Ape Escape Academy [PSP]

Lumines may have made waves as one of the best PSP games, but the system hasn't become a haven for puzzle or twitch gaming. That may change with the latest in a different series that also accompanied the system out of the starting gate: Ape Escape. Academy is the US version of a Japanese release that collects a load of mini-games under the rubric of training monkeys to become rebellious apes.

Ape Escape is the platforming series chronicling a bunch of apes wearing mental booster helmets. Specter, their leader, is looking for new recruits and the academy is his training ground. The coursework is a collection of roughly 40 mini-games, most of which are played with limited controls. The gameplay is more Mario Party than WarioWare, as the contests prioritize quick response and action than quirky humor.

Games might feature DDR-style moves, with players hitting buttons and the d-pad in response to onscreen prompts. Or the action might be more simple, as when the player's ape is skydiving, passing parachutes to comrades who are less prepared for survival.

To progress through the six "grades" of the solo game, players will have to fill in a tic-tac-toe matrix by completing games. Winning a game puts an X in a square, losing a zero. Early grades might only ask for one row filled with Xs, while later grades require more effort to "pass." As games are encountered they can be played in the game collection mode. Though many are pretty easy, practice will sometimes be necessary to make perfect.

There will also be a share mode, in which one PSP can host multiple players. Some games will actually be played by two players at the same time, each holding one end of the PSP. Shades of Mario Party once again. Multimode offers a limited collection of games to play on multiple systems.

The game is a bit blockier than the big console cousins, but the basic style is carried over from the first PSP release. Here, however, there are a lot more apes (hundreds!) and the mini-games provide ample opportunity for some crazy locations that wouldn't fit in a platformer.

Even as the grades get harder, Ape Escape Academy seems like an easily accessible game aimed at kids. That could be a welcome addition to the PSP library, given the relative lack of titles that cater to audiences not interested in action and sports. We'll have our full review when the apes are let loose in mid-January.