A new Ape Escape game is reportedly making a comeback, and the rumor is that it is being made by Evening Star Studio, an independent development team whose founders worked on Sonic Mania before forming their own team. These rumors have been reported by several people with sources close to the matter. Video Games Chronicle and Jeff Gerstmann are the names we recognize the most, but there have been others saying the same thing. It is unclear if this would be a remake or a whole new entry in the series.
Is Ape Escape Making a Comeback?
This news comes alongside a rumor from a leaker on ResetEra who goes by Thisiserfan, who previously was the first to reveal that Sony was making the 2D Metroidvania, God of War: Ghosts of Sparta. They say that PlayStation as a whole is taking pitches from third-party developers to make new entries in many of the brand’s not forgotten, but pretty abandoned series. Titles he mentioned were Sly Cooper, Killzone, and, of course, your favorite monkey-catching game, Ape Escape.
If true, Ape Escape definitely fits in as a series that many have wanted a return to, though that list of Sony IPs is quickly growing when you think of Sly, Jak and Daxter, Twisted Metal, and more.
Why the sudden onslaught of revivals, though? Speaking speculatively, we would imagine Sony sees this as a good way to try and win back some public goodwill after a string of unpopular decisions, including their focus on live service games that gain no traction, killing off physical discs next year, price increases, and dropping Hideo Kojima’s Physint.
With many losing faith in the current direction of the gaming giant, bringing in outside teams to develop past favorites could be a fast and easy way to prepare plenty of those revivals to release around the same time as the PlayStation 6, while keeping their internal studios working on their current projects.
Is Evening Star the Right Team to Bring Back Ape Escape?
The first game released under the name Evening Star was Penny’s Big Breakaway, which we reviewed upon release in 2024 and enjoyed quite a bit, though it didn’t quite reach the heights of the co-founders’ former work on Sonic Mania.
Christian Whitehead is probably the most notable name under Evening Star, as he’s well known for making Sonic the Hedgehog fan games and developing the engine for the great mobile ports of the Genesis games before his work on Mania. If Evening Star keeps up its penchant for working on its team’s personal favorites from the past, we imagine there is probably at least one super fan of Ape Escape on the team.
According to Evening Star’s website, the indie studio is made up of 15 employees currently, but reports have suggested they wouldn’t be working on the game alone. Team ASOBI, best known recently for their Astro Bot games, is suggested to be helping them out on the side. The latest Astro Bot game did include an Ape Escape throwback level, and members of the team worked on the original game back in the 90s.
We would say that Ape Escape should be in pretty good hands if it really is in the early portions of making a comeback.
