Ape Escape has always held a special place in our hearts since the first game graced the PS1 back in 1999. It's a seminal game with, for me, the same kind of appeal as Crash and Spyro (although that's probably nostalgia doing most of the talking there). And now, with the last mainline game appearing 20 years ago, the series is reportedly getting a revival thanks to the minds behind Sonic Mania.
American game journalist Jeff Gerstmann has spoken on his podcast about the fact that there's a new Ape Escape game reportedly in the works, and multiple other news sources such as VGC have been singing from the same hymn sheet with regard to the Sonic Mania team 'Evening Star' being the ones at the helm of the new project. I think with the success of Sonic Mania and the positive fan reactions to Penny's Big Breakaway, I can see Evening Star doing a cracking job of this - I wonder if the new generation of gamers are ready for Spike and his simian co-stars?
Jeff claims that the game isn't ready to release yet, but that it's been 'almost a year since we started talking about Ape Escape.' That could mean development is well underway, and the game could be releasing early to mid 2027. Or it could just get shadowdropped at Christmas, and we could all be reliving the 'good old days' of the PS1 on Christmas Day, wielding gadgets to round up monkeys and take down Specter. It's giving me chills just thinking about it.
Sony aren't going to say anything about this; they're far too tight-lipped to give any information away until it's ready, but as an Ape Escape fan, I'll be monitoring chatter on Reddit and other sites across the net to see if I pick up anything over the coming weeks! As long as it doesn't release at the same time as the Ocarina remake, I think we'll be fine!
