Game:

Counter-Strike: Source (2004)

Duration: 0:00

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0

Originally recorded: July 17, 2025
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Well, I guess all's well that ends well. I had originally planned on finishing Ape Escape in four sessions... and that's what I ended up delivering. Of course, I didn't do a full 100% run. After all, I'm pretty sure doing the time trials for some of those late-game levels would've cost me my sanity and you really only need to collect 40 of the Specter Coins to see everything they have to offer. And I did, during the last three sessions. So, this time, I decided to focus exclusively on capturing the remaining apes to show off the game's true ending.

Fortunately, despite only cleaning out five levels by the time I finished things off last time, I started out with some great momentum. Pretty sure I was done with the fourth world only an hour in. Granted, some of the later levels had some tricky hiding places for the apes. I think the ones that ticked me off the most were the ones where I could see them... but the entrance wasn't in an obvious spot. Honestly, I think Futurama was probably the most annoying world of the bunch. I did think it was kind of poetic that I literally got every Ape I could've on my first run through Crumbling Castle though. Considering how much time I spent lost there, it's only fitting that the time didn't end up going to waste in the end.

The true final boss fight was kind of interesting. I'm not sure why, but it sort of reminded me of the original Crash Bandicoot trilogy. Honestly, the first phase was the hardest part... but mostly because I never managed to master the timing to dodge Specter's shockwave attacks. By the second and final phase, though, he was literally handing out cookies -- you know, the game's health power-up -- so it didn't take long how to figure out to finish him off for good. The true ending was kind of disappointing compared to the standard one, though.

With that being said, I'm still curious about the other games in the mainline Ape Escape series. From what I can recall, it seems like most people say that the first one is the best of the trilogy. While I don't really see much of a point in playing the PSP remake of this one -- aside from maybe checking out the new mini-games they added -- the PS2 games are pretty much unknown quantities for me. Honestly, I'd like to at least give Ape Escape 2 a chance... but if it ends up being a significant drop from this one, I'll probably skip the third and final game.

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