Ape Out Critic Reviews

If you don’t mind a rather extreme challenge, I can’t recommend Ape Out enough, a perfect marriage of style and execution that’s difficult as hell while also managing to be an exciting power fantasy. Every step of the way is exciting and fun, and even when you’re running up against a wall, it has that “one more run!” power that gets you to keep trying, and then whoops, hours are gone. Ape Out is definitely worth checking out and returning to for a quick and excellent experience.

Ape Out is a marvelous example of what can be done with gaming when a handful of talent think outside the box. Challenging, occasionally annoying, but addictive gameplay, painted in gorgeous splashes of colour and quirky, attractive visuals, all backed with a breathless score. This odd release is proof positive that creativity in gaming remains alive and well. Go Ape.

With a resoundingly evocative and cathartic ending, and with various, small secrets waiting to be unveiled by the community and by the players, Ape Out is already a classic of the genre, for its extraordinary aesthetic and sound style, and for the excellent quality of the its game design.

Ape Out is a masterpiece of desperate, reactive play that not only gets you to behave like a rampaging gorilla, it forces you to adapt like one.

The four albums’ worth of content (plus bonus EP) offer a huge amount of ape action, tossing guards around like blood-filled dodge balls in one new scenario after another and ending with a perfectly-themed final level. Combine that with its unique, iconic art style and amazing soundtrack and Ape Out is simply the coolest game with the hippest tunes 1959 can supply.

Ape Out is a brutal and primordial smash'em up, a gorilla race on a jazz base.

Cuzzillo, Foddy and Boch have torn the cage of the creative processes by creating a model of their own. Ape Out is pure jazz: overwhelming, defiant and free. The monkey has escaped, infuriated, and wants to sow panic on the gaming industry.

Ape Out is that rare mix of great art, sound and game design. It’s a short but addictive experience with challenging, satisfying gameplay and an audiovisual style that instantly grabs your senses and doesn’t let go.

Ape Out plays like an underground cartoon caught on film stock set to percussion-driven jazz. I dug it so much I let loose an “Amen!” when the final credits splashed across the screen and the music crashed in with thunderous conviction.

Ape Out is an incredible action game that succeeds in delivering a fresh and genuinely fun experience, wrapped in an aesthetic package so tight and well executed that makes it a game that everybody into videogames should try.

Ape Out is the kind of game that makes you glad the indie scene exists. It defines the type of game that is very easy to pick up, but it takes some real practice to conquer. It places pure action over story, with the reward for surviving every encounter being pure satisfaction. Failure is met with an immediate desire to try again instead of groaning in frustration. It's a gorgeous game, but more importantly, it ends way before the premise wears thin. In short, Ape Out easily goes on the list for one of the best titles of the year.

Orthodox yet sophisticated action, a wacky art style, a crazy score and events that make great use of these characteristics make Ape Out a thrilling experience throughout.

Ape Out is an intoxicating fusion of percussion and destruction that oozes style from every angle.

Ape Out is a pure adrenaline rush. A joy to play, to watch and to listen to, where game, graphics and sound design work to bring together a true synesthetic experience.

Ape Out is a game that is entirely the sum of its parts. Whilst many indie games look stylish, or sound cool, or have a solid gameplay mechanic, rarely do all three coalesce into something so memorably original. Ape Out will surely be one of the most unique games of 2019 and whilst it’s short, it packs a knockout punch.

Ape Out is a fun and fast-paced action game with nary a dull moment. The brutal difficulty can go overboard at times, but even then it's never too daunting. This is one of the coolest games of 2019 so far, and any fan of slick, stylish action games should give it a go.

Quotation forthcoming.

Be prepared to die and die some more, but Ape Out is a game that'll get into your psyche, and beg you to carry on. As you progress, your heart will likely be beating as fast as the music, but the adrenaline pumping around your system will only spur you on further. Each death is a tragedy, but each one only makes that eventual success ultimately more rewarding.

While the procedural generation makes it slip on a banana peel somewhat, the rest of Ape Out is such a stylistic and hyperviolent joy that you can't but be charmed by it - even the jazz.

Deceptively simple and undoubtedly original, Ape Out’s fast and frantic jazz infused gameplay never loses sight of what videogames are really all about: having fun.