[Review] Gex Trilogy proves that some lizards should stay extinct

A disappointing collected port of GEX games that don’t hold up — but would any hold up anyways?

The power of emulation. That’s GEX Trilogy. When we boot up the game, the first thing we see is the Square Enix logo, which is outlandish because of the link to Crystal Dynamics and that this collection is developed by Limited Run Games. It’s a hodgepodge of companies, much like the games within it. It’s very funny, but it’s genuinely that: Three games of 90s cringe.

I was going to say I was a big fan of the original GEX, but I guess I really was a big fan of GEX 2. That was the one that I played back in the day, the one that I cared about. GEX 2 and GEX 3 are a bit interchangeable in quality, which is why they’re the centerpieces of this collection. GEX 1 is only here because it has to be. GEX 1 is genuinely a bad video game. I do not enjoy any of my time with GEX 1. It is a 2D side-scrolling platformer from the 3DO that looks bad and feels bad and has a bad map system. It was bad back then, even ported to other platforms, and somehow ended up with a sequel.

Nobody told the developers “no,” and it must hav just been a different time. Back then, 3D platformers were the new hotness, espeecially mascot-based ones. Crystal Dynamics was working on 3DO games and thought, “let’s hire comedian Dana Gould to say the same seven quotes over and over again in each level while players play through parodies of movies.” And back then, that was fun. I still think it’s a weird pop culture thing these days, and it’s kind of floated back. Back then, the game was populated by funny movie quotes said and dead actors referenced that were already outdated, that a kid would not understand then and fewer would understand now. But it’s the kind of humor now that’s circled back around into absurdism in a way where everything’s super weird and goofy. It’s on the cusp of being Gen Z humor without quite being there.

But then, yeah, I don’t know who this is actually for.

Outside of myself (and even saying “me” is kind of stretching it) this might be aimed at people who remember these games, but they’re not going to make any new Gex fans. And the series isn’t gaining anything by being put together in a remaster. The developers have prettied up the games a little bit but they still have plenty of issues.

The controls on GEX 2 and GEX 3 get a bit of an overhaul; we can now control the camera with the right stick, which helps a lot. But like a lot of the games at that time these in particular were designed to be controlled with a digital pad even though in a 3D space. So using analog controls kind of messes with the gameplay a bit. It’s almost as if adding finesse to where something didn’t have finesse kind of makes it feel weird and wrong, especially if one’s played the games before.

The biggest problem this collection has is that I don’t think the carbon engine is really there for PlayStation 1 ports — even the Tomba revival was kind of janky. And this release also launches in a poor state. The audio is all over the place; it’s bad, crackly or wrong, or all of a sudden the levels will change. The carbon engine is clearly only really great for 8 and 16-bit games, it’s just not there yet for this stuff.

The developers have even cut out things that were important to the original experiences. For instance in GEX 1 the password system has been entirely removed. There’s no way to enter cheat codes. Everything’s a manual save that uses a save state. I don’t get it. The games themselves are mostly the same, but cutting these items doesn’t necessarily provide a quality of life improvement.

On top of that, this collection pales compared to others when it comes to content. Sticking to the mainline three games is basic, but it’s a miss to not include items like the Game Boy games. This is a very simplified release, with better ways already out there to play GEX 2 and 3, so apart from just having three games in one file there isn’t really enough for a recommendation, even if you liked GEX… which you have to admit you probably didn’t.

This review is based on retail code sent to SideQuesting by the publisher. Images and video courtesy publisher. It originally appeared on The SideQuest for Juny 25, 2025.