Ape Escape Academy

Games Radar UK (Pre-2006)

Apart from the slow loading times, this is one of the best games on PSP. [PSM2]

Computer and Video Games

Once you enter the realms of multiplayer, Ape Academy really comes into its own, with enormous pleasure to be gained from events like the one metre dash, dodge ball, scissor, paper and stone or Geronimo. Ook - drink deep from the banana inspired mayhem.

Total Video Games

The gameplay is painfully repetitive and uninspired, and a vast majority of the mini-games just aren't fun; they say that your schooldays are the happiest of your life - but whoever said that couldn’t have been taught at the Ape Academy.

PGNx Media

The load times, too, are annoying. If you can live with this, though, there is a lot of fun to be had.

Game Over Online

The quick mini-game presentation can be very engaging, especially for players interested in short bursts of play. However, if you're looking for a large amount of depth or a lot of replayability, you might not be as satisfied with Ape Escape Academy as you would be with the console games.

Game Chronicles

Some of the mini-games are just impossible (for me) and it usually seemed to be those games that were on the squares I needed to make the required line(s) to graduate.

Gaming Target

As a collection of short minigames, Ape Escape Academy makes it to graduation with passing grades. However, it goes from being lame because you don’t know what to do in any of the minigames, to being fun because you’ve got the hang of them, to being lame again because the fun is lost after a couple of tries.

Extreme Gamer

Ape Escape Academy has traded in capturing monkeys for a school full of fun and frustrating mini-games. I was thrown a little off guard, but the end results provide an entertaining package.

eToychest

Puzzle games are in, and while this is definitely not the traditional puzzle game, there is enough to challenge players that it is worth a look see.

Game Informer

The loading times between games somewhat diminishes the fast-paced feel that Wario Ware delivers. [Feb 2006, p.113]

GameZone

Has a number of mini-games but unfortunately not all of them make for a particularly engaging or challengingly fun package.

GameSpot

Slapping some of the dizzy Ape Escape energy over an easily anticipated collection of minigames makes for a mildly entertaining experience, but not a very long one.

GamePro

Academy's mini-games looks nice, but just can't compete with Wario Ware's non-stop style of play that is best suited for the stylus-equipped DS.

Times Online

With more than 45 mini-games in the mix, it is not surprising that the quality of them is fairly mixed — it is Ape Academy’s major weakness that while many are rather too easy (the one- metre dash, for instance), others seem impossible (catching the contents of a kebab on a sword).

AceGamez

What galls me even more is that the poor gameplay, frustrating loading times, overly cartoony graphics and irritating sound may give monkeys a bad rep.

PSM Magazine

Uneven quality and painful loading times temper the monkey storm. [Feb 2006, p.87]

DarkStation

Monkeys can be quite a handful when they're at school, as this party game features a simplistic and frankly not fun assortment of mini games.

DailyGame

If it would resolve its identity crisis it would do much better, but it's just plain "meh" as-is.

Gaming Horizon

The game fails where it counts with bad mini-games, terrible instructions, slow controls and a pretty worthless multiplayer option.

Entertainment Weekly

Most of these minigames are fun and challenging, but the lack of a plot can leave you wondering just where you're going with the gameplay — and some become insanely hard after a couple starter rounds.

GamingTrend

While you might find some enjoyment in a few of the mini-games, it just doesn’t justify purchasing the game.

Next Level Gaming

[Control] has to be the worst part of the game.

Digital Entertainment News

As it stands, this game is a collection of mediocre and fairly short minigames, failing to offer a viable reason to partake in its offerings.

IGN

Suffers from a number of issues, namely sluggish control and poor design. While there's a decent number of games to choose from, very few of them will strike you as memorable or worthy of addiction.

Worth Playing

It's almost unbelievable to me that some very small problems, all related to the nature of the system the game chose to appear on, can turn a mediocre but charming game into a mess with little play value, but that's certainly what happened with Ape Escape Academy.

Gaming Nexus

If you can get over the game's sluggish controls and short story mode you will still be left with a game that is no fun to play. With uninspired mini games that with either bore you or frustrate you, Ape Escape Academy is one school you might not want to apply to.

Gamers' Temple

You’ll want to escape the Academy yourself after playing Ape Escape Academy for a little while.

Cheat Code Central

Making a game out of mini-games is like making a meal out of crackers and ketchup. It's not always very satisfying.

Electronic Gaming Monthly

Where Ape Escape Academy should feel like a festive minigame extravaganza, it comes off as more of a collection of half-assed prototypes due to the overly complex challenges, unresponsive controls, and complete lack of coherency. [Feb 2006, p.111]

Deeko

Control of the minigames themselves is sluggish at best, making you feel like all the monkeys have been shot with a tranquilizer gun.

PSX Extreme

Incredibly disappointing. Even if you were to find three friends with PSP’s and copies of the game, you could only play four games, which is a complete joke.

Gamezilla!

It’s too short, too frustrating, and too unpolished to warrant a look over, awesome monkeys or not.

G4 TV

The load times sometimes last longer than it takes to complete a few of the actual minigames, and there’s nothing novel going on in this game, but with no competition on the PSP it's a decent choice for quick, clean fun.

TotalPlayStation

A poor showcase for the hardware and a sloppy attempt to cash in on the pick-up-and-play fun of mini-game collections like Wario Ware, AAA is anything but a top-tier game. Stay away from this one.

Sydney Morning Herald

Ape Academy's pace is languid. Frequent, lengthy loading delays frustrate, and many of the 50 challenges suffer from clumsy controls, ambiguous instructions, or are just dull.

GameSpy

With more mini-game variety (a lot more) and better multiplayer support, it could have been a simple, fun diversion. As it is, however, it's often an exercise in tedium and frustration.

PALGN

Ape Academy fails on all levels as a mini-game collection. Even if the lack of vareity and modes are negligile, the control and balance kill any possibilty of redemption.

Pelaaja (Finland)

Ape Academy tries to ape Nintendo's brilliant "Wario Ware" –series, but fails almost completely. There are 47 different mini games, and most of them are not that good. That combined with frustratingly long loading times make this a game easily forgotten. [Sept 2005, p. 67]

Eurogamer

In short, there isn't much reason to buy it - however much you love monkeys. And we love monkeys, which makes us even more cross.

GameCritics

To put it bluntly, Ape Escape Academy is a textbook case of monkey-see, monkey-do; it goes through the motions and mimics the best it can, but lacks the intelligence and understanding required to imbue its efforts with any sort of elegance.

GameShark

Absolutely, positively not worth $40 or even a rental for that matter.

Game Revolution

It seems like a smart evolutionary step for the series to begin aping (ha) Nintendo's better handheld experience, but not when it treads down a path paved with banana peels, which, I am conditioned to believe, are very slippery.

GamerFeed

Ape Escape Academy is like a drunken scholar- it has all the best ideas in the world but the execution will leave a bad taste in your mouth. The presentation is strictly average, the controls messy, and the multiplayer aspect damn near unexplored.

1UP

The entire multiplayer aspect of Academy is so poorly implemented that it begs the question as to why they even bothered.

Detroit Free Press

Sub-par. Throw in some excessive load times and a lame several-players-on-one handheld multiplayer mode and you have a barrel of frustration.

Official U.S. Playstation Magazine

Perhaps the biggest problem with Ape Escape Academy is the fact that you literally spend more time waiting than you do playing.

Gaming Age

With only a small fraction of its forty-something mini-games playable to begin with, the higher difficulties and random game selection make the game a chore to play. Even if a player were to solely focus on the good or decent games, they would still be bored after thirty minutes.

Jolt Online Gaming UK

Everywhere that the "WarioWare" series succeeds, Ape Academy fails spectacularly. Where one provides a blisteringly fast succession of well-designed quickfire mini-games, the other serves up a painfully slow collection of loading times interspersed with faulty, bland nonsense.