Back in 1995 we gamers were still thrilled with the relatively fresh concept that their video game characters could be voiced by big-name talent. Gex, Crystal Dynamics gecko with an attitude, quickly helped us get over it.
In the ’90s video game characters had to have attitude. Gex’s attitude manifested itself as an endless stream of one-liners from then-popular comedian Dana Gould. Written by Gould himself along with his frequent writing partner Rob Cohen, the dialogue was littered with pop culture references, commercial spoofs, and endless references to Gex’s prehensile tongue, his weapon of choice. At the time, much of it was pretty hilarious.
The problem was it was too much of a good thing. A few one-liners here and there would have been perfect. As you can see in the video above, there are at least twelve minutes’ worth of Gould clips in the game. By the time I finished playing Gex I never wanted to hear another word out of Dana Gould’s mouth again.
Fortunately the rest of the game was rather excellent, spawning a pair of sequels, both filled with Dana Gould quips. I never played them.
Perhaps I need to go back and finish the trilogy I hear the UK version of Gex 3; Deep Cover Gecko features the voice of Red Dwarf star Danny John-Jules. I could listen to him for hours.
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