Planet of the Apes
Score: 55% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment Developer: Torus Media: Cart/1 Players: 1 Genre: Adventure
Graphics & Sound: Beginning to describe Planet of the Apes is hard. I'm sure you are expecting that the game is based on the new movie, and follows the exploits of Marky Mark, but in a surprise twist this game is actually based (loosely) on the sequel to the original Planet of the Apes - Beneath the Planet of the Apes. But anyway, on with the review. The game looks great, and except for a few missing frames of animation in the enemies, I couldn't find many faults. The levels do a great job of bringing the Planet of the Apes to life, and contains a few background elements that will be familiar to fans of the original movies. Details are abundant - birds fly around the background and tumbleweeds roll in the foreground - it's excellent. You will likely find yourself humming the music from the game, of course there's only one musical track in the entire game - which is not a particularly good thing. Sound is bad, but at least you can turn down the volume.
Gameplay: Remember Flashback? Basically that's all Apes is, a simple, fun platformer. Unfortunately, I found Apes got a little redundant after the third level. You go from point A to point B on a straight path shooting, jumping (lots and lots of jumping), and collecting flags. This wouldn't be a problem, only there is no challenge anywhere in the game after you learn how to use the controls. I would have at least liked some puzzles, or some kind of game element that forced me to make my own weapons. But once you get the handgun, and eventually the shotgun - the gameplay is reduced to you blasting away anything in your sight. You can sneak up on apes, then blast them - so why not have to sneak past a group of apes in an area? There's so much that could have been done that wasn't. I have to give credit to the story. Your mission is easy, locate and rescue Taylor from the Planet of the Apes. The story is presented between levels with some excellent cut scenes that really push the story along, there's even a nice little twist to the ending. Don't worry, I won't give it away and since the game is so short, you could probably beat the game before I finished writing this review.
Difficulty: Apes is easy. Very, very easy. As you would expect, things start off at a slow crawl so you can become accustomed to the game (the controls take a bit of getting used to), and it does ramp up in difficulty, but only to a more difficult level of easy. If you want a challenge, try changing the language option.
Game Mechanics: Learning the controls is probably one of the most difficult aspects of the game, or more precisely - jumping. Unlike most platformers, jumping up is performed by pressing up, however if you want to jump forward you have to press A. Confused yet? It's definitely something to get used to, but after the first three levels, you'll do fine. Bottom line, Apes is marginally enjoyable, but it's so short and easy you'll beat it once and forget it. This is a game for fans only.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
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