The Gex Trilogy Review - Fuhgeddaboutit
Though in the life of gaming, Gex was a flash in the pan, during the PS1 and N64 console generations, Gex was a low-key hit series. Starring Gex, an anthropomorphic, wise talking, pop culture-attuned gecko, three platformers, from the franchise’s initial 2D side-scrolling entry, titled Gex, to two Mario 64-inspired 3D platformers, Gex: Enter The Gecko, and Gex 3: Deep Cover Fecko that followed, were released, to moderate levels of critical acclaim. While a fourth entry, planned for the Gamecube and PS2 would ultimately get scrapped due to a perceived lack of want from the community, decades later the Gecko is back courtesy of Limited Run Games, and a Carbon Engine remaster. With all three games preserved the only question left to ask is simply, is The Gex Trilogy worth checking out in 2025, or is this an IP that should have been left left in its 25+ year old grave? In short, and in the words of Gex himself, Fuhgeddaboutit – unless you are the most hardcore of fans.
My memories of the Gex franchise began with 1998’s Enter The Gecko, so the original title was actually quite new to me. As a platformer even for that era, the game is fairly primitive, and didn’t do anything overly special for its time. We’re first introduced to Gex and his myriad of wisecracks as the player navigates 24 levels, distributed across 5 worlds that are all influenced be television and different genres. He finds himself in this situation because he eats a fly, which was in-fact a drone, controlled by the evil Rez, that pulls Gex into the ‘Media Dimension’. Your goal as Gex was to escape, but as I played, that’s all I wanted to do as well. The original Gex is pretty poor, even as a platformer for its time, and the voice-over work, inclusive of a very limited number of lines of dialogue, makes the game even more grating. Thankfully it’s a short, 4-5 hour adventure, so the pain will be over soon enough.
The sequel, 1998’s Gex: Enter The Gecko, is a huge upgrade over the original. Boasting 3D Graphics, and consequently, overhauled gameplay, Enter The Gecko was quite the surprise in 1998, and still a game that holds up quite well in 2025. Sure, there are certainly some lines of dialogue that have aged poorly, some that are flirting with the boundaries of racism, and sexism, while the game still suffers from the same issue of the original game of dropping those lines too often, but the gameplay itself is so much more enjoyable that it makes the whole exercise infinitely more enjoyable. Much like Super Mario 64, Gex will go to a level in the overworld, in this case, a TV set, leap in, and choose the level’s objective. You don’t have to commit to that one, any of the remote controls for the level can be obtained at any time, but the selection clarifies the objective somewhat, because the titles alone can be a bit vague. Gex can perform spin attacks, jump, double-jump, and use some ice and fire-based moves on his way to again taking down Rez once again. Gex: Enter The Gecko is the series’ peak in terms of quality, with clever level design, some surprising depth, and a few challenging objectives.
Then there is the third and final franchise entry, Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko. For a franchise that was, for its time, a little bit loose, Deep Cover Gecko takes things up a few notches. Gex has a love interest in the overly sexualised Agent Xtra, the game leans heavily into spy drama, and for a third time, Rez returns as the primary antagonist. Honestly, just like the prior games, it is all quite forgettable stuff, allowing the player to focus on the gameplay. Gex 3 is at its base level, the same playing experience as Enter The Gecko, a by-product of the third entry releasing just a year after the previous game – but it does a few things differently to stand out. Gex 3 adds a few mounts, from a Donkey, to a pair of skis. These, along with some clever costume changes in some of the more fantastical levels, give Gex 3 a nice point of difference relative to the other games, something that will undoubtedly be appreciated by the gamer who has played the three titles back-to-back-to-back. Though the novelty doesn’t hold up as well as it did for Enter The Gecko, Gex 3 is still a solid N64/PS1 title, that is well worth revisiting.
The Gex Trilogy bundles up a trio of middling to good platformers together and places them on modern platforms, with the perk of playing them with modern features like rewind, screen ratio adjustments and more. For fans of the games in their day, there’s some nostalgic fun to be found here, but if you’re new to the IP and are considering picking them up, well, in the immortal (and well-worn) words of Gex himself – Fuhgeddaboutit
The Gex Trilogy was reviewed on PS5 with a code kindly provided by Overload PR
