Have You Played... Gex 3D: Enter the Gecko?

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.

It must be a kind of curse, to be a platformer character. Gex is right up there with the other Z-listers. Blinx, Croc, the Jersey Devil. All dead and gone. Arguably only Mario Mario has been able to sustain the life of a well-respected spike-avoider. The rest end up in the mass grave of childhood memories, which is exactly where you’ll find this rude, polygonal lizard.

Gex games pandered to the basest teenage impulses – fart jokes, Playboy models, and bad film parodies that were old and naff even in 1998. I loved it (kill me). But there was some decent platforming behind it all, or decent for the era, anyway. That said, I doubt anyone wants this genre blend of Crash Bandicoot and Leisure Suit Larry to return. Rest in peace, Gex. Don’t come back.