You'd think the world would do something about these constant Monkey outbreaks, wouldn't you? Even if they do technically fit under Harmless Villains, the monkeys have still brought the world to its knees, and have almost destroyed it at least once. So why does it keep happening? Well, the first time came kind of out of nowhere. After all, who expects an army of monkeys to suddenly rise up, let alone have a working time machine? By the time anyone notices, the monkeys have retroactively ruled the world for centuries, which is only undone when Spike removes them all from the timestream and throws them back into Monkey Park. Off-screen there were probably some very thorough measures taken so that the monkeys could not escape the Park. And then the monkey helmets, against all possible expectation, fell out of the sky into Monkey Park due to a teleporter accident. Third time, the humans are taking no chances. They shall not and will not let the monkeys escape or gain the helmets by accident... and then Dr. Tomoki shows up with an army of robots and busts the monkeys out anyway; any counter resistance is nullified by everyone getting hypnotized by the monkey broadcasts. These incidents keep happening because they're a series of outside context problems.
The slightly sillier tone of 3 can be explained by Dr. Tomoki's involvement in Specter's evil plot. A man so camp that even Specter, who created the Freaky Monkey 5, can't take him seriously. It is likely he has a hand in deciding what programs would be filmed, resulting in the much weirder situations and monkeys you'd come across.
I get why Monkey Galaxy was cut in future remakes of Ape Escape 1. When you play it, you're greeted with a very perky tune in a minigame where you shoot random things as a spaceship monkey. Think nothing of it, right? And then you get 100% completion for Monkeys, you go to the final arena, and- wait, what's that sound? It's the same music for Monkey Galaxy playing for the final boss theme. No wonder it was removed, it's a musical spoiler if you replay the game.
Despite Dueling Dubs, Monkey Pink has the same accent in both the US and UK versions, and it sounds closer to the American version. While it may be considered an oversight on the UK end, it fits that Monkey Pink, with the cheesy lyrics and almost bubblegum pop sound to her songs, sounds more like a US pop singer.
Something minor I noticed while looking back at the original game is that Specter wears bright red pants. It's probably just a stylistic choice but it makes sense in the game's terms too. Red is the same color the aggressive monkeys wear, so it only makes sense that the strongest and most aggressive monkey of all would wear red.
In the first Ape Escape, Jake's primary presence is engaging Spike in a footrace three times over the course of the game. When you battle him as a boss in Specter Land, what's Jake doing? Driving a racecar.
White Monkey being demoted from fourth boss to first in the third game actually makes sense when you remember that, unlike the other members, White never fights the player directly. He relies on his robots to do his fighting for him. In his first appearance, he used a robot duplicate of Jimmy, specifically using the latter's data to create said robot. Come 3, he doesn't use a robot duplicate (either because he wouldn't or couldn't make a new one), instead using a weaker robot.
In Ape Escape 3, Monkey Blue has a musical pocket watch with a photo of Monkey Pink in it, in reference to the one the villain had in For a Few Dollars More. The trouble is that the photo in the watches in For a Few Dollars More is a photo of a girl the villain had previously raped. And Pink doesn't requite Blue's affections, and aaaaaaaaaaafgghghghghghhh.
"I'll ask Pink out fer a date, and then... *laughter*"
One of the monkeys in the first game hides in a Pitcher Plant, a carnivorous plant. Either that monkey picked a very poor spot to hide in, or they're actually getting eaten when Spike arrives at the level.
