If you haven’t played the original in some time or you are a modern gamer who has never experienced it and can get passed the 1990’s graphics, I think you will have an excellent time with Ape Escape.

“Wolfenstein: The New Order” is still phenomenal.

My indulgent parents, tired of my meatwad cries of “Mom, Dad, you ruined my life I want my friends there’s nothing to do here!!!!” finally broke down and bought my siblings and I a PAL PSX, which allowed me to view a cutscene on a European demo disk showing Snake about to face off against Raven, which only got me more excited.

My intro to Crash’s modern escapades came when I received a news alert a few years ago about the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, and though it wasn’t enough to get me gaming at the time, I definitely made a mental note that if I ever did seriously pick up a controller, this would be something I’d try shortly after that (knowing also, somehow, that many of the Crash games past the first three sucked).

Maybe because I’d clicked on a few gaming-related news stories here and there, the Facebook ad algorithm kept serving me up Sifu posts about or month or so before the game’s release in early 2022. I thought to myself “huh, that does look pretty cool, I’ll keep that in mind”.

“Fuck it, I love video games, they made me really happy as a child, it’s clear to me they still make me happy today, and if I can recapture just a little bit of the joy I felt as a ten year old hanging out with Chris and Matt, then the time and money will be worth it”.