A few issues in camera control, but that never stops the fun for too long...
The story is that Apes have...you guessed it...escaped. As Spike, its up to you to catch all of the monkies hidden around time before their evil monkey leader, Spencer, takes over the entire world.
The graphics are decent enough for a PS1 game. The characters are a little on the blocky side as far as these games go, and the environments could have been improved in terms of diversity, but most of the areas aren't an eyesore and they each have their own design and layout. The quirky weapons you wield are very unique as they look a little off from what you'd expect them to be when you heard their names.
The gameplay is where Ape Escape falls a little bit on the short side. The camera is a pain to operate and it sometimes feels like some of Spencer's minions are working it. The manual control makes it manageable, but you have to constantly adjust the camera to get a decent view of whatever area you need to go to next. The camera also makes it difficult to catch some of the monkies. Sure, some of them are easy as pie to catch, but when they start running around and circles and jumping, it gets too strenuous to catch them and you'll go onto the next one.
Thankfully, the game offers up plenty of variety in terms of gadgets and such. You can wield the standard baton, which looks like it was pried off of Darth Vader's cold, dead hands. You also get a net to catch them with, but it can get frustrating at times since you have to rotate around to get just the right angle to bag them. There's also a few other gadgets, such as the RC Car, That spinning flyswater, and much, much more. These gadgets offer up different strategies for each ape in the game, but its also easy to sneak up on most of them.
You also have a few other stages in the game that don't involve catching apes. These include most of the tutorial levels for each gadget as well as some races and sprints against your rival. Other than that, the game is mainly about monkies.
Overall, if you want to take a glimpse into the past to see what the original was like, go right ahead. Some others who don't have that intention might also want to check this game out, but for those who've played the other games in the series, you aren't missing out on much.