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Ape Escape – Part 2-3

We’re at the top of the TV Tower, and another boss stands in our way.

Streamed at https://www.twitch.tv/newdarkcloud

Something I observed while replaying this game is that the vast majority of the gadgets we’re using don’t benefit all that much from being mapped to the right stick for controls.

• If I simply pressed a button to swing the Stun Club or the Time Net, then it’s likely I would have even more precise control over it that I do from having to flick the analog stick in a direction. It is surprisingly difficult to line them up with the targets without accidentally veering just off the mark.
• The Super Hoop and the Sky Flyer simply use the stick to turn themselves on after a few rotations. They exist in binary states, either on or off, and don’t benefit for the addition of a analog stick rotation to obfuscate that reality.
• The slingshot is basically unusual outside for first person aiming. The control scheme does not allow for the necessary degree of precision to make it work outside of that.

About the only gadgets that benefit from the controls are the Monkey Radar and the RC Car. Both of them would be much more difficult to implement without a secondary omnidirectional input, but that still leaves the vast majority of the gadgets which could be easily adapted into button presses.

Perhaps this is why Ape Escape didn’t persist in the same way Ratchet and Clank did: Ultimately, there was just no reason to bring it’s control scheme into the modern day, though we can incorporate the lessons it taught us about game design.