You're a gecko in TV's wasteland

Microsoft's Gex a novel shoot-'em-up game

by Keith Schengili-Roberts

You are a young, hip, gecko lizard, taking some time out of your hectic schedule of doing nothing (and doing lots of it) by relaxing in your recliner and checking out what's on the tube.

Suddenly, an evil, nasty guy by the name of Rez intrudes, lending an obligatory plot element by reaching out of the TV set and grabbing you from your comfy couch. You are pulled through the TV tube into the Media Dimension, a place where the cheesiest movies and television shows go to retire. Your goal: destroy Rez's plan to keep you there forever. How? Kill your TV!

Gex was originally released by Crystal Dynamics for the 3DO play system about a year ago, and was easily one of the better games that came out at the time. Microsoft has taken the game and adapted it for use for Windows 95-capable PCs.

This fast-paced arcade game has some interesting twists to it. With the voice of comic Dana Gould, Gex is a wisecracking gecko with attitude, as he goes up against a variety of TV villains with a blazing tongue and a battering tail. With his tongue he can scoop up "power-ups" that add extra abilities, like spitting ice-balls or temporary invulnerability. By whipping his tail he can take out nasties like zombie geckos, flying killer turtles or chainsaw-wielding goons.

Since Gex is a gecko, he can also climb walls, allowing players another option with which to tackle a particular problem. Gex hurls fireballs, scrabbles up buildings with his suction-cup hands and feet, tail-slaps foes and swallows power-up bugs for extra powers. Gex isn't the usual shoot-'em-up game, it contains some novel ways to defeat enemies (what kid won't enjoy hurling a deadly spit-ball at an enemy?), requires some problem-solving skills to get around the traps, and fast finger-work to survive.

Gex shares the best and worst features of any game originally devised for a game machine. Like the best game machine-type games, it is full of fast, arcade-like action. While it is challenging, it is simple to play, and any kid familiar with playing Mario-like games will be at home playing Gex. It is not particularly graphic when it comes to defeating baddies-they fizzle away into the TV static they came from. While it is playable from a keyboard, it is best suited for game-pad play a fact obviously not lost on Microsoft, which released the SideWinder game pad at the same time as this game.

Unfortunately, the people at Microsoft did not spend much time adapting the game properly for the PC. Game machines do not always have the best options for saving your place in a game. This carries over in this port of the game to the PC. To save your place, you have to find special video tapes that contain a password that later returns you to the same spot. Unfortunately these tapes only appear in every other gaming scenario, so you might tire of playing before you can get the opportunity to adequately save your game.

Gex is a fast-paced, fun, driving game that will appeal to anybody who likes arcade-like action games. It's scenarios are big and will keep inveterate game players busy for hours. If you are interested in trying before buying, an 11 MB demo of the game can be downloaded from the following Microsoft Web site (see contacts). Gex is a lot of fun, and besides, where else can you get to kill your TV for such a good cause?

Contact: Microsoft Canada Inc., Tel: 905-568-0434.
Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/games/gex/

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TCP Online February 1997 Issue