It's SUPER MARIO 64, but about two-thirds worse in every single aspect, and instead of saying "wahoo" and "yippee", your guy does Austin Powers lines.

It boring to talk about the voice over in this game because that's all anyone does, but it is also truly the only notable thing about it, so! Dana Gould seems like a smart and talented guy, and there is, of course, a perfectly serviceable in-universe reason for Gex the boob tube burnout to only speak in movie quotes, but unfortunately that doesn't mean it's not annoying. That character choice and the style of game put this high in the running for Most Dated Game Ever. And if it were a better play, it could be forgiven. But it's not, so it isn't.

Rumor has it, if you try to talk to Dana Gould about Gex he'll put the Gex Hex on you and you'll wake up in the TV world, condemned to an eternity of making shitty pop culture quips. "That's for 12 years of Full House!" you'll shout as you jump weightlessly between platforms, collecting remotes that you hope will grant you freedom from this hell. Unfortunately, the lousy camera in Frankensteinfeld's castle causes you to fall into a pit for the third time, "File this under 'ouch'!"

Enter the Gecko is a "meme game," something it owes entirely to Gex's obnoxious quips. There is no singular element otherwise that is worth remembering. The platforming doesn't feel great, the camera is bad, Gex's movements feel awful, but they're also not bad in a way that is remarkable or especially egregious when compared to the countless other 3D platformers of the late 1990s. There is nothing special about it, other than the fact you get to hear Dana Gould belt out lines like "I'm flaming--in the manly way..." and "Terminator? Phone call for a Mr. Terminator."

It's a bit of a shame too, because the original Gex was a pretty decent 2D platformer, but by 1998 those kinds of games just didn't sell like they used to, the third dimension was in. It is a bit funny too how overly complicated Gex's character model is. It uses a skeletal system with "more bones than a real gecko," and all this to make the character exist in the most bland 3D platformer imaginable, but it does at least make it more immersive when Gex offers up one of his many hysterical one-liners, like "If I had a life, I'd be glad to get back to it!"

I was convinced to add Enter the Gecko and its sequel Deep Cover Gecko as bucket list replacements for Tomb Raider II and III, because there was just no damn way I was playing more of that. If there's one nice thing I can say about both of these games it's that I think I made the right choice in caving to peer pressure.

Obviously never reaches the creative or technological highs of Super Mario 64, but it's a pretty nifty clone with good graphics for the system and tight controls - not including the initially novel but ultimately infuriating camera that will send you to your untimely doom more times than one. And just in case you misinterpreted that, I didn't mean that it's just a janky camera system that might get you killed - no, it absolutely will get you killed from time to time and that's just a fact one must live with when picking this game up. I think most of its major problems for me can be tied directly to that, otherwise though this is pretty swift and occasionally funny with its incessant barrage of dated but sturdy pop culture references ("In a land before time, when Saturday Night Live was funny..." aged like a fine wine, along with plenty of others - the Austin Powers impressions grate, though). Samurai Night Fever, This Old Cave, and Honey I Shrunk the Gecko are the standout levels + BGMs imo. Not too shabby, way better than the first one.

Yeah idk about this one chief. I like the concept of gex and while some people find the character annoying (and i can kinda see where they are coming from with that), I personally think the lil gecko is really charming. However, what isn't charming is playing this game. It is structured like mario 64 where you collect a main mcguffin in order to progress to more and more levels, which is pretty solid design to start, and the level designs are solid enough. The real problem just comes in the camera. This game just does NOT have a cooperative camera at all, as it constantly moves around and gets stuck on level geometry and just overall doesn't show what it really should be showing. Couple that with the reasonably low framerate on playstation and you get a game that kinda gave me a headache while I was playing it. This is also the only platformer I have played where I genuinely had a hard time telling depth in the screen, so take what you will with that as well. The level themes are also all rather uninspired and generic, with both no reasonable landmarks in the levels plus the short draw distance which make the levels surprisingly easy to get lost in. All in all, the game has a solid foundation and charming characters, but the actual gameplay can be downright painful.

I get a bit defensive at this becoming a meme game as one of my earliest memories is picking it out as the game I wanted at Circuit City. I lived the Gex life, spoke the Gex language, walked the Gex walk. Not only that, I didn't have a PS1 memory card for years so everytime I sat down to play Gex or Spyro it was with the intention of completing it in one sitting.

Spyro is a very lovely game so no issues there, but Gex? You go play all of Gex in one sitting and tell me you don't feel some darkness creeping into you. I am curious if Gex gave me genuine mental decline.

It's a very fucked up game, the game is notorious now for its fucking nonsensical humor that has never made sense to anyone, but I think the game's camera should be more infamous. If Earthworm Jim 3D didn't exist this would be a contender for most violent game camera, the way it whips and snaps is unpleasent and unnatural, like the guy who programmed it was working on secondhand knowledge of what the third dimension was.

Gex's controls are actually pretty tight, but his weightless jump and lame tail attack really bring into stark contrast how much more fun it is to play as Mario. Mario is weighty, requires finesse to get good with, and has a ton of moves that can segue into each other. Gex can jump and maybe even bounce if you are feeling spicy.

Which is a shame because some of these levels are creative, they look downright incredible for the hardware, with really great animations, lighting and texturing. Soul Reaver runs on the Gex engine, which is a funny enough sentence I'm injecting it here for you to deal with.

I think there is fun to be had with Gex, it's not just fucking terrible to play like aforementioned Earthworm Jim 3D, it showcases more passion and creativity than most 3D mascot platformers, it's just a shame it's so fucking annoying just SHUT UP Gex fucking ZIP IT.