N64 Review: Gex 64: Enter the Gecko (1998)

Nostalgia is a funny thing. Now that our world is online to such a degree that before we even have time to properly reminisce about some aesthetic object from our idealized childhood (and it's always idealized, that's how nostalgia gets away with a really wonderful lie) we can already have it downloaded or streamed or shipped to us overnight. It has become a phenomenon of access, not memory. Your memories are always available, and now, and entire industries are being built upon them, they are externalizing them. Netflix isn't just a movie/TV streaming service; it's a memory bank, it's comfort in the familiar for $7.99 a month. The comforts of glossy recollections have been monetized, repackaged, and sold back to us, sometimes changed, sometimes not, and sometimes these objects are good enough to overcome their age, at least for a little while, and sometimes these objects taste like garbage, even if trussed up by years.

[Of course, we realize that Code Redd Net itself is an exercise in nostalgia, but we believe that our site goes further. Our retro black and red color scheme, unchanged since 2001, is only a surface. Though we cannot deny that we love to revisit the games and movies we grew up with, our focus continues to be in examining new media.]

I bring all this up because I want you to understand how disappointed I was in replaying Gex 64. I loved that game when I was 10. I'm not 10 anymore, and that's probably a good thing, because even though there are many fine games I loved when I was 10, games that don't seem to have aged a single day since then, this one is lame. I would be an unrepentant romantic if I said I this game had some redeeming value beyond its simple service as a conduit to remembering friends I have not seen in many years. Among its many problems, Gex 64 has some of the worst camera angles I've ever seen. It's often impossible to calculate exactly how far and in what direction to jump because the camera, which you can only modestly control or configure, obstinately refuses to budge from certain angles. Add to this the fact that the controls are sloppy and unresponsive, and you have one of the more frustrating gaming experiences on the N64, and needlessly cheap to boot. Further still, Gex himself has not aged well. His "wise cracks" are roughly as cool or trendy as your grandmother's tweets about playing bridge last weekend. And he keeps on repeating them like your youngest sibling, desperate for any kind of attention. In its favor, I will say that Gex 64 does have some variety in its level designs, some of which are quite clever, but that's all I'm giving this game credit for. It's too bad, really, but I suppose the disappointment was inevitable. Not all N64 games have aged as gracefully as GoldenEye, The World is Not Enough, or even WCW/NWO Revenge. The disappointment I feel is like a child who loses his pet hamster and only finds him later, dead, behind the refrigerator. Should I feel let down by this stupid game?