izigame.me

For a company that touts itself as a champion of game preservation, Limited Run Games' handling of Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko within their "Trilogy" is nothing short of a travesty. While Deep Cover Gecko was arguably the most polished of the original PlayStation entries, offering improved level design, better music, and a slightly more refined camera, Limited Run Games manages to diminish even these existing strengths. The "improvements" they boast for their Carbon Engine are, in Gex 3's case, barely perceptible. You get widescreen, sure, but the fundamental issues that plagued 90s 3D platformers – the clunky camera, the often-frustrating hitboxes, and the general datedness of its mechanics – remain largely untouched. What's truly infuriating is the abysmal sound design; a constant, jarring popping sound every time you open the pause menu, a cracking and popping or often sound effects that don't even occur when they're are suppose to and while playing through the game you may get a unfixable buzzing noise that you have to turn the game completely off to get rid of. Flaws that scream "untested" and "unprofessional."
The indignity continues with the shocking state of the game on modern hardware. Reports of other audio glitches, visual bugs, and outright instability. This pathetic effort stands in stark contrast to the meticulous work seen in other retro re-releases. Look at Nightdive Studios' Turok remasters, where every texture was lovingly upscaled, lighting systems were overhauled, and the overall visual and soundscape were meticulously enhanced to breathe new life into classic titles. Similarly, Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster showcases a dedication to modernizing an old game's presentation, boasting vastly improved visuals and sound design. And while not released yet, System Shock 2 remaster will more than likely have the same treatment given their track record.
But the complaints don't stop at technical incompetence. This "Trilogy" is a bafflingly incomplete package for anyone genuinely interested in Gex preservation. Where are the Game Boy Color versions, which offered entirely different 2D interpretations of the 3D games? Removed without notifying their fanbase however, keeping it inside their promotional material. Where are the Nintendo 64 versions, which, while often criticized, still contained unique levels and content missing from this collection? You might as well of just added another emulator since that's the only thing you did with the PS1 versions. It's a glaring omission that makes the "trilogy" feel more like "three of the PlayStation games we could easily slap on an emulator." This isn't thorough preservation; it's a reactive scramble to fix a clearly incomplete offering, revealing a cynical approach that values quick profit over genuine dedication to gaming history.
I would not recommend buying this Trilogy at all as you will be disappointed in its state. And do what they did and just go get yourself an emulator and dump your original copies.

I love this series because I grew up with the 3D ones on the PS1. So this was a day one purchase no matter what. I've since beat all three games and got all the achievements. Overall i'd say it's a passible compilation but not perfect.
I'm going to start with the positives, because I don't want this review to be only negative:
1. The new rewind feature definitely comes in handy for Gex 1 which is considerably more difficult than the others. I like how you can just select a moment too instead of having to manually rewind back to the point you want.
2. I felt an improvement in performance with Gex 2 and Gex 3. Many moments where the game would slow down in the originals now don't and it feels like the games are locked at 30fps now instead of trying to approach 30 and slowing down when theres too much on screen. It would be even better if they ran at 60+ fps but as it is, it's an improved, yet subtle improvement over the originals.
3. The improved controls in Gex 2 and 3 feel great (for the most part, i'll get to the core flaw later) I found it way more precise and that could've been why the games felt better in performance as well. Maybe I was just playing the games better and faster overall because I had a better sense of control.
4. The new menus are very stylish and creative which is honestly the highest quality aspect of this compilation.
So heres the negatives:
1. I am not a fan of the new save system. It feels kind of clunky honestly. You can't save the game after you beat the final boss, the games just reset, so you better save before you fight Rez in every game. I also wonder why they even went with save states in the first place. I get it in Gex 1 because it doesn't have a proper save system but Gex 2 and Gex 3 did, yet they removed them entirely for something more clunky. I also heard that there's corruption issues with the saves as well but honestly I never experienced them.
2. I know I was praising the new controls earlier but there's one problem with them. They ruined the controls for driving the tank in Gex 3. My god, I was wobbling constantly because they're too precise, a tank shouldn't control like that, the more limited direction makes sense in that context and I don't think they took that into account. Either way, it's not a huge deal because you use the Tank in one stage, and like two bonus stages. It just threw me off of a ton which is why I felt like mentioning it.
3. There's a lot of audio issues, wrong instrumentation or instruments just straight up not playing, this is an obvious emulation issue that kind of baffles me because the game features an option to listen to the soundtracks in the menus. You'd think they'd listen to the OST and realize that it's not playing right while playing the game. Luckily this has been addressed in a new update patch as I type this.
4. There's some graphical issues as well. In Gex 2, the collectable icon you see on the right of the screen in the Bonus Stages looks like they're being stretched too thin. I have to assume this is the fault of the 16:9 resolution not being properly implemented. Every time you jump into a TV as well the resolution changes slightly. Almost as if the game's resolution is a bit too zoomed in and it corrects itself when you get to the results screen. This happens in Gex 3 as well which isn't really a surprise considering how much Gex 3 is built off of Gex 2's engine. Pretty much all the problems Gex 2 has are in Gex 3 as well. Some are even worse in Gex 3. I noticed that a building in the final map (Funky Town) had glitchy textures as well. Another obvious emulation issue.
5. This one is unrelated and might just be bad luck but once I beat Gex 3, my controller just stopped working. I couldn't even leave the game to enter the menu, I had to manually close the game with my mouse.
6. This is more of a nitpick but I don't get why they couldn't just include the N64 versions as well since they're different ports with exclusive levels. They include footage of the exclusive levels in the extras menu but it's just a video showing them off. I'm fine with the exclusion of the GBC games (because honestly they're not that good) but I feel like for posterity sake the N64 versions of Gex 2 and Gex 3 should've been included as well much like the PAL voices because they have content that's not in the PS1 versions.
I'm fine with spending money on this because I'm already a Gex fan, but I can't in good consciousness recommend it now at it's current price. There's just too many things wrong and it feels like a slapped together compilation. Gex deserved better than this and I'm a bit disappointed. Hopefully further patches can fix many of these problems but come on, how come Croc got a better remaster than Gex? These are good games from the 90s that got lost to time but the emulation leaves a lot to be desired.

I'mma be real, this is a tenuous recommendation. If you're not a hardcore Gex fan but are still interested, then wait for a sale. But I personally believe it's worth it for the smoother analog controls of Gex 2 and 3 alone. A recent patch also includes the PAL Gex 2 and 3, so that's neat!
for a release like this, I think it's best if I list off the good and bad.
✅ THE GOOD: ✅

Smooth 3D analog controls that are no longer stuck to 8 directions. This elevates Gex 2 and 3 from alright platfomers to extremely solid and fun
16:9 native widescreen for Gex 2 and 3
Save anywhere and rewind. Very good for Gex 1 particularly
(G)extras are good, particularly the Dana Gould interview
Presentation of the wrapper for the games is very stylish and fun. I appreciate the Windows Media Player skin reference
PAL version is (now) included
Seeing the Square-Enix logo in front of GEX is funny in and of itself

❌ THE BAD: ❌

Gex 1. Seriously, it sucked then and it really sucks now. A friend of mine called it "one of the most MS-DOS platformers ever made". If you must play it, use save states.
No real performance boost or visual improvements. Everything's locked to 30fps, and Gex 1 is stuck at 4:3. I kind of expected this since they're emulated but even emulators can increase the framerate and resolution!
Controls can't be rebinded! Ideally, you should be playing this with a controller and the default binds work just fine, but the option should have been there
Main menus are modified heavily and the inbuilt save systems are removed in favor of the new system. This one is debatable as to whether its good or bad, but in particular it makes the password VHS tapes of Gex 1 completely useless
Emulation is jank sometimes. Because these are emulated, in some levels you can see some geometry culling towards the edges, and in Gex 3 particularly the sound emulation is not great. Samples in some songs are missing or otherwise don't play properly
The N64 versions are not included, and any extra levels from those releases are relegated to bonus gameplay videos in the Gextras. It would have been really nice to play the Titanic level specifically...!
The CRT filter sucks. Don't use it.
The elephant in the room: this is an LRG release. This can be a dealbreaker depending where you draw your line in the sand. Personally, I'm just glad I don't have to funnel any more dollars into their pockets

This isn't the most horrible re-release in the world, but it is lacking (thanks LRG) and they really could have done a hell of a lot better considering the output of other remastering companies like Nightdive.
In the end though, I still personally think this is worth it--again, Gex 2 and 3 are still great and the newer controls make them even better games than they were before! If you like Gex and/or late 90's/early 00's platformers and want to support more TAIL TIME, then purchase... with caution, of course.