- Funetik Aksent: The Butter Monster appears to speak in a German accent."Ja, I am made of dur butter, und you are worth 2K monies"
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: "Eat Communism!"
- Take That, Audience!: The Butter Monster screenshots were actually making fun of the Flame War over the game. The Butter Monster represented the collectors wanting Paul to sell the prototype, while the "Eat Communism!" face punch represented the forumers wanting him to dump the ROM (the collecters kept calling them "communists").
- Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: Invoked at the end of the hoax, when Paul smashed the (fake) prototype due to the backlash it caused.
