Gex

We've all been there. You're watching the idiot box. Gulp down a fly. Turns out, it was a transmitter sent by Rez. Sentient sharp silver teeth and claws. In nightmare fuel, he pulls you in, right through the screen. He wants you to be his mascot, so he can, of course, take over the world. Doesn't sound bad? You could live with making a living in a big, doofy stuffed animal suit? It's not that kind of... look, he wants to bronze you down. Now you're stuck in the Media Dimension. It's built entirely out of references to what you can catch on TV. Shows, movies, ads, you name it. All from the 90's, which this is a snapshot of. To get out, he'll need to collect the remotes and defeat dozens of enemies.

Sonic, Crash Bandicoot, Leo, Don, Raph, Michelangelo, etc. A product of his time, as a hero for kids, Gex is constructed of snark, attitude, and, the big difference, giving him and this their personality, nothing but pop culture. He compares what he sees to things, always accurately. MST3king what he's experiencing. He's always quoting, and occasionally acts out, scenes. I laughed through nearly every single one of them. And you *can* turn them off if you feel like it. None of them are about the plot, and you know who the character is regardless.

One of the most unique aspects for one of these, this allows you to, with ease, stick to and climb any flat surface with enough space for your body. This allows for a ton of different situations, and they are all used. The creativity in this area is tremendously memorable and enjoyable. You'll traverse areas using sinking stones, stars, even dangerous rockets, and more. This gets very challenging, and is one of the last old-school tough VGs. Sometimes cheaply so. This is *considerably* more forgiving than, say, Rayman, Crash Bandicoot, Heart of Darkness, Commander Keen, and I could go on. Big, chunky Polaroid camera checkpoint saves aid you greatly. Remember those? I do. *sigh* I shouldn't. No time limits. You will, however rarely, be pushed ahead, by the edge, so from left to right, as is the norm. There is going other directions, a lot of times. You can touch it. Do *not* be between it and something solid. Jump, often having to wait until you're almost out of room.

With many well-hidden secrets, it is tremendously replayable. Boss battles are difficult, fun and sufficiently different. Of course, they're not going to stun you with how unexpected they go. Dodge for a while, his method of targeting you alters, gradually increasing its intensity, then you get your window, that you have to recognize as such, and chip away at him. You know the drill. How to do it.

There are themes to everything around you. Horror, with Frankenstein, possessed tree stumps, evil, living tomatoes and a raving loon of a slasher villain. Animation, with quickly gnawed away carrots, pianos and anvils drop out of the sky with little warning, and purple smurfs assault you by throwing presents, after they roll in a ball. Adventure and martial arts get racist, typical for the period. Dancing, spear-wielding(!) natives. Sumo wrestlers whose stomachs you can bounce on after taking them out. Nevertheless, it couldn't be more clear: the developers parked in front of the tube for at least as long as you did. They loved what they saw. And they wanted to remind you that you did, as well. Obviously, this was made with us as the intended audience. Today, young whippersnappers who don't remember the decade, or hadn't even been born in time to see it, won't get as much out of it.

You can attack in a few different ways. They can all be directed to at least some extent. Your tail is versatile. Whip it good. No matter where your feet are. Decent range. You can tail-bounce on foes, anything else harmful, and breakable blocks. Not all of them... some will still hurt you. When it goes well, you get a lot higher, which is, of course, a skill you have to master. Your tongue allows you to do two things: Swallow powerups, and fire the ball that you might gain from that. Fire, melting others. Ice, freezing them... *not* fatally! They'll thaw in no time. And electricity, that goes diagonally, as well. If hit, you'll lose this. Of course, you can also increase your health, gain extra lives, become briefly invincible, and such. Or you can use them to recharge, instead. This is fairly similar to Earthworm Jim 1 and 2. Much more so than its other rivals. It does lack the volume of content of them.

You cannot save your progress in this, unless you own it on 3DO, as well as have, well, that console, and can still get it running. I envy both of you. In this, you have to find VHS tapes and am I really this old. Anyway. Those will provide you with the password to reach where you have progressed to. There isn't one in each section! This does mean that running out of lives isn't a problem. If you did so in one you had the code for. And you don't need your physical copy, or even the system you usually play on, in order to continue from where you got to. Maybe you don't have access to it. Perhaps it's just to quickly show a friend one of them. IMO, every game should allow both.

I wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone who thinks it might be for them. Also fans of action-adventure platformers, anything referenced herein. The Movie Connections page on here gives you an idea, albeit containing a mere fraction of all that is here. ...note to self: stop biting the hand that feeds you. I of course don't blame IMDb. Their wise and fair leaders are just in their approach to dealing with insults. 8/10