Developed as the first game to specifically require the use of the DualShock controller, Sony Computer Entertainment's 1999 platformer Ape Escape (known in Japan as Saru Getchu) was built around a pretty simple yet ingenious premise.
A bunch of mischievous primates have escaped from a lab and have been sent back through time, so it falls to you, the player, to travel across the different eras to recapture them, using the DualShock’s analog sticks as your primary method of control. In the game, players would take on the role of a young boy named Spike (referred to as Kakeru in the Japanese version of the game), having access to an impressive array of toy-like gadgets to track and trap these rampaging simians, with the end goal ultimately being to put a stop to their nefarious ringleader: the evil monkey mastermind, Specter.
Over the years, Ape Escape has gone on to become a beloved franchise in the Sony back catalogue, inspiring several sequels, spin-offs, and guest appearances, as well as merchandise, and other forms of media (comics, manga, and TV shows). But, despite that, interviews with its core development staff are pretty few and far between. As a result, we at Time Extension recently tried to correct this situation, reaching out to a bunch of former Sony Computer Entertainment staff with the help of the Japanese-to-English translator Liz Bushouse. Within hours, we received a response, with one of the game's main designers Katsuyuki Kanetaka agreeing to answer some of our questions about the PlayStation classic.
Kanetaka, as far as we're aware, hasn't given a ton of interviews about his time working on the project in the past (at least in English, anyway). In fact, even his MobyGames profile seems to display the incorrect picture (as of the time of writing), showing an image of the game's producer Susumu Takatsuka — something that will only cause more confusion for those researching the original game's development. Nevertheless, he was an important figure in the creation of Ape Escape as we know it today, being responsible (in his own words) for overseeing the following areas of the game:
- Kakeru’s (the player character) behavior
- The gadgets’ behavior
- Settling on Pipo’s Japanese name: Piposaru (lit. Pipo monkey)
- Pipo’s behavior, Pipo’s weapon(s)
- The transition design for all the menu screens and such
- Directing the scenario, script, art, and movie scenes
- Coordinating and ordering the sound effects and BGM
- All the Japanese names for the monkeys and their comments
Because of this, he was more than happy to take us on a trip down memory lane, walking us through the development of the title.
According to Kanetaka, when he first joined the team that was working on Ape Escape it had already been underway for roughly a year, with only two designers having been assigned to the game, Hingo Matsumoto and Kenkichi Shimooka.
As he tells us, neither of these had ever shipped a game before and had been working alongside an equally inexperienced team of part-time college students operating under the watchful eye of the director Susumu Takatsuka (a new hire at SCE who had previously worked at Sega on Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers as a 3D CG designer). Soon, though, a decision was made internally at Sony to bring on some more experienced team members, with Kanetaka being among those picked to join the project and help steer the design of the game.
"Before I joined SCE, I was a director on the arcade, PlayStation, and Sega Saturn versions of Street Fighter Zero 2 (Street Fighter Alpha 2) at Capcom," Kanetaka tells Time Extension. "So I had game development experience. That’s why when I joined the team, Mr. Takatsuka moved from being a director to being more of a producer, and I became in charge of a lot of things on Ape Escape.
"All the original development staff were people who didn’t have experience making games. Most of the CG designers were college students doing part-time work, and all the programmers had also just recently graduated from college and joined the company. After that, more people with development experience joined the team, including me and Kazuo Kato (who was a programmer). A good thing that came from that was that the inexperienced people were a lot freer with their ideas, so we had a good mix of suggestions."
All the original development staff were people who didn’t have experience making games. Most of the CG designers were college students doing part-time work, and all the programmers had also just recently graduated from college
Reflecting on what the project looked like when he first came on board, Kanetaka tells us that it focused on a young boy "about 18 years old" who swung a cudgel and ran around a field fighting gorilla enemies. As he tells us, one of the gadgets, the Sky Flyer, already existed, but the original designers had yet to come up with the idea of chasing monkeys around the map to catch them with a net — something that would become a key component of the game later on.
Instead, as he informs us, it was only after the developers realized that the 3D environments they were designing were potentially confusing and easy to get lost in that the team began suggesting ideas for a bunch of animals to chase around, believing this could serve as a clear objective to help the players navigate the game's large, open areas.
According to Susumu Takatsuka in a PSM Magazine interview published in July 1999, various animals (including lions and tigers) were initially considered as the creatures that the player would be chasing around, but eventually, it was decided to focus exclusively on monkeys, due to the popularity of the initial "Pipo" character designs and 3D models, created by the artist Takamitsu Iijima.
"Unlike the 2D games that had been released up until that point, the space in 3D games offered way too much freedom," Kanetaka recalls. "And it became very easy for players to lose sight of what they should be doing or where they should be going. So we talked about creating something to chase, to make it clear to the player where they should go and what their objective is. We ultimately decided that it would be good to chase a monkey that’s running around and provoking you. Shimooka came up with that idea. We then talked about having something on the monkey’s head, so that you could easily pick it out even from far away, and so Iijima designed Pipo['s helmet] with that in mind."
We ultimately decided that it would be good to chase a monkey that’s running around and provoking you. Shimooka came up with that idea.
Interestingly, when Kanetaka first joined the project the team was originally designing the game to feature a much more conventional control scheme. That, however, apparently changed after Sony revealed the DualShock controller to the team ahead of the device's initial launch back in 1997, causing them to rethink how they could take advantage of its new features, including the dual analogue sticks that had been missing from the original PlayStation controller.
How this eventually ended up being implemented in the finished game is that players use the left analog to maneuver the character around, while the right stick would be in control of the various gadgets you've unlocked on your journey (the Stun Club, Time Net, Monkey Radar, Slingback Shooter, Dash Hoop, Sky Flyer, R.C. Car, and Magic Punch).
To select a gadget, players would need to use the PlayStation's face buttons (Triangle, Square, Circle, Cross) to toggle between the available options outlined on the upper-right-hand side of the screen, while the R1 & R2 triggers were both reserved for jumping. L3, meanwhile, enabled you to crouch, allowing you to sneak up on unsuspecting monkeys without arousing any unwanted attention.
"We had a difficult time figuring out how the player should control gadgets," says Kanetaka. "But with the stun club, we got the idea of pushing the joystick in a direction to have Kakeru face that way and swing the club, which solved everything. The programmer Yuji Yamada-san’s idea for controlling the slingback shooter served as an inspiration for that."
As he states, no gadgets ended up being cut prior to the game's final release, but the dash hoop was almost removed, he tells us, because no one could come up "with any ideas for what ability it would have". Fortunately, though, someone on the team eventually did develop a concept for the unusual device, suggesting that it would be cool for the gadget to make you run faster, with the trade-off being that it would be slightly more "difficult to control."
In total, the original Ape Escape ended up featuring 8 unique zones for players to explore. This included The Lost Land, Mysterious Age, Oceana, New Freezeland, Medieval Mayhem, Futurama, Specter Land, and Dimension-X. Most of these zones contained 3 levels each and had players jumping, crawling, and gliding across a wide range of different terrains and climates, from frozen tundras to dense jungles, futuristic cities, and medieval castles, to track down the missing monkeys.
In addition to this, there were also a couple of bonus vehicles situated within some of the game's levels that you could pilot (including a raft and a tank), as well as golden coins that could be collected to unlock additional minigames available from the game's hub world (skiing, boxing, and a twin-stick shoot 'em up).
When Ape Escape was finally released for the PS1, it ended up becoming a huge success for Sony's internal development team, quickly winning over critics thanks to its innovative controls, fun-to-use gadgets, and charming sense of humour. IGN's Doug Perry, for instance, described the game at the time as "the best 3D platform game on the PlayStation. Hands down", while Next Generation argued that it was “ideal for younger players” and would even appeal to "the most jaded [of] hardcore players”.
It has since received several sequels and spin-offs, as well as a remake for the PSP, called Ape Escape: On the Loose! (or Ape Escape P, as it was known in Europe), and three TV separate shows: Shogakukan Music & Digital Entertainment's Ape Escape (2002), the CGI-anime Saru Getchu -On Air (2006), and Frederator Studios' Ape Escape (2009).
Right now, the series seems to be experiencing a lengthy hiatus, having not received a brand-new entry since 2010's PlayStation Move Ape Escape. However, the game's Pipo Monkeys have continued making cameo appearances in other Sony-related projects, most recently turning up in Team Asobi's Astro Bot and also being announced for Konami's upcoming Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater remake: Metal Gear Solid Delta (for PlayStation 5 and Steam).
Sony Computer Entertainment's Japan Studio (the successor to the original Ape Escape studio), meanwhile, has since been restructured, putting the future of the series in doubt — at least for the time being.