When I was a kid, I used to get most of my gaming from playing at department store kiosks. This is a reason I may not qualify for a true retro gamer, though this was really beyond my control. My parents probably saw video games as a distraction… though they were probably right. However, that didn’t exactly stop me from developing found memories of the games I played, especially Sonic & Knuckles and Yoshi’s Island.
Gex was one of those games that I played briefly but also remember fondly. It was on a display for the 3DO, a system that was fairly short-lived despite the boasting they did. I remember them having a commercial taking pot-shots at both Sega and Nintendo, which I, being a bit of a Nintendo fanboy back then, didn’t take too kindly to. Despite this, I still gave the game a shot. Hey, sometimes you have to just take what you’re given.
Gex was your standard mascot platformer, with the player controlling a bipedal gecko through worlds based on various movie themes. The whole story was one big Trapped in TV Land plot, with the Gex having been pulled against his will into this world by the cybernetic Rez, who is looking for a mascot for his network of Z-movies and bad TV shows. The controls allowed the player to climb on the walls, including most background ones, as well as the ceiling, use Gex’s tail as a whip or pogo, and made use of the famous gecko tongue for collecting power-ups.
The game art was impressive for the time. Gex looked like he was either done via stop-motion animation or pre-rendered like Donkey Kong Country, while most of the other graphics where done in the standard style, which is fitting considering the story. Most of the stage graphics really fit the atmosphere, from the dreary Cemetery stages to the vibrant Toon stages.
I think the main draw of Gex were the one-liners. Comedian Dana Gould provides the voice to the literal lounge lizard, making references to TV series, movies, and celebrities that were popular or iconic at the time. While these quips can be entertaining and usually fitting for the situation, they can also get really annoying when they get repeated a lot, a flaw I think a lot of early games with voice acting (and poorly-made games today) tend to have had.
Gex is one of those games that’s something of a guilty pleasure to me. I honestly wouldn’t call it a classic as there are on lot of much better games out there. However, it’s not bad either. It’s perfectly playable with the only flaws being that it probably doesn’t bring another really unique to the table besides it’s quirky, pop-culture spewing protagonist, something which a lot of games have done since except perhaps better. Honestly, I think it could count as a cult classic from the 90’s.
Gex should be seeing a return with the upcoming Gex Trilogy, a collection of the first game as well as it’s Super Mario 64–like sequels. It was supposed to have had a 2024 release, but this was obviously changed as the year has come and gone. No release date has been announced as of this publication.
CaptObvious42 is otherwise the very definition of a nerd. He’s a fan of many things considered retro, with his biggest obsessions being science fiction series both known and obscure, detective shows mostly out of the 80’s and 90’s, video games mostly from the Genesis/SNES years, and dinosaurs.