Geckos, an untapped video game protagonist for the longest time, have not seen a major and exciting release for quite some time. One such past game that had a gecko protagonist was Gex, which many know as an exciting spy themed platforming game. However, Gex never tapped into the essence of what makes a gecko, a gecko. Gecko Gods, a 3D puzzle platformer developed by Inresin and published by Super Rare Originals, seeks out to do just that, and succeeds in so many ways.
For background on the story, the game starts with our gecko protagonist falling into the sea and washing up on a puzzle heavy island. The protagonist gecko is thrust into an unfamiliar world of scattered islands, having to solve puzzles and figure out how to awaken the Gecko Gods.
Starting out with the visuals, Gecko Gods‘ environments have a very painterly style to them, with flora, and fauna. The game has a cell shaded effect with lines that feel hand drawn on the characters in the world. Environments have what feel like a cell shaded water color paint look to them. The world is made up of many different islands, some of them larger with their own unique biomes that make them stand apart from other islands, while smaller islands dot the surrounding seas. One thing that remains constant in those islands is a strong sense of verticality. This verticality feeds directly into the gecko feel of this game.
Gecko God’s gameplay has a a heavy emphasis on finding solutions to puzzles by utilizing a central skill of this type of gecko, sticking to vertical surfaces. Many of the puzzles throughout the environment require the player to follow cable like structures along walls or rocky terrain using the ability to climb on those structures. Puzzles vary widely based on the area or island that you are in, but some include moving mirrors to direct light or moving tiles to solve a literal puzzle. This variation in puzzle type keeps the gameplay fresh, as some games can get stale when they focus too heavily on one puzzle type over another.
At times, the game throws simple enemies your way while you are trying to solve these puzzles. Gecko combat is not too complicated it seems, and simply involves dashing at enemies with a head butt a few times to take them out. If enemies manage to hit your gecko, health is shown by the color of your gecko changing and its tail eventually falling off. Luckily gecko’s are extraordinary creatures and it won’t take too long before that tail has grown itself right back!
To traverse between islands, there is a boat that the gecko can use to navigate the wild movement of the waves. This adds a fun and relaxing little element of gameplay that is different from the rest of the game. Some islands have areas where you can navigate through goals with your boat to activate parts of puzzles. These are pretty simple and do not have any timers to make them more difficult.
The lack of difficulty in combat and puzzles leads into one aspect of this game that some may like and some may not. This is a calm game. The environments display it and the music is very peaceful and tranquil. This game does not appear to be targeted to the gamer that wants to be stressed out. It is tailored to those that want a calm and relaxing gecko adventure, where they get to use a couple brain cells solving puzzles, running around eating bugs, climbing walls, and just feeling like a gecko.
Yes, eating bugs! One element of the game that adds to the gecko experience is a bug collection. Throughout the game’s many environments, different types of bugs are scattered. Some move quicker than others and you have to dash into them to eat them, adding them to your collection. For flying bugs, the challenge is increased. Sometimes, the best solution requires patience, waiting on a wall, and jumping at the last moment. This feels like true gecko hunting behavior through and through.
Climbing and hunting bugs leads to a gripe with the game. At times, navigating the verticality of the game can be a bit challenging and hard to control. It can be hard to pinpoint the correct direction to push the analog sticks to get the gecko to move in the desired direction. There would be times when it seems the gecko is going to go one direction and it would go another direction. This was especially hard to navigate if there are structures that jut into the path of the gecko when directly upside down. If the camera isn’t pointing in a certain direction with the stick being pointed another, the gecko might just fall all the way back down from where it came. This is not a frustration that comes up very often, as most of the time the gecko controls pretty well, but it is something to take note of and might take some getting used to.
To put it all in a joking manner, Gecko Gods feels like what would happen if Gex took a bit of a chill pill and went on a vacation, then reverted to some of his basic instincts instead of spy skills. The artstyle, music, and difficulty appear to fit the overall feel and tone that the developer was going for. At times, the controls can get in the way of navigation and puzzle solving, but it wasn’t a problem that came up often. While the game has a few issues, it feels like an indie game that devs should strive to follow suit of. It has an identity and keeps it, utilizing interesting mechanics that fit that identity. Gecko Gods, keep being yourself. It suits you.
Nintendojo was provided a copy of this game for review by a third party, though that does not affect our recommendation. For every review, Nintendojo uses a standard criteria.