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Ape Escape Spike Render Ape Escape 2 Jimmy 2 Kei Render Yumi Ape Escape 2 Professor Casi Ape Escape 2 Natalie Helga Aki
Ape Escape 3 CameraMonkey Ape Escape Jake Specter Render AE2 Doctor Tomoki Blue Monkey Yellow Monkey Pink Monkey
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Specter
Information
Name(s) Japan スペクター (Specter)
America Specter
Europe Specter
Gender Male
Member of Team Specter
Allies Pipo Monkeys, The Freaky Monkey Five, Jake (When mind-controlled), Doctor Tomoki(Formerly), Helga (briefly in Million Monkeys)
Non-Canon: Haru, Tohko, Tsukushi, Hero
Anime only: Pipotrons (Formerly)
Enemies Spike (Archenemy), Jake, Natalie, Casi, Professor, Jimmy, Kei, Yumi, Aki, Pipotrons, Mystery Man, Pipotron J, Pipotron G, Pipotron Meta, Pipotron Krack, Virus Casi, Alien Slimes, Blob Core
Family Unknown
Height Unknown
Weight Unknown
Age Unknown
Birthday January 28th
Likes Being the future leader of a new age, admiring the handiwork he and his fellow monkeys have made to signify their dominance over mankind, teaming up with his monkey brethren to dominate mankind
Dislikes Humans, bananas, people that will stop at nothing to prevent him from executing his world domination plan like Spike, Jimmy, Kei, and Yumi
Appears in Ape Escape NTSC-U
Saru Get You CoroCoro Comics
Ape Escape (Comics)
Ape Escape 2001
Ape Escape 2 USA
Ape Escape (Shorts)
Ape Escape Pumped & Primed
Ape Escape Academy
Ape Escape On The Loose logo gamescanner
Ape Escape 3
Ape Academy 2
Saru Get You On Air
Ape Escape Million Monkeys Logo1
Saru Get You ~On Air~ 2nd Logo
Ape Escape SaruSaru Big Mission
Ape Escape (Cartoon Series)
Ape Escape Move
PSABR Logo
Voice actor(s) Japan Chika Sakamoto
America Pete Burrows (AE1), Greg Abbey (AE2), Crispin Freeman (AEP&P), Charlie Schlatter (AE3, AEA), Dee Bradley Baker (OTL), Greg Ellis (Cartoon)
Langfr-225px-Flag of the United Kingdom svg Marc Silk (AE2, AE3, OTL)
Langfr-225px-Flag of France svg: Emmanuel Bonami (AE1) Sebastien Desjours (AE2, AE3)
Italy Massimilano Alto (AE2), Oliviero Corbetta (AE3)


Specter (スペクター) is the main antagonist of the Ape Escape series and the focus of all the main series' games. He is an albino monkey that used to perform in a juggling act during his stay at Monkey Park.

In the events of Ape Escape, Specter accidentally obtained an experimental helmet that boosted his intelligence. He freed the rest of the apes from the amusement park and used the Time Station made by the Professor to travel back in time.

Although he was defeated, Specter quickly took any chances he got to retry world domination in various ways, either through mass mind control or chopping the Earth in half. He is best known for his advanced Peak Point Helmet that he created himself off of the original model, giving him psychic powers, and his mechanized floating throne that he is rarely seen without.

Appearance[]

Specter is an albino monkey and thus has white hair and red eyes. His hair is spiked and usually has blue or purple-ish coloring at the very tips of each spike, with some covering one of his eyes. His skin is pale from albinism.

In the first game and its remake, he wore nothing but red shorts and a black shredded cloth around his neck with simple brown boots. His Pipo Helmet is metallic around his head while the middle part is his alert light. He kept this appearance for Ape Escape 2001, Ape Escape 2, and Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed as well.

In Ape Escape 3 and Ape Escape: SaruSaru Big Mission, he wore a tuxedo that Monkey Pink knitted for him. He kept the same style of boots and Pipo Helmet, however.

In expanded media such as the anime or Ape Escape: Million Monkeys, Specter wears a long red cape, dark pants, black leather boots and a black belt with white decals on it, followed with a mostly red Pipo Helmet.

In PlayStation Move: Ape Escape, Specter has no Pipo Helmet. He goes either without clothes or wears a space suit and has a tail unlike any other ape. He has a much more ape-like face and body structure, and a lot softer expressions.

Personality[]

The personality of Specter changes a lot between his mainline -and expanded media appearances.

The mainline Specter is arrogant and self-centered, claiming that humans are a weak species that should be living beneath other primates. This could be a side effect of the helmet being a source for his aggression and hatred. Alternatively, Specter could finally understand the situation his species is in and hold vengeance from his time in Monkey Park.

His typical dark humor is what he is best known for. His tone is extremely dark and playful with a sharp tone of sarcasm. He is very cocky and believes no one can defeat him, growing more frantic with his beliefs the closer the protagonists get to stopping his plans.

In the beginning of the series, Specter avoided Spike until attempting to kill him twice. Each time Spike survived Specter’s attempts to off him or to break his spirit by sending Jake against him, Specter’s mental state deteriorated slightly. By the time Spike had fully ruined Specter’s plans and damaged his resources beyond repair, Specter had fully lost it, having a short mental breakdown in front of Spike before teleporting away. When Spike finally caught up to him for the final time, Specter implied that he still cared about his old trainer, but had no plans to return to the park and engaged Spike in a final battle. His overconfidence in his abilities proved to be his own defeat, and he was captured.

After Ape Escape 2, Specter’s temperament was gone, and he planned to do whatever it took so that his plan would succeed. Long term use of the helmet and repeated failures caused Specter to become slightly more sadistic and possibly insane. His new plan "Twin Heavens" was to chop the world in half. It is possible that Specter knew the humans would die, and since his TV broadcasts left almost everyone brainwashed, no one would have been able to survive, with himself and the monkeys possibly living on SARU-003 or the moon. In this case, Specter has also tried to commit genocide of the entire human race.

Over time, Specter became more dictator-like than the first game, more and more desperate while losing his sanity to a complete breakdown. While in the first two games Specter showed mercy or at least tried to avoid killing the protagonist until provoked, Specter ordered The Freaky Monkey Five to and attempted to kill Kei and Yumi himself during the final battle of Ape Escape 3. He still managed to keep up a ruse of giving up until he caught the twins and broke into maniacal laughter.

In expanded media like the animated shorts, Saru Get You ~On Air~, and Ape Escape: Million Monkeys, Specter is still arrogant and holds monkeys as the higher species, but he is a lot less malicious and a lot more comical and kind. He attempts to defeat the heroes, but also worries for their safety and even helps them sometimes. His monkeys treat him with less absolute respect and cause him to get into comical hijinks with them or because of them. He also gets embarrassed now and then and acts playfully when by himself.

PlayStation Move: Ape Escape's Specter is vengeful to the humans, but stemming from both loneliness and sorrow. As soon as he finds his old trainer, he turns happy and childlike, and all his despair and hatred to humans is gone.

Abilities[]

Specter is proficient with telepathic powers, relying heavily on energy shields and blasts for offensive and defensive capabilities. He is also capable of creating false copies of himself to distract enemies. It also seems the angrier he gets the stronger he gets. In Ape Escape 3, Specter was easily able to create energy blasts that extended out in the whole stage's radius, as well as using shields to defend himself and his throne.


Other Media[]

Saru Get You ~On Air~[]

In the anime, Specter was a little white monkey named Kuuta, Natalie's pet monkey. Kuuta was tricked by Pipotron J to be brainwashed with a Peak Point Helmet that made him become Specter. Specter wanted to make the world just for monkeys and used many of them for his plans, though he ultimately failed due to the Professor and Spike's meddling. When Spike tried to use a net on him, it failed due to Specter's strength.

When the Pipotrons took Specter again into a special virtual world, they chained him up. Specter became stronger from his own anger and broke free. The second time Spike tried to capture him, the net had been upgraded to transform him back into Kuuta. Despite capture, it failed to change him back. Specter broke out of the Paradise Room, then proceeded to tie up Casi and The Professor. He was about to finish them off before be saw how well his monkeys were being treated and how much they had fun. Seeing clips of Spike saving them and tending to them, he was very touched, but refused to turn back. With his last moments as Specter he helped Spike defeat Pipotron J and willingly removed his helmet.

In season 2 of ~On Air~, it's revealed that Kuuta was just a host for the real Specter, who modified his form to resemble his own. He pretended to be Pipo Angel to get the Pipotrons to do his bidding for a while before revealing himself again. In season 2 he has also rebuilt Freaky Monkey Five, who help him in fighting the heroes.

Gallery[]

See Specter/Gallery

Trivia[]

  • In the UK version of On the Loose, Specter and Spike share voice actors. The voice actor is Marc Silk, who returned to play both characters in PlayStation All-Stars. In the Italian dub, Specter in Ape Escape 2 shares the same voice actor with Monkey White and Inuyasha in the first series of the titular anime. In Ape Escape 3, instead, he shares the same voice actor with Babidi and Dr. Gero from DBZ.
  • Specter's appearance has changed the most compared to other characters.
  • Specter seems to dislike the cold, Yellow Monkey, and Pink Monkey.
  • The fact that he wore a tuxedo in Ape Escape 3 could be based on the phrase "Monkey Suit". Oddly enough, Specter accepted his suit gift rather than throwing it away. He could possibly just like suits or the pun of it.
  • Specter has appeared in almost everything Ape Escape related, more than any other character.
  • In Ape Escape: Million Monkeys, Specter ironically uses a Monkey Net of his own to capture his insubordinate monkeys.
  • Specter is rarely ever seen not seated on his flying throne, which often serves as the phase 1 of any final battle with him. In order to defeat Specter his chair must be destroyed. However, in Ape Escape 3 the throne could not be blown up, and instead you'd have to throw Specter off of it. In Million Monkeys it was a part of his special attack.
  • His special attack in Ape Escape 3 is called "No Mercy!" in the US version, and "No Rest For The Wicked!" in the UK version.
  • According to the Monkey Radar in Ape Escape 3, Specter's birthday is on January 28th.
  • Specter is the one of the few characters whose name is the same in the American, European, and Japanese games. All other characters either had their names changed or spelled their names differently. The other characters who have this trait are Hero, Tohko, Tsukushi and Haru.
  • When inspecting Specter in Ape Escape 3, we are able to see his stats and a quote surrounding him. His Alertness, Speed, Attack and Temper are all at 5 stars. The quote is “No way. Better give up now.” It is unknown if this is something he said, or someone talking about him.
Ape Escape Franchise
Main Games Ape Escape ( On the Loose )  · Ape Escape 2  · Ape Escape 3
Spin-offs Ape Escape 2001  · Ape Escape Million Monkeys  · Saru Get You: Pipo Saru Racer  · Ape Escape SaruSaru Big Mission  · Ape Quest
Party games Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed  · EyeToy: Monkey Mania  · Ape Academy  · Ape Academy 2  · Ape Escape Move
Soundtracks Ape Escape Originape  · Ape Escape 3 Originape  · Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed ~Sound Tracks!!~
Other Media Anime  · Cartoon  · Shorts  · Comics  · Manga  · Cameos
Gameplay Chips  · Cookies  · Glitches  · Grid Core  · Peak Point Helmet  · Shirts  · Specter Coins
Minigames Galaxy Monkey  · Ski Kidz Racing  · Specter Boxing  · Ape Ping Pong  · Jake Attacks

Dance Monkey Dance  · Monkey Climber  · Monkey Soccer
Mesal Gear Solid  · Super Monkey Throw Stadium  · Ultim-ape Fighter!

Universe
Protagonists Spike  · Jimmy  · Kei  · Yumi  · Professor  · Casi  · Natalie  · Helga  · Aki  · Pipotchi  · Pipo Snake
Antagonists Specter (Dark Specter)  · Jake (Dark Jake) · Doctor Tomoki  · Monkeys  · Monkey Five ( Blue  · Pink  · Red  · White  · Yellow )  · Pipotrons (Pipotron J)  · Virus Casi
Enemies Ape Escape Enemies  · Ape Escape 2 Enemies  · Teleborgs
Gadgets Ape Vacuum  · Bananarang  · Banannerizer  · Dash Hoop  · Electro Magnet  · Magic Punch  · Monkey Radar  · R.C. Car  · Sky Flyer  · Slingback Shooter  · Smasher  · Stun Club  · Time Net  · Water Cannon  · Water Net
Vehicles Boat  · Pipobot  · Robot  · Snowmobile  · Sports Car  · Submarine  · Tank
ApeEscapeTemplate ApeEscapeOTLTemplate
Characters Casi  · Jake  · Natalie  · Professor  · Specter  · Spike
Gadgets Dash Hoop  · Magic Punch  · Monkey Radar  · R.C. Car  · Sky Flyer  · Slingback Shooter  · Stun Club  · Time Net  · Water Net
Levels (/ Apes/ Enemies)
Hub World
Time Station
Prehistoric Era/ The Lost Land Fossil Field  · Primordial Ooze  · Molten Lava
Cenozoic Era/ Mysterious Age Thick Jungle  · Dark Ruins  · Cryptic Relics
Dimension/Dimension X Stadium Attack
Primitive Age/Oceana Crabby beach  · Coral Cave  · Dexter's Island
Ice age/New Freezeland Snowy Mammoth  · Frosty Retreat  · Hot Springs
Dimension/Dimension X Gladiator Attack
Recent Past/Medieval Mayhem Sushi Temple  · Wabi Sabi Wall  · Crumbling Castle
Present-Day/Futurama City Park  · Specter's Factory  · TV Tower
Present-Day 2/Specter Land Monkey Madness
Dimension/Dimension X Peak Point Matrix
ApeEscape2Template
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