Gex (character)

Gex Gecko is a video game character created as the protagonist of the Gex series and the mascot of Crystal Dynamics. He is a wise-cracking gecko lizard with an attitude and a passion for television. His nature is copied off Sonic's for he is rebellious, a departure from the heroic characters such as Mario and Link that have become so common. He is voiced by comedian Dana Gould.

1996 events in GEX
Gex lived in a nice isolated village in Maui, Hawaii with his mother and two-and-a-half younger siblings (their numbers depended upon their regenerative powers), and his father was away doing research for NASA. He spends his days hanging out with his friends, surfing, playing the ukulele, battling pineapples with his local ball club the Molokai Scalers, racking up the wee hours at the Poi Boy sushi, and throwing poi parties down on the beach with the local gecko ladies. That all changed when his dad was killed in an accident, Gex was distraught and spends all of his time watching TV to comfort himself. One week later, the family moved to Encino, California to start a new life. After trying everything to get him off the sofa, with help of their neighbor, a burly old lizard named Harv, Gex's mother sold it to some gypsies. Gex runs out the door, swearing to never come back to his TV-less home and has been living in the streets.

A few months later, his mother found him and announced that they are rich because his great-uncle Charlie, the original model for Izod, died three days after Gex ran away, and his stock was over 20 billion dollars which they now inherits. Gex comes back into living, the family lived like billionaires for a few months, and Gex's mother opened up a theme restaurant featuring robotic space monkey. Gex took his share of the fortune and moved back to Maui, bought a mansion on the hillside, along with the world's largest big-screen TV, enough food for decades, and seals himself inside the house.

A few days went by, things seem fine until one day while nothing good is on TV, flipping through channels, Gex eats a stray fly. Only, the fly was a transitter sent by the sinister Rez, the evil overlord of the Media Dimension. Rez was watching him through the TV screen, where he yanked Gex, still sitting on his comfy chair and wielding the remote, through his TV and into the Media Dimension, and chose him as the new network mascot. The only way Gex can escape Rez's madness is if he collects TV remote controls and finds a way out of the Media Dimension! Gex has to fight his way through five different channel-worlds within Rez's network of bad television and movies to reach Rez's domain and defeat him there.

After the events that take place in GEX the first game of the Gex video game series, Gex retires from his frantic life in the spot-light away from the paparazzi, the press conferences, the mobs of groupies, the TV interviews as well as those compromising photos in the International Inquirer with Farrah.



1998 events in Gex: Enter the Gecko
Since Gex's retirement from the public eye in 1996, Gex resigned himself to a life of peace and solitude, tucked away back in his Maui hillside house with his life partner and true soul mate, Gex's big-screen TV.

For two years, Gex started his day sharing a cup of coffee with Kung-Fu Theater, a donut with his favorite cartoons, and a bag of chips with His Majesty's Secret Service. (In the UK version, he would claim that he started his day by watching Supermarket Sweep.) Days, then weeks, blurred into one long television marathon. Never leaving the house without first checking with Dionne Warwick's psychic friends, Gex found himself on the verge of insanity.

Until things started getting interesting...

Two government goons appear at Gex's home and whisk him away to their headquarters. Apparently Rez is back to his old tricks again and the government need his assistance in order to help regain control of the Media Dimensions and to get rid of Rez. The "old tin can" has returned and he's after the world's TV channels, again. Of course, Gex refuses on all accounts, having already saved the universe once before and preferring to spend his time lounging in front of his TV. Eventually the government manage to bring Gex around after smashing him over the head with a crowbar, dipping his head in squid, burning his toes in cheese, stuffing his eyes with candy bars, forcing to eat rotten po-ta-toes interrogating him and finally bribing him with a briefcase full of cash.

Gex replays the mission in his head as he leaves the building to get into his waiting limo. As he nears the car he meets a beautiful female agent who walks up to him, introduces herself as Special Agent Xtra and wishes him good luck in his mission to rescue television. She really loves television, she says with a giggle.

1999 events in Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko
Having saved the world from the events of Gex: Enter the Gecko, Gex once again comforts himself in front of his big-screen TV, putting away all his concerns with Rez (who supposedly has disappeared for good this time). However, the government agency beckons Gex once again, requesting his immediate expertise in a delicate matter. It seems that Rez has kidnapped the lovely Agent Xtra (played in live-action by Marliece Andrada), whom Gex had briefly made a prior acquaintance in the backstory of Gex: Enter the Gecko. Gex jumps for the opportunity to save Agent Xtra and once again restore the Media Dimension (as well as his hectic TV schedule) back to normal. Gex rushes into his lair which he has made for himself in the Media Dimension, maintained by his trusty butler Alfred the tortoise (a homage to Batman), and begins another adventure. Gex must once again enter the parody that is the Media Dimension and play through each manipulated televised world of Rez found therein. The results of his adventure resolve the situation, ridding Rez once and for all from the world and the Media Dimension. The story ends with Gex beginning a romantic interlude with his new-found love interest.

To this day, Gex continues to fight for what's right in the world, one channel at a time.

Trivia

 * Gex contributes to the games with wise-cracking remarks laced with American TV-culture and pop-culture references, paying homage to Duke Nukem and more notably Ash Williams the protagonist from The Evil Dead films.
 * Gex also appears in the Xbox game Mad Dash Racing as a unlockable character. He also appears as a unlockable character in SCEA's Hot Shots Golf 2 for the PlayStation along with Sir Daniel Fortesque of MediEvil and Sweet Tooth of Twisted Metal.