This article has a talk page!This is a sub-page of Proto:Ape Escape.
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This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace. |
On June 17th 2026, this internal prototype for Ape Escape was dumped and released. It was compiled two days before the Japanese demo build of the game, and is seemingly being prepared for that purpose.
At this point in development, the game is close to complete; all levels present in the final game are implemented but are missing some polish, and the mini-games are still a work-in-progress.
Debug Controls#
Controller 1#
- Hold R1+R2: Free movement mode. Left stick moves laterally, right stick moves vertically. This also instantly refills health.
- R1+R2+Triangle: Toggle gold mode. The player will be coated in a shiny golden effect with a large spinning circular aura around them. This seems to greatly reduce the alert levels of the monkeys.
- R1+R2+L3: Toggle debug display. This displays a large number of meters and stats, along with a couple analog stick position readers.
- R1+R2+R3: Toggle gadget hitbox display.
- At the gadget select screen, press L1+L2+L3+R1+R2+R3 to instantly unlock all gadgets.
- When viewing monkeys with the monkey radar, press L1 to freeze the game in place.
Controller 2#
- Circle: Instantly clear the current stage. Doing this a second time creates a perfect clear. This also works for time attack mode. However, active monkeys will not actually have been caught and do not appear in the monkey database. Additionally, catching just one monkey in the level after a perfect clear will instantly end the stage and not register as being caught.
- Hold Triangle: Slow motion.
- X: Switch to the first-person binoculars mode while still having active player controls. However, attempting to move while in this mode is extremely finicky. Reset with the normal L2 camera controls on controller 1.
- L1: Zoom out camera/FOV, disable HUD.
- R1: Zoom in camera/FOV.
- Start: Toggle "search mode". Freezes the camera in place while allowing to player to move around freely.
- Select: Toggle "camera debug info" display. Wireframe cameras are displayed around the player showing potential camera angles. Wireframe boxes are also displayed in the environments to denote camera swapping zones.
- Down/Up: Increase/decrease camera Y position.
- Right/Left: Increase/decrease camera distance.
General Differences#
- The sound effects are unfinished, with many of them sounding different from the final game.
- Selecting a stage on the Stage Select brings up a sub-menu that lists all the available sub-areas for a given stage. Pressing Select on this screen also brings up the "select menu", which allows you to instantly jump between each world.
- The monkey radar displays a debug map of the currently loaded zone with active monkeys denoted with red dots.
- Monkey data is incomplete and all monkeys use placeholder names and descriptions.
Intro#
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- The first part of the intro shows a different room than the final game, which matches the room seen in the other demo builds. The intro also lacks sound effects besides the music.
Title Screen#
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This build has a unique title screen not seen elsewhere, showing a static screenshot of several monkeys instead of a 3D backdrop. It lists options for starting a new game or loading a save like the final game (The latter of which is called "CONTINUE" here instead of "LOAD GAME"), but there's also two other options present; a "MINIGAME" option that opens a sub-menu to select one of the mini-games to play, and a "SOUND" option that opens a sound test sub-menu. In the final game, mini-games can only be selected from a save game, and the sound test is inaccessible through normal means. Both sub-menus still exist unused in the final game.
Time Station#
The Time Station has the Stage Select pad located in a unique area not seen in the final game. This area is also present in the game's demos. The save functions and mini-games are located in a separate room, which the Stage Select pad was moved to for the final game.
World Intro Cutscenes#
The cutscenes that play before each new world have what appears to be a frame counter at the top right of the screen that counts from the start of the cutscene until it ends.
Level Briefing#
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The prototype has a completely different briefing screen compared to any other build, even the Japanese demo build from 2 days after. It shows an animated swirling green background that seems to compliment the green wireframe model of the monkey. Compared to the final screen it notably lags the game a lot, usually down to 20fps compared to the usual 30fps the game runs at, which may have prompted it getting changed.
Additionally, the screen lacks the counters for the monkeys and Specter Tokens in a given level unlike the final game. It also has different music, playing the full version of the Stadium Attack theme instead of the single sample from it.
Fossil Field#
A strange untextured structure can be seen in the background that may be intended to be a mountain or volcano. It is not present at all in the final game.
Stadium Attack#
The level briefings appear before starting these stages despite them not having any monkeys to catch. They also do not have their associated cutscenes with Hiroki/Jake yet.
TV Tower#
The inaccessible cars in the final game are present here and behave almost identically except that they don't visibly drain the health bar upon taking damage despite still causing instant death.
Monkey Madness#
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The sign above the spawn point in the prototype has Specter's name misspelt as "Spector". This was corrected for the final game. The initial camera angle was also adjusted to be further from the player.
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The coaster has a flame motif with a monkey face on the back. The front panel has a DualShock control layout. This was changed to a more standard looking coaster in the final game.
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The walls also have the same monkey faces on them. The first area's walls are painted with caution paint, while the second area uses plain stone. These were changed to skulls with blinking red eyes.
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The giant chopping knife in the haunted house is covered in blood in the prototype. It was appropriately cleaned off for the final game.
Peak Point Matrix#
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Final |
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Does not have its associated model on the Stage Select screen yet, instead using a placeholder model that's also used for the test level selection. The boss intro cutscene is present but lacks audio.
Test Levels#
Five test levels are present in this build that can be freely accessed from an additional debug option in the Stage Select that isn't present in the final game. They all share some common curious traits such as all only requiring one monkey to complete the level, and defaulting the gadget loadout to the Monkey Net on Cross (This does not override the player's selected gadget, however).
JUMP#
Normally crashes the game when loading due to complications in handling the game's common enemy data. Can load properly if the game is set to not load common enemy data.
SARU2#
Uses the level data from an earlier version of Fossil Field. Seemingly has corrupted texture data as a result. Has three higher-level monkeys roaming around.
SARU3#
Uses the level data from one of the sub-areas from Dexter's Island. A single monkey is present as well as the sub-boss from Specter's Castle which walks in place and can be defeated in two hits. The pool has no functionality and an inaccessible 1-up t-shirt is below the floor.
SARU4#
A basic test level with several obstacles for testing the game's physics. Contains a pool, a ramp, some stairs, and climbable poles and monkey bars.
JUMP#
A strange test level that contains several set-ups for testing gadgets and catching monkeys. It appears to be set-up such that the player should be able to go through the doors placed around the level but it is not actually possible to do so. Button objects also have no functionality. The player can progress regardless using the Free Movement mode or the Infinite Jump glitch.
Mini-Games#
The mini-games are the most overtly unfinished aspect of the game at this point in development, a clear indication that they were among the last elements to be worked on. There is notably more of them here than in the final game.
Ski Kidz Racing#
Appears to be effectively finished aside from lacking music.
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Here the game is called "Jet Ski Racing".
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The arcade icon uses another different name, though it's partially illegible at low resolution. (スキーの?人?)
Specter Boxing#
Also seems to be effectively finished aside from lacking music.
RADIO#
A mini-game that was completely cut from the final game. It seems to be a rhythm game where one controls a monkey cheerleader that has to act in time with the beat. Appears to be mechanically complete by this point but lacks music.
QP#
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Not a mini-game evidently, but instead loads the game's usual intro sequence upon selecting "NEW GAME", which does not occur by default in this build. The sequence has different background visuals compared to the final game, and is also missing voice acting.
????? (Monkey Football)#
Another cut mini-game. Labeled with question marks in the sub-menu but called Monkey Football in the game itself, it was clearly intended to be a football game based on the name. It seems it didn't get far in development at all, as all one can do here is move a monkey model around a blue background. It also lacks music, instead using the Stage Select theme as a placeholder.