A reader welcomes the return of PS1 platformer Gex and reminiscences over both a childhood favourite and an era when video games weren’t so demanding.
This week, a game trilogy has been re-released which is very dear to me but seemingly very few people have even heard of: Gex – where a gecko is tasked with saving television from the evil robot Rez.
This is good news, even if you don’t know or care about Gex. Games are notoriously difficult to preserve. Playing old games today, without the hardware they originally ran on, can be a mission that quickly enters a legal grey area. Therefore, I am immensely grateful for companies like Limited Run Games giving some of these old games a new lease of life. Although it feels like only a minimum effort went into this one – note how I call it a re-release and not a remaster or remake.
The Switch version, in its current state, looks especially awful. At least they added some quality of life features, like being able to manually save whenever you want to, which can take the frustration out of some of the more challenging levels.
Gex was originally created by Crystal Dynamics, who took over the Tomb Raider franchise after Angel Of Darkness. Speaking of which, did you know that until the 2013 reboot, Lara’s model was measured in Gexels? This is because the Tomb Raider games were made on a modified engine based on the one developed for Gex 3D: Enter The Gecko, which was heavily inspired by Super Mario 64 and in my opinion definitely doesn’t have to stand in that game’s shadow.
This is the game I played religiously as a child. I loved the tail-whipping gecko from the first moment I laid eyes on him, on my neighbour’s PlayStation, and eventually got the game for PC. Once I also got the graphics card necessary to actually play it, I spent every minute of my allotted hour of computer time in the media dimension, where Gex hops into the different levels, which are pastiches of television genres and movies.
These range from haunted house horror to Looney Toons, kung fu movies, Star Wars, and many more. They are full of fun nods to their inspirations and Gex usually dresses for the occasion, be that fighting hunters as a bunny during ‘Wabbit’ season or wearing a hide and a bone although his nose in the Jurassic levels.
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The animations and sound design made it so much fun to double jump around on Gex’s spring-shaped tail, accompanied by a characteristic ‘boioinnng!’ And if you happened to land on some unfortunate enemy’s head, they got flattened. Similarly, when jumping into a wall, Gex might hit his head and fall flat on his back with a splat, after which stars circle over his head, together with an ‘oooww’ sound. I’m definitely guilty of giving the poor gecko a few headaches.
The game also rewarded my urge to explore and while I failed a timed Indiana Jones style level a lot, because I spent my time marvelling at the snakeheads and skulls adorning the temple walls, imagine my elation when I discovered, in a horror level, that some bookshelves would turn when walking against them, revealing a lever that opened a new part of the level!
Of course. I also hunted down all the collectibles to earn all the TV remotes. With enough remotes you would unlock new levels and bosses and one of these has been living rent free in my head for over 20 years now: Gexzilla battling it out with Mecharez – complete with tanks and helicopters trying to defend the city that is getting destroyed in the process – epic!
The only thing that doesn’t quite hit home for me is Gex’s actual personality, especially when it comes to the voice lines, which trigger all the time. While the sound effects and animations are quite endearing, the comedian Dana Gould’s quips are old-fashioned and feel weird to hear out of a gecko’s mouth.
(It seems you were playing the US version. In the UK, Gex was originally voiced by Leslie Philips and then later Danny John-Jules. Their voices weren’t in the initial re-release but are being added via a patch – GC)
And then there is the fact that a Gecko has implied relations with a human woman… ick. I guess it is a product of its time, much like the older James Bond films which inspired his personality, but I do have to give its makers credit for trying something different than ‘Mamma mia.’
I love revisiting Gex because it reminds me of simpler days. Life is busier now and I rarely find the time or motivation anymore, to fully explore and complete today’s often vast and complex games. Older games making a comeback shows us that there is a case for more simplicity. Being able to finish a game without it taking dozens of hours and eating up all your spare time is such a relief.
By reader Peter Schmid
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