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Gex: Enter The Gecko · The Long and Short of It

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Thanks for checking out the Long and Short of It podcast.
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We hope you enjoy the show. Hello and welcome to the Long
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and Short of It, the podcast where we discuss each of the
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games on the Open Critic Top 100 list.
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My name is Lawrence and I'm joined by.
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This is Dan, welcome to the podcast.
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Welcome back. We we almost had a disaster
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before we even started. Then as the start of every
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episode we we do a little clap to make sure that our audio is
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In Sync. We did the clap, said OK, yeah,
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we're all In Sync. And then we both realised that
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neither of us was actually recording, so we're off a
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flying. Start for us.
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Yeah, we're off to a flying start on this Bank Holiday
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Monday. But yes, how are you?
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Are you well? I'm OK, yeah, yeah.
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Just driven back from Whitby and encountered the lovely bank
0:57
holiday traffic. Oh yes, that's my favourite.
1:00
Added sort of an hour and a half to the journey, which is
1:03
brilliant. So yes, I'm weary, but I've just
1:08
had a little nap and I'm ready to go.
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How are you A? Little catnap.
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Yes, quite well indeed. I don't know what I've done over
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the last couple of days, but it's it's been nice you know,
1:21
I've got a few days off this week so yes indeed.
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And what? Days have you got off?
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Wednesday and Thursday and. What are you doing with said
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days? I don't know, I was originally
1:33
going to be seeing Coldplay, but we sold the tickets so I'm not
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going to see Coldplay anymore. So I just kept the days off.
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So I'm just going to probably go for a long run and fair enough,
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go to the gym and all of the fun adult things.
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And I'll also maybe start on the next game that we're going to be
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covering. But that's getting ahead of
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ourselves because we've got another game to talk about
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before next time, haven't we? Or.
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We could just end the episode there.
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There we go and that's everything.
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Thank you very much and we'll. See you next time.
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Yes, we do have another game to talk about in the meantime, do
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we not? We're going to be talking about
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APS 1 and N64 game today. So this week we are covering Gex
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3D and To the Gecko, which is the second game in the Gex the
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Gecko trilogy. It was released originally in
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1998 on the PS1 and M64, developed by Crystal Dynamics,
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and there's no meta or open critics score for Gex Enter the
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Gecko because of the time that it was released, I suppose.
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However, they've just released a new kind of remastered trilogy
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across like all the modern consoles and that does have a
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score. So on Opencritic, it has a an
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average score of 1. No, it has an open critics score
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of 72. And I had a look on Metacritics
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as well, just out of interest in it has a 70.
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So very, very, very middling. Well, just above middling, but
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yeah. So is this the first time you've
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played this game? What's your history with Gex?
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What's the what? What's the?
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What's the I'm going? To fire a question at you to
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begin with for the for the listener, what what prompted us
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to play this game? So this was was your choice.
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So yeah, what what prompted us to play this game this week?
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And we'll kind of start with that and then jump into
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histories and stuff. Yeah, I didn't realise that this
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had been re released and I think I may be meant.
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I think I've probably mentioned my cousin a couple of times on
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this podcast because when I was growing up I spent a lot of time
4:00
with her and she was my introduction to the Tomb Raider
4:04
games and it was her that originally got me into Final
4:07
Fantasy 7. I think there's a story on the
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Final Fantasy 7 episode of how I got that game and well, she got
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it. I got Breath of Fire 3 and then
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we swapped. So Gex was a game that she had
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on the PS1, and I remember playing it with her a lot when I
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was but a young boy. And anyone that's listened to
4:30
this podcast for more than a few episodes, particularly for older
4:33
games, knows that a lot of my game selection choices when it
4:37
comes to choosing games on here is primarily fueled by
4:40
nostalgia. And Gex Into the Gecko is a game
4:46
that I remember really enjoying a lot as a kid, and I hadn't
4:48
played it since. So yeah, when you mentioned that
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there had been a remaster, I think a couple of episodes ago,
4:57
I think it might have been the Bayonetta episode.
4:58
Yeah, I got very excited, immediately purchased it from
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the Nintendo E shop while we were recording.
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And then you made a joke saying I will do that next time.
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And then I said, no, no, shall we?
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And he said, oh, we can't do. No, here we are.
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Yeah. And the other, the other bit to
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this is at the moment we're both playing our Switch to.
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So we're kind of looking for things to play that we can play
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on there. Next game won't be, won't be
5:25
there. But yeah.
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So this was another opportunity to get that fired up.
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And obviously if you're going away, then you can play this on
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the Switch to which I have just been away.
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So yes, I was able to play this on my travels.
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So yeah, it was. Convenient really, wasn't it?
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It was, I also suppose before we get onto your history with this
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game, the back of the box, I'm going to go with the back of the
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box from the PS1 version because like I say, this game did come.
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Out do you own the PS1 version? No, I don't.
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I mean, I've sold a lot of my PS1 games about 6-7, eight
6:02
months ago, but I've I've never owned this game.
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So this is a reading off the offer the screenshots of the
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Internet so. You've never, you've never owned
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this game. No, I played it a lot.
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I think I. Borrowed it, yeah, I think I.
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Borrowed it a lot from my cousin and I probably also borrowed it
6:20
from my Blockbuster. OK, but I played it a lot.
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So the back of the box. The ultimate free roaming 3D
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experience. And this is primarily bullet
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points, so huge media dimension levels, all designed as
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sarcastic parodies of popular TV and movies.
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Innovative camera control. I'm sure we'll come on to that
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shortly. Explore and look anywhere in
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beautifully textured 3D worlds. Talking trash comedian Dana
6:49
Gould delivers over 500 sarcastic, sarcastic lip synced
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impressions and one liners. Or in the EU version, Leslie
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Phillips over 125 slick gecko moves, whip cracking, tail
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attacks, flying karate kicks, tongue grabbing and climbing up
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walls. 125. Yeah, I don't think that's
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correct. That's got to be rubbish a bit.
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Baloney master of disguise get sports, a secret agent suit,
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Kung Fu uniform, space suit and other costumes.
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Early candidate for Game of the Year by PCPS Extreme magazine
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and the The rating for this game is kids to adults.
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And I would say that maybe this would probably be more of a teen
7:36
to adults game, to be perfectly honest.
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Yeah, but. Some of the problem with this,
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this game is it's going to appeal to kids, isn't it?
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If you look at at the back of the box, you look at the the
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graphics, this is going to appeal to the kids that like
7:51
mascot platformers, who like Mario 64 and so on.
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Yeah. And I think the word mascot here
7:58
is important because we we've played Mario, we've played
8:02
Sonic, we've played that's it, that's.
8:06
What we've we've ever played, isn't it?
8:07
Are those the only We've played Crash Bandicoot as well, and
8:12
obviously Mario was was Nintendo, Sonic is Saga.
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Crash was kind of the unofficial mascot for the PS1 and Gex at
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this point made a bit of a bid to be that, But originally Gex,
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the first Gex because this is the second in the trilogy.
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The first Gex game was actually. It came out on the Panasonic 3D
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O which was a very short lived console in the early 90s and was
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kind of blown out the water by the fact that it was ACD ROM
8:44
based game very similar to the PlayStation.
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However, I think Panasonic massively misjudged how popular
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this game, well how popular a console would like that would be
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without much of A game backing. And they released the 3D O for
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£600 whereas the PS1 was released for I think 299.
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But yeah, the 3D O very short lived, but a lot of games got
9:13
their their start and that like that was originally where now
9:19
I'm thinking the Sega Assassin are Knifer, Tomb Raider, but a
9:22
few games had their their start in the 3D O before it just
9:25
fizzled out. And then it kind of came over to
9:27
the PlayStation and then N64. So yeah, Gex was originally the
9:32
mascot for the 3D O, but that didn't last very long because
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the console didn't last very long.
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So yeah, what what's your history with Gex?
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Do you know anything about it? Because I don't think you played
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it before, had you? No.
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So I'd seen, I'd seen Gex. I'd seen Gex probably back in
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the 90s and I was, I was always aware of Gex.
9:55
And obviously I knew it was a Nintendo 64 game as well.
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And I kind of, I'd forgotten that over the years.
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And looking into this game, I was like, oh, OK, yeah, it's an
10:06
N64 game as well. And the N64 version is supposed
10:11
to be inferior. It was a port of the PS1
10:14
version, but it did also have some extra content.
10:19
But obviously you've got some really heavy hitting platform
10:23
games on the N64, so I think it probably got a bit drowned out
10:29
due to those games. Banjo Kazooie, Super Mario 64
10:33
off the top of my head, but many, many more as well.
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So, yeah, I can't say I've ever been chomping at the bit to get
10:45
my teeth into this one, but here we are.
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Yeah, that's that's probably the extent of my history now.
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What do you remember about playing this game as a young
10:58
whippersnapper? I remember I remember the
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collectathon levels quite quite vividly as well as I must have
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been pretty young so I remember being quite freaks.
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I didn't like the horror levels, even though they had the least
11:14
scary thing ever and, and I remember not really ever getting
11:19
much further than the second boss, the pig, Mr Mushu, and I
11:27
found him to be quite disconcerting and freaky.
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But yeah, I just remember not being particularly good at the
11:33
game. And I remember, as I did with a
11:37
lot of games at the time, if I wanted to play something but
11:39
didn't feel like I had the skill level to do something, I just
11:43
mess around on easier levels. And I remember in this game I
11:45
just messed around a lot in in the hub world, even though
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there's nothing to do there really.
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That that must have been a thrilling.
11:53
Absolutely, Absolutely. If you could even say 20
11:57
minutes. 20 seconds. But you know, I, I remember
12:01
really liking all of the quips from.
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Did you understand them? Some of them, yeah.
12:07
I mean, some of them are very. It's a lot of pop culture
12:12
references from the 90s, isn't it?
12:14
This game, like Sonic the Hedgehog is very 90s.
12:17
This is more so. Yeah, because it hasn't aged
12:22
well because of the references. Yeah, massively.
12:26
And you know, it's got references in there like Obi Wan
12:30
taught you well or that kind of thing.
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But then there are also why I say teen earlier because like,
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there are some really weird references in here, like Geck
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saying I feel like I'm in Boy George's pants or going into 11
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and saying a little tongue now and a lot of tail later.
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And it's very obvious what like the euphemism is of that.
12:56
But it's like this is a children's game.
12:58
Yeah, and also things that have aged terribly, such as in the
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Kung Fu level. Wear a short round when you need
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him. Yeah, and I mean, this, this was
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going to be a section where we're going to come on to later,
13:11
but we'll do it now because we're kind of already on it.
13:14
This is a game that you couldn't make today.
13:17
It's I mean, I, I hate using the term woke.
13:22
I think that it gets used too much.
13:24
And you and me are quite liberal people anyway, aren't we?
13:27
We're we're relatively left wing and I don't have an issue with a
13:33
lot of the stuff in this game, but I could understand that a
13:37
lot of people if a game like this came out today or they
13:40
bought this game out today as it was, I don't think I think that
13:44
there would be a little bit of controversy around it.
13:46
I mean like you say I. Don't think it's wildly no over
13:52
the top. It's 90 stereotypes isn't it?
13:55
And I mean the Kung Fu level, like you say, wears short round
13:58
when you need him. And also like some of the
14:01
buildings that you go into, very stereotypical of this is a
14:06
Chinese laundromat shop. Because that's the stereotype of
14:11
like, that was the stereotype of Asian people in the 90s, wasn't
14:15
it? Oh, they, they own laundromats
14:17
or something, which is obviously incorrect.
14:19
But that was the stuff that you'd see in television or film,
14:23
you know what I mean? Yeah, I also don't think it was
14:29
probably doing anything that other platformers at the time
14:32
weren't doing. The 90s were very different.
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I think the big reason that the quips wouldn't work today is
14:41
very simple, because they're not that funny.
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And they, they, they kind of border on the annoying at times
14:48
in that you constantly like every, I don't know. 15 tail
14:53
time. Yeah, the same thing as being
14:55
repeated verbatim. And it's, yeah, just a bit
15:00
annoying. It does get tiring, but do you
15:05
know what I mean when I say that I don't think that you could
15:07
make this game as it is now, I feel.
15:09
I mean, you could, but I feel that there would be pushback
15:14
against it, you know? Yeah, it might get a bit of
15:16
controversy, but I mean, they still managed to make GTA games
15:21
that are quite openly offensive. You still got all these cartoons
15:29
that jab lightly or heavily at pop culture Family Guy, South
15:35
Park. So I don't know.
15:38
I think I think there's there's probably still space for it.
15:42
I think they'd have to sharp sharpen up their wit game.
15:45
It's things like Conquest Bad Fur day that.
15:48
Yeah, Conquest Bad Fur Day is a good a good one to compare it
15:52
to, I think, actually. And that is a game that I think
15:56
does the theme of Gex better than Gex.
15:59
And you have levels where you go into films and it's very sharp.
16:06
It's quite witty. It'd be great to play.
16:07
That's for the for the podcast at some point.
16:09
I think in terms of being controversial, that would, yeah,
16:16
that would kind of blow Gex out of the water, some of the stuff
16:19
in that game. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree.
16:23
I've never played it, but I know I know the stuff in that game.
16:27
And obviously the the very famous boss fighter, the great
16:29
mighty Poo. Yes, yeah, it's this is very
16:35
much a product of its time. And I like it for that.
16:39
I think that makes it very charming.
16:41
But that's because that was the era that I grew up in.
16:45
And I think anyone younger would probably play this and be like,
16:48
I don't get it. What's wrong with people?
16:50
Yeah, what from the? So yeah, what what, what is this
16:56
game? What do you do?
16:57
What's the plot? What's the, what is Gex?
16:59
And to the gecko, so. It's basically in the same vein
17:05
as Super Mario 64. You've got a hub world where you
17:10
can access levels and you go and you collect TV remote controls
17:15
for carrying out quite varied tasks within the world's.
17:20
Now, when it says, Oh, world's based off of TV shows, what what
17:27
I actually the way I describe it is there are themed areas or
17:31
themed kind of set dressing for levels and they all kind of fit
17:38
this set dressing. Now the set dressing is pretty
17:40
generic in the Oh, you've got the horror set dressing and that
17:44
can kind of be fit to any horror film.
17:47
And then you've got the sci-fi set dressing, and then you've
17:50
got the Kung Fu set dressing, the cartoon set dressing.
17:54
And I think as well, because you get multiple levels with the
18:00
same set dressing, it kind of takes the novelty out of that a
18:03
little bit. So you collect your red remote
18:07
controls and once you've got a certain number, you can do a
18:10
boss fight. And then once you collect a few
18:13
more, you can unlock the next sort of part of the hub world
18:17
until you finally battle the final boss who is Rez.
18:22
And that's, that's pretty much it.
18:25
There's no story along the way, really.
18:27
And. No, there is.
18:30
There are two cutscenes in the game and they set the game up
18:33
for what it is in that the game picks up straight after the end
18:37
of the first game, where Gex has come back from the media
18:41
dimension and he's defeated Rez and the game starts.
18:44
Gex is now retired, but Rez returns.
18:48
Who is like this big like robot thing he's returned.
18:55
So like the Secret Service asked Gex to go back into the media
18:58
dimension to defeat RES. And Gex is kind of like a
19:03
millionaire secret agent type thing.
19:08
And like you say, you go into the different themed worlds in
19:11
the media dimension. So tune.
19:13
Tune lands, horror, Kung Fu, futuristic space.
19:18
And then there are like a few other different kind of ones
19:20
here and there, aren't there? Yeah.
19:22
And then at the end of the game, Gex defeats Rez.
19:25
Rez reveals that he's Gex's father, which Gex doesn't
19:29
believe him and turns the telly off and therefore getting rid of
19:33
Rez. And then Gex just goes back to
19:37
how he was before. But there is there is like a
19:40
very strange, not strange because it's the same developer,
19:43
but there's like a bond esque theme through this game, isn't
19:47
there? To some extent it's there's an
19:51
element of that. And at the end, like Gex is
19:55
always kind of shown to be somewhat of a womaniser and he's
20:01
in a hotel room with. Did you ever play the
20:03
Pandemonium games? No.
20:05
So Crystal Dynamics developed two games.
20:08
Pandemonium. Pandemonium 2.
20:10
Really good. I've not played them for a very
20:12
long time, but brilliant. And the woman on the beds in the
20:16
hotel room with Gex is the character Nikki from
20:19
Pandemonium. I've totally forgotten that
20:21
until. Until playing again this song.
20:25
So bloody hell, I'd totally forgotten that that was a thing.
20:27
Yeah. Yeah.
20:29
But yeah, it's simple, isn't it? And it's primarily it's it's a
20:33
it's a platformer with minimal story.
20:36
Yeah. And like you say, each level
20:40
it's like Mario 64, collect the collect the stars or in this
20:43
instance collect the the remote controls.
20:47
And the more you unlock, the more areas you can go into to
20:51
therefore progress in the game. Correct.
20:54
So gameplay is king. Do you think that this game is
21:00
fun to play? It's all right.
21:07
In short doses, it's all right. There are certain bits that will
21:12
really start to bug you. The camera primarily.
21:16
Some of the platforming sections can be a bit torturous.
21:22
Yeah, I couldn't sit there and play it for hours on end, but
21:27
what I did was kind of a few bits a night and got to the end
21:33
that way. So I did get to the end of this
21:35
game and yeah, it's, it's all right.
21:38
And I think, I mean, the listener can probably get from
21:42
the tone of my voice. I wasn't bowled over by this
21:44
game. And and I think my big thing
21:46
with this game is that I just think there are so, so many
21:49
better platformers out there. And one of the things that we
21:52
talked about whilst playing this game is that we might kind of
21:57
throw some other platformers in that we can do for the
22:01
podcasters. Bonus episodes because there's
22:03
just so many and so many good ones.
22:05
And I, I quite like platformers. They're easy to play.
22:08
They're kind of non demanding. And yeah, I just think it'd be
22:13
fun to do a few more platforms this year.
22:15
So yeah, we're going to look at doing that.
22:19
But yeah, I was just constantly reminded.
22:21
And I think one of the problems that I had, and maybe I'm
22:25
getting ahead of myself here, is with with the levels, I was kind
22:29
of expecting them to be a bit more specific, like specifically
22:34
parodying specific things, but. I mean the level names are but
22:39
the. The.
22:40
Themes aren't, are they? No, it's just like a general
22:46
wash of that thing. So oh, general wash of horror.
22:50
And it just reminds me of like the creator level in the Time
22:53
Splitters games where you've got like the horror theme and you've
22:56
got the industrial theme and the sci-fi theme, and it's just, it
23:02
never really quite goes beyond that.
23:06
So it doesn't really make itself feel unique.
23:10
I think the one thing that makes this game feel unique is, is is
23:13
the voice work from Leslie Phillips in the European
23:16
version. It's the best game.
23:19
But if you take that away, I think this would just get lost
23:23
in the ether, sort of. Yeah, I think it would be an
23:25
average platformer. Yeah, Leslie Phillips wasn't
23:29
involved, which, you know, is a testament to how well he suited
23:34
the character and how well he did in that role.
23:38
So, I mean, this game came out in 1998.
23:41
And I mean, Leslie Phillips, he sounds old in that.
23:45
I mean, I don't know. Lived in 98.
23:47
He did. He died in 22.
23:50
Oh, he died in 2022. Yeah.
23:51
Oh, Blimey, Yeah, you're quite right.
23:54
He was 98 years old. Oh, impressive.
23:58
Yeah. I mean, he, that he, he made
24:02
this game for me. I think, yeah, you know, and I,
24:08
I think that this game can be fun in short doses, but there
24:11
are a lot of like complaints in terms of the camera, in terms of
24:17
the controls. But I don't know if we can
24:20
complain that much because we're comparing a game from 1998 with
24:25
how we play games now. And I think we've said that
24:27
along the way, haven't we? With, you know, yeah, 90s
24:32
platform as we've played. Yeah.
24:37
And I think it's worth mentioning the version that we
24:40
played, which is the trilogy version, which is it's not a
24:44
remaster, it's not a remake. Port really isn't.
24:48
It, yeah, it's basically an emulation and I think they're
24:51
probably charging a bit too much for it.
24:54
So it looks basically how it did look and there there is nothing
25:01
that has been done to these graphics to make them look a bit
25:05
a bit more tolerable in the year 2025.
25:09
And I think when you've got other series like Crash
25:13
Bandicoot and Spyro doing full on remakes, I I get there's
25:19
probably not as much budget behind this, but.
25:21
No, because this game isn't Crush and this game isn't Spyro.
25:26
No, but I think when you're charging 25 lbs in the UK for
25:30
three games, I think you either drop the price or you kind of
25:35
offer a bit more. So that that was one of my bug
25:40
bears. When I first saw this, I was
25:41
like, oh, OK, they've literally done nothing here.
25:44
This is this is is what it was. Yeah.
25:48
It's a tough one to swallow sometimes.
25:51
No, I I get that. And for anyone listening that
25:55
hasn't played this game, if you're wondering what Leslie
25:57
Phillips sounds like, I'm just reading his wiki here and I'd
26:00
totally forgotten, but he is the voice of the Sorting Hat in the
26:03
Harry Potter films he's done a lot over.
26:06
The years. Yeah, he was in the some of the
26:09
Carry On, Carry On films, wasn't he?
26:10
Yeah, it's his. Yeah, he's got the very famous
26:15
Ding Dong. Hello.
26:18
Hello. Yeah, it's he's got such a good
26:21
voice. But yeah, the camera is the big
26:25
the big sticking point with this game.
26:27
Were there any? Sorry.
26:30
He's a cockney. Yeah, he was.
26:32
He's from Tottenham. Yeah, very working class.
26:34
And he went to, I think he went to Italia concierge drama,
26:38
scored in London and lost his accent.
26:41
But yeah. It's a bit like, what's her name
26:45
from Absolutely Fabulous. Bloody hell, she's in the Wolf
26:51
of Wall Street as well. Oh, that's going to really annoy
26:55
me. I'm going to have to look at it.
26:58
Not Jennifer Saunders. No, the other.
27:02
The other. Actress I just.
27:04
No, it's wait for it Dawn. French brilliant.
27:11
Joanna Lumley. Oh, of course.
27:13
Yeah, Joanna Lumley also comes across as very posh, but I think
27:16
she has a very, very working class background.
27:19
Yeah, same as Ian McCallum. Patrick Stewart from the North.
27:25
Indeed so yeah. Were there any like particular
27:32
themed levels that you like stood out to you or what?
27:35
What were your favourites? Because I mean the the move set
27:38
in this game is quite basic, so were there 150 of.
27:42
Those moves though A. 150. Or is it 100 and 25125?
27:46
I think OK. I think playing the tune level
27:51
after playing I was I was really a bit disappointed with the
27:54
horror level. I was like this is.
27:56
Yeah, the horror levels aren't that great.
27:57
Yeah. And every time I came to them, I
27:59
was like, oh, and, and there were a few themes where I was
28:03
like that. But I think the first time you
28:07
jump into the tune level and you see the references to to loony
28:11
tunes. Yeah, exactly.
28:14
And yeah, that's when it it kind of makes a bit more sense and
28:21
you've got the bits where you're, I can't remember what
28:24
the hunt is called, but the hunter that goes after.
28:28
Almafud. Yeah, that's it.
28:30
Yeah. So yeah, I quite like those.
28:34
And there's there's a bit of interesting stuff they do in
28:37
them. But yeah, I don't really have
28:41
much more to say than that really, because it's because,
28:45
because the levels all melt into one another.
28:47
So say all the all the tune levels, they all kind of feel
28:49
the same. And it's not like, oh, I can
28:52
pick out this bit of this level because I can't.
28:56
The the levels really are set dressing to what's going on.
29:00
And it is a platformer with different set dressing for each
29:03
level. So it's not like I can say, oh,
29:07
I remember the castle in the tune world because I can't or or
29:13
remember the Roadrunner bit in the tune world.
29:15
I can't Bugs Bunny bit. Well, yeah, actually I can.
29:18
There is there is a bit in that. But yeah.
29:20
So I think probably the tune level and I think probably my
29:23
least favourite is the like the cyber.
29:29
Do you know what the one I mean? Like the electrics one.
29:31
Yeah, I hated that. Yeah, those ones are a bit too
29:35
versatile. I don't think the camera works
29:36
particularly well with those. I mean the Prehistoric 1 is up
29:39
there as well for me is like being a bit too.
29:42
I mean, yeah, I mean both struggled on the prehistoric
29:44
levels. I think I really like the Kung
29:47
Fu ones. I don't know why.
29:50
And there's also one of the collectathon levels where you're
29:53
like a cop in like this crime riddled St collecting badges,
30:02
but you only go there once. And you mentioned earlier as
30:06
well that obviously there are differences between the N64 and
30:09
the PlayStation version. Yeah, the Titanic level.
30:12
Yeah, so the N64 has a lot less content than the PlayStation
30:17
version because of the size of the the data that needs gone the
30:20
car. So they, so they take away the
30:22
bonus levels they've got. Yeah, they take away the bonus
30:24
levels they've got, they've got, they've got all the the normal
30:27
levels, the standard levels, but they take away the bonus levels,
30:29
but they replace them with what is a very large Titanic level.
30:33
So yeah, there are a few people I read, I read, I kind of dipped
30:38
into a few of the reviews of the trilogy and quite a few
30:43
reviewers bemoaning the fact that that the extra content from
30:47
the N64 given you can actually see it in the the bonus videos,
30:52
like they show it, but they you can't play it.
30:56
It's a bit of a kick in their teeth really.
30:59
Yeah, I know what you mean. It's I've never played.
31:01
I mean, I've not played the N64 version.
31:03
So I'd I'd be interested to see what the Titanic level looks
31:05
like. Yeah, I did have a look at.
31:06
Particularly great. But yeah, so it's it's certainly
31:14
a it's a different kind of platformer and the question of
31:20
the week that I have for you today.
31:24
Is will you ever play it again? And I'll give you an answer to
31:26
that very quickly. Succeed.
31:27
You're moving on to the next game, aren't you?
31:29
Deep cover Gecko. Yes.
31:32
So I actually, I actually started it out of curiosity.
31:35
I've never played it, I don't know about it.
31:37
I've never tried it though. So Leslie Phillips, I don't
31:40
think it's, I don't think it was a replacement even.
31:44
I don't even know. They just never went with him
31:46
again. And so they had a Red Dwarf
31:48
actor, Danny Jung Jewels, which again, many of the European
31:55
British fans were clamouring to have that voice work for the
32:00
trilogy. So yeah, the third one many
32:04
people say is the best one because they kind of refine
32:06
what's there in 2. But yeah, I, I started playing
32:10
and I thought, no. And that was it.
32:14
No, that that was it. That was your experience with
32:16
Deep Cover Gecko. The question of the week is,
32:21
could you see this game having like a reboot now?
32:25
I mean, obviously Dana Gould's still around and kicking.
32:28
I don't think they would have separate voices dependent on
32:31
region anymore. But could you see a world in
32:34
where they say, you know what, we're going to bring X back and
32:37
we're going to reboot it. Do you think that would happen?
32:39
And if it did, what do you think that would look like?
32:42
Because obviously it's very risky doing that with
32:45
platformers. We've talked a few times about
32:47
Banjo Kazooie when they did Nuts and Bolts.
32:51
Obviously very different from the originals, but I know you
32:53
said that you think that game's all right.
32:55
Yeah. What do you think they'd do with
32:58
something like Gex? Well, I think it's interesting
33:01
that come the PS2, GameCube, Xbox era that there doesn't even
33:08
seem to have been discussion about bringing Gex back.
33:11
It was sort of like he lived and died in the 90s.
33:16
And yeah, the fact that we never got a Gex for then when we got
33:23
continuations of so many other platformers because platforming
33:27
games were still quite popular in the early 2000s, I think that
33:33
that was quite telling. I don't think there was much of
33:36
an audience for Gex and I think the audience they has now is
33:40
built on nostalgia and. Yeah, massively.
33:44
So I think if if you play these games, then you're probably
33:47
going to have a lot more bandwidth or something like this
33:50
than if you didn't. I think there are certain really
33:54
good platformers from back in the day that you can jump into
33:58
and you can see what they're offering.
33:59
But this one's a hard one because I don't think it does
34:04
nothing groundbreaking and it very much is in this in the
34:08
mould of the the mascot platformer.
34:11
Now I can see this these games with a new look of paint.
34:18
I don't think it would necessarily fix the issues with
34:22
the games, In fact I think the themed levels.
34:26
Would. Be even more jarringly obvious
34:29
that they were non specific. It would have to be things like
34:33
superhero levels and stuff like that these days wouldn't it?
34:36
Like Marvel esque. Yeah, and it's a tough one
34:39
because even things like Conker's Bad Fur Day, which is a
34:42
very good game, it's. Got like a Saving Private Ryan
34:45
level, hasn't it? It's.
34:46
Got amazing. Yeah, it's got, it's got all
34:48
sorts of stuff and it's got Clockwork Orange and yeah, all
34:51
sorts of things. And that's dated.
34:54
That became dated very quickly. You can't really, it's tough.
35:01
You can do, you can do those things, but you kind of got to
35:04
go be a bit more varied with your your references and you've
35:08
got to go back further in time and maybe draw things from
35:11
different decades. Because if you do it all in
35:14
2025, within a couple of years it'll be dated.
35:17
Whereas if you play on the 90s, if you play on the 80s.
35:20
And I think that's that's probably a bit of an idea really
35:24
for what they could do play on. I think playing on films from
35:30
over the decades, I think you start doing TV show, it becomes
35:34
even more dated. So yeah, I I don't see gets
35:41
coming back even on me even Crash Bandicoot that the 4th 1
35:48
was what is it back in? Was it back in time in?
35:53
Time. Yeah, I can't remember.
35:57
Yeah. So.
35:58
So they released the trilogy. The trilogy sold gangbusters and
36:02
then they released the 4th 1 and it didn't sell as well.
36:08
I think it's still sold decently, but it didn't by any
36:11
means kind of break new ground or anything like that.
36:16
And it's also supposed to be quite a decent game, but people
36:20
didn't buy it. So I think the time of the
36:24
mascot platformer is sort of done.
36:26
There are some, there are some caveats to that, as usual.
36:31
So obviously Mario, Sonic, those things are Evergreen and they
36:36
always will be. Things like Ukulele have have
36:40
kind of broken ground as independent platformers in the
36:43
vein of Banjo Kazooie, and they found themselves a nice little
36:47
following for people that are fans of those games.
36:51
But they're not going to find sort of mainstream attention
36:55
because I just don't believe they will.
36:59
So I just think, let's be real, if a platform, a mascot platform
37:08
is targeted at children, I just don't think children in 2025
37:13
like the same things that we did.
37:15
No, this is no. It's a completely different
37:18
environment, isn't it? And yeah, so the way that
37:22
children consume games is different.
37:24
And gaming used to be this thing where obviously we didn't have
37:30
Internet based things. So you'd end up going home
37:32
playing on your CRTTV of an evening and your way of
37:37
discussing games was in the playground.
37:39
You couldn't go onto your phone and then search things on the
37:41
Internet and search what other people were playing.
37:44
That's not what you you could do.
37:46
And if you were stuck, you were stuck unless someone happened to
37:49
know in in the schoolyard. So the way that people consume
37:53
games is different and I just don't see it catching on.
37:59
I don't think it would have the budget to do it anyway.
38:03
But it's it's an interesting question.
38:06
Can you think of any ways that it would make a splash?
38:10
And also, what would it look like to you?
38:13
No, I thought about this when I was kind of coming up with a
38:17
question. It's a good question.
38:20
Yeah, my answer is the same as you.
38:22
I think that quite a few things are best left in the past.
38:26
And I mean, you only have to look at Sonic really to kind of
38:32
come to the conclusion of, Oh yeah, you can do things, you can
38:35
keep things going, but Sonic's had more kind of losses than
38:41
it's had wins. Starting to find its feet again,
38:43
which is nice. Slowly, but I mean if you think
38:46
back to, I don't know, after Sonic Adventure 2.
38:50
So if you go like 2002 up to 2012, you had like Sonic 06.
38:58
Oh, you had some terrible entries.
39:00
Yeah, Sonic Heroes. Yeah, Sonic the Sonic Heroes
39:03
was. Big the cat.
39:06
Your friend Big the Cat and really the the best Sonic games
39:11
that came out of that period were kind of like towards the
39:13
back end like 2012 Sonic Generations.
39:16
Yeah, Sonic Colours good as well.
39:18
Yeah, I'm not sure. Not sure what year Sonic Colours
39:20
came out but it's around that time wasn't it?
39:22
Sonic Mania, that's good, Yeah. The recent Sonic and Shadow X
39:29
Generations, I think it's what it's called.
39:31
So I actually completed that and it is.
39:32
It's a good Sonic game, really quite enjoyable.
39:36
So. And you've got Sonic Cross
39:39
World, which is the new Kart racing game from Sonic coming
39:41
out this year, and I'm quite looking forward to it.
39:44
Cautiously optimistic. So I think they found a way to
39:49
make Sonic work again. And I think part of that is I
39:54
think they were looking for what modern Sonic needed to be for a
39:58
very long time, but actually in leaning into the past, they kind
40:02
of found what people wanted. And I'm happy about that.
40:06
I like Sonic and yeah, we played obviously Sonic 2, which wasn't
40:10
my favourite game ever, but yeah, some of the modern sonics
40:13
I'm quite a fan of. Yeah, I think that Gex would
40:17
probably have had a similar lifespan to Sonic.
40:22
Maybe there would have been a couple of good things in there,
40:24
but mostly I think it would have been misses.
40:27
But yeah, I mean, who knows, maybe something one day, but I
40:30
doubt it. And I think that's probably for
40:31
the best it's. There's so many other dead
40:35
mascot platformers that I can see happening before Gex.
40:41
We've got a new Bubsy game coming out, so I know that you
40:44
have we. Yeah.
40:46
And apparently it's supposed to look.
40:47
It's supposed to be looking pretty good.
40:49
That's outrageous. Yeah.
40:51
Yeah. So Bubsy's alive and kicking.
40:56
I would love a new Sly Raccoon game.
40:59
And because it's, I think it's a Sony Sucker Punch property, so I
41:07
could see that happening at some point.
41:09
Maybe not a huge budget one, but yeah, there's a lot of good
41:14
platformers that I can see coming back before.
41:17
I'm so I'm in. I'm in shock that Bubsy is
41:19
coming back. That's outrageous.
41:22
Did you ever play Bubsy 3D? No, but I know of Bubsy 3.
41:26
DI played Bubsy 3D, it came out around the same time as Gex and
41:30
it is. He's unfinished.
41:33
Like we should do it at some point just to.
41:36
Yeah, we can. We do our our platformer A thon.
41:39
Yeah, platformer a thon. Awful, but yeah, so let's move
41:46
so. When we, when we come to do our
41:47
next platformer and I haven't decided which one it will be,
41:50
but I will, I will pick one for our next one.
41:53
And yeah, we'll, we'll do that in, in sort of the next few
41:56
months, I'd say. You're quite keen to do Spyro,
41:58
aren't you? Yeah, I would like to do Spyro,
42:03
and that's one that I've not played.
42:04
But yeah, there's there's other ones up there as well that I
42:07
think genuinely deserve to be in the running for best games.
42:14
I mean, Banjo Kazooie is one that I think absolutely we need
42:18
to play. Can you do your impression of
42:20
Grand Tilda there? You go.
42:26
So I did do the voice, in case you're wondering.
42:28
Listener for Grand Tilda. Yeah.
42:32
So that's something that you didn't know.
42:34
That was a did you know? That is correct.
42:38
Before we kind of finish up, I just want to touch Very Blobby.
42:42
We talked about. We have Blobby as well.
42:44
Obviously Blobby's twin, Mr Mushu is one of the boss battles
42:50
in this game. Anyone that hasn't played it,
42:53
just Google Mr Mushu Gex and To the Gecko and you'll see Very.
42:58
Looks very similar to Mr Blobby I'd say, wouldn't you?
43:01
Yeah, I agree. We've had, we've had some hot
43:04
blobby topics in recent episodes, so go and check those
43:08
out. Blobics.
43:09
Yeah, some blobics Blobby land that made an appearance.
43:13
So if you're looking for the Blobby news, just check out
43:18
previous episodes because there's a lot going on in there
43:20
and I know that that is what our listeners listen for so.
43:25
I think we're talking absolute drivel.
43:30
I just want to, you know, standard.
43:32
I just want to very briefly before we conclude, touch on the
43:34
music. We've talked about the the voice
43:36
acting, etcetera. Is there like, what do you think
43:38
of the music in this game? Anything stand out?
43:40
I mean, the the graphics, not too much to write home about.
43:44
It's a 90s platformer from 1998. Yeah.
43:47
It looks very much the same as it did in 98.
43:50
Yeah, and to be fair, the graphics aren't the, although
43:55
they are of the time, they're not offensive for the time and
44:02
at the time they probably were OK, but I also think PS1 N 64
44:11
graphics haven't aged all that well.
44:13
So that's one of those things. Audio, there's obviously the
44:19
main title theme, which is all right.
44:25
The rest of it I couldn't really pick out.
44:28
It just sounds like sort of platforming fair to me, but I'm
44:32
guessing you might have something a bit more specific to
44:34
say. Yeah, I think, I think the music
44:37
in each of the levels really suits the theme.
44:41
Like the the music in the horror levels I think stands out quite
44:46
a lot, as does the music in the tune levels.
44:49
There's nothing crazy like in these games, but I think that
44:52
some of the music is quite good, particularly for its time.
44:56
So I wanted to give that a mention.
44:58
So fair enough. To wrap up then, Gex into the
45:01
Gecko. Metacritic score of 70, Open
45:04
critic score of 72. Do you think that this game
45:07
deserves to be on the top 100 list?
45:11
In a surprise to to no one, no I.
45:17
Thought you were going to say in a surprise turn of events, Yes,
45:19
and I was going to be really surprised by that, hence it
45:22
being a surprise turn of events. Yeah, No, I don't.
45:29
It'd be interesting once we have done a few more platformers
45:32
because I think we've been a bit due to the Metacritic list and
45:36
the open critic list. So far we've we've not played
45:38
many platformers from 90s and even the 2000s and sometimes
45:43
even later than that. So it would be interesting to do
45:47
maybe like a bit of a ranking episode once we've played a few
45:49
more for those platformers and see where Gex comes.
45:54
May not be the worst that may go to Bubsy, but yeah, I just, I
46:00
just think there are other ones that were doing a lot more.
46:04
Whereas I think the the the point of Gex was to sort of,
46:10
dare I say cash in on the mascot platformer and it and it does an
46:17
OK job of it. It's a solid platformer.
46:20
I would say probably for me, sevens are a bit too high.
46:23
I'd probably give it around a six out of 10, which by no means
46:27
is not, you know. It's above average.
46:30
Yeah, and, and I was thinking about this.
46:33
So I was thinking about Crash Bandicoot and Gex and I I
46:39
played. I completed all three Crash
46:41
Bandicoot games when we did Crash Bandicoot 2 for the
46:45
podcast. Yeah.
46:47
I think overall I actually prefer the Crash Bandicoot
46:49
games. However, I probably found the
46:55
Gex games to be less frustrating, so there's that
47:01
going for it. Yeah, I get that.
47:06
Yeah, the the the Crash games are very frustrating.
47:09
I think they added a difficulty curb to them as well on the
47:11
Internet trilogy, because I don't remember them being as
47:13
hard as that when I was a kid. But no, I agree, I don't think
47:17
the Gex games deserve to be in the top 100 list, but I think
47:20
they're worth a look just if you just want like a time capsule
47:24
feeling what games were like in the 1990s and what pop culture
47:28
was like in the 90s, Because I think it does that very well,
47:32
but to the point where it hasn't aged particularly well either.
47:37
But it's worth a look. It's fun, and I mean.
47:40
I would caveat that by saying if you are a modern gamer, do not
47:45
play this because you're going to wonder what on earth the
47:50
recommendation was if you. Drugs were on back then.
47:53
Yeah, and if you're into platformers and you've played a
47:58
lot of 90s platformers, give it a go.
48:01
If you've played it before and you want to replay it, give it a
48:04
go. Everyone else, honestly, I think
48:09
you're not going to understand. And even the 90s stuff, there
48:14
are probably games that do it better and it's not so pointed
48:19
in its jabs at 90s things as I'd have liked it to have been.
48:24
So I think unless you fall into those two camps, steer clear of
48:29
it because I just, I just feel like you've got to be open to
48:34
disappointment. Yeah, I, I, I do get that.
48:39
So yeah, it's, it's a no from both of us, but I'm glad that we
48:42
played it. It's it's been nice to.
48:44
It was inoffensive. Yeah, it's been, well, unless,
48:48
unless you take offence at some of the the stereotypes, of
48:51
course. Yeah.
48:53
So we we've got a we've chosen our game for next time, which
48:59
might take us a couple of weeks. I think my copy of it is being
49:03
dispatched tomorrow or something.
49:05
According to the man. I'm vinted.
49:07
But what game are we doing next please?
49:09
We are playing one actually from the open critic list at this
49:12
time, so a few more from Yeah, we're going to do a few.
49:18
I mean, this the way we've been doing things recently, it's been
49:22
working better for us where we do a few from the list and then
49:26
we throw in a bonus game. It just makes it more
49:29
sustainable because we can kind of whatever we're playing at the
49:32
at the time or whatever platform we're playing on, we can pick
49:35
something that we think will be fun.
49:38
And I think maybe over the last couple of years we could have
49:42
done a bit more of that. So yeah, it's working better for
49:45
us doing it this way. So we'll probably do a few more
49:48
from the list and then we'll Chuck in another bonus, maybe a
49:51
platform and maybe something else.
49:54
But the game that we've got coming up this time is is from
49:58
the list and it's Resident Evil 2, the remake that came out in
50:03
recent years. I can't remember it the exact
50:05
year, but very well received. Obviously Resident Evil 2 is
50:10
just in a way gaming royalty amongst the Resident Evil
50:17
series. So yes, horror game.
50:19
I know you love those so. I don't mind the horror game, I
50:22
just don't like the Resident Evil games.
50:24
I don't like the way they control.
50:25
So it'll be interesting to see how I get on.
50:26
But I mean I'm playing the the remastered version yeah.
50:30
So I'm I'm going into it with a semi open mind but.
50:34
Yeah, I think you're probably keen as play this one than some
50:37
of the other ones, weren't you? Yeah, I think so.
50:40
I mean, as well as that, I mean, like, like I say, we're
50:44
recording this on Bank Holiday Monday if we're in the UK, If
50:48
you're in the US, then it's any other day but another game that
50:53
I'm probably going to be playing alongside this because it comes
50:55
out at the end of this week. Guesses.
50:58
MGS. Yes, Metal Gear Solid Delta.
51:02
I've also pre-ordered that. I've I've pre-ordered the very
51:06
expensive collector's edition. I haven't pre-ordered it, but
51:12
I'm going to pick, I'll pick it up when it comes out because on
51:13
the 28th doesn't it say yeah, three days?
51:17
So yeah, I'm going to be playing that alongside it, which I'm
51:19
looking. Yeah, we will do an episode on
51:22
that within the coming time. I want to properly digest it
51:27
before we do an episode. We both want to enjoy it.
51:30
Yeah. And I'll probably do a couple of
51:32
run throughs to be quite honest. So it'll be good to do that game
51:36
as well because I remember when we when we came in GS3 on the
51:42
podcast, we were both really disappointed by how that episode
51:45
came out. I don't think we did a very good
51:46
job on it. So it'd be good to read.
51:47
Yeah, yeah. Whereas some of our other MGS
51:52
episodes that maybe for games we're less fond of turned out to
51:55
be better. Funnily enough so.
51:56
Yeah, and my infamous use of the term United Snakes of America in
52:01
our MGS 2 episode, which I think was like our third episode
52:04
maybe. Yeah, something along those
52:06
lines. And that's how far we've come.
52:08
It is. We're still.
52:09
Talking gobbledygook and. Still talking out of our asses.
52:15
So yes, Resident Evil 2 will be next, in the next few weeks, I
52:18
imagine. Yeah.
52:20
In the meantime, we're on social media.
52:21
You can e-mail us at the long and short fit at
52:24
longandshortfitpodcast@hotmail.com. And yeah, if you enjoyed the
52:28
episode, give it a share, give it a rating, give it a whatever
52:30
you want to do. You know, we're just happy to be
52:33
here. But yeah, indeed.
52:35
Yeah. Anything else from you for
52:36
today? No, that's it.
52:38
Extended Well, we'll we'll see you later.
52:43
And in the in the immortal words of Gex, it's tail time.
52:48
Cheerio. Yep, I don't know what that.
52:50
Means. Boy Georges pants so.
52:52
Yeah, wow, I feel. Like a bit of that as well.
52:54
That's right. Have you ever been in Mr
52:56
Blobbies pants? I wouldn't want to.
52:59
I wouldn't want. To, or worse still, Noel
53:01
Edmonds. I think we should cut the upset
53:03
there. See you on the.
53:06
Next one, See you next time Cheerio.
53:07
Bye bye.