Gex Trilogy Review (Triple-Q)
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.