Ape Escape M

There's something not quite right about constantly idolising dolphins and the great apes as the animal kingdom's cutest ambassadors. Their intelligence may be the closest to our own, but what that translates to in practical terms is that they're the only animals other than us to indulge in rape, murder and benefit fraud (that last may not be true, but the others are – David Attenborough said).

Naturally none of that features in this game, but it does place monkeys in the role of the bad guy for once, led by simian mastermind Specter. Sony seems to have largely given up on the Ape Escape franchise since the advent of the PlayStation 3, and Ape Escape M isn't so much a continuation as it is a straight remake of the PSone original.

There are two obvious problems with adapting the first game in the series, because not only was it a 3D platformer but it also made considerable use of both analogue sticks on the PSone's then new DualShock controller. Since it was never really a game about pixel-perfect jumps the mobile version copes relatively well with the former problem by simply switching everything to 2D and using an overhead viewpoint.

This trivialises the platforming elements even further, to the point where the only real difficulty in traversing the gameworld is finding hidden doors to access higher levels. This is all in order to locate the titular runaway monkeys, who you have to hit over the head with a baton and then capture in a net. Which is probably not how the RSPCA would do it.

The monkeys' primary means of thwarting your pursuit is the time-honoured tactic of throwing a banana skin and hoping you trip on it. You almost certainly won't, though, so they soon up the ante with more dangerous projectiles. At the same time each world is filled with supposedly neutral monsters and animals, which nevertheless seem all too eager to take a piece of the action – and your behind.

To help you overcome the increasingly arduous enemies you gradually unlock a small range of extra gadgets, including a radar to pinpoint the direction of secreted simians, a slingshot, a water net and a 'magic punch'. Nothing terribly exciting then, and although there's a generous 25 levels across five different worlds you're unlikely not to find your attention wandering before the last of them.

Especially since the graphics are so unappealing, with roughly-drawn characters and some dreadful animation that makes your main character look like he's doing his own version of Basil Fawlty's Nazi salute. It's nothing ruinous to proceedings but it is odd given the otherwise high standard of presentation outside the actual game. Either there were two different artists involved or the single one responsible took up drinking halfway through the project.

Which is not to suggest that Ape Escape M is an at all slipshod affair, far from it – a lot of effort has gone into preserving the original gameplay and there's even a set of Xbox Live style Achievements (or Entitlements as they are here). None of it is able to make the game anything more than a minor diversion though, and it may have been more advisable to take the characters and place them in a wholly new game created just for mobile.