Although Mario 64 clones haven't come in at the rate that we all expected they would, the quality of the clones that do exist are pretty much the same quality that we thought they would be. That is very mediocre.

The original Gex pretty much prevented the 3DO from becoming extinct in less then a year. A game that had Dana Gould to do voice overs. A game with a great character to star in it. Enter Gex: Enter the Gecko. Crystal Dynamics, instead of doing another 2D platformer, decided to make the most of the Playstation hardware (and at the same time make a Mario 64 clone) and make the sequel 3D. I think that this was a bad move. Since developers are finding more and more ways to be original in 2D (look at Tomba) and the fact that the original Gex was little more than a standard hop and bop affair, Gex: Enter the Gecko could have been a very awesome 2D game. But as it stands, it's a redundant 3D Mario 64 clone.

The story goes as follows (with Dana Gould back again narrating it): After the first Gex, Gex had a 2 year long TV marathon. Then some guys in black suits showed up to put him back on assignment (with the X Files theme as background music). So Gex is suited up in a Bond tux and is sent to the Media Dimension.

The Media Dimension is a strange dimension inside TV holding all sorts of worlds of TV. In other words, it's the castle from Super Mario 64 with TV like stuff. The stages feel like warped versions of Looney Toons, Tron, Kung Fu, and Friday the 13th. Stages are done with a lot of imagination and are hilarious, but they are too linear for their own good. These worlds are presented with a nice polygon count, the occasional slowdown, and a camera that seemingly loves to show the action from behind the Empire State Building. Gex dons a lot of clothes ranging from a bunny suit to those cuts like Bruce Lee to electricity.

The main problem (other than an obstructive camera) is that the puzzles are uninspired. The whole game has a "been there, done that" feel to it. It's as if they were too inspired by Mario.

In all, Gex is a nice romp in the park for the 3D platformer genre, but it's not helping it become more popular.

Overall: 7.1