Gex Trilogy Review - Screenshot 1 of 7
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

Note. Gex Trilogy isn't playable on Switch 2 via backwards compatibility at the time of writing, although a patch has been submitted to Nintendo for review, according to Limited Run. We'll update this note when we hear more.

Dimitris Giannakis’s Carbon Engine is back on behalf of Limited Run Games, and, despite some previously reported bugs, it fairly accurately brings vintage games to new hardware.

Speaking of bugs, Gex the gecko thrives on them. That and gnarly '90s flair. Combining all three titles released on Sony’s original PlayStation, Gex Trilogy is a slice of a very colourful era, when Jackass was king, Beavis and Butthead were generational voices, britpop ruled the airwaves, and it seemed like people would do anything to get on TV. And, as it happens, TV is the theme when it comes to Gex, because, you know, like, everyone was watching TV in the '90s, man.

Gex Trilogy Review - Screenshot 2 of 7
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

While the initial Gex was released for the 3DO in 1995, a pack-in system seller that often went hand-in-hand with the console’s marketing, it was on the PlayStation that Crystal Dynamics’ series found a groove. And, since this trilogy reworks the games into a widescreen format, the PlayStation version is the more practical choice.

Gex is a gecko chilling in his Maui mansion when, while looking for a good show on the tube, his telescopic tongue whips a roaming fly down his gullet. This fly is actually a miniature robotic spy sent by Rez, king of the Media Dimension, that sucks Gex into his TV set. Gex then needs to work his way through a hub world, entering themed zones and stages, to recover remote controls that allow him to enter subsequent stages and ultimately return home. It’s wacky, and that’s largely the idea.

A 2D side-scrolling platformer, the first Gex is mostly ok. Its primary novelty is that you can scale walls as a gecko can, and this allows you to navigate stages in an alternative manner, often leading to bonus warps and those elusive TV remotes.

Gex Trilogy Review - Screenshot 3 of 7
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

Gex can swat enemies with his tail and use his tongue to lap up various power-ups, affording him different temporary properties or health increases. It’s neither aged considerably well nor poorly, but the patience of the gamer base may have moved on.

The graphics have a real pre-rendered multimedia 3DO smack, that, on the plus side, retroactively suit the game and its '90s-ness well, but are also kind of ugly in places. It gets more interesting in locales like Sumo City, which frankly looks and sounds totally like China but with Sumo enemies; and elsewhere you get to do stuff that breaks the mould like riding rockets and jungle swings.

The controls are a tad stiff and that makes certain clinches, especially boss battles, frustrating at times. There are points where you’re forced to make jumps into the unknown that could drown you (odd for a gecko), land you on a bed of spikes or down a bottomless pit. But the main test of patience is being forced to find those remotes.

Gex Trilogy Review - Screenshot 4 of 7
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

Stages are non-linear and searching is required. Get killed and it’s back to the start or a checkpoint, meaning there’s some backtracking to be done, and you spend a lot of time searching and revisiting stages. Mario World, and much of its ilk, also had special coin collecting, but it was optional. Here, you won’t be able to access new stages until you’ve recovered enough remotes to do so, keeping you from progression. It can be frustrating, but if you're steeled for the fairly lengthy journey, there’s some enjoyment to be had.

Gex 2: Enter the Gecko (1998) goes full 3D, with the camera now forgivingly assigned to the second thumb stick as opposed to just the shoulder buttons. Again, Gex is whipped into the Media Dimension to defeat Rez, but here it’s all gloriously polygonal. And it holds up fairly well, considering, with stages that offer more engagement than its predecessor. Again, you need to find remotes to progress and expand the hub world, and now there are even more objects to collect, including gold remotes that can net you a special ending.

Gex 2 is a lot more interactive and the stage design is pretty clever in places, allowing you to spring from your tail to reach higher points. The vertical crawling is here, but it isn’t used as a main structural device as it was in the original, with only certain walls being climbable.

Gex Trilogy Review - Screenshot 5 of 7
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

On the whole, it’s a solid evolution for the series, and although the early PS1 3D can be visually confusing at times and difficult to control, it can be fun if you apply yourself to its fetch tasks and inherently wacky nature. For those who aren’t so into searching down numerous items, however, it can feel a bit of a slog by the halfway point.

The third and final game, Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko (1999), capped the series after plans for a PlayStation 2 sequel were abandoned. It’s a big technological step up from the previous entry despite only appearing a year later, and incorporates many of Crystal Dynamic's previously unrealised ideas.

Gex starts here in a Wayne Manor-like hub world, with a tortoise butler. Seeing his love interest Agent Xtra (Playmate of the month and Baywatch's Marliece Andrada) kidnapped by Rez, Gex finds himself back in the wacky media land of TV, where the camera is much improved and the scale is altogether broader. Stages are more open and freeform, encompassing tons of interactive objects, swimming, and platforms that work around weight and inertia.

Gex Trilogy Review - Screenshot 6 of 7
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

Your tail whipping action, too, is complemented by costume changes and power-ups that transform you into Egyptian Pharoes and mecha robots. Traversing the playfields is varied, incorporating snowboarding, giant enemies, and a fair few layout puzzles to solve. The music remains great, and the whole thing feels smoother and more accomplished. Objectively and not sentimentally, it’s the superior of the three.

While the control and visual improvements are welcome, as are all the little bonuses like art galleries, music players, rewind and save functions, the main appeal with Gex Trilogy is just how '90s it is. In some ways, this makes it more enjoyable to return to than it would be if it wasn’t so undeniably a product of its time. Dana Gould, who appears in interviews in the bonus features, is an American comedian who voiced the intrepid Gecko. He did a great job of stuffing the game full of one-liners that now recall the exuberant decade and its all-pervasive, kid-appealing, gross-out edginess.

Gex Trilogy Review - Screenshot 7 of 7
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

One major downside is that this trilogy doesn’t offer alternate soundtracks, since Gould was actually replaced by different comics in the PAL market, including Leslie Phillips and Red Dwarf’s Danny John-Jules for the third game. It would have been nice to have had the regional options in this respect (note: Limited Run Games has since confirmed that the PAL versions, including the voices of both Phillips and John-Jules, will be added in an upcoming patch). And, since the original games had a single file that contained each region's audio files — meaning it's easily flipped between — we're not sure why the accuracy of the Carbon Engine didn't rise to the occasion.

Conclusion

Gex Trilogy is a happy throwback. The first game is a little clunky and occasionally laborious, but its sequels do better in their 3D expansion of its themes and idea. The main point of appeal is its connection to the period in which they were made. It’s full of comic quirks, zinging dialogue, and visual gags that scream MTV Generation. Across all three entries, the media hook and its tropes — from horror to Christmas to 1930s prohibition gangsters — work well to keep things fresh, fun and engaging.

That said, while there's a simplicity to the games themselves, the yesteryear technology and the sensibilities of many gamers may have moved on, making their baked-in fetch quests trying at times. Gex Trilogy’s value is bumped up by its invention and still very playable design aspects, but whether or not you can pit yourself through them really comes down to how much your nostalgic mileage varies, dude.