ACE BANANA
VR blaster targets ape escapism
Remember that bit in The Lord Of The Rings when Legolas skewers six Urukhai in five seconds with his lethal bow? Yeah, Ace Banana makes you feel the exact opposite of Tolkien’s elf assassin. Although, in the game’s defence, it’s hard to look like a badass when you’re shooting cartoon apes.
Three years ago, if you told me I’d be dusting off my PS Move controllers and then fastening a PS VR headset to my bonce, all so I could pretend to be a half-arsed Robin Hood, I’d have thought you either insane or very, very drunk. Yet here I stand, firing toilet plungers from a snake that acts as a bow at endless waves of annoying primates.
Nothing in Ace Banana makes sense. I haven’t the faintest clue why I’m protecting sentient bananas from gormless monkeys, but that doesn’t mean plunging arrows/ bog-uncloggers into furry ape faces1 isn’t fun. Indeed, the game’s unerringly accurate motion controls are a terrific advert for just how harmoniously PS VR and a pair of PS Move wands can work together.
The physical range of exercises required to shoot all these monkeys is exhausting, mind. Your right hand is constantly in a drawing motion, as you mimic the act of pulling back the bow/adder’s string to fire projectiles. After ten minutes, you’ll either have shoulders like Hugh Jackman or be passed out on your living room floor.
Proceedings are made more exasperating by the fact you have to keep teleporting between sniping points, the one feature where my PS Move consistently refuses to play along with my inputs. 2 It’s a shame Ace Banana can be so flustering, because there is a decent shooting gallery to unpeel here. Dave Meikleham