''Ape Academy 2'', also known as in Japan, is a

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed by Shift and

Alvion is a Japanese video game developer and publishing company. Alvion Group ( Alvion & ULLUCUS HEAVEN ) Alvion is an APP and publishing company. History Alvion was founded in November 1996. In 1998, headquarters were founded in Suita, Osaka. A c ...

and published by

Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...

for the

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PA ...

. It is the sequel to ''

Ape Escape Academy ''Ape Escape Academy'', also known as ''Ape Academy'' in Europe and in Japan, is a party video game developed by Shift and Alvion and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation Portable. It consists of a collection of 47 mini ...

''. Similar to its predecessor, ''Ape Academy 2'' is a collection of mini-games which can either be played in single player or multiplayer mode. Most of the mini-games borrow from elements of ''

Ape Escape 3 ''Ape Escape 3'' is a 2005 platform game developed and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. The game has been rated for release on PlayStation 4 but no announcement of its release has been made. Plot Specter, the P ...

''. The original PlayStation Portable version of the game was released in Japan, Europe and Australia, but not North America. It was later re-released worldwide as a PSP classic for

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

and

PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North ...

on March 21, 2023, marking the first time the game comes out in North American territories.

Plot

The primary antagonist, Specter, introduces a new card game which becomes very popular among humans and pipo monkeys alike. Using this card game, he dominates the world through culture manipulation, concurrently introducing a card battle contest for monkeys to complete in. The prize for winning the contest is the rare "Platinum Specter" trading card and a year's supply of bananas.

Gameplay

The

singleplayer A single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the gameplay. Video games in general can feature several game modes, including single-player modes designed to be played by a single player in addi ...

mode is radically different from previous games in the series, most resembling a trading card game. The player travels to various levels, in the form of islands, to compete against other monkeys in an assortment of minigames. After a set number of victories, the player can then compete against a boss character. This cycle is repeated for each island visited, in increasing difficulty. Occasionally, the player will encounter unexpected battles. These challenges cannot be declined. The objective of the game is to collect cards and coins, eventually to the point that the player can attempt to defeat the antagonist and win. There is also a

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

component which includes a "monkey-shield" that ensures the second player cannot see the player 1 cards. This mode requires a second PSP and game cartridge.

Reception

''Ape Academy 2'' received "average" reviews according to the

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website

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. ''

GamesMaster ''GamesMaster'' was a British television programme which originally aired on Channel 4 from 1992 to 1998. In 2021, it returned for a new series on YouTube and E4. It was the first UK television programme dedicated to video games. Dominik Di ...

'' described it as "A real mixed bag, but if you really like monkeys and minigames, you might enjoy it." In Japan, ''

Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...

'' gave it a score of one six, one eight, one six, and one eight for a total of 28 out of 40.

Notes

References

External links

* 2005 video games Ape Escape games Japan Studio games Multiplayer and single-player video games Party video games PlayStation Portable games PlayStation Portable-only games Sony Interactive Entertainment games Video game sequels Video games developed in Japan {{Party-videogame-stub