Gex Retrospective

Ahh, the 90’s. For those of us who grew up in that era, it seemed like every Tuesday a new platformer was coming out with an edgy but cute protagonist dripping with that Bart Simpson-esqe, third wall breaking 90’s attitude. Enter Gex in 1995, released initially for the aging 3DO, and in the next year for the Sega Saturn and Playstation. After a fairly successful release, Crystal Dynamics followed up with Gex: Enter the Gecko releasing in 1998, and Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko in 1999.

Story

Gex is an anthropomorphic gecko who inherits a small fortune from his great-uncle who was a spokes-gecko for a clothing company. Upon receiving his inheritance, he buys a mansion in Maui, and buys a large tv with enough snacks to never leave the house. The series main antagonist is Rez, a cybernetic entity who aspires to control the Media Dimension, a hubworld that exists inside TV, and launch a network with Gex as the unwilling mascot. Through the series, Gex becomes a secret agent and takes on Rez multiple times.

Development

Gex was conceptualized by Lyle Hall shortly after joining Crystal Dynamics in 1994, with the goal to “make the best platform game and the coolest character I could come up with in it…I wanted the character to be able to break the 2D plane, literally jump onto the background and play in a different dimension so to speak. And he had…