Specter (Ape Escape)
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| Specter | |
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 Specter, as he appears in Ape Escape 2
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| Game series | Ape Escape series |
| First game | Ape Escape |
| Voice actor(s) (English) | Pete Burrows |
| Voice actor(s) (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.
Contents |
[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 preforming for the human audiences. However, one fateful day, the Professor 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'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 and Jake 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 and make him an obedient slave. After all, would Spike really hurt his best friend? The moment he had a chance, Specter used the time machine to send himself, Jake, and his army into various time periods. History might have been changed completely, if Spike didn't follow them immediately after.
Although Jake was under Specter's control, Spike felt no fear in beating him in several competitions on his quest to catch the monkey army and save the present. When Spike reached the Medieval Ages, he managed to catch up with Specter and Jake. However, prepared for this kind of situation, Specter sent a robotical suit of armor to take care of the monkey catcher while they escaped. After beating it, Spike ended up in the present, where the monkey army was wrecking everything in sight! Spike managed to catch all of the monkeys in town, a factory that Specter had taken over, and a TV Tower that Specter had conquered. After battling Spike with a flying robot on top of the TV Tower, Specter kidnapped Natalie and the Professor and retreated to the Monkey Park, which he had modified severely. However, even when Specter had the upper hand, Spike was able to catch him, remove the helmet, and turn everything back to normal, until Specter, who had hidden another Peak Point Helmet in his cage, was able to escape again. Spike had to round up the rest of the monkey army, including those that could only be found with the infamous Magic Punch, before the Professor was able to discover that Specter was hiding in another dimension. Spike went to that dimension, beat Specter once more, turned him back to normal, and ended the quest.
[edit] Ape Escape 2
A few years later, Jimmy (who is Spike's cousin) and Natalie were working at the Professor's lab to gain a few bucks during the summer vacation. One of Jimmy's tasks was to send a load of pants to the Monkey Park, but Jimmy 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, since Spike wasn't there at the time, was forced to be slingshot around the world by Natalie (since the professor 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 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's little buddy was given back after the battle against Red Monkey.
Eventually, Jimmy 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 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 took care of the last uncaught member of the Freaky Monkey 5, Specter managed to escape and head to his space base.
After Jimmy 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 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 was able to beat the Goliath, and caught Specter right before the Lethargy Lazer was fired.
However, when Jimmy caught Specter, he forgot to remove his helmet. Specter easily retreated to his space station again, and while Natalie tried to find out where in space he was hiding, Jimmy caught the other monkeys using the Magic Punch. Once the entire army was caught, Natalie discovered that there was a hidden room with escape pods in the space station. Jimmy went there just in time to confront Specter before he could blast off. 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 Jake 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, Jake 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 Jake a third and final time. However, Jake 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 Jake, 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.
[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 pathetic 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, Natalie, Jake, Professor, and Helga 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 unconcious. When Specter got up, he and his two pipo monkeys find themselves in Virtual Space and fights against the Virus Charus and the Grid Core.
When Specter escapes from his burning battleship, he helps Haruka start up the particle cannon that will help destroy the monster at the site of the wreckage of his battleship. After Specter killed the last boss of Ape Escape Million Monkeys, Specter and his pipo monkeys might be going back to have a vacation for a while. (Ending of Team Specter, Credits)
[edit] Abilities
Specter has a variety of abilities he uses when faced against the hero in a game's final battle. His main abillity would fall into the category of telekenetic powers that appears to be in most Ape Escape games. 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.
[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 Mokeys, which is mostly the only time he uses it.
[edit] The Anime Series
- Season 1
Specter is originally Natsumi's pet in Season 1, until Pipotron J gave him a Pipo Helmet through Hakese'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 Natsumi as an innocent little monkey named Kohta.
- 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 Hiroki and Haruka in Episode 23. Specter also abandoned the Pipotron Brothers, because there is no need for them anymore. It's up to Kakeru to save the day, and end Specter's reign of terror.
[edit] Trivia
- Specter resembles characters like Silver the Hedgehog and Mewtwo .One way is that all three have psychic abilities.They are also white.Specter resembles Mewtwo due to tone of low voice and sense of evil,and resembles Silver because both are not as serious as Mewtwo.
