Monkey magic for PSP
Sony hopes lots of mini-games will provide maxi-fun in Ape Academy
Everyone seems to love monkeys - from Super Monkey Ball to monkey tennis and the Gorillaz - there’s something altogether smile-inducing about the furry fellows, unless of course, they happen to be pulling the aerial off your car in a safari park. Sony certainly thinks they are good for business anyhow; its monkey specialists in Japan have already created two Ape Escape games for PlayStation2 and are keen to bring more simian chaos to PSP.
First up is the mini-game based Ape Academy. It features the characters from the Ape Escape games but places them in a collection of 50 mini-games. Focusing on short and addictive gameplay, Ape Academy is all about unlocking new games, finding bonus items and frantic multiplayer action. For example some mini-games have been designed especially for two players to compete simultaneously on one PSP, while others use PSP’s wi-fi. These wi-fi games also require you to bet the monkey figures you have collected during the game with the winner taking all.
Examples of the wacky Ape Academy games include: the One Meter Dash, where up to four players compete over false starts to see who is quickest off the blocks; Dodge Ball over a pit of boiling lava, a version of Scissors, Paper, Stone but in space, with jet packs and laser guns; and Geronimo, where you have to save monkeys who have jumped out a plane without a parachute.
