Ape Escape

The Ape Escape series is notable for its radical departure from the tried-and-true control method in many other games. It was the first PlayStation game to require the use of a DualShock or Dual Analog controller; the left stick moves the character while the right operates whatever gadget the character has in its possession. Again, unlike many games which use to jump, both the R1 and R2 buttons are used, while the 'shape' buttons are used to cycle through the available items in the inventory. In the PSP spin-offs, a more conventional control scheme must be used, due to the lack of a right analog stick.

The main objective through the majority of the games is to use the available array of gadgets to locate and capture monkeys. When a monkey has been found, it must be caught with the Time Net gadget. On the first playthrough, players will have a set number of monkeys to catch before progressing towards the next level. Once each level has been completed, they can be reentered with the gadgets necessary to catch the remaining monkeys.

Minigames In the main series, there are three unlockable minigames that can be played at the hub. These can be accessed by clearing the necessary number of stages and/or having the necessary amount of coins. In Ape Escape and Ape Escape: On the Loose , the player had to collect a certain amount of Specter Tokens to unlock a minigame. In Ape Escape 2 , the player could obtain these three minigames by betting ten coins in the Gotcha Box, but here the stage-clearing was more important, yet it did not mean it would be based on the percentage on the player's record.

In Ape Escape 3 , because coins were far more abundant than Ape Escape 2 and the fact that players could hold coins past 999, the prices went up for the mini-games as well. Also, in this game it was based on the player's percentage, so clearing stages, beating time attacks, or purchasing things from the shops would make the mini games available for purchase sooner. The minigame Mesal Gear Solid seems fuller and more of a game of its own rather than just a simple unlockable. This game has a plot and more traditional gameplay of the AE series, and could be the start of more fuller minigames based on a series already established, like Metal Gear Solid .

In Ape Quest , the player randomly encounters mini-games in a very similar fashion to classic JRPG random enemy encounters.