Sega Saturn Gex reveiw/comparison
I had initially purchased this game because I had it on Playstation one, and wanted to see how the saturn version compared. For the most part, the game feels like the Playstation version, a solid 2D platformer. The game starts with an overworld, similar to Super Mario World, the player is then to choose which world to start on. All worlds and levels are based off of different TV/movie genres. If starting a new game, the only world available to the player is the horror world, in which all the levels have horror movie themes enemies and obstacles. As the player completes more levels other worlds then become open for play, I can recall at one point that there is a cartoon world, but I can't remember any more off the top of my head. The levels have vibrant and colorful themes, as well as a very gentle difficulty curve for new players. While the story has survived the test of time (its not horrible) the jokes told by the main character are VERY uninspired, are usually dated by old pop culture references. The music isn't really memorable, but its not counter-intuitive to the gameplay or themes. In fact, most of the music fits rather well, its just not as good as the Super Mario Bros theme. The character (at least in this gamers opinion) is a little unresponsive to directional controls, making landing on small surfaces in later levels difficult, although this is probably attributed to the design of the Sega Saturn Controller. Unfortunately this reviewer only has one controller for the Sega Saturn, so I wasn't able to attribute the directional issue to my controller or to the game itself. One thing that was a major plus though is that the load times for the Saturn version of the game are SUBSTANTIALLY lower, in some cases between comparing the Saturn and Playstation versions, it felt like comparing a cartridge to a disk. For example level one loads a full 10 seconds quicker on the Saturn version of the game. In fact, the only fault I truly have with this game is the same for both systems, the fact that in order to continue progress, you're supposed to use a password. The 3D0 version (original was released in 1994) has a save feature, but then every console release didn't; and considering that the Sega Saturn version was released in 1997, 3 years after the original release, and 2 years after the Saturn landed stateside, I honestly don't see a reason why saving wasn't an option. So if you can get over the lack of saves and dated jokes, gex is a really solid and fun platformer; a game that I would enjoy playing any time.Read full review
