For better or worse, this year of the snake has become the year of the Gex.
Limited Run Games has just unveiled the official trailer for Gex Trilogy, showcasing the three games being remastered using the Limited Run’s Carbon Engine. Gex Trilogy is coming this Summer 2025 to Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Steam.
Gex was originally released by a then-independent Crystal Dynamics, all the way back in 1995. Heeding the call for attitude laced mascot platformers following the footsteps of Sonic the Hedgehog, Zero The Kamikaze Squirrel, and Plok.
Gex was one of the first things Lyle Hall made when he joined the California based studio. While they came up with the broad strokes of a mascot character to rival Mario and Sonic, it was comedian Dana Gould who gave the gecko his voice. He wrote the twisted lizard’s quips, with his comedy stylings landing somewhere in between MTV’s Remote Control, Mystery Science Theater 3000, and Robin Williams. Also, he literally voiced the thing.
The first Gex game was conceived as a showcase of the powers and abilities of the burgeoning CD based video game console juggernaut, the 3DO. However, a mix of too much ambition and having to learn the 3DO’s hardware on the fly meant that Crystal Dynamics took 21 months to finish and release the game. This was too long for the time, and too late to make it a hit on its home console. But the yapping arthropod would find fans on PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Windows.
Gex: Enter The Gecko was Crystal Dynamics’ turn to follow Super Mario 64’s footsteps to bring their slithering platformer to full 3D. This time Gould got help from Simpsons writer Rob Cohen, although the Nintendo 64 would get considerably less of the gecko’s glib quips on cartridge than the PlayStation and Windows versions. Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko would be partly made of ideas that didn’t make it from the previous game, but would also bring in a simplified camera system to address criticisms from its predecessor. While these games didn’t turn out to be as groundbreaking as the studio had hoped, they became memorable for being the kinds of games were the comedy was core to their design.
Crystal Dynamics was successful with this franchise, but they mostly rode the mascot platformer wave and moved on with their signature IPs like Legacy of Kain and Tomb Raider. It’s very telling that when they negotiated their exit from Square Enix, Crystal Dynamics decided to keep Legacy of Kain and Tomb Raider, and left Gex in Sephiroth’s hands. As you may note, they’re not even credited in this trailer.
Thankfully for us real ‘90s kids, Square Enix decided they wanted to do something with our plucky hero. After a cameo in Astro Bot, Square Enix gave Limited Run Games the reigns to remake this trilogy. Limited Run Games hints that they have made some enhancements using their Carbon Engine, and we hope that means they fixed the camera for the 3D games. But clearly, they have more to share with us in the coming months.
For now, you can watch the official Gex Trilogy trailer below.
