I first tried playing this game about twelve years ago and didn't get very far, then came back to it a year ago from the beginning and got a bit further, and finally in the past few weeks pushed through from the beginning all over again, to the final boss. Now I will put the cartridge away to rest forever.
I mention this just to set a little background that this game didn't exactly have me captivated and begging for more. That said, it's a better game than you might expect, given Gex's "meme game" status. Bubsy this is not, despite their "oh my gosh please just be quiet" similarities. There's the core of something pretty fun here, just with a lot of stumbling blocks.
What's good: the theming in the levels is actually really fun. Gex dresses up in some cute costumes for each, and every level has a completely unique identity and assets. The music is also quite catchy and well done (although the overbearingly dreary overworld tune and the first world's manic Christmas-carol nightmare aren't the best examples of this, so it might take a while before you believe it).
The gameplay... well, first of all, this game was built with a D-pad in mind, and feels somewhat unnatural to play with a stick, or takes some getting used to at the very least. You can try to play with the N64's d-pad if you really want to. Really you should just play the PS1 version from what I can gather, for the cutscenes, better music quality, and because to put it simply, it was just built for it.
100%ing this game seems awful because of the fly tokens. Much like Banjo-Kazooie's notes, there are exactly 100 in each level, and they use the same system of all disappearing if you die. But unlike Banjo-Kazooie (with the exception of perhaps the last two levels), I would say it's a LOT easier to die in this game. You have to defeat pretty much every enemy in the levels to get all the tokens too, putting you in increased danger, because Gex's tail time is very much not the most elegant or dependable attack. Not to mention some of them are hidden in otherwise-harmless creatures you have to chase down (and they are great at getting away from you), or inside objects you might not think were interactable or breakable at first. (Or sometimes you think you've done what you needed, only to find that a certain object is actually interactable twice or three times.)
Another issue is that the levels will only let you do one mission at a time; like Super Mario 64, you'll get kicked out and have to come back in once you've grabbed one of your main collectibles. However, the level design is such that you'll often have to repeat earlier, more linear sections every time you restart the level, before you get back to more open areas or split paths where your objectives are actually located. There's really no reason that you should get kicked out either; as far as I can see, no matter what mission you select at the beginning, the most it does is give you a different hint cutscene, and the state of the level never actually changes. So you can actually go for any remote at any time.
In other words, this game takes a system from Banjo-Kazooie and a system from Mario 64 which worked fine for their respective games, and mashes them together in the worst way possible.
It honestly makes me pretty sad, because I do GENUINELY love the theming of this game, and if it was structured better, I'd love to have discovered a surprising hidden gem. Gex himself kind of grew on me too. He says some indecipherable shit but if he says anything truly offensive in this game I either missed it or it went over my head. But other than that, he's just kind of a weirdo who, despite how cool and hip he was supposed to be, gives off an "ok grandpa let's get you to bed" vibe. No one understands what he's talking about. But I also spout off references to my obsessions at random times, so I feel you, buddy.
I mention this just to set a little background that this game didn't exactly have me captivated and begging for more. That said, it's a better game than you might expect, given Gex's "meme game" status. Bubsy this is not, despite their "oh my gosh please just be quiet" similarities. There's the core of something pretty fun here, just with a lot of stumbling blocks.
What's good: the theming in the levels is actually really fun. Gex dresses up in some cute costumes for each, and every level has a completely unique identity and assets. The music is also quite catchy and well done (although the overbearingly dreary overworld tune and the first world's manic Christmas-carol nightmare aren't the best examples of this, so it might take a while before you believe it).
The gameplay... well, first of all, this game was built with a D-pad in mind, and feels somewhat unnatural to play with a stick, or takes some getting used to at the very least. You can try to play with the N64's d-pad if you really want to. Really you should just play the PS1 version from what I can gather, for the cutscenes, better music quality, and because to put it simply, it was just built for it.
100%ing this game seems awful because of the fly tokens. Much like Banjo-Kazooie's notes, there are exactly 100 in each level, and they use the same system of all disappearing if you die. But unlike Banjo-Kazooie (with the exception of perhaps the last two levels), I would say it's a LOT easier to die in this game. You have to defeat pretty much every enemy in the levels to get all the tokens too, putting you in increased danger, because Gex's tail time is very much not the most elegant or dependable attack. Not to mention some of them are hidden in otherwise-harmless creatures you have to chase down (and they are great at getting away from you), or inside objects you might not think were interactable or breakable at first. (Or sometimes you think you've done what you needed, only to find that a certain object is actually interactable twice or three times.)
Another issue is that the levels will only let you do one mission at a time; like Super Mario 64, you'll get kicked out and have to come back in once you've grabbed one of your main collectibles. However, the level design is such that you'll often have to repeat earlier, more linear sections every time you restart the level, before you get back to more open areas or split paths where your objectives are actually located. There's really no reason that you should get kicked out either; as far as I can see, no matter what mission you select at the beginning, the most it does is give you a different hint cutscene, and the state of the level never actually changes. So you can actually go for any remote at any time.
In other words, this game takes a system from Banjo-Kazooie and a system from Mario 64 which worked fine for their respective games, and mashes them together in the worst way possible.
It honestly makes me pretty sad, because I do GENUINELY love the theming of this game, and if it was structured better, I'd love to have discovered a surprising hidden gem. Gex himself kind of grew on me too. He says some indecipherable shit but if he says anything truly offensive in this game I either missed it or it went over my head. But other than that, he's just kind of a weirdo who, despite how cool and hip he was supposed to be, gives off an "ok grandpa let's get you to bed" vibe. No one understands what he's talking about. But I also spout off references to my obsessions at random times, so I feel you, buddy.