Game:

Counter-Strike: Source (2004)

Duration: 0:00

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Originally recorded: July 6, 2025
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I'd originally planned on starting this on Thursday, but after doing some light yardwork in temperatures over 90 degrees, I think I might've been suffering from heat exhaustion. So, considering the fact that this game has a particularly unorthodox control method coupled with the fact that my knuckles and wrists felt like they were made of Jello, it only made sense to push things back until I was feeling better.

Ape Escape is another one of those games which I experienced very briefly during childhood... but haven't revisited until now. It was on one of the many demo discs I got from Official PlayStation Magazine back in the day and the concept always struck me as pretty cool. I'm not sure why I never grabbed a copy back then -- but it probably had to do with my general aversion towards 3D platformers made during the fifth generation of home video game consoles. Back then, I was definitely more interested in other genres.

Originally, I had planned to "100%" Ape Escape. However, as I eventually learned, that would entail clearing the game's time trials... which just don't seem like the best use of my time, considering how they don't really add much aside from a higher completion rate on your save data. I have been considering going for every Ape and every coin, but the latter is only used to unlock various mini-games. I'm currently considering scaling back even further -- just going for all the monkeys and enough coins to see all three mini-games -- but I guess that'll depend on how the rest of the stream goes.

I managed to make it to the fourth world in this first session: that's roughly the game's midway point. I took a sneak peak and it seems that there are seven worlds in total, each consisting of three stages. There's also a true final boss fight that can only be unlocked by collecting every single Ape in the game. I managed to beat the second level of the fourth world, but I also decided to backtrack to the very first stage to capture the last remaining Ape, since I found the necessary tool to reach him.

Speaking of which, I've also unlocked six of the game's eight total gadgets so far -- though, to be fair, you start the game with two of them anyway. I assumed that the Monkey Radar would've been more situational, but it's actually much more helpful in tracking down the locations of missing Apes. The Super Hoop, on the other hand, didn't turn out quite as useful as it seemed during the tutorial. But as of right now, the Sky Flyer and the Slingback Shooter are probably the most important upgrades in the game I've encountered so far.

I wrapped things up by playing the first and only mini-game I've unlocked thus far: Ski Kidz Racing. It certainly... was a mini-game, alright. I'm still pretty sure this was supposed to be a parody of Snowboard Kids for the N64, but I'm not really familiar enough with that game to confirm it. Regardless, I'm hoping to knock out this game in three sessions... and I'm hoping that I'll be able to wrap up my first visits to the remaining levels next time. Making headway into grabbing the leftover Apes in other stages would also be nice, but I'm not betting on it.

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