#piko interactive

It's hard for me to give Tex just a straight forward review. Like the history of Tex, my feelings aren't a point A to B narrative. They're some twists and turns here that make it not as easy to just connect the dots to come to a conclusion if this game is ultimately worth buying, and playing. Nintendo Player did an amazing job in recovering a Tex prototype and detailing its troubled development on their website so I wont rehash everything here. Tex eventually was completed and saw a release in 2018 thanks to Piko Interactive after purchasing the rights in 2016 and here we are.

Upon first impressions, Tex is impressive. A two button handheld console handling a first person shooter is something to remark at, especially at the time this game was meant to come out. The framerate isn't crazy-high (except when you clear a room of all enemies) but movement, strafing both feel responsive if maybe a touch sluggish. Turning feels like it takes forever but Tex is very much functional.

Tex plays like the shooters of its day in that you go room to room, clearing enemies and finding keys to unlock doors until you find the end. The layout can get confusing due to lack of variety in level design but there's a handy map you can access with the start button to find where you are. Secret areas are available too, provided you find all the diamonds in the level to unlock them. It starts pretty easy to find them but in later levels its dang-near impossible to retrieve them without dying.

Earlier in the game was where I enjoyed Tex the most. Each level increases in difficulty in proper increments, new weapons begin to show up, cut scenes in between stages are fun to watch. There's an occasional cheap death here and there but otherwise, I'm having fun. Graphically its a good looking game, and there's a nice variety of enemies and levels available. This game truly pushes the game boy color hardware to its limits.

The new car smell wears off later in the game when the dreaded red t-rexes show up and Let me tell you something; SCREW THESE THINGS. They're super-fast, do high damage and take a chunk of ammo to finish off unless you have the PULSE gun or a grenade launcher. The later stages it gets tough to keep ammo so more times than not, youre using default pistols to kill them. Not only are these parts tedious, but its just not fun after doing it the 18th time. My strategy was always lure them to the door, fire off two shots and hide behind the door, rinse and repeat.

The red rexes suck and are a detriment to the game in my opinion but they are manageable on their own. However, these rexes don't always play fair thanks to this game's second worst enemy: glitches. While the game isn't a bug fest, they're some absolute bull crap glitches that result in cheap unavoidable death and the "glitch gremlin" -coincidentally enough- becomes more prominent around the red rexes like they have a working relationship.

When executing my door-shoot-door strategy, I discovered a Rex CAN GET STUCK IN THE DOOR. When this happens you can't go through the door without instantly dying and when you die, its aaaaaall the way back to the beginning of the stage. There's no shooting them, there's no getting by them, when this happens, you may as well be prepared to play the level over. I swear the second time this happened to me I was so mad I took a week-long break from the game.

The other glitch allows the rexes to walk through walls and gang up on you if they're two or more. There's times in the last levels of the game i'd be shooting a red rex on my way to a door before one just teleports through the wall to eat me alive. I was so tempted to quit but I had to finish Tex's story. He deserved an ending and who was I to deprive him of his destiny?

The levels where I was up against robots, using the autorifle were my favorites. I was getting a "run and gun" experience I was used in most FPS games I enjoy. There was also a single bossfight I enjoyed and the variety and creativity piqued my interest enough to want to see what was next. Sad to say, those levels are few and far between. Tex needed more of these levels and less strategic cover-shooting levels full of overpowered red rexes.

I'll take a second to compliment Tex's atmosphere. While there is music during the opening, credits and cutscenes, there's none during the actual game. The sound effects made for a nice "playing Atari at 1:00 am" vibe. Especially when I switched over to playing it on my old TV via the game boy color emulator on my N64.

After two weeks of playing beginning to end, the hard truth is I would only play Tex again if it got a PC remaster. Noah's Ark 3D (coincidentally also owned by Piko) has a PC port and its actually a really fun experience. I think a similar port would open up Tex to a bigger audience and make for a less frustrating experience.

Can I recommend Tex in 2026 to someone who has never played it? Given its history, its significance, and novelty I'd say at the least try it once. I can't say its a great game but its worth a one time playthrough. There's so much good stuff here from the way it plays, to the story, Tex himself as a main character that it would be a shame to dismiss all of that. Its flaws though definitely cripple the experience and make you forget its positives when youre on your third replay of a stage because a red rex teleported through a wall to gobble you up.

Tex is good but not great. Yee haw.

(Image Credits: IGN, Nintendo Player, geemuboi )