History VideoGame / ApeEscape

* EverythingsBetterWithChocolate: ''Ape Escape 2'' introduced the Big Cookie, which resembles a chocolate chip cookie and restores ''all'' of the player's health.

* {{Crossover}}: Appears as a MiniGame in ''MetalGearSolid3''.
** The third ''Ape Escape'' game also has a mini game called Mesal Gear Solid, which is basically ''MetalGearSolid'' except shorter and more kid-friendly.

* ShoutOut: The third game has quite a few, being based on movies and whatnot. Not to mention [[MetalGear Mesal Gear Solid]]. ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' returned the favor.

** In ApeEscape 3 you can buy a minigame named [[MetalGearSolid3 Mesal Gear Solid]] where you play as a monkey-fied Snake trying to save an abducted Snake.
*** If you ask why, it's pretty simple: Both ApeEscape 3 and Metal Gear Solid 3 were worked on/released around the same time ([[MetalGearSolid3 MGS3 Subsistance]] was) and they both decided: "Hey, let's make minigames based on eachother's games!" As stated above, [[ApeEscape AE3]] featured a MetalGearSolid minigame and [[MetalGearSolid3 MGS3]] featured an Ape Escape minigame.

[[caption-width-right:300:Your job is to catch some monkeys. Here's a net. [[AWorldwidePunomenon Go bananas.]]]]

Your characters change from game to game, starting with a guy named Spike/Kakeru, then going to a kid named Jimmy/Hikaru, then your choice of two characters Kei and Yumi in ''3'', and recently a nameless HeroicMime in the Playstation Move game. Also, starting from ''2'', the game's QuirkyMinibossSquad, the Freaky Monkey Five, shows up, monkeys that have been fed the power-boosting [[GRatedDrug Vita-Z Banana]] and making them go completely insane.

* ContinuityReboot: The Playstation Move Ape Escape has a completely new story. The main character is a teenager HeroicMime and his two sisters capturing monkeys from space, while looking for their grandmother too. The overall style underwent an ArtShift (although the monkeys themselves remain the same). The only returning character is Specter, and his backstory has been completely changed from a circus monkey corrupted by a intelligence boosting helmet [[spoiler: to an already intelligent WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds after being forcibly launched up into space.]]

** [[ThisIsSparta He has been REBORN!!!]]

* {{Cameo}}: In ''3'', a few underwater enemies come straight out of the Japan-only Sony game Space Fisherman. It's even lampshaded in the description for one of the enemies, wondering if it's in the wrong game.

* {{Cameo}}: In ''3'', a few underwater enemies come straight out of the Japan-only Sony game Space Fisherman.

* FetishFuelStationAttendant: Oh dear Specter, let me count the ways. WhiteHairedPrettyBoy[=/=]EvilAlbino? Check. EvilGenius MadScientist? Check. [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman Not really a human but not quite an animal either]]? Check. Evil army at his disposal that bows to his every will? Sits atop a bad ass flying throne? [[SharpDressedMan Looks damn good in a suit]]? [[DracoInLeatherPants Oh baby]], [[EstrogenBrigadeBait check]] [[{{Squee}} please]]!

Your characters change from game to game, starting with a guy named Spike/Kakeru, then going to a kid named Jimmy/Hikaru, then your choice of two equally annoying characters Kei and Yumi in ''3'', and recently a nameless HeroicMime in the Playstation Move game. Also, starting from ''2'', the game's QuirkyMinibossSquad, the Freaky Monkey Five, shows up, monkeys that have been fed the power-boosting [[GRatedDrug Vita-Z Banana]] and making them go completely insane.

* GoldenSaucer: Casino City from the second game. Fortunately, all slot machines in this level give coins, with the exception of the thief mice which can give you huge amounts of coinage anyways.

** Averted in the Playstation Move game. The

* NoExportForYou: Four of the games (two of which are arguably "core" titles, despite different gameplay) are only available in Japan, while one minigame compilation made it to America but not Europe.
** Also the anime series, ''Saru Getchu -On Air-'', has been out for in Japan for 4 years with no sign of an English release.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The Nightmare Scenario Monkey Fable from the 2nd game was supposedly the original idea for the game.

* ReverseCerebusSyndrome: YourMileageMayVary, the series has always been silly considering the subject matter, but the 2nd and 3rd games are a lot goofier. The 1st had something of a serious and epic plot, involving things like time travel, altering history, brainwashing, kidnapping, etc.
** CerebusSyndrome: ''Million Monkeys''. Dear Monkey Jesus...

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Jake in ''1'' and ''Pumped & Primed''. [[IGotBetter He gets better]], thanks to Spike.

All three main games (the first was for the PlayStation, the other two for the PlayStation2) are about a superintelligent EvilAlbino monkey named Specter who suddenly gains [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment super-intelligence]] through a hapless professor's [[HatOfPower intelligence-increasing helmet]], who proceeds to [[HilarityEnsues put said helmets on every other monkey in a monkey enclosure and teleport them all over the place]]. Your character's task is to... well, [[GottaCatchThemAll catch them all]]. In a possibly inadvertent ShoutOut, the second game's characters are all voiced by voice actors from ''{{Pokemon}}'' - in the USA version, anyway.

* HeyItsThatVoice: Jimmy and Natalie ended up sounding like [[{{Pokemon}} Ash and Misty]] in the USA version of ''Ape Escape 2''. [[GottaCatchThemAll Given the nature of the game]], it fits.
** VeronicaTaylor also provides the voice of Pink Monkey in ''2''. In the same game, [[{{Pokemon}} Gary]] is Yellow Monkey, [[{{Yu-Gi-Oh}} Mokuba]] is Pipotchi, while [[{{Yu-Gi-Oh}} Tristan]] (or [[{{Yu-Gi-Oh5Ds}} Yusei]]; take your pick) voices Red Monkey, Blue Monkey, ''and'' Specter.

A PlayStation-exclusive series and proof that [=~Everything's Better With Monkeys~=]. Known as ''Saru! Get You!'' in Japan.

* [=~Everything's Better With Monkeys~=]: Every single game uses this trope.

* [=~Hey, It's That Voice!~=]: Jimmy and Natalie ended up sounding like [[{{Pokemon}} Ash and Misty]] in the USA version of ''Ape Escape 2''. [[GottaCatchThemAll Given the nature of the game]], it fits.

* PutOnABus[=/=][=~What Happened To The Mouse?~=]: Roughly half of the main cast from the first game (Spike/Kakeru, Jake/Hiroki, and Casi/Charu) are missing from the events of ''Ape Escape 2''. While it can be surmised that Spike and Jake had better things to do or were away at the time (Spike reappears during the true ending to greet Natalie, the Professor, Pipotchi, and Jimmy, but oddly knows of Specter's wrongdoings throughout the game), Casi was a [[RobotGirl PC program in the form of a human girl]] who worked at the lab. There's even a photo of Natalie and Cassie posing together. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Unlockable sketches and concept art suggest that all of these characters were going to be included in the second game at some point, perhaps with some role in the story.]] ''Pumped & Primed'' introduces us to Helga/Haruka, heroine and ImpliedLoveInterest of Spike. She too goes missing after the game. In ''3'', Spike, Jimmy, and the Professor are {{Brainwashed}} by Specter, rendering them inactive during the story. Luckily, all of the above characters (with the sad exception of Jimmy and Pipotchi) make a grand reappearance either in the anime or in ''Million Monkeys''.

* StealthBasedGame: Sort of. You have to crawl around to catch monkeys unawares, otherwise they'll run away and/or fire their weapons at you. But even then, it's entirely possible to catch most monkeys just by running around enough.
** Especially with the Super Hoop.

* HeelFaceTurn: [[In the Playstation Move game, upon being re-united with his owner Haru, Specter is more then happy to be with her and her grandchildren, and they take him home to give him a bath.]]

[[caption-width-right:300:Your job is to catch some monkeys; here's your net. Go bananas.]]