SO, there are rumors of Sony actually planning to relaunch/reboot/rejig their old classic platformer series, Ape Escape, apparently outsorced to Evening Star, the developer behind Penny’s Big Breakway, itself founded by the team that developed Sonic Mania.
This is just a rumour at the moment, so keep in mind this is just pure speculation.
so let’s put our big boy ape pants on and speculate, why not?
It has been since… like 2008 or something, that we had something, anything Ape Escape?
I did actually play and finish that PS3 Move game, btw.
Assuming these rumors have some truth to them, i do wonder why Sony isn’t just asking Team Asobi to do it, after the success of the full fledged Astro Bot game that demonstrated people did want this genre back?
Regardless, i do believe this is a bit too fuckin late to play to the nostalgia crowd or use it to alleviate-counter the company committing PS3 levels of marketing hubris, but on the other hand, Ape Escape fans haven’t been starved, we just keep moving as living skeletons through some Devil Fruit sorcery, complaining about why the PS4/PS5 rerelease of Ape Escape 2 hasn’t been fixed yet… actually, yes, good point, go fix shit your sell for money.
And no, the Ape Escape cameo being kept in the PS5 release of the MGS3 remake doesn’t count because it was expected.
Regardless, i would love the series to come back, i really would, and i do believe it can find its place in the modern market, especially since it’s a throwback to an era when Sony had tons of quirky series like these on the regular.,.. though i do suppose -if the project is real – it’s still all in a very embryonal stage, since Sony hasn’t dropped any hints or shadowdropped other enhanced ports of Ape Escape 3 or the original PSP titles.
i’m not sure an open world format would fit at all, i wouldn’t really want that, at all, but i can also imagine executives still pushing back on anything unless it’s open world, as in, open world in the Ubisoft sense of the term.
I would love a good collection to also see the many Japan only titles localized worlwide, you’d be surprised how much of the series never was brought westward, but frankly aside a PSN port of Ape Escape 3 (and maybe a PS4 PS5 port… of the PSP port of the game, On The Loose…. oh wait, they did release an upscaled port of that ), i doubt Sony will actually bother to do much.
After all, it’s too busy rereleasing The Last Of Us like a fish deliberately getting caught back up by the same fisherman, or spending anothe 12 gajillions on a live service game that will get cancelled after wasting years in development hell, or release just to die faster than a house fly.
Assuming Sony doesn’t impose some Gen AI shit, might as well since it’s on its suicide run, marketing wise.
i hope not, but again, Sony isn’t getting any benefit of the doubt on that, nor should it.
Plus you know, it would inspire some good will to actually fix Ape Escape 2 emulation issues, and maybe at least rerelease Ape Escape 3 already.
Frankly, while i like the idea, this day i’d kinda prefer old franchises i love to stay dead, given the state of the industry.
Sometimes dead is better.
