I ended up missing any inspiration during the window of time I had to work on and publish and article around April Fools day or Easter. Of course I'm never committed to doing holiday specials (co-op for V-day, or horror games for halloween simply don't work for my style of gaming), but April is full of holidays where I feel games can be brought into the situation. One's about laughter, comedy, and tricks, and the other is about resurrection and spring, both of which could be loosely translated into something gamey. However simply missing those days isn't going to stop me from one subject I had in mind... lets talk about Gex for a bit. Its a series that I tend to ignore a good bit, yet one that actually meant something to my very early days of gaming. Whenever I felt like the Spyro magic dried up, and before I had access to M64 or banjo & kazooie, there was a 3D platformer on the Nintendo 64 I loved to turn to called Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko. Then there were also just some bored weekends or summer days when I was scrambling for something to play, and might also pop-in the very original Gex on the PlayStation. Its both one of the more comical game franchises out there, and yet a lost series that might potentially be seeing a fresh return in the upcoming years, so I figured it was a good subject to talk about it before the month is over. Oh plus I was also playing the first 3D gex on my Vita on Easter day, so there's that to.
Origins of a smart alack
The franchise started out as a 2D platformer with an attitude meant to star on the 3DO consoles. He was praised as essentially the Mario/Sonic of 3DO by one critic, but we all know how that kind of went. 3DO Sunk and the good games on it moved on to other platforms. Gex was put onto PlayStation, PC, and the Saturn. If you wanted to, you could buy up-to-date versions of the Playstation and PC formats on their respected platforms (through GOG on PC), though be warned they probably still run off a dumb password save system. Gex lived beyond 3DO on other platformers and gained a cult following. However I really do want to know what it would have been like if Gex actually lived on as a major mascot. Comercial ideas, spin-offs, and a long line of sequels spin in my head at that thought, or maybe it would just wind up like Sonic and burn in a constantly arguing and frustrated fanbase as normal people mock every release. Getting back to reality though....jpg) |
| Original case, back when K-A was still a thing |
The thing that made Gex standout was two-fold: He had a pop-culture television theme, and his platforming made use of his character through wall climbing. He wasn't just another guy trying to be sonic like some seem to remember him as, he was actually trying to appeal to TV fanatics and the kind of people that love spewing one-liner quotes (written and voiced by comedian Dana Gould). That's not exactly aiming high of course, but it was something that gave him just enough attention to be where he is today as a cult classic that pops up from time to time with some fond nostalgia from the.... 100 or so fans that see the article. Personally I really loved this character as a kid. A lot of his humor flew over my head, and I was terrible at playing the game, but the acting and style of it just made me laugh regardless. He was also weirdly relatable considering at the time I sort of yelled out quotes from my own favorite shows or actors. Looking back... some of his jokes still go over my head (because that's just the way pop-culture works, its either in the know or not), but I get more of where his smart aleck, sarcastic quips, and style comes from and I kind of appreciate some of it more. Of course a couple things fall flat now that I'm able to seperate good comedians and humor from jokes that simply reference something and refuse to do much else, so naturally a pop-culture fueled guy has his hit and miss moments. I also kind of miss being that guy that shouts quotes at the game myself. That doesn't sound like a good trait on paper, but its far more enthusiastic, "fun", and lively than silently sitting and playing. Gex kind of makes me envy my former self in that weird kind of way, and I wonder if I'm getting old and less energetic already, or just more serious.
Gex didn't have a ton of other qualities than this. He was a platformer that for gameplay did gecko things like eat fly power ups and climb walls, and did Television theme stuff for aesthetics and humor. Its not a lot, but it was pretty fun. Actually I might go out on a limb here and say that after Donkey Kong Country it might be my personal favorite 2D platformer. Of course that's not a glowing recommendation, I'm not much of a 2D platformer guy so its probably the gimmicky feeling of it that appeals more than any super special design choices, balance, and whatnot. Of course though for the $6 you can get it now, its certainly worth a shot for those interested.
3D TV
Nah we're not talking about those weird multi-colored 3D glasses, but rather Gex's introduction to the 3D platformer space. I suppose we could say he ripped off somebody here, flying on the Mario 64 bandwagon of going 3D collect-o-thon mode. Now to be clear I actually skipped out on the very first entry for most of my life, while the 3rd game in the series was actually the biggest childhood memory of the series. Unlike the 2D gex, or the game I didn't get until this year, Gex 3 Deep Cover Gecko holds memories of an adventure. Jumping on a row boat through the hub world and crusing around with the help of a turtle friend. Running through the snow covered christmas land to fight an evil santa. Running around a mansion in a Sherlock Holmes costume while dodging cartoony bullets that had a mind of their own. Discovering a vampire costume power up. Blowing up a city (made of suspiciously repeating brick textures) in a tank. I could go on and on, and I'm just starting. Gex 3 held a ridiculous amount of levels, big open hub world environments, a great number of themes, and some really strange but interesting obstacles and power-ups. The weird thing I cannot tell you is whether or not it holds up, because I haven't had my Nintendo 64 plugged up and running for a good while, and I haven't bought it digitally yet either. Its been at the very least 5 years since I've played it, but its probably more like a good 8 years or so. If its anything like Enter the Gecko, it might actually disappoint me a bit.
Gex 2 as I'll call it for simplicity, was the first step to going 3D. Gex got a secondary voice actor in the form of Leslie Phillips for the british version, but Dana Gould would return for everyone else (and personally speaking I'm glad Dana was the version I was stuck with, Leslie really just sounded too slow for the character). He still cracked lots of jokes, but this time the platformer was entirely changed up. Instead of climbing walls, and worrying about the limited space, different textures, and fighting secrets, you had things M64'd up. You were now worrying about basic 3D platforming, fighting a camera, more creative enemy designs, and a different change up of secrets. There were still climbable walls, but it was practically a limited contextual design you sometimes found rather than a major part of the core platforming. You had to collect remotes to pass and open up certain areas in a hub world that is honestly pretty much the most boring thing I might have ever seen from a platformer of this era. The 3D platforming gave levels a more opening feeling and some added and used this to great effect while others might as well have been 2D levels. Some like the toon channel, and the limited view of the horror channel, made for an amazing effect with the 3D level design and seemed to fully embrace an interesting world. Meanwhile the kong-fu channel, and technology world use so many repeating textures and tight spaces that they were only good in 3D by mechanical design. Going to this game after the 3rd, I can see many places in which the franchise improved from its first 3D release.
The 3rd game gave the series more creative level pieces. It handled bonuses, and mini-games a lot better. For the first time levels were not only unique and well built, but stood out from each other and covered a wider variety of themes. Instead of having 3 horror levels as one of six themes, you had one good one to go alongside 20+ different themes and levels, each replayable for secret remotes and side objectives.
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| from the 3rd game |
This is where Gex was probably at his height ironically. It wasn't the thing meant to sell consoles that worked, but rather a full blown trend riding leap onto another format where Gex found some following (and what gets references most, I'm sure some people never even knew a 2D gex existed because of how often Enter the Gecko is presented as the big debut). Sadly its also where he seemed to have died. For whatever reason Gex just hasn't been revisited beyond his 2nd 3D game. Crystal Dynamics was goofing around with some other platformers, Legacy of Kain, and then ended up becoming the go-to team for Tomb Raider stuff somewhere down the line. Sadly with the massive change in tone in the industry to be taken more "seriously" and go with ridiculous budgets, it seems Crystal has embraced that style full on and will probably not touch Gex anytime soon as they focus on Tomb Raider's pretentiously edgy (although still fun, don't get me wrong here) reboot series. So with that in mind and a hiatus that is closing in on a two decade period, will gex get a new season or is he stuck on re-runs?
How a revival might work...
Well the thing is time doesn't hold still and technology certainly doesn't. Gex could use this to a pretty interesting advantage. If he keeps a television theme, as he should, he could not only update himself with the current trends but also the decline or competition of television. Back when Gex was around the internet was barely even a thing, and "Satelight" TV from people like Direct TV and Comcast was still a developing piece of the landscape. Now not only are they being pushed back by youtube, netflix, or just general hobbies like the rise in popularity of gaming itself, but even channels are actively moving into less TV-like routes with things like HBO go happening. The entire industry is changed if not at risk to the point of scaring companies into doing some stupid crap to try and hold onto their once glorious entertainment empire. TV isn't just something you could reference, its something that is actively changing and may not even exist as we know it in the foreseeable future. Besides if nothing else, just look at Lord of The Rings. That supposedly changed TV and culture to be accepting and loving of fantasy on the whole, and that's just outside of Gex's timeline. When you think about it, did Gex ever even bother with fantasy beyond some greek myth themed level?Gex could go about this in his normal way of referencing Television and just updating his folder of references (Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Super hero stuff, Walking dead, stream service related jokes, etc), or he could actually go on an adventure to save or progress the cycle of tech that may or may not be happening. The villainous Rez, leader of the TV dimension, could be ruining Gex's subscription plan to [Insert netflix spoof here] and he needs to go stop him. Or maybe Rez is running netflix and Gex wants to stop him from crushing the Television he knew and loved. Heck if you really want to get meta, maybe Gex doesn't even represent TV on the whole anymore. He might actually stand for video games, has become addicted to MMOs, and suddenly find cable company lobby groups attempting to ruin his medium and decides to save gaming and fight TV with a mixture of references to both mediums. I... actually really love that last idea. It'd also show Gex to be a more flexible guy, instead of just being a TV addict he turns out to be kind of a general geek that gets easily absorbed into any passion, and can go beyond a previously assigned theme without being too lose. Besides, Television, gaming, and comics are all fairly close in some way or another. What's to say he can't be a comic style hero and complain the TV show "ruined" the plot? Or that he's playing a level clearly inspired by a specific movie and mock how bad licensed games usually are? If nothing else it would just be great to see his taste in parody and humor stick around games just as much as it does TV. Of course maybe I'm saying that with a slant, being that weirdo that never keeps up with popular shows.
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| Plot twist: He's geico gecko's half brother! |
Gameplay-wise... well I'm not afraid to apply "if it ain't broke, don't fix" logic here. I love 3D collect-o-thon platformers, and I'd love to see Gex return to that format. They can change some stuff up, sure. You can fix the camera by this point in time for a start. I'd also like to think it'd be great if more walls were climbable, or it wasn't even contextual anymore (which would be difficult to pull off I admit). Whatever you do, just make sure he can still jump and don't pull another auto-jump crap like a certain other game did. However for the most part it'd be great if Gex was just an updated 3D platformer. Better cameras, controls, graphics, and a modern theme for the cultured lizard. What else would you rather do? Its either that, or throw him into the over-saturated (by indies admittedly, but still over-saturated) 2D market with less fleshed out themes. I really can't see him going well into anything else. Open world is a demanding budget, shooter simply don't fit, sports and strategy don't make any sense, and an RPG is.... well why would you turn him into an RPG? He was born and well fitted for a platformer format and that's probably the best place to go. The only major change you could probably commit to is if the style of 3D platformer changed, like how it did for the PS2 generation where it became more about a linear adventure than a collect-o-thon style. That could maybe work with Gex, but I of course have my bias towards the same style that held Spyro and Mario 64.
However if you hadn't heard the news I just sound like a blind hopeful guy poking at the sky for a wish. Thing is though Gex actually does stand a better chance of returning in the upcoming 2-6 years than he has in the past couple of years. Square Enix, holders of the property, have announced a desire for teams to get behind some of their older IPs with one of the headline examples being Gex. The bad news is this bit...
“If the response is good, then it’s into crowdfunding, which no doubt begs an important question: Why ask gamers to pay for a game to be made if it’s using our IP? Well, because it will still be the responsibility of the independent developer to build the game – and the developer will still be the key beneficiary of its success.”However this is still generally good news. Remember when I said the 2D market was flooded by indies as a bad thing? Yeah well chances are this will be very much like an indie-ish game, so my hope is that a solid team can still get in there and crowd fund a 3D platformer to break the mold. Its not exactly new, some potential 3D platformer types are being worked on from crowd funding, but I do have a slight concern that they'll go the budget route and do a 2D gex. Of course I don't want to sound ungrateful, a 2D Gex would be better than nothing. This also makes me wonder if they'll be able to reach out to the right voice actor, or simply need to find a replacement. It all comes down to whether or not they can get the fund, support, and right ideas to line up and bring back this gecko.
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| Mostly the money |
Gex wiki article
The sequel
Gex 3 article
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