I often wonder who the people are that decide a video game or even a series of games needs a remaster. For some hugely successful titles it’s obvious a remaster will be incredibly popular of course, but when a game you didn’t realise people loved is suddenly reborn twenty years later it can be a bit jarring. This happened to me recently when I found out that the Gex Trilogy was getting spruced up and bundled together for a modern audience.
For those of you who don’t know, Gex is a TV obsessed Gecko who constantly finds himself on platforming adventures. On these adventures you’ll travel through worlds themed around different genres of TV show or movie, collect remotes, and listen to the lizard make incredibly outdated pop-culture quips. I’m almost certain that the comedy in the Gex games wasn’t funny in the late nineties, but in 2025 it’s almost incomprehensible.
Now this trilogy is a collection of all three games in the Gex series, which have specifically been kept as true to the original releases as possible. There are a few notable improvements, like the widescreen view, updated analogue stick movements, and the ability to rewind at any time to undo any mistakes. For the most part though these are the true authentic Gex experience, and whether or not that will appeal to you is likely to be somewhat nostalgia based.
Before playing Gex Trilogy, I actually had no idea that the first Gex game (simply titled Gex) was a 2D platformer. The reason for this is mainly because it released on the 3DO, and because it isn’t particularly good. In part this is because the controls just don’t feel very tight, but there are also mechanics like climbing on walls that flat out are annoying to use. Alongside this the grungy visuals didn’t appeal to me in the slightest, making the whole experience a bit miserable.
Most people don’t think of the original Gex game when this series comes to mind though, they think of the 3D platformers. Gex: Enter the Gecko and Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko are functionally very similar, featuring a hub world full of TV levels to enter. Each of these levels contains multiple remotes to find which are tied to different objectives, just like everyone’s favourite nineties 3D platformer Super Mario 64. It does feel like a bit of a cheeky copy of one of the most popular games of the time, but this structure wasn’t really cloned that often and it almost feels fresh because of it.
Controlling Gex in these later two games actually feels pretty great. The gecko has an admittedly simple moveset consisting of a jump, a tail spin (it’s tail time), and the ability to climb on certain walls, but all of these work perfectly. You don’t even have to get too close to enemies to hit them, with nice generous hitboxes that many games of that era struggled with. The best bits of these games involve wall climbing though, which is a fun gravity defying mechanic that feels well ahead of its time. Admittedly you can only do this on certain textured walls, but skittering around this way is fun when the camera behaves itself.
With multiple goals to complete on each stage, the platforming fun of Gex 2 and 3 is nice and exploratory. Whether you’re in a haunted house, wandering around prehistoric plains or in a sci-fi spaceship, the environments are open or at the very least rather maze-like. Sometimes these labyrinthine environments are admittedly more frustrating than intriguing, but there are more hits than misses.
When talking about the Gex games though, we can’t avoid the Gecko in the room any longer. I’m not sure there has ever been a more annoying protagonist than Gex, with his constant cringe-inducing lines and outdated (at best) impressions. The voice lines will loop over and over again too, despite there actually being quite a lot of them. If I ever have to hear about the tap water at Jerry Garcia’s house again, I might cry. If in 2025 you think repeated Austin Powers impressions are funny you likely need professional help, but you’ll also enjoy playing Gex Trilogy. You can technically stop Gex talking by fiddling with the sound settings, but his “comedy” sort of feels like part of the point of these games.
As much as the Gex Trilogy has issues, as a remastered collection it’s pretty solid. There’s a menu full of goodies from the series, like an exclusive interview with the voice actor of Gex and some delightfully nineties adverts. The rewind feature almost entirely dispels any difficulty issues too, ensuring that you’re fine to play through Gex regardless of your skillset.
I would have a tough time calling any of the games in the Gex Trilogy “seriously good”, but as a nostalgic throwback this collection is certainly well made. There’s absolutely some fun to be had with the 3D platformers too, it’s just not enough to offset how completely unfunny the gecko himself is in the modern day
