Specter (Ape Escape)
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| Specter | |
|---|---|
| Game series | Ape Escape series |
| First game | Ape Escape |
| Voiced by (English) | Pete Burrows (Ape Escape 1) Dee Bradley Baker (On The Loose) Charlie Schlatter (AE 3, Academy) |
| Voiced by (Japanese) | Chika Sakamoto |
Specter (スペクター Supekutā?) is a video game character and the main antagonist of Sony Computer Entertainment's Ape Escape video game series. His first appearance took place in the 1999 video game Ape Escape, and he has appeared in every subsequent installment in the series since.
In the games, he is portrayed as an albino primate with enhanced intelligence (supplied by his Peak Point Helmet) and an unnatural capacity for evil. In the original instruction manual for Ape Escape he is said to be 4 years old, making him older than his average monkey subordinate. And, unlike other monkeys, he appears more human than ape.
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[edit] History
[edit] Ape Escape/Ape Escape: On the Loose
In the opening cinematic of the game, it is shown that Specter was once a cheerful monkey at the zoo, always performing for the human audiences. However, one fateful day, the Professor/Hakase had accidentally dropped a Peak Point Helmet. Specter, merely a curious chimp, decided to put it on his head. However, the helmet gave him newfound intelligence, which was too much for him and turned him insane. He now believed that it was cruel to make him perform day and night, and as revenge, Specter wanted to conquer the world with his newfound IQ and make monkeys the dominant lifeforms.
After breaking out of the Monkey Park with an army of chimps, Specter decided to invade the Professor/Hakase's lab and use whatever technology he could find to his advantage. Lucky for him, a time machine had recently been developed, which he could use to alter history. The bad news, though, was that Spike/Kakeru and Jake/Hiroki barged into the lab right before he could use it. Specter, using some ESP powers that he had gained through the IQ boost, managed to take control of Jake/Hiroki and make him a mind controlled slave. After all, would Spike/Kakeru really hurt his best friend? The moment he had a chance, Specter used the time machine to send himself, Jake/Hiroki, and his army into various time periods. History might have been changed completely, if Spike/Kakeru didn't follow them immediately after.
Although Jake/Hiroki was under Specter's control, Spike/Kakeru felt no fear in beating him in several competitions on his quest to catch the monkey army and save the present. When Spike/Kakeru reached the Medieval Ages, he managed to catch up with Specter and Jake/Hiroki. However, prepared for this kind of situation, Specter brings a suit of armour in the castle to life. After beating it, Spike/Kakeru ends up in the present, where the monkey army is wrecking everything in sight. Spike/Kakeru manages to catch all of the monkeys in town, a factory that Specter had taken over, and a TV Tower that Specter had conquered. After testing Spike's capabilities against his battle cruiser, Specter kidnaps Natalie/Natsumi and the Professor/Hakase and retreats to the Monkey Park, which he had modified severely. After Spike/Kakeru rescues Natalie/Natsumi, the Professor/Hakase and Jake/Hiroki Specter becomes extremely eager to meet him in person again. He opens up his Specter Castle in which Spike/Kakeru navigates through in order to confront Specter. Despite Specter's initial interest in Spike/Kakeru, after persistence in trying to control him and no success he becomes aggravated, causing him to activate the first model of his Goliath armour. Despite his best efforts, Spike/Kakeru succeeds in defeating him. Specter, enraged, teleports away promising to return some day. Spike/Kakeru has to round up the rest of the monkey army, including those that could only be found with the infamous Magic Punch, before the Professor/Hakase was able to discover that Specter is hiding in another dimension. Spike/Kakeru goes to the dimension and has a conversation with Specter. By this time Specter seems to have regained interest in Spike/Kakeru, although when Spike/Kakeru points out Specter wondering how the monkey breeder is, Specter once again becomes angered by Spike/Kakeru who proceeds to insist that Specter removes his helmet, as it is warping his mind. Specter wants to prove the helmet's power and challenges Spike/Kakeru in a battle, but is defeated and captured, being sent back to the monkey park as a normal monkey again. Curiously enough, he appears neither in the monkey book or the Ape Escape: On the Loose exclusive enemy book after his defeat.
[edit] Ape Escape 2
A few years later, Jimmy/Hikaru (who is Spike's cousin) and Natalie/Natsumi were working at the Professor's lab to gain a few bucks during the summer vacation. One of Jimmy/Hikaru's tasks was to send a load of pants to the Monkey Park, but Jimmy/Hikaru accidentally mixed up the order. He sent a box of Peak Point Helmets along with the pants, and when Specter got his hands on one, he went nuts once more. Now with a new army, Specter set out to conquer the present and reign supreme over all humans.
Jimmy/Hikaru, since Spike/Kakeru wasn't there at the time, was forced to be slingshot around the world by Natalie/Natsumi (since the Professor/Hakase wasn't there, either) and catch all of the new monkeys. However, Specter was ready for some fancy-pancy monkey catcher this time, and had created the Freaky Monkey Five. The FMF is made up of five monkeys Blue, Yellow, Pink, White, and Red) that were given Vita-Z bananas, which gave them abilities and an IQ only somewhat lower than Specter's. However, Jimmy/Hikaru and Pipochi (his pet monkey, which wore a Peak Point Helmet that didn't make him evil) were able to beat all of them... except for Yellow Monkey, who ran away after the battle. At one point, White Monkey had captured Pipochi, but Jimmy/Hikaru's little buddy was given back after the battle against Red Monkey.
Eventually, Jimmy/Hikaru reached an army base that Specter had taken over. Specter had been using this base to construct a giant space station armed with a device called the Lethargy Lazer. The lazer was designed to make the entire human population too apathetic to fight against him, and it was designed using the technology that made Pipochi not become evil. When Jimmy/Hikaru confronted Specter in the base, Specter was ready to attack with his finest robot mech yet. However, Yellow Monkey had recently eaten a truckload of Vita-Z bananas, grown to the size of a skyscraper, and interrupted the battle before it even began. While Jimmy/Hikaru took care of the last uncaught member of the Freaky Monkey 5, Specter managed to escape and head to his space base.
After Jimmy/Hikaru had caught Yellow Monkey, reached the base, and confronted Specter, the hero had to face a giant cymbal-clapping monkey. When it was defeated, the REAL boss appeared: a giant ape mech called the Goliath Armour, piloted by none other than the crazed Specter. However, the robot was heavier than the floor it stood upon, and crashed through the floor, leaving only the top half to fight. Jimmy/Hikaru was able to beat the Goliath, and caught Specter right before the Lethargy Lazer was fired.
However, when Jimmy/Hikaru caught Specter, he forgot to remove his helmet. Specter easily retreated to his space station again, and while Natalie/Natsumi tried to find out where in space he was hiding, Jimmy/Hikaru caught the other monkeys using the Magic Punch. Once the entire army was caught, Natalie/Natsumi discovered that Specter was hiding in a high-tech base hidden on the dark side of the moon. Jimmy/Hikaru went there to confront Specter. One epic battle later, and Specter was back in the park.
[edit] Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed
Spike and some of his pals enter a virtual dimension created by one of the Professor's friends. They have come to compete in various tournaments, and prove how good they were. Since Specter (who had somehow obtained another helmet) wasn't allowed to enter the competition himself, he sent 6 monkeys (1 by itself, 5 in a team) to compete for him. However, Spike kept winning tournament after tournament, so Specter decided to take action. After all, his monkeys needed to be whipped into shape, and he wanted revenge against Spike. After finding and gaining control over Buzz once more, he sent him to eliminate Spike and his pals using a motorcycle. Unfortunately for Specter, Spike easily won the battle, and his monkeys didn't improve at all.
Deciding to do things more personally, Specter re-obtained the Goliath Armour from the last game and used it to try and beat Spike and his pals. However, even with the legs not being eliminated, Specter still lost. Later, Buzz re-challenged Spike in a new motorcycle with a gun-wielding monkey sidekick. However, he got blown up. Afterwards, Specter tried to shoot down Spike's possie with Goliath as they were climbing platforms, but he was shot down.
When the main event had ended, Specter's monkeys had lost to Spike. However, a bunch of black monkeys called Pipotron that had been mostly silent and staying out of action suddenly stole the grand prize trophy! They then blew up the trophy, revealing a disk, which was then given to some virtual mastermind. By using the disk's powers, the mastermind was able to change most of the virtual universe, altering everything and everyone except Spike, his pals, and the monkeys. The mastermind then created a bunch of challenges that the heroes had to face if they wanted to survive.
After Spike and his brigade won a few of those 'competitions', they faced Buzz a third and final time. However, Buzz had been affected by the disk, and he and his motorcycle were pitch black and twice as evil. However, he still got blown up. Specter was also morphed by the disk, and fought Spike and his pals on a battleship with the top half of the Goliath. However, Specter was defeated, and didn't appear again until the mastermind was defeated.
Once everything was right again, Specter realised that he might have been a little hard on his monkeys. After all, if you counted the battles when he couldn't control himself or Buzz, he had tried to beat them up 6 times in order to train them. Specter decided to throw a picnic to celebrate the fact that his monkeys helped save the virtual world (as well as himself), but all the monkeys really cared about were the bananas that Specter wanted to bring to the picnic. In the end, Specter didn't rather like how things have went from start to finish.
[edit] Ape Escape Academy (1 and 2)
Deciding that boss battles weren't really the right way to train his monkeys, Specter established an academy. It was run by the Freaky Monkey 5, and its purpose was to teach apes to be more skilled. However, Specter himself was too busy with other matters to do much himself during these games.
In Ape Escape Academy 2, he invented a new card game made up of rock, paper, scissors cards with pictures of the Ape Escape 3 monkeys on it. His new card game swept across the globe, and he is using it as an advantage to conquer the world. He hosts a contest for monkey competitors to duel in card battles with each other, and the Freaky Monkey Five themselves, and Specter himself.
[edit] Ape Escape 3
Specter, who was somehow able to establish another space base without anyone noticing, decided that he might need some help to take over the world this time. After meeting Professor Tomoki, who hated mankind almost as much as Specter, they decided to team up and take over television. They manage to set up a TV station, and send hypnotising television shows all over the world.
By what would probably be described as bad luck, two of the only people that weren't affected by his latest schemes were two TV stars (Kei and Yumi) that were friends with Spike and his pals. After they discovered Specter's plan, Natalie sent them ape catching gear and told them to stop the insanity. Along the way to Specter's TV Station, they faced the Freaky Monkey Five, and caught all of them (except for Pink, who managed to escape).
Once they reached Specter, they had to battle against Tomoki's mech. After the battle, Tomoki's secret was revealed, and Specter made fun of the poor professor. Tomoki got rather upset at Specter for the insults he was being given, and decided to disband their alliance. Specter didn't really care at that point, as he could take care of the rest of the plan by himself. Specter escaped to his latest space base, SARU-003, where he planned to chop the planet in half while the humans were distracted with his television shows.
Kei and Yumi, with Tomoki's help, are able to get to the base, catch Specter, and save the world. However, Pink Monkey returns and frees Specter (and the 4 caught members of the Freaky Monkey 5), so the heroes have to defeat the FM5 all over again and use a monkey costume to catch the apes they missed. Once that's done, they find Specter, who appears to be surrendering. However, it's a trap! But, Kei and Yumi easily escape the trap, and catch Specter. Finally, people no longer have to fear watching television!
[edit] Ape Escape: Million Monkeys
Specter, taking a break after all his losses, was disturbed during his vacation, when a pipo monkey brought to his attention that there was chaos in the city of Tokyo. Monkey troops were patrolling the streets, and Specter wasn't causing it! Specter soon finds out that the Pipotrons are at it again (refer to Ape escape articles)! He runs to the scene of action as fast as possible (Team Specter Intro)!
Meanwhile, Spike/Kakeru, Natalie/Natsumi, Casi/Charu, Professor, and Helga/Haruka are in their lab, and emerge to observe a battlecruiser soaring over the city. News helicopters broadcast the video, showing Specter (Pipotron Meta), and the pipotrons. Trouble was brewing, and fast (Team Kakeru Intro). When Specter got to his battleship, after going through an armanda of monkeys. Specter encouters Pipotron Meta as Specter. After he was defeated, the man behind the puzzle (The creator of Grid Core) vapourizes him, for failing to carry out his orders. Specter was later on punched by Pipotron G, and was lay unconscious. When Specter got up, he and his two pipo monkeys find themselves in Virtual Space and fights against the Virus Casi/Charus and the Grid Core.
When Specter escapes from his burning battleship, he helps Helga/Haruka start up the particle cannon that will help destroy the monster at the site of the wreckage of his battleship. After Specter killed Burobukoa, Specter and his pipo monkeys might be going back to have a vacation for a while (Ending of Team Specter, Credits).
[edit] Ape Escape: Saru Saru Big Mission
Specter is back again on his evil plot of world domination. This time around, he kidnapped Professor/Hakase, Aki, Kei/Satoru, Yumi/Sayaka and Jimmy/Hikaru, and put them as the Freaky Monkey Five's hostages. He shrunk Professor/Hakase's lab (that goes for Spike/Kakeru and Natalie/Natsumi), so that their plans to strike back will be worthless. Spike/Kakeru and Natalie/Natsumi used a new device in hopes to to save their friends and defeat Specter.
[edit] The Anime Series
[edit] Season 1
Specter is originally Natalie's pet in Season 1, until Pipotron J gave him a Pipo Helmet through Professor's machine. Specter unravels his chaos by trying to take over the world. Specter gets aid from Pipotron J and his gang, with new technology to help him out. At the last few episodes of the anime, Specter decides his destiny and fate, and went back to Natalie as an innocent little monkey named Kohta.
[edit] Season 2
This time, Specter is originally Pipo Angel, the angel flying-monkey who drops feathers, which is what the Pipotron Brothers desire, to get wishes. Specter has gone over to the extreme in Season 2. Specter plans to use the power that he gains from the Pipotron Brothers, to charge up his machine. In Episode 22 Season 2, Specter unleashes his machine into the world, making everyone into monkeys. The machine affected Aki, Kei and Yumi in Episode 22. It later got Jake and Helga in Episode 23. Specter also abandoned the Pipotron Brothers, because there is no need for them anymore. It's up to Spike to save the day, and end Specter's reign of terror. Specter was send into outer space by Casi, when Casi took control of Specter's old Space Station. Specter returns in Episode 26 with a Space Station that looks like his head, and has his lair on a volcanic island. Specter gets the Freaky Monkey Five to aid in his world domination. On Episode 27, he orders White Monkey to kidnap Professor and Kohta, he wants Spike to give him the outline of his jiteme machine, and kept him as a prisoner. After he obtained the blueprints of Professor's teleportation machine, he uses them to help him build a huge robot to take over the world. Specter now is using his huge robot that looks like him to take over the world. After losing to Spike in Episode 50 through a series of putting countries together, and bowling at Saturn with one of its moons, Specter got ticked off, that he decides to use his giant teleportation weapon and plans to make the sun disappear, putting the earth into darkness. Eventually, Spike and his friends gave out items that the Freaky Monkey Five really wanted badly. Specter's robot split up, as the Freaky Monkey Five went out to find the items, leaving only Specter's head, and his teleportation weapon. Spike and his friends captured both the weapon and Specter himself. The end of the anime series leaves with Specter's space station crashed onto the crater of the volcano and him dancing in the paradise room with the other monkeys.
[edit] Fighting Style
[edit] Natural Abilities
Specter has a variety of abilities he uses when faced against the hero in a game's final battle. His abilities include energy projection and the famous "third eye" technique. He has telekinesis which he has used to manipulate metal crates in Ape Escape 2 and the head of the Goliath Armour in Ape Escape 3. He also seems to have some illusionary powers as was proven in Ape Escape 2 and 3 in which he created fake copies of himself during battle to confuse the player. He can also fly, as has been proven in final battles, although he mainly relies upon his chair for this. He would build robots, or take any advantage to use his army of Pipo Monkeys to attack (or just make annoyance). Specter isn't a coward... in fact, he is always trying to take over the world with these abilities. He also seems to have a knack for finding henchmen, though his only continuous minions are the Freaky Monkey Five (and Saru Team/Team Monkey in P&P and Million Monkeys).
[edit] Weapons
Most of the time, Specter builds some kind of giant robot that he uses to attack the main heroes. Although most of those robots are nameless, the Goliath Armour (Ape Escape 2 and Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed) is the most well-known machine Specter ever created. Specter is good with swords, too, but he only used one once; in episode 26 season 1 of the anime where he saved Spike/Kakeru, then stabbed him (but didn't injure him). He was made to use cannons, and jets in Ape Escape: Million Monkeys, which is mostly the only time he uses it. He also can do powerful punchs especially at Ukki Yellow and White, in Episode 39 season 2. Specter relys a lot on his chair to do all the fighting for him in the anime and the games, except for Ape Escape 2 and Million Monkeys. Specter uses a huge robot in the last episodes of the anime series, to try to take over the world. The huge robot looks just like him.
