Remember Gex? No? Well, don’t feel ashamed. This short-lived mascot was created in the 90’s by Crystal Dynamics, more known nowadays for their recent Tomb Raider games, and it’s definitely a product of their time with the crass humor, weird style and unique TV-inspired concept. But how did this trilogy of games age, and is a can a remaster in 2025 make there titles great platformer experiences in 2025? Let’s find out in the Xbox Series X review of Gex Trilogy!
Practice safe Gex
Like many platformer mascots of the 90’s, Gex is an anthropomorphic animal – a green gecko, case in point. The first game of this trilogy explains pretty much the entire plot in its opening cutscene – one that’s unfortunately still as choppy as blurry as ever, as it’s not really been improved for this remaster. Our hero is a cocky, somewhat foul mouthed hero obsessed with TV, and this ends up being his downfall, as titular bad guy Rez finds a way to drag him into the TV programs he so loves, forcing him to fight his way out various TV programs and genres. A simple premise to deliver a lot of unique 2D platformer situations, isn’t it?
Throughout a cemetery, a cartoon world, a martial arts area and more, the player has to navigate side-scrolling levels not too dissimilar from the verticality seen in a Sonic or Jazz Jackrabbit game, albeit at a much lower speed and with the camera fairly zoomed in. It is Gex’s moveset that rather stands out, however. On top of being able to attack by snapping his tail, a move that can also be used to bounce projectiles towards enemies, he can collect bugs and interact with certain things using his tongue, but also crawl on any wall or surface – vertical, horizontal, or upside down it may be. This makes for unique situations created by these traversal options, though since the player does all this with the same button, doing the wrong thing accidentally is not an uncommon occurrence.
Are you not entertained?
The level designs are quite chaotic, featuring a lot of enemies, traps, interconnected paths, hidden portals and more, encouraging exploration and experimentation, though some stages can be a bit frustrating in their architectural complexity, with no minimap or anything to consult for a help either. The game does have a quite unique and recognizeable artstyle however, which really feels like a licensed videogame of a 90’s raunchy kids show by Nickelodeon – think Rocko’s Modern Life, for reference.
The game’s edgy visuals are nicely accompanied by the talented voice acting of comedian Dana Gould, alternating generic cocky quips that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Duke Nukem game (sans the swearing), with even various pop culture and TV references of the time. Obviously, these can be rather outdated or hard to understand – I mean, go explain the joke “This place is weirder than Rick James’ place on the 4th of July” to a Gen Z! But it this very crude humor that carries the game, even when the platforming isn’t all that stellar, and it’s no wonder that the game’s sequels further played into this writing style. And well, what did other late 90’s 2D platformers move towards? That’s right: 3D.
Enter The Matr-, err, Gecko
In 1998, Crystal Dynamics produced a sequel to Gex, subtitled Enter The Gecko. With the popularity of Super Mario 3D, Crash Bandicoot and so forth, the jump to 3D was the natural step forward. And Gex’s peculiar moveset and crass humor have all been greatly transported into the third dimension, making this sequel feel like a proper sequel to Gex, despite the completely different platformer subgenre. It has to be said, however, that as a 3D platformer it is a good bunch outdated even by 1998 standards. A clunky camera that has to be turned via buttons, various surprisingly low poly assets, plenty of graphical glitches that were left untouched even for this remaster. It’s not as disastrous as Bubsy 3D, but there’s also plenty of good reasons the second Gex is not quite as popular as Super Mario 64 or any of the original Crash Bandicoot games.
The third and last Gex game Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko, is a bigger and better sequel that brought various technical improvements, new gameplay scenarios, some new moves and more for Gex. Even the game’s absurd humor and narrative has been upped a notch, with Gex being a superspy – a James Bond parody, of sorts, with his sidekick being kidnapped. This is no other than former Playboy model Marliece Andrada – the kind of cultural crossover you’d expect from a crass 90’s platformer. All in all, this third Gex is notably more modern and complete than the second installment, though various clunky aspects and questionable technical elements remain.
Lock and load, little lizard!
So how do these remasters improve upon these forgotten platformers? In terms of the games themselves, not a lot. There’s a handful of visual filters and border styles for the first game, on top of a slightly more modern control method, but that’s about it. The 3D sequels feature a wide screen mode, other than their original 4:3 ratio, but aside from an improved resolution it’s hard to notice many improvements. As mentioned, even various glitchy textures and such have stayed unaltered – they may feel nostalgic relixs of the era, but perhaps the unintended stuff could have been fixed. Sure there’s save states and a new overlay menu, but that’s about it. What truly shines in Gex Trilogy is the impressive amount of original Gex material – original TV ads, artworks, beta content, all the way down to exclusive interviews and more. It’s a world of Gex, and as someone who has spent plenty of hours on the original game back in the day, it was a cool trip down memory lane for sure.
This trilogy of somewhat forgotten 90’s platformers are certainly a bit hit and miss – outdated but still often effective humor, a unique but often somewhat clunky gameplay, with even some unexpected narratives and lots of voiceovers and cameos to boot. Given that these games haven’t been properly ported to new systems before, it’s brilliant to see them live once again, but this remaster doesn’t really fix or improve much, with the value added being mainly the impressive depth of original artworks, ad materials, interviews and more. The Gex platformers may have never been timeless masterpieces, but they’re a cool piece of gaming history from a now long gone era of raunchy mascots. A cool time capsule, for sure.
Gex Trilogy
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- 3 quite unique platformers
- The humor still has its moments
- A lot of relics from the era like ads and artworks
CONS
- The 3D games in particular haven't aged all that gracefully
- Minimal improvements in the remastering process
