Some time ago, Nintendo released Wario Ware for the Game Boy Advance. It was a collection of minigames that were over in about 2 seconds, but the gameplay was crazy addictive. (Of course, having to play older Nintendo games for 2 seconds also added to the fun).

Sony's Ape Escape Academy tries a game in a similar genre but it does not seem to be as an enjoyable game. The backstory is cute: you’re an ape, and you’re in the academy. Each 'year' at the academy is a bunch of different mini-games in a lovely 9 square grid. In order to graduate a year, you must in effect create a tic-tac-toe 'row' of successes.

There are over 40 mini-games and the grid is random each time, so it’s never the same 'year' twice. For example, in year one, the upper left box the first time might be 'monkey hockey,' but if you fail, the next time, upper left may be 'monkey soccer.'

The sports games are the easy ones to figure out. Unfortunately you aren’t really given much of a primer on how to play the games. When the game loads, it shows the controls you need to play the game. The intro before the game may or may not tell you how to play. If you’re unfamiliar with the game, by the time you figure out what you’re doing, you’ll have lost, which means there’s a big 'X' placed on the board. If you do succeed you receive an 'O'. For the first year, get three 'O's in a row to progress to the next level.

Of course, just to add to the fun, you’ll be playing a mini-game of 'Press Your Luck' – you can’t just decide to pick the lower left square, instead the cursor goes randomly all over the board and you stop the cursor by pressing X. This isn’t really fun to me.

What also isn’t fun is the fact that even if you have no hope of winning, you still have to play through. Even if there’s no possible way to get 3 O's in a row, you'll still keep playing. Maybe it helps you get training for the next round but it felt like an exercise in frustration to me.

The mini-games are somewhat interesting, it’s too bad that they aren't executed that well. First, there's the load time between the 'game select' screen and the actual game itself. If the loading takes longer than the game time, there’s a problem, and there is definitely one here. You spend more time loading the game and leaving the game going back to the main menu than you will playing some of the minigames!

Minigames range from sports to 'count the number of monkeys in the marathon' to 'find the human that’s pretending to be a monkey' to a Dance Dance Revolution type of game. If you’ve played any of the Ape Escape games before, you'll notice some familiar faces, but you really don’t need to know the series in order to play this game.

The academy mode is probably where you’ll spend most of your time, however, there's also a 'game collection' area where you can practice – however not all the games are unlocked until you’ve played them. You can add games you enjoy to a 'favorites' folder which is a nice touch.

The game's graphics aren't bad, but it's not anything you'll remember after you play. Everything is pretty looking, and the apes are cute. The sound is nothing to write home about either. Yes, there are sounds, but that's about it.