If there's one thing Sony should have learned from its years in the console industry, it's that you can sell any sort of crap game for a new system. It was ages before people realized that Battle Arena Toshinden was garbage, and more than a few people played far more of Eternal Ring than anyone should. Yes, there's a sort of honeymoon period after a system launch, during which nearly any title that hits the shelves will be scooped up by a public eager to play with their new toys. It is perhaps with this in mind that Sony exhumed the original PS1 Ape Escape, dusted it off, and crammed it into the tiny PSP. Also consider that a parent purchasing a PSP for their child might notice that Ape Escape: On The Loose is the only title so far with a cartoony, child-friendly look to it, and it seems likely that it will sell pretty well, and a number of folks who might otherwise not have played it, will. Fortunately, they can have a lot of fun doing so.

Even players unfamiliar with Ape Escape will instantly recognize the story as the classic boy-with-gadgets versus monkeys-with-flashing-lights-on-their-heads conflict that we've all seen a thousand times before, but this time there's a twist: time travel. Yes, the evil monkey Specter, whose special helmet gives him super-intelligence, has strewn monkeys all across history, and the player, as Spike, must pilot the Enterprise around the sun to visit 20^th century San Francisco, nail Catherine Hicks, and rescue humpback whales. No, wait, that's Kirk. Spike has to catch monkeys. Lots of monkeys. See, they might irreparably alter history by tossing a banana peel under the foot of Edith Keeler, causing her to fall on the sidewalk before she can get hit by the truck. Wait, no, Kirk again. Well, you get the idea: monkeys loose throughout time bad, catching monkeys good. So into the time machine we go…

…to the late nineties, when the Playstation ruled the gaming world. Ape Escape: On The Loose is essentially a port of the classic PS1 game, which was the first title to really take advantage of the then-new Dual Shock controller's two analog sticks. The PSP doesn't have two analog sticks, you say? Well, yeah, we'll talk about that later. But the first clue that this is a port would be the graphics, which are certainly cleaned up a bunch from the PS1 days, but still fail to impress. Colorful and cartoony, they certainly get the job done, but simplistic character models and bland textures mean that this is not the game to show off the power of your new PSP. The monkeys are cute, though, and the general look of the game is clean, bright, and sharp. The game's sound, on the other hand, is quite well done, with particular props to the monkey sound effects, which are sometimes downright funny.

In keeping with platformer tradition, the game is arranged with a central hub connecting several worlds, each containing a number of levels. Each world represents a certain time period in which monkeys have been loosed, and they all have a unique look and set of obstacles to overcome. Spike's mission is to capture a certain number of monkeys per level in order to advance. Along the way players will find other platform traditions, like collecting 100 of something (in this case, energy chips) to earn an extra life, or puzzles involving shoving blocks around. A lot of what you'll find in Ape Escape has been done before, but it's what's different that sets the title apart and makes it a worthwhile play. First of all, most games don't have monkeys. Secondly, no other game with monkeys has monkeys with flashing lights on their heads. These lights change from blue to red, indicating that monkey's current state of alarm. The monkey's personality is indicated by the color of the monkey's pants (again, most games with monkeys are pants-free), and these two indicators can help a smart player determine the best monkey-nabbing technique for a given situation.

Speaking of techniques, Spike certainly has a number of options at his disposal. Throughout the game, he acquires a veritable smorgasbord of little gadgets, starting with a simple stick and net, and eventually rounding out his arsenal with such items as a hula hoop and monkey radar (for those pesky, hard-to-reach monkeys). If the variety of gadgets isn't enough to keep players interested, Ape Escape also features a number of vehicles for Spike to pilot, such as a rowboat and a tank, and wonderfully designed levels to maneuver them through. Stalking the different types of monkeys requires skillful use of gadgets, and finding every monkey in a level is difficult enough to be rewarding, but not frustrating.

Sadly, however, it's when Spike uses his insidious tools of monkey capture that the game's most major flaw becomes apparent. As previously mentioned, the original Ape Escape heavily utilized two analog sticks, allowing the player to move and attack in separate directions. Without a second analog stick, the PSP version only allows players to attack in the direction they are facing, which makes monkey snagging considerably more difficult. The camera sucks, too, but it can be manually adjusted using the L button and directional pad, so bad angles can usually be worked around. It's a minor irritation, and anyone who plays this sort of game has certainly seen worse cameras, so it doesn't detract much from the overall experience.

Ape Escape: On The Loose also features a variety of multiplayer wireless minigames ranging from ping pong to boxing. These are fun little diversions, but the main draw here is the single player experience. Hunting monkeys never gets old, and well-designed levels combine with gameplay variety to create a very enjoyable ride that ends up only slightly marred by clunky controls. Anyone who hasn't played the original probably won't even notice the control issues, and for them, this is an extremely worthy addition to the PSP library. Ape Escape veterans, on the other hand, might find it too frustrating to be fun.