Ape Escape (1999)
SCE Japan Studio's Time-Traveling Platformer That Mandated Twin-Stick DualShock Controls
Ape Escape—released in Japan as Saru Get You—is a 1999 platform game developed by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan Studio for the PlayStation. Directed by Masamichi Seki, produced by Shuhei Yoshida, and scored by electronic composer Soichi Terada, it made hardware history as the very first PlayStation game to strictly require the DualShock controller, pioneering twin-stick 3D movement and gadget manipulation.
Hardware Gamble: Mandating Both DualShock Analog Sticks
When Sony introduced the DualShock controller in late 1997, third-party publishers treated its twin analog sticks as optional extras so existing digital gamepad owners would not be alienated. Producer Shuhei Yoshida and director Masamichi Seki convinced Sony leadership to take a bold gamble: Ape Escape would refuse to boot without a DualShock plugged in. While the left thumbstick guided young hero Spike—alongside belly-crawling stealth and dual-stick twin-oar rowboat paddling—the face buttons selected gadgets and the right thumbstick physically swung the Time Net, swept the Stun Club across 360 degrees, spun the Sky Flyer propeller, aimed the Slingshot, and steered remote-controlled cars, establishing tactile grammar for modern twin-stick games.
Chasing Specter's Monkeys to Soichi Terada's Jungle Breaks
After circus albino monkey Specter dons an experimental Peak Point Helmet, gains superhuman intelligence, and dispatches armies of helmeted simians across time to rewrite human history, Spike pursues over two hundred individually named monkeys from the Cretaceous Era and Great Wall of China to medieval castles. Each monkey displays distinct AI personality traits indexed by the Monkey Radar—some firing machine guns in sunglasses, others napping or panicking behind disguises—coupled with vibration cues synced to danger. Equally influential was house producer Soichi Terada's dynamic drum-and-bass and jungle soundtrack, whose tempo and percussion layers muted seamlessly whenever Spike crawled on his stomach to ambush an unsuspecting ape.