Gaming’s at all times embraced crossovers, even earlier than the launch of PS1, with apparently disparate IPs getting collectively in titles like Battletoads & Double Dragon. Later within the ’90s crossovers began to actually take off due to preventing video games like Capcom’s bouts with Marvel and SNK, and even manga character Gon’s look in Tekken 3.
All of the sudden the floodgates have been open, and everybody had their very own hopes for crossover video games. Dream crossovers like Road Fighter Vs Mortal Kombat, Crash and Spyro, or Jak and Daxter teaming up with Ratchet and Clank, have been changing into extremely requested. Fortunately for PS2 house owners, probably the most apparent crossovers ever got here to be when Metal Gear Solid crossed over with… Ape Escape.
Son-keys of Liberty
In Metal Gear, they ask you to say a whole lot of bizarre stuff; you simply kind of roll with it.
Okay, so, possibly Ape Escape and Metal Gear aren’t precisely a destined duo. However for no matter purpose, the powers that be determined that for the third entry in every sequence, Snake and the titular apes would cross paths. Causes that even Snake’s actor himself – David Hayter – was unaware of. “Whereas we have been recording MGS3, they simply got here in and handed me a script,” he tells us, “and my first line was ‘Snake Vs Monkey’ and I could only ask, ‘Why am I saying this?'”
The rationale a state of emergency is asserted: apes have escaped and fled to a Russian jungle, and the only folks capable of cease them – Spike and Jimmy – are away on summer time trip. With nowhere left to show, the professor goes to Roy Campbell, who is aware of simply the person for the job: the legendary soldier Solid Snake. Snake – begrudgingly – is ripped away from his personal vacation at 2am and enters the jungle looking for Specter’s mind-controlled simians.
“They only instructed me that it was a side-game and that was all,” remembers Hayter, including, “Y’know in Metal Gear, they ask you to say a whole lot of bizarre stuff; you simply kind of roll with it.” Sadly, other than a small intro scene to set the stage, Hayter’s voice abilities weren’t utilised in the course of the minigame.
Snake Vs Monkey sends you thru seven phases (every with a title that is a pun on a movie’s, comparable to ‘Ape Worry’ and ‘The Apes Of Wrath’) by which you need to seek for and catch these cheeky monkeys. It is a pretty easy minigame, reusing the extent design and mechanics of Metal Gear Solid 3 in a devoted recreation of Ape Escape. It even contains a stage set within the area the place Bare Snake and the Boss have their remaining battle in certainly one of MGS’ most emotional moments, now stuffed with humorous little monkeys. Hayter muses, “Y’know it is sort of the soul of Metal Gear; it goes from the chic to the ridiculous.”
Whereas there are some enjoyable touches, like a Shagohod-inspired ape mech in a few the phases, they’re merely beauty; the sport boils right down to taking pictures targets with the EZ Gun and operating into them. Nonetheless, for a small side-game in certainly one of finest video games ever made, it is a enjoyable distraction.
Snake Escape
Snake Vs Monkey could have simply been an pleasurable little side-game in MGS3 and that might’ve been the tip of it. Nevertheless, Japan Studio had different plans. When Ape Escape 3 was launched lower than a 12 months later, the developer had its personal tackle the crossover with the Mesal Gear Solid: Snake Escape minigame. That is no typo. ‘Mesal’ is a portmanteau of the Japanese phrases for ‘steel’ and ‘monkey’ – ‘metaru’ and ‘saru’. As soon as once more Snake would meet the apes; nonetheless, this time David Hayter wouldn’t be introduced in to voice the legendary Metal Gear hero. “I suppose it is the first I’m listening to about it,” Hayter exclaims after we ask.
As an alternative, the position was given to a different Metal Gear Solid alumnus, Vulcan Raven actor Peter Lurie, who tells us that “somebody who knew me from a few of my different work got here to me and stated ‘We actually need you to play this half.'” Lurie was given little or no info upfront. “It wasn’t till I truly walked in there that I realised it was enjoying Snake, which I was a bit shocked at however thought, why not? Let’s have a look at what occurs.”
Ape Escape’s Professor is doing his laundry, when he will get a name from his finest pal from faculty, Colonel Roy Campbell. He informs Professor that he has misplaced contact with Snake, who was infiltrating a base to destroy the latest model of Mesal Gear, and wishes assist finding him. It seems {that a} specifically educated ape guerrilla drive has commandeered the most recent Mesal Gear and is demanding ten billion bananas inside 72 hours or they are going to fireplace the mech’s ‘Lazy Cannon.’ Campbell requests the assistance of the elite ape-catching drive of Spike and Jimmy… who’re as soon as once more away for the summer time.
When all hope appears misplaced, Professor has the good concept of importing Snake’s battle knowledge right into a monkey helmet, and thus Pipo Snake is born. Along with the battle knowledge, Pipo Snake additionally took on Snake’s voice actor. Despite the fact that Lurie was pulling double obligation, he fairly loved enjoying Snake’s monkey variant, saying “they [non-verbal characters] generally is a lot extra liberating as a result of it may be left as much as your personal interpretation.”
Whereas Snake Vs Monkey is a contact underwhelming, all issues thought-about, Mesal Gear Solid is shockingly bold. Put aside all of the apes and the sport appears like a reliable Metal Gear Solid journey. The opening areas emulate iconic scenes from MGS1, such because the elevator and the preliminary strategy into Shadow Moses from the start of the sport, in addition to a fist battle on prime of a destroyed mech from the finale. The sport does not stick with co-opting areas from previous Metal Gear video games, nonetheless, and that previous Ape Escape aptitude is quickly added with ranges impressed by the likes of Edo Japan and the Wild West. The builders even use small touches like cutscene path, the best way the guards patrol, and posters adorned with bikini-clad monkeys. All of those go to indicate that this was a real love letter to the best stealth sequence of all time relatively than some half-baked crossover mandated by a writer.
Bananas of the Patriots
I suppose it is sort of comforting for folks when the sport developer is assured sufficient to joke with you.
So, how do you get into the mindset of a battle-hardened ape? In response to Lurie: “If I keep in mind appropriately – and this occurs rather a lot with characters who do not communicate ‘the Queen’s English’ – you are given a ‘We would like a response and that is what emotion we need to convey.'” Nevertheless, even when your dialogue is so simple as making ‘oo-ki’ noises, the path is taken as severely as some other. “There can be occasions the place a director will inform you in a well mannered manner ‘That is actually good however let’s strive it this manner, keep in mind, you are attempting to convey this.'” Lurie says that is “somebody’s delicate manner of attempting to say ‘Yeah, that is not it.'”
In fact, the Metal Gear sequence is understood for leaping between utmost seriousness and utter ridiculousness on the drop of a hat. Engaged on these video games, it appears, acclimatises you to the acute ends of the job. David Hayter agrees with this, saying, “It is sort of cool to create a world like that, the place the intense stuff, tragic stuff, and hilarious stuff all comes collectively.” He provides, “I suppose it is sort of comforting for folks when the sport developer is assured sufficient to joke with you. That is the sort of stuff that followers come up and speak to me about on a regular basis. I at all times really feel like when a scenario is dire folks are likely to joke, and, in a manner, it kind of mirrors life.”
A model of this text initially appeared in PLAY Journal – which printed its remaining difficulty in 2024. Extra stealth wanted? 7 years on, Agent 47’s try and include a lethal virus in Affected person Zero brings the traditional Hitman stealth motion to an unmatched fever pitch
