The one advantage the original 3DO version of Gex had over the other console ports is that it features saving that for whatever reason was removed in favor of a password system.
There was no way to check your memory or delete files in-game, so you can get stuck not being able to save on 3DO. I can't remember if the VCR tapes are required to get the passwords for PS/SS, but some are required to save for 3DO. If they couldn't even get that right, I'd hate to see them deal with memory cards.
Debuted on an American console, British platform physics and ported by Aussies who aren't the best at their job. Gex, the true threat of the *Anglosphere society.*
Never understood the appeal of Gex. Just always felt like a series that just… existed to me. Then the memes happened and now I’m even more baffled he seems to be making a comeback.
Brazilians' were the ones who developed that horrid Woody Woodpecker game on the Mega Drive, I wouldn't trust what they said in regards to 2D platformers.
@@diskyboy86 Casual xenophobia going on there. Does that mean you should trust noone from any country regarding 2D platformers because they've all made bad games in that genre, going by your logic?
The big thing you forgot to mention in this video is that Gex for the 3DO saves your progress to the console, but for some very odd reason the Playstation and Saturn versions do not, they only have password save. Yes, it's true. Of the console versions, the 3DO wins in saving for sure. The PC version saves as well of course.
Alright! I love GEX Mark. I made sure when I purchased a 3DO on both the Panasonic and Goldstar versions, I had to play Gex. Still think he's cool after all these years. 8^) Anthony...
Gex always seemed like a divisive series. Some people love it and others despise it. I remember the second game on N64 being just ok. Fine for a rental, but nothing more.
I guess for those who liked the tude it was enjoyable. For me, the dank dark looks, annoying tude and very average gameplay make it a poor game. just like Sega's Bug and Bug Too!
@@RetroCore The whole joke is Gex is a shut in who thinks he's cool for knowing so much pop culture. It can be endearing. It can be annoying. Gex did both for me personally. I think they should embrace his personality. Much less ear grating than Bubsy.
Oh man, don't mention Bubsy. It's funny as all rude games were awful. Bubsy, Awsome Possum, Bug! and so on. I know in America Sonic is included in this tude group but I think that is a cultural thing as Sonic originally never came across as having tude. Sure, he was a little angary when made to wait but that's about it.
@@SharonisCarin321 Ehh. Even Mario waves finger signs, and "Aww yeah this is happening" is a line from a dubbed version of Sonic Adventure, not the original. He does have his own "cool way of talking" in the original audio track, but it's not as rough.
If there's one thing I have to appreciate about James Pond, he is not Gex. Just like many other western developers, Beam Software didn't study the full capabilities of Sega Saturn. 3DO definitely has the weakest hardware of the 32-bit systems as it was intended to advertise multimedia as the future of gaming.
Back in the mid 90s I was mostly a PC player, but I did buy an used Panasonic 3DO back in 96 because it was dirty cheap and it came with 20 or so games. It came with a lot of FMV games that were so common on the 3DO like Dragon's Lair, D and Space Ace, but it also came with some racing games and platformers, like Gex. I never felt strongly about the game either way. It wasn't great but neither was it horrible. A few years ago I decided to buy the "new" PC versions on GoG, again, because they were dirty cheap and I was curious to see the sequels. Overall the entire series is kinda mediocre, still fine to scratch that nostalgia itch for a couple hours.
Another dire platformer from the in-between console era. Thank god it didn't inspire Atari to go ahead with their Armadillo character based game for their Jaguar system. As Core Design’s Jeremy Heath-Smith pointed out, the market during the 32X/Jaguar era simply didn’t want a mascot based game like Chuck Rock or Zool as they had 5 years prior.
As soon as I bought my 3DO and showed my cousins my new console we all started having GEX. And it was fantastic. The best GEX you could have is on a 3DO.
A friend got a 3DO and we were excited from the hype- lots of game mags promoted just how amazing the games would be, so when we tried them... and this one was no different. I was already over mascot platformers from the 16 bit era, and even having audio provided by Dana Gould, a comedian I knew, I was sick of the one liners after it repeated in the first 10 minutes.
Just want to be the odd one out here -- I always felt like Gex was a very underrated platformer that never really got enough appreciation. The movement mechanics like the wall-crawling and tail bouncing, are a ton of fun once you get to know them, the game's tricky without ever getting annoyingly so, and the game does a really good job of throwing out new ideas. I never could enjoy the 3D games as much -- I feel like they lost too much of that originality when they were trying to chase Mario 64. I know it's a pretty easy game to meme on, and yeah, the voice clips do get annoying, but I'd say it's at least on par with the original Donkey Kong Country if we're talking platformers of the late 16-bit/early 32-bit era.
At the time, I remember that GEX had the advantage of slim pickings as far as new game releases on the 3DO, so it sold a lot of copies just by default of not having a lot available on the system. The guy that ran the gameshop in Chinatown I used to go to in NYC told me that GEX was doing well in sales.
Also a long-time NYC gamer; was this shop a long-gone one or the predecessor to J&L (now in Midtown)? Gaming stores used to be plentiful in the city in the '90's, miss those days.
@@uptowndanram6753 Wasn't J&L, but I remember those two Chinese brothers that started that store! I bought a lot from them. :) This was another store called Games Park(Park being the last name of the Korean guy that owned it). Cheers!
Im have choosen to delete all my post about how bad Saturn is for Transeperancy effects, seen in this game. Im actuelly found a nice post, which is why developers uses fake transperancy, even in games like Burning Rangers and so on (this below not wrote by me): "The Saturn can do Transparencies, with both VDP1 (Sprites/Polygons) and VDP2 (Backgrounds). The problem with VDP1 transparencies are as follows: 1) It's slow. It's 6x slower to draw a transparent sprite/polygon on the Saturn than it is to draw a normal one. 2) It has problems due to the interaction between VDP1 and VDP2. It can either be blended with VDP1 objects or VDP2 objects, but not both at the same time. 3) It can only do 50/50 blending. So all the other blending modes the PS1 is able to do just are not possible. 4) Due to the use of distorted sprites instead of properly rasterized polygons, you can get errors in the transparency very easily. You can actually see this happen in some games that use it, including Sonic R. Pause the game when you go over a dash panel and you'll see the errors. There's still a few games that use it and look great, but it's easy to see why dithering was used instead for so many games".
I bought Gex when it came out for the 3do, it really was touted as a big thing but I really only remember the first level so I suspect i didn’t play it too often
Gex was okay compared to it's contemporaries and did fill a deprived niche in a time-period where 2D gaming was being cast aside for a couple of years in favor of the 3D horizon. Sure it's not a top-tier mascot game but you could do a lot worse. At the time of initial release the Saturn version gets a slight nod over the PlayStation due to the Saturn controller and directional pad being better suited to this type of game, but in the present day and in emulation it's all pretty much even with negligible differences.
Even with all its issues, I still like Gex to this day. I played the OG 3DO version back in the day and I didn't think it was a bad game. I never had the chance to play the other ports but I'd like to. The most tiresome feature without a doubt for me is Gex's voice, which can get annoying for some people after just 10 minutes of playing. In that case, it's better to turn it off before start a session. All in all, I liked it due to Gex being a product of its time and having some personality, something some games nowadays can't say they have. Have a good one, Mark!
Thanks for your comment. I'm sure gex was popular with people but for me it never had any appeal. Same with the likes of Bug 1 and 2 on the Saturn, Blasto on the PlayStation and the 3D earthworm Jim game. The tude thing never did appeal to me.
Later ports lessened the one-liners quite a lot, they also play smoother, I like the cemetery aesthetics of the first world and overall the visuals are really good. It was never groundbreaking, but I agree it doesn't do nothing wrong either. Those who had SNES and the Donkey Kong trilogy, and even Vectorman for the Genesis were well served as far as 2D action games with pre-rendered visuals go. As for the attitude, I'm badass and so on, I was a kid and hardly noticed it, but developers should always give an option to remove voices from these games, people won't like a 2D action game more if it has voices, in fact, chances are it will have the opposite effect, take those GBA Super Mario ported from the SNES, for instance.
Would the scrolling in Kirby's Dream Land 3 count as yoyo scrolling? If so, it's the only example of that in a Japenese developed game I've seen, but even then, it's way more tolerable than yoyo scrolling. It's more so, the scrolling isn't fast enough when you stop and then move. If you're already running, it;s fine, but if you stop, and then start running, the scrolling will take a while to center Kirby on the screen. It's weird at first, but you atleast get used to it a few levels in, plus the level design and enemy placements in that game are actually good so it never really gets you cheap hits or anything like that.
I don't recall how Kirby's Dreamland 3 moves. It maybe yoyoing based up your discription but I'd have to see it to be sure. Yoyoing isn't very common in Japanese developed platformers.
Came across that Panasonic 3DO kiosk station with Gex.... and then owning the Sega Saturn port by Beam Software. Unfortunately. It wasn't great by any stretch, especially Gex's outdated one-liners. That Square Enix retained Gex not long after selling Crystal Dynamics to Embracer Group boggles the mind. (The recent news of the Gex trilogy being reissued doesn’t change anything.)
true story, i know a monster hunter speedrunner called G3KK0 who streams on twitch, and i call him gexxy (coz is is a...you get it... also of course, wish gex was still around but probably best kept in the 90's
I got both 3do and PS1 versions and sadly the 3do version looks even worse stock but if you are lucky enough to have a 3do with a 240p switch or 240p mod then it’s a big improvement but still only 30fps. The look of it stock looks terrible cause of how 3do would output 240p as 480i which looks really bad even on CRT. The conversion makes things very soft
I've noticed a fair amount of 3DO games seem to struggle with framerate compared to their Saturn/PS1 counterparts. Was the system too weak or was it like the Saturn where it was difficult to program for?
I figured this was next. With the Remaster Trilogy announced and not to many good games releasing between 3D0, PS1 & SAT. There weren’t many options to choose from. The only other game I could have thought was Super Turbo but it was a compilation release on PS1 & SAT and idk how you treat those.
While not as good as Sonic, Mario or even Rayman I think Gex is cool game. I play it on those consoles and have fun with it. Definitely would like to see remake in 2d for modern machines but with all cut content.
I always wondered why in the magazine reviews i read back in the day only show screenshots from the first level ...is that hard or that dull? Because is quite short
Gex really seems like he should have been voiced by Rob Paulsen. He has that kind of 80's cartoon Raph meets the cartoon version of The Mask vibe to him.
Although I had seen them for sale and of course read reviews in magazines before then, the first and only time I played a 3DO (a GoldStar unit) in the 90s was a unit that was set up with a demo disc that included Gex. I think this was close to Christmas '95 so was post-PSX/Saturn releases; I know I hadn't played a Saturn at the point I first played this, but I had played quite a bit of Ridge Racer, MK3, and Toshinden at a friend's. So, it wasn't exactly impressive. There was a non-playable video of Slam 'n Jam on there, which did pique my interest because I really liked Konami's Run and Gun in the arcades. There was a flight combat sim type game that ran quite well and was okay, but I can't remember its name; I should try to look that one up and acquire some copy, since I do like those types of games. I can't recall what else that had on it. Gex was what I was interested in trying, since it did kind of look cool in magazine shots. It was a bit choppy and certainly a janky, but, I don't know, I kind of still liked it; however, I do like 'tude in my 80s-90s games like Bad Dudes and Two Crude etc so the concept was up my alley. It's kind of got the old MS-DOS platformer feel to it, and I enjoyed those types of platformers at the time. Is it genuinely good? Nah, but I appreciate it. I didn't get a copy of the game until I bought an FZ-10 back in the 00s on ebay. The bundle I bought included 8 games, two of which were a duplicates of Gex. I still kind of like the game even now. I don't love it, but I like it. I haven't played any other version of the game, but it looks like I should try out one of the ports since they certainly run smoother.
I remember seeing the 3DO when it was brand new while we all still owned 16bit console. I honestly thought it was a sack of crap. Everyone said Super Street Fighter 2 was arcade perfect, nope, it wasn't even close. The Samurai Showdown port was awful too, running at 30fps with slowdown. Yeah, the 3DO was not the dream console it aimed to be.
@@RetroCoreea samurai showdown was janky Apparently the 3do isn’t actually a machine that does true 3d hence crash and burn although you can’t turn around but has perfect draw distance as it isn’t 3d
i like the 3do version more because of the title screen's transition. every other version is missing that. i wonder why. maybe it's because the.......incapabilities?
I have the 3do version along with other games. Best thing I like about that version is the amount of hidden secrets. Even using the 3do game guru to gain access to Planet X. As far as the "tude", I didn't mind it back then, but now, it feels like it is aged in a "unknown" sort of way. I've played both PSX and Saturn versions at a time when I used to rent games back in the day. As far as the PC version, I remember seeing footage from various samplers. Especially the Windows 95 CD sampler.
I will take a stab at the reason some transparencies are there and others are not. The ones they could achieve using a raster effect are in the game such as the water, the clouds and effects over the player could not be achieved using raster interrupts so they used mesh.
Nice idea but they aren't raster effects. They're proper transparent layers. The Saturn can do these with ease as long as the developer knows what they are doing. What's odd about the Saturn version is things that shouldn't be mesh because they weren't even transparent in the original are mesh. The turtle boss is a good example of that. So odd.
Likely not what you might've noticed, but the 3DO version allows you to save to the internal memory, Sega Saturn version uses passwords. I'm not sure what PS1 uses.
I played and finish quite many times both the 3DO and the Saturn version. Aside the obvious lack of save features after the 3DO port, you also lost a very well hidden mini game. At the "secret" Planet X world, at it's most difficult level, The Project, you have to find a portal to exit the level, that's it, no enemies. But, at the 3DO port, one of those portals leads to a mini game. It's not at the Saturn version, and I dare to say it's not at the Playstation version as well. I even made a full on map of this level to navigate through it.
You all can say what you will about this series as I know it can be divisive among gamers, but I'm one of those people that actually like the Gex games. I grew up playing these on PlayStation at a neighbor's house as a kid and I was also stoked when I heard about the remastered trilogy coming out soon. These games alongside MediEvil were also some of the first I got when I started collecting games as an adult. I will say that looking at them objectively as an adult these days they are definitely all rough around the edges, especially the first title. Gex 1 is definitely ugly but I firmly believe that most early 32-bit games were like this since most developers were trying to go for something more realistic which doesn't tend to be very pretty. I find the "tude" aspect to be slightly endearing if only because of the era this game is from, but that may be just because I was born and raised in the 90s so I might be biased here. Gex has had some decent one-liners over the course of his trilogy though I freely admit that the pop culture references in the first game are... interesting sometimes but mostly either fly over my head or are just straight-up annoying so I can get people's gripes on that. Personally I thought most of them were better in the second and third games. Nevertheless this trilogy does have a strong cult following but even if I like them for what they are I wouldn't fault anybody for not liking any of these games.
Ah the Saturn’s trademark mesh transparency, my pet peeve. If snes could do true transparency you would think sega would have made it easier to implement in their hardware.
Totally agree here that awful net curtain effect, seen in titles like Alien Trilogy, Wipeout 2097 etc.. Never understood why Sega didn't design the hardware with such effects in mind.
The Saturn can do transparent effects but devs were lazy. The snes uses hardware so no effort at all was needed. The Saturn does them in software. Keio on the Saturn is a very good example of a game that uses 2D transparent effects very well. Astal is another. Both were programmed by competent developers though.
I think Gex is a really cool and good game. You just can't play it. You run towards enemies and hazards like crazy, maybe pay more attention while playing and you can appreciate it too.
@@RetroCore The system can't output 60fps as was common at the time. It is exclusively a 480i system. Even if you have the "Mode A, B" switch or 240p mod... it's not 60fps. It is 30fps because it is just rendering the same interlaced field twice in a row. I run the site 3dodev and maintain the Opera 3DO emulator. I'm not aware of anything that runs at 60fps. The hardware doesn't have a "normal" 240p @ 60fps mode so any game that targeted that framerate would artifact. What games are you referring?
The internal framebuffer is paletted 16bit 320x240 (in NTSC regions). A proprietary interpolation and color lookup is done to generate a 640x480 @ 24bit per pixel output. That output is fed from the CLIO chip to the video DAC in standard 480i fields. Hence... the system doesn't output more than 30fps. The 240p mode simply causes the DAC to request the same field over and over which means that don't know any better... which is all of them... it just displays the same field twice rather than odd -> even. There isn't even a way for the game to know the system is in "240p" mode in order for it to try to run at 60 frames per second. It is entirely on the final stage of the video output after the frame is rendered. The system with that fake 240p mode could try to push games at 60 frames per second but that would only be possible in homebrew.
@@31leoceara Are you playing on real hardware or an emulator? The internal game logic may run at 60fps, which you can see in emulation, but on real hardware the system outputs 480i which is 30 frames per second / 60 fields per second. Have to separate game logic from physical rendering. The game can run at any internal tick rate but the output is fixed on the 3DO to 480i NTSC which is 60 fields per second / 30 frames per second.
But that's the best part about Gex, his one liners are like that of an action movie star and they have more charm than today's attempts at nostalgia bait And I hate that people think it's ironically cool to like Gex because of Scott the Snooze!
I'm with you on all those complaints about games like this. And even relative to other games with "'tude", this one sounds pretty bad. But this was the era when some developers didn't understand that less is more when it comes to voice samples. The big shock here is how the Windows version ended up with extra refinements. I never did play any version of this, and I think it will stay that way.
Brought this on the 3do and enjoyed.yes the constant wise cracks got on ya nerves abit but overall enjoyed this Yes the ps1 version has been polished up and some of the issues tweaked Might d/l the pc version as looks much better
Not defending Gex (never played it or had any interest), but from what I’ve seen, I’m not sure the game was trying to exude ’tude. Gex describes himself-in this video-as having no life, and I’ve always seen him as being a pop culture nerd, not especially high in attitude. As to why attitude was such a big deal for platformer mascots in the day, that’s easy. Sonic. Easily the biggest breakout success story in early 90s video gaming, and a lot of people looked at the attitude injected into the marketing around the IP when trying to figure out how to replicate that. I never really minded it? Maybe it’s because I was a young kid at the time, but in general I see the attitude era as fine. Some IPs (and a lot of marketing) definitely took it way too far and it got annoying or cringey, but most ’tude seems pretty unobjectionable to me.
I think the 3do and Saturn versions are better. The pc and PlayStation look the same. In the Saturn and 3do on the first level you can see the skulls eyes on the wall glowing…. Little things like that make a difference more attention to detail.
I'm not sure why you were confused on the lack of transparency effects on the Saturn. It's well known that it does not support them and most games use checkerboard patterns in their place which were a much better approximation on CRT TVs than modern displays.
I suggest you do some research. The Saturn can do 2D transparent effects as many games have shown us in the past. It just takes some effort since it needs to be done in software, not hardware like on other system. Take a look at Keio on the Saturn. It's a very early Saturn platformer but clearly shows transparent 2D layers even on the first stage. Astal is another which shows transparent 2D effects. In fact there's hundreds of games that do it. Even shooters such as Darius Gaiden as stages blend in to each other or when you let of a bomb. 2D games that don't use transparent effects are just poorly programmed.
I’ve still never played the original, just the N64 versions of the two sequels. Packed non-stop with ‘tude, pop culture references. I can’t images they will go over well today unless they seriously overhaul the script.
Terrible one liners. The cornerstone of the '90s US pop culture. Being able to understand as to wtf Gex is referencing, search the video "Gex pop culture references explained"🌠
This is also a western platformers problem: Sometimes the artstyle is so terrible and inconsistent that it looks like they just threw random stuff in the game which they copy&pasted from a 50cents thrift store clipart cd-rom.
21 months of development is not a valid excuse for why Gex turned out as badly as it did. That's a fairly typical and lengthy development cycle. Mega Man 7 was developed in just 3 months by 7 guys, and why that game is one for the weaker mainline games in the series, it looks like a masterpiece when stacked next to Gex, especially considering it's 16-bit.
When I first saw GEX many years ago my immediate reaction was "eh, too much green", and then I couldn't see the palette getting a lot more varied as levels progressed. It made the game very unappealing to me. I mean, it's playable, there are dozens of platformers that are worse than this but still, it's not worth bothering about.
It’s funny, I thought Gex was a 3D game. I must be thinking of Croc or Bubsy or Spyro or any of the other random animal mascot platformers from back then. 😂
This Gex reminds me of Gremlin Graphics' Zool, remember ? That game was an attempt at a mascot platformer, but, it was bland and uninspired as it gets. I liked the 2nd game though, played it a lot in the PS1.
3DO. I honestly thought the amiga was cooler, tbh. Like, 3DO- the expensive extention for PC that you didn’t want because it wasn’t good enough. Kinda like the 32X, but a bit better? And this shows.
When Crystal Dynamics set themselves to the task of leveraging the power of new hardware they knew a by the numbers 2D mascot platformer with incredibly frequent and annoying voice clips was the way to go. That's ambition, if players of your game aren't fighting the urge to pierce their ear drums with six inch nails, you're not doing it right.
I've never played the original only played Enter the Gecko (PS1 because the N64 version SUUUUUUUUUUCKS from what i've seen) and yeah this game is just not good at all. And yeah Gex can be annoying but at least he's no Bubsy (extra points in 3D although there it was another va) still not a very pleasant experience although its nice to see some Gex after the announcement of the remakes. Also Mark any plans to cover the sequels in BOTP?
@@RetroCore The interesting sequel is Enter the Gecko with PS1, PC and N64 versions, and then a totally separate GBC version. Deep Cover Gecko is the same but with no PC version in that one for some reason. No Sega console version for either of them either.
*Q: Why does Saturn Gex have real transparencies for some things, but not others?* A: Saturn's VDP2 could actually do real transparencies. The fake ones you see are drawn by VDP1.
I had this on the 3do and didnt like it much, hated the snap back and the crap level design and the framerate is all over the place i never ended up finishing it shame as it had some good idea's just didnt pull it off.
GEX is a game that never interested me even back then, just like Crock and all the ports are vast improvement over the 3DO original, seriously the 3DO as a system was rather poor as a system apart from a few good games on it and GEX is not one of those especially as 30fps.
Oh yeah... I worked at a local 'specialty' game shop back when the 3DO and this game first came out. I thought it moved and played like straight up garbage and didn't hesitate to say so when asked. I butted heads with a regular customer that had to justify his 700 dollar 3DO purchase by putting this game on a pedestal, as well as the store owner who (justifiably) wanted to sell that customer more games (Although in private he thought the game looked bad as well). Honestly, the period between the 16 bit systems and the PSX, Saturn and N64 were pretty dismal IMO, with the 3DO, CD-I and Jaguar being considered 'cutting edge'.
And the main reason why I stayed with 16bit until the Saturn came along in Japan. Yep, the 3DO, CDi and Jag all did absolutely nothing to make me think, "hmm, I might buy one of those."
Dude! Lol. Why did we get so many "copy & paste" platformers in the 90s. Where the screen is zoomed so far in that its impossible to avoid enemies or see where your going next without dying lol.
i owned a 3do and i wasnt interested in this game at all.....although I think the best mascot games were/are ratchet and clank and sly cooper sonic and crash bandicoot ......although sonic and crash have a lot to answer for becuaseof all the crappy imitators they spawned
Your description of Western developed platformers was spot on. Oh how I hated the snappy camera. HATED! I remember playing this back in 1995 and thinking it was awful even back then.
Yep, we were flooded with platformers like this back then lol. But had to just shut up and suffer if we'd rented it or even worse. Got one for Christmas. Nooooooooo!!
Yeah, the tude is just unbearable and I recall that even back then I was appalled that this could appeal to anyone who wasn't brainwashed. We all knew people who thought they could masquerade their insecurities by insisting they were "so cool" all the time so it simply boggles the mind that marketers thought that this was a good starting point for character design... And my, the snap back is quite something. That also I could never understand in Euro and US platformers; this is something so aggressive to the eyes and destroys any fluidity of motion the game might have exhibited that you'd think no one would dare shipping a game with this "feature" but hey... they did and here we are. 🤣 Thanks for the video Mark!
I, too, share your opinion on this throwaway 90s platformer. Well known? Yes. Good? Far from it. Why this game and its sequels are getting modern remakes is beyond me.
When Gex came out for the 3DO there was a bit too much of a glowing sense of the game coverage for it that to me it just came off as too much like Bubsy in that these reviewers back then who wrote articles seemed to place too much attention or coverage when the game did not really deserve it. I think it was hilarious when Sega Japan's Astal came out too because that game did deserve coverage and cover story art that the western magazines just gave to Bubsy and Gex far too many times which just indicates that the gamer magazines could be paid shills. As far as any criticism towards the game on a technical level, people forget one important point of the 3DO being that all of the 3DO bullet points before they started making television commercials dimishing 16bit systems was that the 3DO company kept claiming their "multimedia player" (because it was not really a videogame system like as if they were above them which seems similar to CD-i and the 80s PC attitude of distancing themselves from videogames like that was a lesser form of entertainment) was twenty times plus more powerful than Sega MegaDrive and Super Nintendo before the tv commercials came out labeling those systems as "children's toys" compared to 3DO. Meanwhile if you had half a brain back then and you went to try out a 3DO REAL multiplayer at a store kiosk, you would know right away that the gamepad sucked and was backwards and ignored precisions videogame experiences and further ignored recent changes like Capcom's Street Fighter selling 3.5 million cartridges in Japan and 6 to 7 million cartridges in North America during 1992 alone plus third party companies scrambling to sell their arcade style joysticks and six button layout fighting pads which Sega and later NEC immediately made standard in systems sold. So we have twenty times the power and over hype about CD-ROM technology that already existed thanks to NEC PC-Engine and Sega MegaCD so again its like western reviewers would also forget that those games existed and only a few pointed out how annoying too much voice overs can be. Thus it is fair that Gex is an over rated and over hyped game back then just like Bubsy which under performed on a technical level and also that one could question if Gex would be possible on the base Sega MegaDrive if handled by an ace dev team because one look at Sonic 3 and Knuckles tells you they were pushing the color palette beyond the so called capabilities while other devs failed... also people tend to misunderstand why 3DO and even Atari Jaguar failed just had nothing to do with Sega or Sony or Nintendo but how those companies made similar tv commercials immediately comparing themselves to Sega and Nintendo and making them lesser while telling viewers that they were stupid if they owned those systems... blatantly insulting the game system buyer into buying 3D0 and Jaguar. Also 3DO was actually despite its higher price, selling much better in Japan, that is before Sega Saturn and a true next gen game like Virtua Fighter showed up which we unfortunately did not experience because Sega of America;s 90s staff wanted to act like they knew better, that we should stay held up in upgrading the last generation, which was Sega of America 90s staff idea and creation to make 32X and not bother to launch Sega Saturn at least in December 1994 or January 1995 aimed at older gamers Point being that come 1995 and Sega of America's Bug! game came off as too much similar to Bubsy and Gex because that 90s staff knew what they were doing in being clueless about how to go on a next generation path.
![Gex [1995] 3DO vs PS1 vs Saturn vs PC (Graphics Comparison)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PA0PIE_AVTI/mqdefault.jpg)
The one advantage the original 3DO version of Gex had over the other console ports is that it features saving that for whatever reason was removed in favor of a password system.
It is strange that feature was removed.
I'm not sure that's true... I better boot up the rom.
There was no way to check your memory or delete files in-game, so you can get stuck not being able to save on 3DO. I can't remember if the VCR tapes are required to get the passwords for PS/SS, but some are required to save for 3DO. If they couldn't even get that right, I'd hate to see them deal with memory cards.
@@DeAthWaGer The memory manager for 3DO was a separately offered program. Why for, I'm unsure...
@@Code7Unltd The ultimate 3DO memory manager was the Game Guru, which allowed you to compress your save files and hack them with cheat codes.
Your takes on GEX are savage. Please do GEX 2&3 too.
Oh man, I don't want to play anymore GEX.
@@RetroCoreBubsy next?
Cool spot? Lol
@@RetroCore The 3D Platformers?
@@RetroCoreI can feel your angah
Debuted on an American console, British platform physics and ported by Aussies who aren't the best at their job. Gex, the true threat of the *Anglosphere society.*
Squeenix sold off most of Crystal Dynamics' library to Embracer Group recently - _except_ Gex, for some reason.
Maybe Embracer Group wasn't interested in the IP? I'd say it's hardly surprising.
Gex being kept over Lara Croft is too funny 🤣
Never understood the appeal of Gex. Just always felt like a series that just… existed to me.
Then the memes happened and now I’m even more baffled he seems to be making a comeback.
For whatever reason, this game was pretty popular among Brazilian gaming jornalists. Those guys are always a bunch weirdos, regardless of the era.
I guess they like lizards? Or they received some nice pay offs?
Brazilians' were the ones who developed that horrid Woody Woodpecker game on the Mega Drive, I wouldn't trust what they said in regards to 2D platformers.
@@RetroCore Might be a bit of both. xD
@@RetroCore can confirm, its both
@@diskyboy86 Casual xenophobia going on there.
Does that mean you should trust noone from any country regarding 2D platformers because they've all made bad games in that genre, going by your logic?
The big thing you forgot to mention in this video is that Gex for the 3DO saves your progress to the console, but for some very odd reason the Playstation and Saturn versions do not, they only have password save. Yes, it's true. Of the console versions, the 3DO wins in saving for sure. The PC version saves as well of course.
Yes, this is true and a very odd omission from the other versions.
the ps3 port had passwords too
@@SimianScienceYeah because the PS3 has an internal hard drive. Does the 3DO have any kind of internal storage? It must in order to save your progress
@@matthewnikitas8905 it actually did back then. and a add on too
Gex Trilogy collection announced for PS4/PS5, Nintendo Switch, Windows, Xbox Series X/S
Alright! I love GEX Mark. I made sure when I purchased a 3DO on both the Panasonic and Goldstar versions, I had to play Gex. Still think he's cool after all these years. 8^)
Anthony...
Thanks for sharing!
Gex always seemed like a divisive series. Some people love it and others despise it. I remember the second game on N64 being just ok. Fine for a rental, but nothing more.
I guess for those who liked the tude it was enjoyable. For me, the dank dark looks, annoying tude and very average gameplay make it a poor game. just like Sega's Bug and Bug Too!
@@RetroCore The whole joke is Gex is a shut in who thinks he's cool for knowing so much pop culture.
It can be endearing. It can be annoying.
Gex did both for me personally.
I think they should embrace his personality.
Much less ear grating than Bubsy.
Oh man, don't mention Bubsy. It's funny as all rude games were awful. Bubsy, Awsome Possum, Bug! and so on.
I know in America Sonic is included in this tude group but I think that is a cultural thing as Sonic originally never came across as having tude. Sure, he was a little angary when made to wait but that's about it.
@@RetroCore Sonic was always rude
That finger wag was him having an attitude
Remember Aww yeah this is happening?
@@SharonisCarin321 Ehh. Even Mario waves finger signs, and "Aww yeah this is happening" is a line from a dubbed version of Sonic Adventure, not the original. He does have his own "cool way of talking" in the original audio track, but it's not as rough.
Gex: note to self, never drink tap water at Jerry Garcia's
If there's one thing I have to appreciate about James Pond, he is not Gex.
Just like many other western developers, Beam Software didn't study the full capabilities of Sega Saturn.
3DO definitely has the weakest hardware of the 32-bit systems as it was intended to advertise multimedia as the future of gaming.
Back in the mid 90s I was mostly a PC player, but I did buy an used Panasonic 3DO back in 96 because it was dirty cheap and it came with 20 or so games. It came with a lot of FMV games that were so common on the 3DO like Dragon's Lair, D and Space Ace, but it also came with some racing games and platformers, like Gex. I never felt strongly about the game either way. It wasn't great but neither was it horrible. A few years ago I decided to buy the "new" PC versions on GoG, again, because they were dirty cheap and I was curious to see the sequels. Overall the entire series is kinda mediocre, still fine to scratch that nostalgia itch for a couple hours.
Another dire platformer from the in-between console era.
Thank god it didn't inspire Atari to go ahead with their Armadillo character based game for their Jaguar system.
As Core Design’s Jeremy Heath-Smith pointed out, the market during the 32X/Jaguar era simply didn’t want a mascot based game like Chuck Rock or Zool as they had 5 years prior.
Very timely video, as Gex, Tomba and Clock Tower are all getting ported to modern systems soon. Clock Tower is the one I'm most looking forward to.
will clock tower be 3d or in the same vein as snes?
@@SimianScience I believe its an enhanced port in the vein of Deep Dive's work.
Tomba, yes! Click Tower, yes! Gex? What the hell are they thinking?
@@RetroCore Well, they can't all be winners. But I'll play the hell out of the other two!
@@SomeOrangeCat im interested to try it
As soon as I bought my 3DO and showed my cousins my new console we all started having GEX. And it was fantastic. The best GEX you could have is on a 3DO.
You had Gex with your cousins. Errrrrrrrrrrr????
A friend got a 3DO and we were excited from the hype- lots of game mags promoted just how amazing the games would be, so when we tried them... and this one was no different. I was already over mascot platformers from the 16 bit era, and even having audio provided by Dana Gould, a comedian I knew, I was sick of the one liners after it repeated in the first 10 minutes.
Just want to be the odd one out here -- I always felt like Gex was a very underrated platformer that never really got enough appreciation. The movement mechanics like the wall-crawling and tail bouncing, are a ton of fun once you get to know them, the game's tricky without ever getting annoyingly so, and the game does a really good job of throwing out new ideas. I never could enjoy the 3D games as much -- I feel like they lost too much of that originality when they were trying to chase Mario 64.
I know it's a pretty easy game to meme on, and yeah, the voice clips do get annoying, but I'd say it's at least on par with the original Donkey Kong Country if we're talking platformers of the late 16-bit/early 32-bit era.
The game has some good ideas but it just had too many problems which overshoe the positive points.
At the time, I remember that GEX had the advantage of slim pickings as far as new game releases on the 3DO, so it sold a lot of copies just by default of not having a lot available on the system. The guy that ran the gameshop in Chinatown I used to go to in NYC told me that GEX was doing well in sales.
I think you are 100% right. Just imagine if you wanted a platform game on the 3DO. What options were there?
Also a long-time NYC gamer; was this shop a long-gone one or the predecessor to J&L (now in Midtown)? Gaming stores used to be plentiful in the city in the '90's, miss those days.
@@uptowndanram6753 Wasn't J&L, but I remember those two Chinese brothers that started that store! I bought a lot from them. :)
This was another store called Games Park(Park being the last name of the Korean guy that owned it). Cheers!
Im have choosen to delete all my post about how bad Saturn is for Transeperancy effects, seen in this game. Im actuelly found a nice post, which is why developers uses fake transperancy, even in games like Burning Rangers and so on (this below not wrote by me):
"The Saturn can do Transparencies, with both VDP1 (Sprites/Polygons) and VDP2 (Backgrounds). The problem with VDP1 transparencies are as follows:
1) It's slow. It's 6x slower to draw a transparent sprite/polygon on the Saturn than it is to draw a normal one.
2) It has problems due to the interaction between VDP1 and VDP2. It can either be blended with VDP1 objects or VDP2 objects, but not both at the same time.
3) It can only do 50/50 blending. So all the other blending modes the PS1 is able to do just are not possible.
4) Due to the use of distorted sprites instead of properly rasterized polygons, you can get errors in the transparency very easily. You can actually see this happen in some games that use it, including Sonic R. Pause the game when you go over a dash panel and you'll see the errors.
There's still a few games that use it and look great, but it's easy to see why dithering was used instead for so many games".
I’m old enough to have lived through the Gexpocalypse so this definitely triggers some PTSD. Thank goodness no one has tried to reboot Gex
Sadly they are 😭
@@RetroCore nooooooooo!
If only he'd only stuck to selling car insurance, Gex could have had a much better life....
I bought Gex when it came out for the 3do, it really was touted as a big thing but I really only remember the first level so I suspect i didn’t play it too often
Gex was okay compared to it's contemporaries and did fill a deprived niche in a time-period where 2D gaming was being cast aside for a couple of years in favor of the 3D horizon. Sure it's not a top-tier mascot game but you could do a lot worse. At the time of initial release the Saturn version gets a slight nod over the PlayStation due to the Saturn controller and directional pad being better suited to this type of game, but in the present day and in emulation it's all pretty much even with negligible differences.
Even with all its issues, I still like Gex to this day. I played the OG 3DO version back in the day and I didn't think it was a bad game. I never had the chance to play the other ports but I'd like to. The most tiresome feature without a doubt for me is Gex's voice, which can get annoying for some people after just 10 minutes of playing. In that case, it's better to turn it off before start a session. All in all, I liked it due to Gex being a product of its time and having some personality, something some games nowadays can't say they have. Have a good one, Mark!
Thanks for your comment.
I'm sure gex was popular with people but for me it never had any appeal. Same with the likes of Bug 1 and 2 on the Saturn, Blasto on the PlayStation and the 3D earthworm Jim game. The tude thing never did appeal to me.
Later ports lessened the one-liners quite a lot, they also play smoother, I like the cemetery aesthetics of the first world and overall the visuals are really good.
It was never groundbreaking, but I agree it doesn't do nothing wrong either. Those who had SNES and the Donkey Kong trilogy, and even Vectorman for the Genesis were well served as far as 2D action games with pre-rendered visuals go.
As for the attitude, I'm badass and so on, I was a kid and hardly noticed it, but developers should always give an option to remove voices from these games, people won't like a 2D action game more if it has voices, in fact, chances are it will have the opposite effect, take those GBA Super Mario ported from the SNES, for instance.
Would the scrolling in Kirby's Dream Land 3 count as yoyo scrolling? If so, it's the only example of that in a Japenese developed game I've seen, but even then, it's way more tolerable than yoyo scrolling. It's more so, the scrolling isn't fast enough when you stop and then move. If you're already running, it;s fine, but if you stop, and then start running, the scrolling will take a while to center Kirby on the screen. It's weird at first, but you atleast get used to it a few levels in, plus the level design and enemy placements in that game are actually good so it never really gets you cheap hits or anything like that.
I don't recall how Kirby's Dreamland 3 moves. It maybe yoyoing based up your discription but I'd have to see it to be sure. Yoyoing isn't very common in Japanese developed platformers.
Came across that Panasonic 3DO kiosk station with Gex.... and then owning the Sega Saturn port by Beam Software. Unfortunately. It wasn't great by any stretch, especially Gex's outdated one-liners. That Square Enix retained Gex not long after selling Crystal Dynamics to Embracer Group boggles the mind. (The recent news of the Gex trilogy being reissued doesn’t change anything.)
Square Enix probably could sell GEX. I can imagine the Embracer group refusing it to save a few dollars.
true story, i know a monster hunter speedrunner called G3KK0 who streams on twitch, and i call him gexxy (coz is is a...you get it...
also of course, wish gex was still around but probably best kept in the 90's
I got both 3do and PS1 versions and sadly the 3do version looks even worse stock but if you are lucky enough to have a 3do with a 240p switch or 240p mod then it’s a big improvement but still only 30fps. The look of it stock looks terrible cause of how 3do would output 240p as 480i which looks really bad even on CRT. The conversion makes things very soft
I've noticed a fair amount of 3DO games seem to struggle with framerate compared to their Saturn/PS1 counterparts. Was the system too weak or was it like the Saturn where it was difficult to program for?
Nah, the system was weak. It was one of the first next gen consoles and produced by a company without console building knowledge.
@@RetroCoreBy several companies without gaming experience.
I figured this was next.
With the Remaster Trilogy announced and not to many good games releasing between 3D0, PS1 & SAT.
There weren’t many options to choose from. The only other game I could have thought was Super Turbo but it was a compilation release on PS1 & SAT and idk how you treat those.
The 3DO version of super turbo is poor compared to the Saturn and even PlayStation but I'd say it's better than the SFC.
While not as good as Sonic, Mario or even Rayman I think Gex is cool game. I play it on those consoles and have fun with it. Definitely would like to see remake in 2d for modern machines but with all cut content.
You said the Windows one runs smooth, but it runs at 30fps vs PSX/Saturn's 60fps. at least from looking at them all running side by side.
It maybe the capture but it did feel and look much smoother than the 3DO when playing it.
Well, I like the look
I enjoyed playing Gex. After a few levels😂😂😂
"Some games are strictly of their time and should be left to die."
--- Gex
I always wondered why in the magazine reviews i read back in the day only show screenshots from the first level ...is that hard or that dull?
Because is quite short
I think it's because nobody could be arsed to play it. The first grave area has something like 5 or 6 stages. It really is boring to play.
I think this's the only time in this channel that all the ports are superior to the original. Maybe?
I think it has happened before, also with a 3DO game being the original 😅. Need For Speed and Road Rash.
Gex really seems like he should have been voiced by Rob Paulsen. He has that kind of 80's cartoon Raph meets the cartoon version of The Mask vibe to him.
Gex is one of my favourite mascots.
Same!!!💯🤟🏻🤣
Wasn’t Gex on GBC too ?
Guessing it was a different game entirely (or a sequel / spinoff of some kind) and so not a port of the 3DO title.
The sequels were the ones released on Nintendo systems. This one never was.
Although I had seen them for sale and of course read reviews in magazines before then, the first and only time I played a 3DO (a GoldStar unit) in the 90s was a unit that was set up with a demo disc that included Gex. I think this was close to Christmas '95 so was post-PSX/Saturn releases; I know I hadn't played a Saturn at the point I first played this, but I had played quite a bit of Ridge Racer, MK3, and Toshinden at a friend's. So, it wasn't exactly impressive. There was a non-playable video of Slam 'n Jam on there, which did pique my interest because I really liked Konami's Run and Gun in the arcades. There was a flight combat sim type game that ran quite well and was okay, but I can't remember its name; I should try to look that one up and acquire some copy, since I do like those types of games. I can't recall what else that had on it. Gex was what I was interested in trying, since it did kind of look cool in magazine shots. It was a bit choppy and certainly a janky, but, I don't know, I kind of still liked it; however, I do like 'tude in my 80s-90s games like Bad Dudes and Two Crude etc so the concept was up my alley. It's kind of got the old MS-DOS platformer feel to it, and I enjoyed those types of platformers at the time. Is it genuinely good? Nah, but I appreciate it.
I didn't get a copy of the game until I bought an FZ-10 back in the 00s on ebay. The bundle I bought included 8 games, two of which were a duplicates of Gex. I still kind of like the game even now. I don't love it, but I like it. I haven't played any other version of the game, but it looks like I should try out one of the ports since they certainly run smoother.
I get why some people like it but I was never a fan
I remember seeing the 3DO when it was brand new while we all still owned 16bit console. I honestly thought it was a sack of crap. Everyone said Super Street Fighter 2 was arcade perfect, nope, it wasn't even close. The Samurai Showdown port was awful too, running at 30fps with slowdown. Yeah, the 3DO was not the dream console it aimed to be.
@@RetroCoreea samurai showdown was janky
Apparently the 3do isn’t actually a machine that does true 3d hence crash and burn although you can’t turn around but has perfect draw distance as it isn’t 3d
@@RetroCore Had a banger port of Wolfenstein 3-D though...but not a hell of a lot else going for it.
Same with the original Need For Speed as well.
i like the 3do version more because of the title screen's transition. every other version is missing that. i wonder why. maybe it's because the.......incapabilities?
It probably required some effort, something the developers of the other versions were not willing to do it would seem.
I have the 3do version along with other games. Best thing I like about that version is the amount of hidden secrets. Even using the 3do game guru to gain access to Planet X. As far as the "tude", I didn't mind it back then, but now, it feels like it is aged in a "unknown" sort of way. I've played both PSX and Saturn versions at a time when I used to rent games back in the day. As far as the PC version, I remember seeing footage from various samplers. Especially the Windows 95 CD sampler.
I will give GEX praise for the amount of hidden content. There sure is a lot.
I agree that North American and European developed games back then were not at the same level as the Japanese games.
I will take a stab at the reason some transparencies are there and others are not. The ones they could achieve using a raster effect are in the game such as the water, the clouds and effects over the player could not be achieved using raster interrupts so they used mesh.
Nice idea but they aren't raster effects. They're proper transparent layers. The Saturn can do these with ease as long as the developer knows what they are doing.
What's odd about the Saturn version is things that shouldn't be mesh because they weren't even transparent in the original are mesh. The turtle boss is a good example of that. So odd.
screen snapping is so disorienting and the equivalent of motion blur these days
When talking about colors in gaming fantasy zone always pops into my head. Why couldn’t more developers go for that bright colorful look?
because the publisher pays the developer a fee the publisher has or might have the final say how the game looks graphically (visually)
Likely not what you might've noticed, but the 3DO version allows you to save to the internal memory, Sega Saturn version uses passwords. I'm not sure what PS1 uses.
Also 3do version got to hidden mini games and art gallery in credits from development
I noticed that but it's not really a deal breaker. Only the 3DO has the game saves.
I played and finish quite many times both the 3DO and the Saturn version.
Aside the obvious lack of save features after the 3DO port, you also lost a very well hidden mini game.
At the "secret" Planet X world, at it's most difficult level, The Project, you have to find a portal to exit the level, that's it, no enemies.
But, at the 3DO port, one of those portals leads to a mini game.
It's not at the Saturn version, and I dare to say it's not at the Playstation version as well.
I even made a full on map of this level to navigate through it.
Yep, it's only in the 3DO version but I beleive a cheat can be used to access it in the other ports.
I belive there was actually two hidden mini games on that level.
Windows framerate looks very erratic, tho you said it's silky smooth... was that just the video capture?
Seems to be just the capture.
You all can say what you will about this series as I know it can be divisive among gamers, but I'm one of those people that actually like the Gex games. I grew up playing these on PlayStation at a neighbor's house as a kid and I was also stoked when I heard about the remastered trilogy coming out soon. These games alongside MediEvil were also some of the first I got when I started collecting games as an adult. I will say that looking at them objectively as an adult these days they are definitely all rough around the edges, especially the first title. Gex 1 is definitely ugly but I firmly believe that most early 32-bit games were like this since most developers were trying to go for something more realistic which doesn't tend to be very pretty. I find the "tude" aspect to be slightly endearing if only because of the era this game is from, but that may be just because I was born and raised in the 90s so I might be biased here. Gex has had some decent one-liners over the course of his trilogy though I freely admit that the pop culture references in the first game are... interesting sometimes but mostly either fly over my head or are just straight-up annoying so I can get people's gripes on that. Personally I thought most of them were better in the second and third games. Nevertheless this trilogy does have a strong cult following but even if I like them for what they are I wouldn't fault anybody for not liking any of these games.
Ah the Saturn’s trademark mesh transparency, my pet peeve. If snes could do true transparency you would think sega would have made it easier to implement in their hardware.
Totally agree here that awful net curtain effect, seen in titles like Alien Trilogy, Wipeout 2097 etc..
Never understood why Sega didn't design the hardware with such effects in mind.
The Saturn can do transparent effects but devs were lazy. The snes uses hardware so no effort at all was needed. The Saturn does them in software.
Keio on the Saturn is a very good example of a game that uses 2D transparent effects very well. Astal is another. Both were programmed by competent developers though.
They probably expected developers to program them in.
Good video, did you know its going to release a Gex trilogy. It was announced.
Yep. Main reason for this release. 👍
Was this planned ahead or just coincidence with the announcement of the Remastered Trilogy?
A bit of both. Gex was on the list to do over the next month but was brought forward a little due to the re-release announcement.
I think Gex is a really cool and good game. You just can't play it. You run towards enemies and hazards like crazy, maybe pay more attention while playing and you can appreciate it too.
I playing like that because I want to get it over and done with. I payed GEX many a time back in the mid 90s.
The game couldn't run at 60fps on the 3do. The console only really supports 30fps at an interpolated interlaced 640x480.
Some games run at 60fps on the system. Not many but they do exist.
@@RetroCore The system can't output 60fps as was common at the time. It is exclusively a 480i system. Even if you have the "Mode A, B" switch or 240p mod... it's not 60fps. It is 30fps because it is just rendering the same interlaced field twice in a row.
I run the site 3dodev and maintain the Opera 3DO emulator. I'm not aware of anything that runs at 60fps. The hardware doesn't have a "normal" 240p @ 60fps mode so any game that targeted that framerate would artifact. What games are you referring?
The internal framebuffer is paletted 16bit 320x240 (in NTSC regions). A proprietary interpolation and color lookup is done to generate a 640x480 @ 24bit per pixel output. That output is fed from the CLIO chip to the video DAC in standard 480i fields. Hence... the system doesn't output more than 30fps. The 240p mode simply causes the DAC to request the same field over and over which means that don't know any better... which is all of them... it just displays the same field twice rather than odd -> even. There isn't even a way for the game to know the system is in "240p" mode in order for it to try to run at 60 frames per second. It is entirely on the final stage of the video output after the frame is rendered. The system with that fake 240p mode could try to push games at 60 frames per second but that would only be possible in homebrew.
@@trapexit I'm looking at 3DO's Super Street Fighter II Turbo now, it pretty much runs at 60 fps.
@@31leoceara Are you playing on real hardware or an emulator? The internal game logic may run at 60fps, which you can see in emulation, but on real hardware the system outputs 480i which is 30 frames per second / 60 fields per second. Have to separate game logic from physical rendering. The game can run at any internal tick rate but the output is fixed on the 3DO to 480i NTSC which is 60 fields per second / 30 frames per second.
i personally quite like Gex
But that's the best part about Gex, his one liners are like that of an action movie star and they have more charm than today's attempts at nostalgia bait
And I hate that people think it's ironically cool to like Gex because of Scott the Snooze!
Scott the Wozz is bloody annoying too. Sorry, I dont like his stuff at all.
I'm with you on all those complaints about games like this. And even relative to other games with "'tude", this one sounds pretty bad. But this was the era when some developers didn't understand that less is more when it comes to voice samples. The big shock here is how the Windows version ended up with extra refinements. I never did play any version of this, and I think it will stay that way.
Brought this on the 3do and enjoyed.yes the constant wise cracks got on ya nerves abit but overall enjoyed this
Yes the ps1 version has been polished up and some of the issues tweaked
Might d/l the pc version as looks much better
Not defending Gex (never played it or had any interest), but from what I’ve seen, I’m not sure the game was trying to exude ’tude. Gex describes himself-in this video-as having no life, and I’ve always seen him as being a pop culture nerd, not especially high in attitude.
As to why attitude was such a big deal for platformer mascots in the day, that’s easy. Sonic. Easily the biggest breakout success story in early 90s video gaming, and a lot of people looked at the attitude injected into the marketing around the IP when trying to figure out how to replicate that. I never really minded it? Maybe it’s because I was a young kid at the time, but in general I see the attitude era as fine. Some IPs (and a lot of marketing) definitely took it way too far and it got annoying or cringey, but most ’tude seems pretty unobjectionable to me.
the first 3d0 game i ever played, the first saturn game i ever played. and the first ps3 game i got (downloadable)
I guess you like GEX 👍
@@RetroCore nah, all the things you listed are why i dont. there was potential here but it did not work. hopefully the remake works out tho
Sounds like you had A lot of GEX.
I think the 3do and Saturn versions are better. The pc and PlayStation look the same. In the Saturn and 3do on the first level you can see the skulls eyes on the wall glowing…. Little things like that make a difference more attention to detail.
I'm not sure why you were confused on the lack of transparency effects on the Saturn. It's well known that it does not support them and most games use checkerboard patterns in their place which were a much better approximation on CRT TVs than modern displays.
I suggest you do some research. The Saturn can do 2D transparent effects as many games have shown us in the past. It just takes some effort since it needs to be done in software, not hardware like on other system.
Take a look at Keio on the Saturn. It's a very early Saturn platformer but clearly shows transparent 2D layers even on the first stage.
Astal is another which shows transparent 2D effects. In fact there's hundreds of games that do it. Even shooters such as Darius Gaiden as stages blend in to each other or when you let of a bomb.
2D games that don't use transparent effects are just poorly programmed.
Despite my hatered for the content, I'm here. I mean...why did they do Gamera like that? Who will protect the children now?!!
I’ve still never played the original, just the N64 versions of the two sequels. Packed non-stop with ‘tude, pop culture references. I can’t images they will go over well today unless they seriously overhaul the script.
Even back in the day a lot of the annoying crap was lost on most of the English speaking world.
Terrible one liners. The cornerstone of the '90s US pop culture. Being able to understand as to wtf Gex is referencing, search the video "Gex pop culture references explained"🌠
This is also a western platformers problem: Sometimes the artstyle is so terrible and inconsistent that it looks like they just threw random stuff in the game which they copy&pasted from a 50cents thrift store clipart cd-rom.
This game sure suffers from that in later levels.
21 months of development is not a valid excuse for why Gex turned out as badly as it did. That's a fairly typical and lengthy development cycle. Mega Man 7 was developed in just 3 months by 7 guys, and why that game is one for the weaker mainline games in the series, it looks like a masterpiece when stacked next to Gex, especially considering it's 16-bit.
When I first saw GEX many years ago my immediate reaction was "eh, too much green", and then I couldn't see the palette getting a lot more varied as levels progressed. It made the game very unappealing to me. I mean, it's playable, there are dozens of platformers that are worse than this but still, it's not worth bothering about.
thanks for this video, now I know to emulate the PS1 version because it runs at 60 fps
The Saturn version was minus the loading screens?
I think he means the Saturn version loaded quicker.
Indeed. There was no "now loading" screens unlike the PlayStation.
I don't think anyone remembers the 3do port to be fair.
It’s funny, I thought Gex was a 3D game. I must be thinking of Croc or Bubsy or Spyro or any of the other random animal mascot platformers from back then. 😂
No, you are thinking about the sequels to this, which are 3D games.
This Gex reminds me of Gremlin Graphics' Zool, remember ? That game was an attempt at a mascot platformer, but, it was bland and uninspired as it gets. I liked the 2nd game though, played it a lot in the PS1.
I would agree. Both poor attempts at a mascot game. I'd say GEX is the better of the two though as there is more to GEX than Zool.
I loved this game back in the day. I have bad taste probably.
Someone had to like it 😅. Seriously though, if you liked GEX, that's fine. Everyone likes something a little different.
3DO.
I honestly thought the amiga was cooler, tbh. Like, 3DO- the expensive extention for PC that you didn’t want because it wasn’t good enough. Kinda like the 32X, but a bit better?
And this shows.
When Crystal Dynamics set themselves to the task of leveraging the power of new hardware they knew a by the numbers 2D mascot platformer with incredibly frequent and annoying voice clips was the way to go. That's ambition, if players of your game aren't fighting the urge to pierce their ear drums with six inch nails, you're not doing it right.
..shit Gex 1 is a 2D sidescroller on FIFTH GEN systems being far too good too powerful for that genre, what is there to compare? No differences
I've never played the original only played Enter the Gecko (PS1 because the N64 version SUUUUUUUUUUCKS from what i've seen) and yeah this game is just not good at all.
And yeah Gex can be annoying but at least he's no Bubsy (extra points in 3D although there it was another va) still not a very pleasant experience although its nice to see some Gex after the announcement of the remakes.
Also Mark any plans to cover the sequels in BOTP?
I may do the sequels but not any time soon. I really didn't enjoy having yo play this one.
Completely understandable
@@RetroCore The interesting sequel is Enter the Gecko with PS1, PC and N64 versions, and then a totally separate GBC version. Deep Cover Gecko is the same but with no PC version in that one for some reason. No Sega console version for either of them either.
I take it you heard about the remastered trilogy?
Yep. The only reason for this video being made 😅
Windows footage looks like 30fps to me.
*Q: Why does Saturn Gex have real transparencies for some things, but not others?*
A: Saturn's VDP2 could actually do real transparencies. The fake ones you see are drawn by VDP1.
I had this on the 3do and didnt like it much, hated the snap back and the crap level design and the framerate is all over the place i never ended up finishing it shame as it had some good idea's just didnt pull it off.
I agree, there are some nice ideas but the whole look, poor level design and horrible snapping really pulled the game down.
Say Gex
GEX is a game that never interested me even back then, just like Crock and all the ports are vast improvement over the 3DO original, seriously the 3DO as a system was rather poor as a system apart from a few good games on it and GEX is not one of those especially as 30fps.
Oh yeah... I worked at a local 'specialty' game shop back when the 3DO and this game first came out. I thought it moved and played like straight up garbage and didn't hesitate to say so when asked. I butted heads with a regular customer that had to justify his 700 dollar 3DO purchase by putting this game on a pedestal, as well as the store owner who (justifiably) wanted to sell that customer more games (Although in private he thought the game looked bad as well). Honestly, the period between the 16 bit systems and the PSX, Saturn and N64 were pretty dismal IMO, with the 3DO, CD-I and Jaguar being considered 'cutting edge'.
And the main reason why I stayed with 16bit until the Saturn came along in Japan. Yep, the 3DO, CDi and Jag all did absolutely nothing to make me think, "hmm, I might buy one of those."
Dude! Lol. Why did we get so many "copy & paste" platformers in the 90s. Where the screen is zoomed so far in that its impossible to avoid enemies or see where your going next without dying lol.
Far too many poor designers back then for sure.
@RetroCore We had it rough lol.
i owned a 3do and i wasnt interested in this game at all.....although I think the best mascot games were/are ratchet and clank and sly cooper sonic and crash bandicoot ......although sonic and crash have a lot to answer for becuaseof all the crappy imitators they spawned
3:21 - Gamera?
Your description of Western developed platformers was spot on. Oh how I hated the snappy camera. HATED! I remember playing this back in 1995 and thinking it was awful even back then.
Yep, we were flooded with platformers like this back then lol. But had to just shut up and suffer if we'd rented it or even worse. Got one for Christmas. Nooooooooo!!
Thank you. Yeah, many western made platformers had this "feature" 😢
What if you make a Battle of the Ports videos of South Park?
I'd like to in the future.
Its the lowest point of mascot games
Not (really) bad not (very) good....played once over a weekend on Psx and never felt the urge to play again
Well, at least you played a competent port 👍
I've never seen past the graveyard stages, just boring to play. I like the sequels though, glad they're getting a remaster.
Yeah, the tude is just unbearable and I recall that even back then I was appalled that this could appeal to anyone who wasn't brainwashed.
We all knew people who thought they could masquerade their insecurities by insisting they were "so cool" all the time so it simply boggles the mind that marketers thought that this was a good starting point for character design...
And my, the snap back is quite something. That also I could never understand in Euro and US platformers; this is something so aggressive to the eyes and destroys any fluidity of motion the game might have exhibited that you'd think no one would dare shipping a game with this "feature" but hey... they did and here we are. 🤣
Thanks for the video Mark!
Thanks for the comment. I agree with everything you wrote 👍
N64 version?
Ok 3D game its diferent
I, too, share your opinion on this throwaway 90s platformer. Well known? Yes. Good? Far from it. Why this game and its sequels are getting modern remakes is beyond me.
Because these re-release companies will sell any old crap for nostalgia. Some of the turds Limited Run are releasing boggles the mind.
@@RetroCore I heard they are producing a "spiritual successor" to the CD-I Zelda games... why would anyone even do that?
When Gex came out for the 3DO there was a bit too much of a glowing sense of the game coverage for it that to me it just came off as too much like Bubsy in that these reviewers back then who wrote articles seemed to place too much attention or coverage when the game did not really deserve it. I think it was hilarious when Sega Japan's Astal came out too because that game did deserve coverage and cover story art that the western magazines just gave to Bubsy and Gex far too many times which just indicates that the gamer magazines could be paid shills.
As far as any criticism towards the game on a technical level, people forget one important point of the 3DO being that all of the 3DO bullet points before they started making television commercials dimishing 16bit systems was that the 3DO company kept claiming their "multimedia player" (because it was not really a videogame system like as if they were above them which seems similar to CD-i and the 80s PC attitude of distancing themselves from videogames like that was a lesser form of entertainment) was twenty times plus more powerful than Sega MegaDrive and Super Nintendo before the tv commercials came out labeling those systems as "children's toys" compared to 3DO.
Meanwhile if you had half a brain back then and you went to try out a 3DO REAL multiplayer at a store kiosk, you would know right away that the gamepad sucked and was backwards and ignored precisions videogame experiences and further ignored recent changes like Capcom's Street Fighter selling 3.5 million cartridges in Japan and 6 to 7 million cartridges in North America during 1992 alone plus third party companies scrambling to sell their arcade style joysticks and six button layout fighting pads which Sega and later NEC immediately made standard in systems sold.
So we have twenty times the power and over hype about CD-ROM technology that already existed thanks to NEC PC-Engine and Sega MegaCD so again its like western reviewers would also forget that those games existed and only a few pointed out how annoying too much voice overs can be.
Thus it is fair that Gex is an over rated and over hyped game back then just like Bubsy which under performed on a technical level and also that one could question if Gex would be possible on the base Sega MegaDrive if handled by an ace dev team because one look at Sonic 3 and Knuckles tells you they were pushing the color palette beyond the so called capabilities while other devs failed... also people tend to misunderstand why 3DO and even Atari Jaguar failed just had nothing to do with Sega or Sony or Nintendo but how those companies made similar tv commercials immediately comparing themselves to Sega and Nintendo and making them lesser while telling viewers that they were stupid if they owned those systems... blatantly insulting the game system buyer into buying 3D0 and Jaguar.
Also 3DO was actually despite its higher price, selling much better in Japan, that is before Sega Saturn and a true next gen game like Virtua Fighter showed up which we unfortunately did not experience because Sega of America;s 90s staff wanted to act like they knew better, that we should stay held up in upgrading the last generation, which was Sega of America 90s staff idea and creation to make 32X and not bother to launch Sega Saturn at least in December 1994 or January 1995 aimed at older gamers
Point being that come 1995 and Sega of America's Bug! game came off as too much similar to Bubsy and Gex because that 90s staff knew what they were doing in being clueless about how to go on a next generation path.
Astal wipes the floor with GEX in every area. God only knows why GEX was praised more than Astal.