I for one am sick and tired of seeing franchises milked to the bone, and no better one to milk than Planet of the Apes. However, to every sad story there is a brighter side. At least the game is not based off of the god awful movie released last year. I guess there is nothing else to do but tell you a little about the game so you can decide for yourself.

As loyal fans may have guessed the game is centered around Taylor, one of the USNSA’s top rank astronauts. Of course he lands on a strange planet where monkeys are men and men are slaves. Just don’t call them monkeys to their face. However a suprise twist, You don’t get to play as Taylor. Rather you must rescue him. Sent on a doomed retrieval mission from hell you begin your typical platformer nightmare.

Planet of the Apes is a two dimensional arcade type game that cannot be fully appreciated on the rather lacking screens size of the GBA. For instance the collectable items are often too small to notice what they are. Supposedly your a some guy named Ben and you must use what you find in your surroundings. Now wake up, how many of you expect to find a machine gun every few feet? Well too bad on this planet they are about as rare as peanut butter! Overall the goal is to finish all 10 levels, collect everything you can, With Nova by your side its time to kick some handheld ass.

I’m not going to bother with how much the sound sucks, really it’s not the games fault, its Nintendo’s lack of improving the sound chip. The visuals are pretty slick, well as far as I can see. The story is progressed through still frame cartoon sequences. Think of some of the early SNES platformers and you get an idea of what to expect.

If your looking for a game to play along with the story of Marky Mark and the funky bunch... Err.. I mean the new Planet of the Apes, you are looking in the wrong place. This is an old school platformer with an old school plot.

The game of course is rated E for Everyone, and can be enjoyed by the young and the old. I wouldn’t pass this one up if you were a fan of old school platformers. But then again, I would rather play the game on my Television. Something about the small screen really takes away from what would have made a great game.