Iconic PS1 Series Could Get a Spin-off; Demo Found After 20 Years
It looks like the Gex series known from, among others, the PS1 could get a spin-off or a full-fledged fourth installment. A demo of a game called Gex Jr. - dated on January 25, 2001 - has just been found.
Do you remember Gex? He's the lovable gecko we played in three platformer games from Crystal Dynamics, released in the second half of the 1990s. That's right, three - Gex, Gex 3D: Enter the Gecko i Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko. And there could have been a fourth one.
21 years later...
This is according to a material published on YouTube by user justz00t. He supposedly had found a CD containing a demo version of a game called Gex Jr.. The data on the disc is said to have been recorded on January 25, 2001, which is about two years after the release of the third game.
Interestingly, however, all indications are that Gex Jr. was not meant to be a fourth installment in the series, but rather a spin-off. It also seems that the game was created with younger viewers in mind - the fact that its protagonist is the son of Gex strongly suggests it.
The demo of Gex Jr. can be downloaded here
Or maybe it's young Gex? It's hard to say for sure. There's no doubt, however, that the game would feature the series' characteristic sense of humor and numerous references to pop culture. In the above video we can hear the famous - although not entirely true - question of Darth Vader ("I'm your father, Luke") from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. This might indicate that we would indeed be playing as the son of the familiar PlayStation gecko.
Alleged reasons for cancellation
So why didn't we get the game? Well, taking into account the aforementioned date - and assuming it to be true - one may be tempted to conclude that Square Enix, the publisher of the series, may have been behind the cancellation of the project. We are talking about times when PlayStation 2, released in 2000, was beginning to dominate the market. The days of the still popular PS1 were numbered, which certainly did not encourage to create more games for this console.
An artifact of times gone by, which supposedly houses the Gex Jr. demo. Source: archive.org.
Almost certainly the company's decision was not affected by poor sales of the series. Its three installments have sold a total of 15 million copies, as many as 6 million of which were copies of the third game, which won the title of best-selling game on PlayStation in 1999 (from the release in March to December about three million copies reached buyers).
A shadow of a chance for a new game... or a remake
Finally, it is worth mentioning that although the full version of Gex Jr. will probably never be made again, a fourth installment is not out of the question. Square Enix owns the rights to the brand and can revive the lovable gecko at any time. It is possible that the company has already made a step in this direction, by registering a new trademark in February 2022. Crash is back, Spyro is back - why not Gex? I bet dollars against nuts that there would be many people willing to take such a nostalgic journey to the past.
