Astounding! Gex: Enter the Gecko is BEAUTIFUL. Gex makes his move into an immersive 3D environment with flair. The graphics are colorful and set the mood well. The game looks like its running on a Nintendo 64 (except that the picture’s not blurry).

Enter the Gecko works well. Admittedly, that is a small, simple statement. But think about it; this simply can’t be said of some games. Especially games with beautiful graphics. The camera angle’s kind of tricky, but they do provide three modes to choose from. Once you get used to it, Gex: Enter the Gecko can provide hours of fun (even on levels you’ve played before).

Gex: Enter the Gecko’s difficulty isn’t very high, although I may end up having to eat those words later on as I have not completed this game yet. However, having sampled from various levels, I can say that the game’s objectives are not very difficult to accomplish. Well, at least not as far as the technical difficulty. With its wacky, satirical characters, and Gex’s hilarious musings, sometimes just playing the game can be so entertaining that it’s easy to forget exactly what your objective is.

I have mixed feelings about reusing the N64 Mario World level interface, but Gex’s storyline is historically less sequential than Mario. And, while it seems to work in Enter the Gecko, I think it may be just another way they “poke fun” at other media offerings. One interesting thing to note is the excellent way Gex: Enter the Gecko handles load time within levels. As you approach a boundary (such as a doorway), you are greeted with a very short “Mario-esque” transition. This transition, though small, is enough to cover the load time between areas because when you near the door, the game begins to preload part of the level (listen to your CD spin to check this out). This is an incredibly efficient method that you can only perceive the load time if you run full tilt through a couple of them back to back. I can’t wait to see if Blasto’s “Zero Load Time” is much better than this.