Games Like Ape Escape

What Made Ape Escape Work

Ape Escape was built to justify the dual analogue sticks — the right stick swings the net, spins the hoop and steers the RC car, so every gadget is a different way of moving your hands. Under the gadgets it is a hunt: eighty-odd monkeys, each one a small puzzle with a radar and a personality.

Ape Escape is Sony Computer Entertainment Japan's 1999 PlayStation platformer and the first game that required the DualShock controller. The monkey Specter uses a helmet to make an army of apes intelligent and sends them through time; Spike chases them with a net, a stun club and other gadgets mapped to the right analogue stick. Each level asks you to find and catch a set number of monkeys, which gives it a collecting and hunting structure unlike most platformers.

9 Games Like Ape Escape

1. Ap

   1.Ape Escape 2(2001)

   More of exactly the same, with the gadget set expanded.

   Why it fits: The 2002 PlayStation 2 sequel from the same Sony team replaces Spike with a new hero, Jimmy, and brings back Specter and the monkey-catching gadgets. It was later re-released on PS4 as a PS2 classic, so it is the easiest direct continuation to play.

   What is different: Much the same game, which is the point — the camera is a little better and there are more gadgets.

   Where to play it: PS2; re-released on PS4 as a PS2 classic.

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2. Bu

   2.Bug Fables(2019)

   For the tone — a cheerful hunt through small worlds full of characters.

   Why it fits: Moonsprout Games' 2019 role-playing game, later released on consoles, follows three bugs — Vi, Kabbu and Leif — exploring a world of insects. Its cheerful tone and the way each character's ability solves a different puzzle match Ape Escape's playful gadget design.

   What is different: A turn-based RPG in the Paper Mario style, not a platformer.

   Where to play it: PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch.

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3. Pi

   3.Pikmin(2001)

   Nintendo's game about catching, herding and directing small creatures, which is Ape Escape's hunt turned into strategy.

   Why it fits: Nintendo's 2001 GameCube game follows Captain Olimar, who has 30 days to recover his spaceship parts with the help of small plant creatures. Gathering and directing groups of creatures across hand-made environments shares Ape Escape's focus on hunting things down.

   What is different: A strategy game with a day timer; you command creatures rather than catch them.

   Where to play it: GameCube; the series on Switch.

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4. Bu

   4.Bugsnax(2020)

   A modern creature-catching game where every catch is its own contraption puzzle.

   Why it fits: Young Horses, the studio behind Octodad, released Bugsnax in 2020 on PS4, PS5 and PC. Every half-bug, half-snack creature needs its own trap or trick to catch, so it is the pick where catching is a puzzle as it is in Ape Escape.

   What is different: First-person puzzle-catching and a talky, slightly unsettling story.

   Where to play it: PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox and Switch.

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5. Ja

   5.Jak and Daxter(2001)

   The PS2 platformer that inherited Ape Escape's collect-everything structure.

   Why it fits: Naughty Dog's 2001 PlayStation 2 platformer, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, has you collect power cells and precursor orbs across a seamless world. It arrived two years after Ape Escape and is the PlayStation platformer that most kept its collect-everything structure.

   What is different: No catching and no gadget-per-stick controls; it is a straight platformer.

   Where to play it: PS2; collected on PS3 and PS Vita, and re-released on PS4.

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6. Ps

   6.Psychonauts(2005)

   A gadget-driven 3D platformer with far stranger levels.

   Why it fits: Double Fine's 2005 platformer, directed by Tim Schafer for Xbox and PC and ported to PS2, follows Razputin through levels set inside other people's minds. Switching between psychic powers mid-level is the closest match to Ape Escape's gadget-switching.

   What is different: Story-led, with a stranger sense of humour; the powers are psychic, not gadgets.

   Where to play it: PC, PS2 and Xbox; the sequel on PS4, Xbox One and PC.

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7. Su

   7.Super Mario Odyssey(2017)

   Capture mechanics turn every enemy into a new gadget.

   Why it fits: Nintendo's 2017 Switch platformer lets Mario throw Cappy to take over enemies and objects, each capture bringing a new way to move. It is built around collecting Power Moons across open kingdoms, which feels like Ape Escape's monkey hunts scaled up.

   What is different: No monkeys and no dual-stick gadgets; you possess enemies instead of netting them.

   Where to play it: Switch.

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8. Sl

   8.Slime Rancher(2017)

   Capturing creatures as the whole loop, in a gentler shape.

   Why it fits: Monomi Park's 2017 game, after early access in 2016, has Beatrix LeBeau vacuum up slimes on a distant planet and keep them in pens. Catching creatures with a gadget and learning each type's behaviour is its whole loop, in first person.

   What is different: A first-person farming game about keeping creatures, not hunting them through levels.

   Where to play it: PC, Xbox One and PS4.

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9. Ki

   9.Kirby and the Forgotten Land(2022)

   Ability-swapping platforming that keeps inventing new verbs.

   Why it fits: HAL Laboratory's 2022 Switch game is Kirby's first full 3D platformer, and its Mouthful Mode turns objects such as cars and vending machines into new abilities. Rescuing the Waddle Dees hidden in each stage works like Ape Escape's per-level monkey count.

   What is different: Easy, linear and bright; nothing to catch.

   Where to play it: Switch.

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Where to Start

Ape Escape 2 is the only true continuation. If it was the catching you loved, try Bugsnax; if it was the gadget-switching platforming, Super Mario Odyssey's capture system is the closest modern idea.

How We Picked These Games

Picks had to carry one of two Ape Escape ideas: catching or collecting creatures as the main goal, or a 3D platformer with many tools or abilities to switch between. We kept the list mostly family-friendly, because Ape Escape was, and chose games still playable on modern platforms wherever a series had one.

Which One to Play, by What You Liked

If you liked Ape Escape for catching monkeys with the net, try Bugsnax and Slime Rancher. Each creature needs its own trick to catch, which is the Ape Escape loop.

If you liked Ape Escape for swapping gadgets on the sticks, try Psychonauts. Psychic powers mapped to buttons and swapped constantly, for combat and puzzles.

If you liked Ape Escape for the PlayStation platformer era, try Ape Escape 2 and Jak and Daxter. The sequel, and the PS2 platformer that kept the collect-everything structure.

If you liked Ape Escape for hunting a set number in each level, try Pikmin and Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Levels with a count of things to find, and replays to get the last one.