Write a comment
The folks at Limited Run Games are back at it reviving our childhoods again! This time, the amazing folks brought back another forgotten icon from the 90’s in the form of the Gex Trilogy and unlike Bubsy? I actually grew up playing these games! Well, sans the first Gex as that was on the 3DO and I had no idea that even existed as a young one. No, my introduction to Gex was the entry he’s more well known for, Gex: Enter The Gecko, and it was one of those titles that I rented whenever I could from Blockbusters until I was able to buy it for myself, alongside Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko. For years afterwards, I always hoped to see a resurgence for Gex of some kind or even a remake of the series but, like a lot of titles, it seemed destined to be stuck in the past, forever labeled as a failed mascot game. But, thanks to Limited Run Games, Gex is back and I’m happy to say these games still hold up, sans a few issues I’ll touch on when we get to them.
“It’s Tail Time!”
Before we get to the games, I want to talk about the special features included with this release. However, I want to bring up the main menu first as this was the first sign that the people making this collection knew what Gex was about. Instead of a usual menu or, thank goodness, a basic menu? Here, the menu is a parody of Netflix - here called Gexflix - complete with a sorta-similar *GONG* intro and Gex, himself, at the bottom turning his head to each option you highlight. I may have, admittedly, spent a good bit just moving his head back and forth here and being amused by it for longer than I should. Once you get past that and into the Extras menu, you’ll be treated to a wide selection of treats: Concept artwork for the games, magazine ads, trailers, and the manuals themselves! The artwork is actually interesting as, while we got the more recognizable Gex, over in Japan? The design looked more anime-ish and, admittedly, kinda cute. Still, it’s cool seeing these design documents and old renders, especially for Enter The Gecko as I remembered seeing many of them in old Nintendo Power issues, and I enjoyed reading through the old manuals as I never was able to back in the day, seeing as the rentals never seemed to keep the manuals with them. What did catch me off guard were the magazine ads for Gex 3 as well as the trailers. So, the trailer for the first Gex game is basic enough, though it does oddly make Gex sexy (Don’t dig too deep into that), the trailer for Gex: Enter The Gecko is a straight parody of the intro to the first Scream movie. Which, in of itself isn’t bad, but the implications when Gex showed up made me raise an eyebrow. Gex 3, on the other hand, was just weird and really didn’t do much to sell the game but maybe I was just missing something there. Speaking of Gex 3, I never saw the magazine ads for this game back in the day (I have a feeling they were exclusive to gaming magazines that weren’t Nintendo Power), but I was surprised at how suggestive some of them were. While there was one with Gex posing on an old car from the 30’s in a pinstripe suit with a live action female (More on that when we get to the game), the other really caught me by surprise by its boldness. I’m not going to show the image here but just look up the Gex 3 magazine ads and you’ll find it with no issues. Speaking of surprises, in the video section alongside the trailers, we also get interviews with Gex’s voice actor Dana Gould, as well as three videos showing the bonus levels from the Nintendo 64 ports of both Enter The Gecko and Deep Cover Gecko and the only released footage of the cancelled Gex JR.
According to the research I’ve done into this game, this entry was poised to be the follow-up to Gex 3 and was pitched by ImageBuilder Software, who were best known at the time for their PC Edutainment games and one random Cabela’s game, as their way of breaking into the console market. But, Eidos Interactive, who held the rights, rejected the pitch and, as such, the game was cancelled and ImageBuilder shut down in 2004. The gameplay footage that’s in the collection is fairly basic as it’s just, I assume, Gex or his son running around a small area and just showing off some simple and basic gameplay, along with some idle animations of him air guitaring and a fart button. I say I think it’s Gex or his son as there wasn’t really any plot developed for the game, per say. According to an interview with former lead artist Neal Bauer, there was a treatment made but, if I can be honest, it doesn’t really explain the basic gist of the story or why it’s called Gex Jr. I’ll also be frank and say the treatment is really depressing and shockingly pretty dark as well, much more so than the prior Gex games. Now, according to my research, the level shown in the sole gameplay video? This was the only time Gex was to be depicted as a child, thanks to the dimension he was in, and he’d be an adult for the rest of the game, though it still doesn’t explain the whole ‘Gex JR.’ title. My only guesses are that the title was either just a place holder or, at one point, we would’ve gotten to play as Gex’s son. But here’s an interesting factoid. Along with Gex Jr, there was another pitch for a fourth Gex game that was to be released on PS2 and Gamecube but, like Gex Jr, was cancelled. However, unlike what happened with Gex Jr, ‘Gex 4’ got a major rework and became the 2003 title ‘Whiplash’, which received average reviews and seems to be largely forgotten by gamers. At the same time, Gex also made an appearance in the Xbox game ‘Mad Dash Racing’ which, coincidentally, also shared some similarities with Gex 4, namely the folks developing it and some concepts. Anyway, Gex 4 aside, LRG did a bang up job with the extras here and I enjoyed looking through all of them. But that’s just the dessert, how’s the rest of the meal?
GEX
We start off with the very first entry of the franchise, simply titled Gex, and the one I never played as it started life on the 3DO; a console I never owned nor heard of until YouTube came around. Yes, it had ports to the PS1 and Saturn, which this collection includes just the PS1 port, but, as a kid? I never heard of the game. Which is a shame I never did get a chance to play this game back in the day as this is a pretty fun little title! The basic gist of the story is that Gex, while looking for something good to watch on TV, eats a rather harmless fly that turns out to be a drone controlled by Rez and is sucked into the Media Dimension. With Rez planning to use him as his station’s mascot, it’s up to Gex to traverse the world and escape the TV. Rather basic plot, if I may say so, but it’s enough to give purpose to the adventure at hand and that’s where the gameplay comes into, well, play.
On the surface, Gex is a basic side-scrolling adventure title where you enter a world and fight off baddies while looking for the exit and keys to unlock the next world. It’s nothing too ground breaking and it won’t set the world on fire with unique gameplay, but what’s here gets the job done and, for the most part, is enjoyable. I say for the most part as there are elements in this game that are a bit frustrating at times. But, before we get to the negatives, which are few here, I do want to praise this game a bit more. For starters, I love how each level you visit ties in with the theme of the world and how each level stands out from each other. For example, in Cartoon World? One level has you traversing upwards to the sky on various towers while the next has you using special doors to go from day time to night time in order to find the remotes. Yes, remotes. In order to unlock stages and new worlds, you need to find special remotes in each stage and this is another area I want to praise. Instead of every area having just a standard TV remote, the remotes are actually themed to the world they’re in and that was a cool little attention to detail I liked. The levels themselves are also fun to explore and are challenging in places, though I was not a fan of the auto-scroller level (thank goodness for that rewind feature) and the music is equal parts catchy and equal parts ear-wormy. One song in particular got stuck in my head for so long that I had to listen to Unskinny Bop by Poison, another annoyingly catchy song, just to get it out! Actually, that’s something else I should praise for the whole series: The music is all around catchy and, like I said, there are some tunes that are very ear-wormy.
Still, the game isn’t perfect. I think my biggest issue with the game are the controls. They’re not broken or bad in any way but, rather, just a tad bit slippery. Attacking enemies with Gex’s tail works and I like how you can crawl on just about every surface, including the background which I thought was neat. It’s just the base movement that feels slightly slippery. There were times where I thought I made it onto a ledge with no problems, only to see Gex slide off it and I had to hit rewind just to try it again. This did lead to a few unwarranted hits from the enemies and while there are power-ups you can collect to help you out, like being able to shoot electricity and fire balls, they only last until you get hit by an enemy. This really reared its ugly head during the boss fight in the jungle where you’re supposed to constantly climb upwards on increasingly tiny platforms. Speaking of the bosses, on a side note, while they are unique and do have some cool gimmicks, I never found them too fun to fight. There’s the aforementioned jungle boss - which, I have to give a few points for having a rather creepy face design - but there’s also a superhero boss that, embarrassingly, took me too long to figure out how to even damage him (Hint: Check the ceiling when he flies and time your tail swipes). I’ll also say that, sometimes, Gex’s climbing feels finicky. Like there were times where I wanted him to climb something and he just wouldn’t do it while, other times, he would climb something I didn’t want him to climb. It wasn’t enough to really hurt the game but it did make some sections a tad bit frustrating at times. Otherwise, those issues aside? For the beginnings of Gex’s journey, this is not a bad entry and I’m a bit sad I missed out on this back in the day as I think I would’ve enjoyed this as a young lad.
GEX: ENTER THE GECKO
Probably the game we all know and love him for, Gex: Enter The Gecko or Gex 2 is the follow-up to the original Gex. After the events of the first game, Gex has retired and is enjoying life doing what many people do anymore: Sit around and watch TV. Suddenly, while watching it one day, the screen goes blank and the visage of his arch-nemesis Rez appears, thus thrusting Gex back into the limelight to save the world once again. Unlike the first game which had a map layout similar to Super Mario World, here you are presented, to use Mario again, a Super Mario 64-esque hub called The Media Dimension to choose where you need to go. While there’s multiple levels to choose from, as you unlock them, there really is only six worlds you’ll visit altogether: ToonTV, Scream TV, Pre-History Channel, Circuit Central, Kung-Fu Theater, and Rocket Channel, with a few bonus levels set in their own unique zones and some boss fights. But, despite only six worlds? Each world stands out from each other and, whenever you visit a new rendition of said channel, it’s not just the same location as the last time you went but, rather, a newly crafted world. For instance, the first time you visit ToonTV, you’ll have an area inspired by the Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck short ‘Wabbit Season’. But, when you visit ToonTV via a new TV later on in the game? You’ll find a castle to visit and a boat ride to take. It’s minor changes but it’s still enough to make each world unique from each other. Same goes with the enemies as each world has their own share of unique enemies to fight. From pesky hunters in ToonTV to all types of horror cliches in ScreamTV to even ninjas in Kung-Fu Theater, there are a plethora of enemies to dispatch with Gex’s tail. Which brings me to a rather funny story I would like to tell (I did not intend for these two sentences to rhyme).
So, back when I was a kid, I remembered visiting a friend’s house and they had a PS1 with a bunch of games, as well as a demo disc which, oddly, I remember playing a lot more than the other games. On said disc was a demo of Gex: Enter The Gecko and, with it, a few levels: ToonTV, the Tiki Brothers boss fight, and ScreamTV. The latter is what I want to focus on because half-way through that level, you’ll enter a room with a floating red ghost around a lamp (which you can turn green by stepping into the light) and, no joke, this thing scared the heck out of me for some reason. I don’t know why it did but it scared me! Not to the point of screaming or crying, but just enough to make me freeze up and not want to continue. In fact, all variants of ScreamTV have this surprisingly creepy feel to them. From its unsettling music to the enemy selection (including two enemies you have to dismember to destroy) to the literal walls wanting to eat you, ScreamTV lives up to its name ten-fold. Although, something I did take notice of while replaying the game were the paintings in the ScreamTV levels, namely one specific one I saw. While they all are creepy in their own right and fitting the level’s theme, I’m wondering how they got permission to use box art from the first Hellraiser movie as there’s a painting in the game that is a straight up copy of Pinhead. That’s not to say the other channels aren’t well thought out. Aside from the aforementioned ToonTV, the Pre-History Channel has a nice dinosaur aesthetic to it, along with some nice sight gags and a surprising difficulty bump. Circuit Central is, essentially, Tron, complete with the Six-Million Dollar Man jumping sound when you get a power-up. Kung-Fu Theater is, pretty much, a stereotypical Kung-Fu inspired world, but I do like the designs and the music is surprisingly catchy. I think the only world I wasn’t a fan of was Rocket Channel, mostly due to the fact you need to keep an eye on your air supply and that the levels are filled with bottomless pits. Although, and this might just be me, but the design of the landscapes? For some reason, they remind me a lot of Buzz Blasts; a cereal from the early 2000’s that came out promoting Toy Story 2. Yeah, of all things to be reminded of, huh?
Now then, nostalgic cereal aside, how’s the actual gameplay? Well, unlike the first game, this one’s a full 3D action platformer with large-ish worlds to explore. The controls are tight and Gex is able to easily traverse the areas with ease, as well as climb up special walls and ceilings thanks to his sticky feet and hands. His tail-whip move is useful in dispatching the various goons you’ll face throughout the game, as well making for a handy double-jump to reach higher places. But it’s not just his tail he can use. Throughout the game, you’ll find miniature TVs with one of four types of flies just waiting to be eaten OR used as a spare hit point. Green ones grant you healing, purple gives you an extra life, Blue gives you ice powers which allows you to freeze your enemies and Red, to quote Gex, makes you the ‘god of hellfire’ and grants you the ability to light your enemies on fire. Both red and blue flies, once ingested, also makes you invulnerable to attacks for a short amount of time, making some areas easier to get through. Along with flies to find, each world has two types of remotes to collect; Red and White, with gold ones being exclusive to bonus levels. The red ones are your typical ones as they are linked to the level’s main objective. The White ones are linked to two special objectives in every world, with one being a Hidden one and the other being collected once you collect 120 items. What’s cool about the items is that, once you collect a certain amount, the items change in appearance and you earn an extra life for every certain amount you collect. For example, in ToonTV? You start off by collecting carrots then, once you get 30 of them, you’ll move onto empty cans and, once you get 40 of those, you move onto Detonators. With 50 of those collected, you’ll get both an extra life and the white remote. You can then continue collecting the last collectables until you finish a level for more lives. I actually really liked this idea and it gave incentive to collect everything. I also liked how the items actually fit the locations you visit, like ToonTV has toon-like items, ScreamTV has horror based, and Kung-Fu Theater has, well, Kung-Fu items. These remotes also act as keys to unlock new areas, with Red opening up the main areas, along with the Boss levels, and Silver opening the Bonus levels. These bonus levels are short collectathons in unique levels outside of the main six, each with their own soundtrack, with the Police level’s music being a straight parody of the theme to Cops. The four boss levels are fun, with the Tiki Brothers being a bit iconic to me as they were in the PS1 Demo and Mecharez giving me some nice flashbacks to the Wii game Godzilla: Unleashed. Well, I said ‘fun’, but the Mooshoo Pork fight was slightly annoying with how you have to get the timing right to activate the switch to fry the pig but, otherwise, these are fun bosses.
If I had to bring up any complaints, it would be the camera controls and what version of the game is included in this collection. Let’s address the latter first: This is not a port of the N64 version nor does this collection include it in any way. Rather, this is the PS1 original, which includes full voice acting, CGI cutscenes, and more risque voice lines. While I’m not disappointed with the lack of the N64 version as all we’re missing is one exclusive bonus level, it just would’ve been slightly nice to have been able to play it. I will give it points for including the European version of the game which mostly changes Gex’s voice from Dana Gould to the late Leslie Phillips, who sounds like they're going for a straight Sean Connery impersonation. Speaking of Dana, before we get to the camera controls, his voice acting is good here and his little quips are funny, though some did go over my head as a child and a few do get repeated here and there. I will say a few never made sense to me. Like, during the one Kung-Fu Theater level, he’ll randomly say ‘My name is Cain...I seek water.” I know all his quips and one-liners are references to TV and movies, but I have no idea what this one is referencing. Maybe it’s a nod to the show Kung-Fu with the late David Carradine playing a character with the name Caine? I don’t know, that one just stood out to me for some reason and I wanted to bring it up. Now, as for the camera controls, this is where the game does show its age slightly. The game includes three camera options and none of them really felt good. Manual Cam did help out in some areas but, most of the time, it felt like I had zero control over where the camera was placed and would hear a cartoon ‘cuckoo-cuckoo’ sound effect whenever I tried to move it. Semi-Auto did alleviate some of the issues but not by much. I will say that when in the worlds that have larger play-areas, the camera did perform better than when in the more confined areas, though, again, not by much.
GEX 3: DEEP COVER GECKO
Originally entitled ‘Gex 3: Revenge Of The Gecko’, this is the last of the Gex games and one I need to confess something about. Unlike the last game? I don’t have much in the way of past memories of this title. Yes, I remember playing it on the N64 a lot and I do recall some areas, but outside of that? My memories with this game are hazy, so I’m technically entering this one with a fresh mind. That being said, how is this game? Well, for starters, I should mention that, like Enter The Gecko, this is a port of the PS1 version. But, other than some slight censorship of a few levels, a new ending that replaces the PS1’s more infamous ending, and new version of the Mythology level, we aren’t missing out on much and, frankly, I do think this is one of those times it’s nice to have the better version of a game rather than the port. Still, it would’ve been nice to have the option to play it. As for Gex 3? I am surprised by how weirdly adult this one feels. Not just because of the infamous ads, but because of Gex’s new personality. He feels more like a lizard version of Austin Powers here than what he was in the last game. Yeah, he had some risque lines in that game, but nothing compared to this one. It’s still a Teen rated game, so you won’t be seeing anything that pushes it beyond that rating and he isn’t dropping one-liners to make Bruce Campbell and Duke Nukem nod in agreement, but it comes close! Like, in the Egyptian level, there were a few jokes that made me go “How’d that get OK’d?” But it ain’t nothing compared to the infamous ending as seen on the PS1 version, which might take the award for the most WTH (What The Heck) ending I’ve seen in games in a long time and I played Genesis Noir (which also had a wild ending). I won’t spoil it here - I know it’s an older game, but I still want to avoid spoilers - but, the basic gist of the plot is that Gex’s companion Agent Xtra, portrayed in live action and played by adult model Marliece Andrada, has been kidnapped by Rez and it’s up to Gex to rescue her. The fact that his companion is an adult model should be just enough of a hint to what to expect with the ending.
That ending aside, how’s the game itself? Well, I want to start off by saying that I didn’t have the best first impression with the game when I started. For starters, there aren’t unique items in worlds anymore but, rather, basic bug icons you can collect, with nabbing 100 giving you an extra life. You can also, now, collect Paw coins, which grabbing 25 of them gives you an extra hit alongside your main four health points, for a grand total of eight. New to the game are Bonus Coins which enable access to new Bonus levels you can play to get a secret code for usage in the new Vault, which can be opened once you collect the four Vault tokens from the new SecretTVs, located throughout the hub world. Of course, there are still the main level TVs you enter and these, of course, require remotes, though you only have one type of remote now, which are obtained from completing levels normally. While I am disappointed that you don’t have a plethora of items to collect, this is a nice change as it does cut back on the backtracking. Gex also has new moves to use, from swimming to straight-up spitting either fire or ice when ingesting either a fire or ice fly. Very useful stuff, though the swimming controls took a bit to get used to. He also now has new special abilities, depending on the costume he’s wearing. For example, as HercuGex, you now have super strength and can whip through stone with ease and push heavier objects. That’s something else I should praise about the game; unlike in Enter The Gecko where Gex would only don a different outfit in the bonus stages or select moments in the main stages? Here, Gex dons a new outfit for every stage he’s in, ranging from snow gear in the Christmas level to an Egyptian pharaoh's outfit in the Ancient Egypt level. I also like how there’s now vehicles to ride, like a tank, crocodile, and a camel, as well as two special characters hidden in stages: Cuz, Gex’s cousin, and Rex, Gex’s ancestor. Once you find and rescue them, you can play as them in the bonus stages, though all three characters share the same movesets, so the only real difference is the player model. It's a bit disappointing but it’s nice having the choice to be able to play as someone else. I also like how, instead of copying the previous game’s hub world and just adding some new stuff to it, this one is set within Gex’s home base: The GEXCave. It’s here where you unlock new areas with new levels to explore via the new Keys you find after defeating a boss and where you can enter a training room to get used to Gex’s controls, which I actually liked as I had forgotten he had a new glide kick move prior to this release. This is also where you get access to all the levels in their own unique mini-hubs and this I actually felt was kinda cool. Each mini-hub was nicely designed and reminded me a lot of Banjo-Tooie and its various hub designs.
But back to the main levels and my initial disappointment. Unlike the last game, here you are presented with eleven levels of unique worlds, which is something I have to give credit to the game for; Instead of revisiting the same levels for the whole game but with different layouts, you get eleven vastly different worlds to visit. There’s the aforementioned Christmas themed and Egyptian levels you visit, but you also visit a world inspired by Mystery shows, an anime influenced world, and a gangster themed world. There is variety here, I’ll give it that, and some levels do have some neat ideas, along with some freaky elements like the walls that want to eat you in the Egyptian level…you know, this just dawned on me: Why the heck are the walls so hungry for Gex? First in Enter The Gecko, now Gex 3? I get that he climbed all over them, but I didn’t think that would warrant a vore reaction from them! But, back on track, I felt like there was something missing from the first two levels that the previous game’s levels had. For how simple the first incarnations of ToonTV and ScreamTV were, they were at least memorable and they had unique elements that made them stand out from each other. Here? Yeah, the Christmas themed one has cool ideas, pun not intended, like an area where you snowboard down a mountain and the Egyptian level has unique layouts and some nice nods to Raiders Of The Lost Ark as well a some surprising one-liners and a nod to Caligula that I am surprised made it into the game. I just feel like these two just lack the memorability that Enter The Gecko had. Truth be told, I was all ready to call this a disappointment as I was beginning to fear the next levels would follow suit. At least, that was what I thought until I unlocked the third level. All of a sudden, my issues with the levels being less interesting and memorable than the previous games? That all went out the window. Suddenly, I was in actual unique worlds with interesting landscapes and the elements I loved from the previous game, minus the unique collectables.
The war level, for instance? It was essentially a parody of one of my favorite shows, Hogan's Heroes, complete with one liners referencing the show and the underground network of caves, along with being able to use a Gatling Gun, which was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in a Gex game. There was also a Tank you could control for an objective and blow everything up, though the controls were just slightly wonky there and it took a bit to complete the objective. Another level was this Pirate themed level and it actually had some neat ideas for level design, including spinning wheels to activate platforms, and it made good use of the glide kick move in sections. It also had the creepiest background art I’ve seen, almost looking post-apocalyptic at times. I even liked how Gex not only donned a pirate’s outfit, but actually had a hook and a peg leg! Again, I don’t know why it took two levels for the game to get, well, fun but once it did? My complaints about the levels being less memorable slowly vanished and I started having fun again! To bring up another level, the anime level had Gex looking like a miniature Gundam (in particular the MSZ-010 ZZ Gundam) and had the best level music of the whole series. Now, granted, there were still some levels that weren’t that fun to play through. Especially that darned Ancient Greece level which I swear it took me far too long to get past that floating section. But, it really wasn’t enough to hurt the game for me. But, does that mean I think Deep Cover Gecko is better than Gex: Enter The Gecko? Well, in some areas, it is. Like I said, the new hub is fun to explore and I do think the levels, after the Egyptian and Christmas levels, are a step up from the last game. But, in other areas, like the collectables and Gex’s personality, Enter The Gecko is still slightly better than Gex 3.
“A little tongue now, a lot of tail later!” - Gex
If you made it this far in the review, then I am impressed as I did not intend to write this much for this review. But, as someone who grew up with the last two games on N64 and was looking forward to this collection ever since it was announced back in 2023, I guess I have an excuse! I mean, I made it no secret that I love this collection. Yes, the games show their age greatly and Gex 3 is a mixed bag of feelings, but I still had fun playing them. Again, like the Bubsy collection they did, this collection brings me back to my youth, sitting on the couch and playing games without a care in the world. It even brings back memories of renting both games from Blockbusters back in the day and I’m pretty sure I just made many of you feel old now. I feel like if a game can back old memories of yore then it’s doing something amazing. While it’s a shame we’ll probably never see a new Gex game anytime soon, I’m just happy that LRG went out of their way to bring us this collection and fill it with tons of goodies and allow us to play these games on modern hardware. Plus, let’s be honest: I don’t think ANY game will be able to top Gex 3’s ending, no matter how hard they try.
