Will you ever do a flophouse plays on Mighty Final Fight for the NES or Famicom? I don't recall seeing you ever mention that game. Maybe it wasn't released in Canada, I don't know. It just seems wrong that a final fight historian like yourself would ignore a direct sequel to the original. It even has a cyborg belger as the final boss.
UPDATE: Just came across some non-public insider info that states overall lifetime sales of Vexx were actually a good deal better than what's been publicly reported. While it never placed on the NPD charts (making it hard to track) seems it slowly sold just enough across all three versions that it neared something closer to 200K total units in it's lifetime. Far from a million seller, and not enough to save Acclaim, but it seems it had more Vexxitude after all!
Y'know what's the sad part of all this: Despite the development troubles, the advertising, Acclaim being Acclaim, and Vexx condoms... Game itself is actually pretty decent. Never knew about a Vexx 2, though.
@@rexaxis3450 I always found the gravestones creepy when they would talk. I also missed out on some hearts that required the sundial to be set to night because of the powered up enemies. Semi-related but a lot of games of that time had very similar moveset. Long jumps and high jumps. Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, and Vexx used the same button inputs for those two moves. It was well after Mario 64 that, to my knowledge, had those moves first but I find it interesting that the inputs were identical.
I remember going to friend's dorm in college, around 2012, as we did a project his roommate was playing vexx and failing at a particular bit of platforming. For 2 hours he stared blankly attempting the same pattern of jumps in some sort of temple area. He made no noises of frustration throughout. And when he did succeed he made no noise of happiness ,sigh of relief, or even changed his facial expression. He just continued on. That's my only encounter with vexx and it haunts me to this day. Both my friend and the roommate ended up becoming game designers.
Imagine being a kid born 9 months after that E3 and one day being like “dad, how did I get here?” And he goes “well I was working for Akklaim and they made these Vexx handouts, but they weren’t sure they’d work, and long story short… shouldn’t have Vexxed before I Sexxed.”
Gameplay Parity: I've spoken to multiple developers over the years, and several of them all confirmed this was a thing. It was mostly on Sony's side, where they put pressure on pubs/devs that had multiplatform games set to release across all three consoles. Since Sony was the market leader, they didn't want there to be any super obvious, big advantages in terms of game content on the Xbox or GameCube versions, if the PS2 couldn't replicate it. This restriction faded away once the 7th gen kicked off. This did not include games that were once exclusive (Splinter Cell) or if another platform holder (like Nintendo) paid extra for extra characters/content. This did not affect all 3rd party publishers equally, as Sony was lenient with several of them.
@@MrOnepiecem7 can you ask matt mc muscles about what happend spongebob revenge of the flying dutchman gamecube ps2 and jummy neutron the movie game on ps2 gamecube
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland sounds like prime What Happened? material. A joint Japanese-American production crew with (at various points) Hayao Miyazaki, Chuck Jones, George Lucas, Chris Columbus, Ray Bradbury, Brad Bird, John Lasseter, and several veteran Disney animators; an eight year period of development hell, and an underwhelming box office performance once it finally came out. There's so much to unpack there.
This was one of the movies I watched over and over as a kid. The story was kind of abrupt feeling, even to me as a 6 year old at the time. I'm a bit afraid to go back and watch it just because I've heard that it was really bad. Has some really gorgeous animation, though.
There is something darkly hilarious about Brian Cox eating the entire voice acting budget considering...he doesn't even have that many lines in the final game. He shows up in the beginning, explains some very early game mechanics like the warp room, and then just vanishes until near the very end when there's a quick villain reveal (there's a reason Brian Cox voices two characters) and then just opens his final boss battle with a quick one-liner before remaining silent for most of the fight. He absolutely made off like a bandit and it's all thanks to a clerical error.
@@KingOfElectricNinjas Hindsight is 20/20 and I don't know the specific language in the contract, but man, if they paid that much for Brian Cox, the least they could've done is pull a Tom Baker in MediEvil: Resurrection and had him narrate every single loading screen. That big mansion level loads and you just hear Brian Cox go "you are but the size of worthless insect, young hero" in his best Braveheart voice...
@@OgBadlawsThey generally do have cancelation clauses, but “we accidentally agreed to pay you too much money because we weren’t paying attention” isn’t valid cause to cancel a contract. Also most actors work under pay-or-play deals, which basically means they would’ve had to pay him no matter what.
Why? What happened: Pandemic caused people to realize there's no need to spend millions of dollars on a trade show and have their message diluted and misunderstood by journalists who might relay it to the target audience of the journalist, when they can just show their product directly to their audience for free. This was happening before COVID, and that's what finally killed it.
I would say it's two reasons 1) conferences becoming extremely sanitized and publishers saying beforehand what will be shown (in most cases it will be trailers that all play out the same way for sequels that look no different from the original games). It's just all the same, completely safe and predictable. All of the presentations centering around the same buzzwords ("innovation", "quality experience", "we want to give you the best entertainment", ...) and the same boring style of moderation didn't help 2) Sony starting to have their own conference so their lame ass shows won't be compared to the actual good shows
@@juannaym8488 throwing my own reasons in there. Cost of transport and security, vetting staff, trouble shooting on the day, and ultimately Limited market exposure you have to HOPE people will post vids about your product, so if only a few media-outlets do, its not going to hit the same market, BUT if you posted on youtube,twitch or wherever, the potential of your product being shared increases, you can also edit out any minor bugs or presenting flubbs
this was legit my favorite platformer on the Gamecube as a kid- I cannot describe how frustrating it is that I alone am the only person in my entire state to remember it even existed.
I also played in Gamecube somebody give to us, and the buyed this Game i think cheap , i was the only playing this Game , i cryed in frustration in the piano level
I remember datamining and debugging this game years ago, it was so unfinished that the "rift hub" is actually called something like "BETA HUB" in the files, and it's accessible (thought hacking the VRAM in real time on PCSX2) the "final" hub, which was never actually completed. It had a scrapped Multiplayer mode (levels are still called that way in the game files), which was recycled in the final game for some challengers with Vexx clones., also there is a lot of scrapped audio files in the Italian dub, with some voice lines from Vexx itself (which does not talk in the final game) and some plot points that weren't explained in the final product. Still, the game has its flaws, but is fun to play, and it's actually fun to mess around and see what "secrets" obscure and unfinished games like this can store in its files.
I LOVE this game! I get that it was trying too hard, and couldn’t make up its mind on whether it was dark and edgy, or for kids, but it had so many unique elements and incredible music.
Same. There was always some point where I could never get enough hearts to continue. But I'd just restart and play again or run around an replay what I already had.
4:56 I love how in the early 2000s all video game platformer developers seemed to rely on the exact same cliches over and over again: Jungles, weird ancient artifacts, some sort tiki architecture sooner or later, cute characters with big hands and feet but also attempts at being edgy or "cool".
As a kid, I actually bought Vexx somewhere near launch day from a video rental store. I had an absolute blast with it and this video brings it all back!
Going inside the piano in the giant world, and the underwater dome level were so cool. Figuring out you could be eaten by the whale was super cool. The rock suit was super cool. This game was just pretty cool.
I've got to give the devs credit. For all the setbacks they still managed to make a fairly fun 3D platformer. I got back to vexx every few years to play the giants house level again
To the game's credit, it did do a number of things well for a 3d platformer. There was a nice amount of collectibles in the 9 worlds to find from the hearts, vases and orbs. There was a good variety in the mission design in getting the hearts, as well as a consistent dark style and atmosphere to the worlds, making it feel more unique to its competition. (Plus the soundtrack was also pretty good) One notable problem though is that the controls, both for the camera and Vexx himself, were just not quite as fine-tuned as its competitiors like Jak, Mario or Banjo.
I really liked the area designs personally. Levels felt bigger than mario 64, there were tons of sub-areas and oddities to find, and the mechanics were more interesting than mario (if a bit obtuse sometimes).
damn this unlocked some old childhood memories, i vaguely remember this game being included in a ps2 demo disc edit 19:06 had me checking discord, not sure if it was intentional or not but you got me lmao
Here's a cool (and definitely not super edgy) fun fact about Vexx: According to one of the developers, there's an approximately 1 in 1000 chance that, in the cutscene before the final boss encounter with Dark Yabu, instead of making a Enter The Matrix reference with the pose Vexx strikes, he will literally flip off Dark Yabu (if you know what I mean).
Yo, As I begin my journey into game design, Vexx's art style and theming are such a huge influence on me. It was a game that really stuck with me as a kid. Thank you for making this video!
Man its so sad to hear we could have gotten Vexx's Bizzare Adventure! I loved this game as a kid even tho i was terrible at it and basically just beat up the sumo dude in the first level and ran around in the magma suit. Ive always been into transformative powerups a la Demon's Crest, so i think the Glide game would have been dope as well. Sad that it was one of their last hurrahs but I'll always be thankful Acclaim tried to make their own mascot. He's certainly a big shot to me. Also vexc before sexx is the greatest damn video game merch of all time and i want it on my wall
I actually really liked the game as a kid (there was a ton of cool ideas throughout the environment design, such as the giant's house being my favorite). But god damn, Dark Yabu as a final boss is a frustrating challenge
I knew this game was obscure, but only around 20K worldwide sales the whole year? I always wondered why nobody heard of one of my favorite childhood games on the OG Xbox. Actually got pretty damn good at it back in the day and stocked up on a ridiculous amount of lives, beating the game finding all the wraithhearts multiple times. I didn't realize how unrealized this game's potential was until so many years later with all the gutted content. Part of me wonders if the game would have fared better as an Xbox Exclusive considering that platform was lacking in mascot options besides Master Chief and a failed attempt with Blind the Time Sweeper. Vexx's IP was bought by some Canadian developer called Double Clutch (or something like that), and they never did anything with it. Just kinda sits there in the shattered void with the rest of Astara.
I'm 35 years old, was definitely around in this game's "day", had all 3 consoles back then, and had just... never heard of it before this video autoplayed.
Damn. My older brother and I loved Vexx back in the day. Finding out about all that cut content and a cancelled sequel just hurts. I’d love to see a Vexx remastered with new mechanics and some of the old content put back. Or at least re-release the old version on Gamepass/Steam/Switch
I grew up with Vexx and.. its still one of my favorite platformers the world design was just so cool Still sad that we never saw a second game or at least a port to pc
Man, Vexx is such a gem of a game. Some of the best controls from a 6th generation platformer. The lore was so mysterious and interesting, I loved how sometimes you could see other stages when looking through the ring of asteroids the game takes place in. It's interesting that the reason for a lack of NPCs is because of the voice budget; Vexx is an extremely lonely game taking place after a literal genocide, creating one of the most doomed and ominous atmospheres ever. Crazy that was all because of a huge oversight
Absolutely loved this game and still have my PS2 copy! Like many others, I was very young when I played it and didn't quite get the mechanics, or get very far but I remember distinctly some of the hub worlds and the music. The soundtrack was a banger. It was like this weird dark mix of games, certainly a unique mishmash of things. I'd never heard of a sequel though! Hearing about all the cut content makes me wonder if anyone would eventually pick up the rights to this again. Thanks for the informative video Matt, always happy to get a nostalgia hit with these series ☺
I like how this game was my version of Super Mario 64, down to the power ups and collectibles. It had one of the most interesting versions of a tired story trope. The fact that Vexx ends the game fighting for his life, presumably for the rest of his mortal life, is kinda unironically badass.
I love that you used the word “cromulent”. A few years ago, my daughter watched the first ten seasons of “The Simpsons” with me and discovered that much of her childhood was made up of Simpsons references. When we came to that episode (“It’s a perfectly cromulent word”), my daughter looked at me and said,”Is THAT where that’s from?!”
I absolutely LOVE this game. Played the heck out of the GC version :D. Thank you for covering this game!! I remember when the gauntlets attached to him in the cutscene it was terrifying XD
It's a small thing, but deleting Mischief, leaving only the alpha channel, and having Matt appear from behind the higher layer was extremely satisfying.
I have been waiting for this one forever, I knew it was only a matter of time, as soon as I saw you peep it a couple years back. Hands-down my favorite game of all time, glad it's been getting more attention.
Vexx! This one has a special place in my heart. My eldest sister, who got me into gaming, rented this from Blockbuster after her friend recommended it. I loved watching her play through the mansion bit- it was suspenseful for me, lol.
Man I miss this game a lot actually. It was so tough that me, my bros and my dad all would play the same profile to try and complete everything. I guess it doesn't come as a surprise that it wasn't well known, but I think it at least deserved better. Though this was kind of the Dark Souls of early 3D platformers. Git gud or git gone.
This game will forever live on in my heart. I remember playing it on a demo disc for weeks and finally getting it at the store as a early birthday gift. I wish it would re-release as a port or even a remake/remaster for current consoles/steam.
Ah, Vexx. I playtested this at Acclaim HQ back in the day for consumer feedback. Felt just okay then, and wound up being just okay in the end when it released. Fun fact, they had ideas for what Dead by Daylight wound eventually be.
I had fun with this at the time. Absolutely brutal final boss battle. Long drawn out fight where the boss evolves three different times, you get no health pick ups and no checkpoints.
Alien: Isolation! After doing some research I found that the production of this game was a bit more troubled than I initially thought. It was supposed to be a third person horror game. But the developers thought that making first person would scare the player more. They were right, but the change from first person to third person was a lot harder than originally thought. The AI for the Alien was also very hard to get right, with the Alien being either too buggy or too stupid to be threatening in the early stages of production. There were also lots of story beats that had to be abandoned. It would nice to dig deeper and find out why!
Oh wow! Vexx has always been one of my favorite games ever that nobody ever heard of when i talk about it!! So cool to see it isnt just my imagination. Thanks for the vid!!
I have a complete north American CiB Xbox collection, and Vexx is my favorite game in it. My sealed copy just brings me joy. It sits on my shelf alongside the prima strategy guide, and the official xbox magazine demo disc #16 in which it was featured on the cover.
This is one of my most beloved games, was my very first PS2 game and it was a surreal experience back then (never beat the final boss because he was extremely hard) Still got my old PS2 copy and because of this video I realized that there was a freaking Vinyl release of the soundtrack and there were still some left so that was an instant buy, thanks for making me realize this!
It wasn't marketed very well. I rented the game, and i kinda like it. The issue is that the game was not marketed well enough. The game was sandwiched between all the 3D action/adventure games.
I actually played this game when i was like 8 and honestly I remember loving this game. It was kinda hard but figuring out the different combo's you could do with these cool ass gauntlets and finding hidden things around areas with these enemies with freaky ass designs trying to kill you was so cool.
This game actually inspired my username! 🤣 The PS2 version ran like trash, but the Xbox version performed pretty alright. Kinda felt like Super Mario 64's Evil Cousin, lol. Pretty difficult in some places, (some bosses I've NEVER been able to beat even years later! 😂) but it had some interesting moments and mechanics. If you can find it on PC emulated or whatever, give it a try! 🙂💖🤘
Good video, love listening to the behind the scenes of video games. Watched Tetris movie over the weekend and got “what happened” vibes after learning the story
I absolutely loved this game as a young kid. Don't understand the hate. It was challenging in a frustrating but satisfying way and a blast to explore and find all the secrets.
holy fuck very ecstatic to see a vid on this game, its one of many franchises i love to deep dive the developmental history of and keep track off, never thought i would see vexx 2 footage tho very curious as to where you found the stuff from 17:48
I loved Vexx as a kid was one of the very first games I had and it still amazes me to this day with all the unique gameplay it had, I always seemed to be the only one who heard of it though, was like my own lil version of Mario 64, still saddens me to this day with how underappreciated it is.
oh my mom's cousin worked on this game. i remember playing it at a family friend's house. really clunky gameplay but I remember enjoying the level that was just a giant house.
Even as a kid I thought this game wasn't well fleshed out and felt flat & rushed.. I always remember the back of the box said "To Hell with the princess.." and I was like why are we resenting her?? It all seemed forcibly edgy for such a twerpy character.
Man, I really loved this game growing up. It always makes me sad to hear the story behind what happened. I wish they would have been able to make a sequel. Heck, I honestly just wish there was a way to release it for PC so I could play it again
2:19 I think I remember seeing this character and game title in this intro to the Gamecube type promo book back in the early 2000s that listed off descriptions of various games that were available on the system at the time.
God have such crystallized memories of the marketing for this game for some reason. Being an emo teen and thinking it was hilarious how hard the print ads in magazines were trying to sell this game as edgy and Not Like Those Baby Games For Kids. I rented it a couple of times, it reminded me of other midshelf mascot games like Tak and the Power of Juju and Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy
Thanks for the Hyperviolent ad! I'm literally buying (3rd?) game that you're recommending in the ad...so cool! and great video as always... p.s. Why Vexx is shown as Jak and Daxter in YT description? lol
I saw this game on the shelves on my local movie and video game rental store when the place was still up, I was basically like "What the hell is this"? back then.
As a kid, I remember getting this game for the PS2 because I thought the name was cool. I really liked it, but the final boss was impossible. I remember spending hours upon hours fighting him, but to no avail. Even now, I don't know if it's possible.
"Huh. Never heard of this game before," I thought as I start the video, unaware that the ad shown at 15:34 was going to suddenly send me spiraling back to 2002 when I was coming home from the comic book store with a recent issue of JLA in one hand and a Caprisun in the other.
Check out HYPERVIOLENT HERE:
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Will you ever do a what happened episode on the legend of spyro trilogy?
If you can, please make a "What Happened To Scaler" video. That game is very nostalgic, and deserves remembrance.
So, you want a juicy story huh? How about Titan A.E.? The Game & Movie caused Fox Animation Studios to go belly up, worth checking out tbh
I would love to see you do what happened to E3 😅
Will you ever do a flophouse plays on Mighty Final Fight for the NES or Famicom? I don't recall seeing you ever mention that game. Maybe it wasn't released in Canada, I don't know. It just seems wrong that a final fight historian like yourself would ignore a direct sequel to the original. It even has a cyborg belger as the final boss.
UPDATE: Just came across some non-public insider info that states overall lifetime sales of Vexx were actually a good deal better than what's been publicly reported. While it never placed on the NPD charts (making it hard to track) seems it slowly sold just enough across all three versions that it neared something closer to 200K total units in it's lifetime. Far from a million seller, and not enough to save Acclaim, but it seems it had more Vexxitude after all!
Y'know what's the sad part of all this: Despite the development troubles, the advertising, Acclaim being Acclaim, and Vexx condoms... Game itself is actually pretty decent. Never knew about a Vexx 2, though.
Not the best, but certainly not the worst. It was a very pretty world too.
Well, the ending made it pretty obvious that they had one in mind. Though this is the first time I've seen anything concrete about it.
I loved the sumo boss and the giants house
Vexx Condoms Does what Jax Condoms don’t.
@@rexaxis3450 I always found the gravestones creepy when they would talk. I also missed out on some hearts that required the sundial to be set to night because of the powered up enemies.
Semi-related but a lot of games of that time had very similar moveset. Long jumps and high jumps. Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, and Vexx used the same button inputs for those two moves. It was well after Mario 64 that, to my knowledge, had those moves first but I find it interesting that the inputs were identical.
I remember going to friend's dorm in college, around 2012, as we did a project his roommate was playing vexx and failing at a particular bit of platforming. For 2 hours he stared blankly attempting the same pattern of jumps in some sort of temple area. He made no noises of frustration throughout. And when he did succeed he made no noise of happiness ,sigh of relief, or even changed his facial expression. He just continued on. That's my only encounter with vexx and it haunts me to this day. Both my friend and the roommate ended up becoming game designers.
Where do you work??
@@castonyoung7514he works at vexx
that dude was high as a kite
Imagine being a kid born 9 months after that E3 and one day being like “dad, how did I get here?”
And he goes “well I was working for Akklaim and they made these Vexx handouts, but they weren’t sure they’d work, and long story short… shouldn’t have Vexxed before I Sexxed.”
Gameplay Parity: I've spoken to multiple developers over the years, and several of them all confirmed this was a thing. It was mostly on Sony's side, where they put pressure on pubs/devs that had multiplatform games set to release across all three consoles. Since Sony was the market leader, they didn't want there to be any super obvious, big advantages in terms of game content on the Xbox or GameCube versions, if the PS2 couldn't replicate it. This restriction faded away once the 7th gen kicked off. This did not include games that were once exclusive (Splinter Cell) or if another platform holder (like Nintendo) paid extra for extra characters/content. This did not affect all 3rd party publishers equally, as Sony was lenient with several of them.
how about what happened spongebob revenge of the flying dutchman gamecube ps2 and jimmy neutron the move game on ps2 and gamecube
@@dariusworth7478 Ño
@@MrOnepiecem7 yes
@@dariusworth7478 Like to your own comment? Lol lelo
@@MrOnepiecem7 can you ask matt mc muscles about what happend spongebob revenge of the flying dutchman gamecube ps2 and jummy neutron the movie game on ps2 gamecube
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland sounds like prime What Happened? material. A joint Japanese-American production crew with (at various points) Hayao Miyazaki, Chuck Jones, George Lucas, Chris Columbus, Ray Bradbury, Brad Bird, John Lasseter, and several veteran Disney animators; an eight year period of development hell, and an underwhelming box office performance once it finally came out. There's so much to unpack there.
I had this movie in VHS when I was a kid. I use to be scared shitless by it haha
I still remember the quote from Miyazaki about his time working on Little Nemo saying it was "the worst experience of my professional career!"
The game was at least pretty good.
Loved that movie as a kid. Almost as scary as never ending story.
This was one of the movies I watched over and over as a kid. The story was kind of abrupt feeling, even to me as a 6 year old at the time. I'm a bit afraid to go back and watch it just because I've heard that it was really bad. Has some really gorgeous animation, though.
There is something darkly hilarious about Brian Cox eating the entire voice acting budget considering...he doesn't even have that many lines in the final game. He shows up in the beginning, explains some very early game mechanics like the warp room, and then just vanishes until near the very end when there's a quick villain reveal (there's a reason Brian Cox voices two characters) and then just opens his final boss battle with a quick one-liner before remaining silent for most of the fight. He absolutely made off like a bandit and it's all thanks to a clerical error.
@@KingOfElectricNinjas Hindsight is 20/20 and I don't know the specific language in the contract, but man, if they paid that much for Brian Cox, the least they could've done is pull a Tom Baker in MediEvil: Resurrection and had him narrate every single loading screen. That big mansion level loads and you just hear Brian Cox go "you are but the size of worthless insect, young hero" in his best Braveheart voice...
It's why contracts should have renegotiation clauses or cancelation clauses.
@@OgBadlawsThey generally do have cancelation clauses, but “we accidentally agreed to pay you too much money because we weren’t paying attention” isn’t valid cause to cancel a contract. Also most actors work under pay-or-play deals, which basically means they would’ve had to pay him no matter what.
I would love to see a What Happened? episode for E3. its seems like its going down hill since the pandemic and even before.
Why?
What happened: Pandemic caused people to realize there's no need to spend millions of dollars on a trade show and have their message diluted and misunderstood by journalists who might relay it to the target audience of the journalist, when they can just show their product directly to their audience for free.
This was happening before COVID, and that's what finally killed it.
Yes! Seconded!
Dude, E3 used to be my super bowl and now it's not worth watching.
I would say it's two reasons
1) conferences becoming extremely sanitized and publishers saying beforehand what will be shown (in most cases it will be trailers that all play out the same way for sequels that look no different from the original games). It's just all the same, completely safe and predictable. All of the presentations centering around the same buzzwords ("innovation", "quality experience", "we want to give you the best entertainment", ...) and the same boring style of moderation didn't help
2) Sony starting to have their own conference so their lame ass shows won't be compared to the actual good shows
@@juannaym8488 throwing my own reasons in there. Cost of transport and security, vetting staff, trouble shooting on the day, and ultimately Limited market exposure
you have to HOPE people will post vids about your product, so if only a few media-outlets do, its not going to hit the same market, BUT if you posted on youtube,twitch or wherever, the potential of your product being shared increases, you can also edit out any minor bugs or presenting flubbs
this was legit my favorite platformer on the Gamecube as a kid- I cannot describe how frustrating it is that I alone am the only person in my entire state to remember it even existed.
As a fan of Vexx I want you to know you're not alone.
You are not alone! I played it on Xbox though, was a ton of fun and I used to draw him all the time. Loved drawing his gloves/arms
I also played in Gamecube somebody give to us, and the buyed this Game i think cheap , i was the only playing this Game , i cryed in frustration in the piano level
I played on Xbox as a kid, then again on an emulator as an adult ^ ^
I remember datamining and debugging this game years ago, it was so unfinished that the "rift hub" is actually called something like "BETA HUB" in the files, and it's accessible (thought hacking the VRAM in real time on PCSX2) the "final" hub, which was never actually completed.
It had a scrapped Multiplayer mode (levels are still called that way in the game files), which was recycled in the final game for some challengers with Vexx clones., also there is a lot of scrapped audio files in the Italian dub, with some voice lines from Vexx itself (which does not talk in the final game) and some plot points that weren't explained in the final product.
Still, the game has its flaws, but is fun to play, and it's actually fun to mess around and see what "secrets" obscure and unfinished games like this can store in its files.
So Vexx went from from Jak 1's design to Jak 2's Dark Eco design.
more like Jak went from Jinx to Vexx for its sequel 😎
Vexx always reminded me of a kiddie version of Raziel from Soul Reaver! 😅
@@nehemiahpouncey3607 no Jinx as in the original concept of Vexx before the studio saw Jak 1. Did you watch the video?
@@nehemiahpouncey3607 There was no suing.
@@nehemiahpouncey3607 Jinx is a common word so they couldn't trademark the name
What I love about Vexx is just how breakable it is, you can do wonders with the range of movement you get and combos with it
That Vexx game was so hated by public, it actually created an anti-vexx movement
😂😂
💀
The final boss of Vexx is total bs.
Given how popular it was to hate things for the heck of it back then, I'm not surprised...
Take my angry up vote and go away 😂
I LOVE this game! I get that it was trying too hard, and couldn’t make up its mind on whether it was dark and edgy, or for kids, but it had so many unique elements and incredible music.
@@KingOfElectricNinjas apparently, it was supposed to be even more edgy, but executive pressure toned it down. X)
I'm glad to see an episode on Vexx. I actually have this game when I was a kid and really enjoyed it but never got far.
Same. There was always some point where I could never get enough hearts to continue. But I'd just restart and play again or run around an replay what I already had.
4:56 I love how in the early 2000s all video game platformer developers seemed to rely on the exact same cliches over and over again: Jungles, weird ancient artifacts, some sort tiki architecture sooner or later, cute characters with big hands and feet but also attempts at being edgy or "cool".
As a kid, I actually bought Vexx somewhere near launch day from a video rental store. I had an absolute blast with it and this video brings it all back!
Vexx and conker giving one another a high five as the only platform hero's that support save sex
Truely heros we need but dont deserve
Going inside the piano in the giant world, and the underwater dome level were so cool. Figuring out you could be eaten by the whale was super cool. The rock suit was super cool. This game was just pretty cool.
I've got to give the devs credit. For all the setbacks they still managed to make a fairly fun 3D platformer. I got back to vexx every few years to play the giants house level again
To the game's credit, it did do a number of things well for a 3d platformer. There was a nice amount of collectibles in the 9 worlds to find from the hearts, vases and orbs. There was a good variety in the mission design in getting the hearts, as well as a consistent dark style and atmosphere to the worlds, making it feel more unique to its competition. (Plus the soundtrack was also pretty good)
One notable problem though is that the controls, both for the camera and Vexx himself, were just not quite as fine-tuned as its competitiors like Jak, Mario or Banjo.
I really liked the area designs personally. Levels felt bigger than mario 64, there were tons of sub-areas and oddities to find, and the mechanics were more interesting than mario (if a bit obtuse sometimes).
Can you describe how bad the controls are?
One of my childhood games. I was too young to understand what was happening but I found it scary. I'd revisit it if I had it.
Same here! I owned it on the OG Xbox
I'm prob the only person in the world with multiple lol
damn this unlocked some old childhood memories, i vaguely remember this game being included in a ps2 demo disc
edit 19:06 had me checking discord, not sure if it was intentional or not but you got me lmao
Here's a cool (and definitely not super edgy) fun fact about Vexx: According to one of the developers, there's an approximately 1 in 1000 chance that, in the cutscene before the final boss encounter with Dark Yabu, instead of making a Enter The Matrix reference with the pose Vexx strikes, he will literally flip off Dark Yabu (if you know what I mean).
I attempted that fight so many times as a kid that I've seen it happen more than once
Saw that happen on my first playthrough. It was great.
This was un-ironically my favorite gamecube game for a very long time
Am I the only one who finds Matt's laughter at 16:32 to be highly contagious?
It ain't contagious to me, but I'm sure it is contagious for other people.
Just got to that point, definitely agree with you.
I was too busy trying to process "VEXX BEFORE YOU SEXX" while laughing my own ass off
Yo, As I begin my journey into game design, Vexx's art style and theming are such a huge influence on me. It was a game that really stuck with me as a kid. Thank you for making this video!
Man its so sad to hear we could have gotten Vexx's Bizzare Adventure! I loved this game as a kid even tho i was terrible at it and basically just beat up the sumo dude in the first level and ran around in the magma suit. Ive always been into transformative powerups a la Demon's Crest, so i think the Glide game would have been dope as well. Sad that it was one of their last hurrahs but I'll always be thankful Acclaim tried to make their own mascot. He's certainly a big shot to me.
Also vexc before sexx is the greatest damn video game merch of all time and i want it on my wall
I actually really liked the game as a kid (there was a ton of cool ideas throughout the environment design, such as the giant's house being my favorite). But god damn, Dark Yabu as a final boss is a frustrating challenge
I knew this game was obscure, but only around 20K worldwide sales the whole year? I always wondered why nobody heard of one of my favorite childhood games on the OG Xbox. Actually got pretty damn good at it back in the day and stocked up on a ridiculous amount of lives, beating the game finding all the wraithhearts multiple times.
I didn't realize how unrealized this game's potential was until so many years later with all the gutted content. Part of me wonders if the game would have fared better as an Xbox Exclusive considering that platform was lacking in mascot options besides Master Chief and a failed attempt with Blind the Time Sweeper.
Vexx's IP was bought by some Canadian developer called Double Clutch (or something like that), and they never did anything with it. Just kinda sits there in the shattered void with the rest of Astara.
I'm 35 years old, was definitely around in this game's "day", had all 3 consoles back then, and had just... never heard of it before this video autoplayed.
Damn. My older brother and I loved Vexx back in the day. Finding out about all that cut content and a cancelled sequel just hurts. I’d love to see a Vexx remastered with new mechanics and some of the old content put back.
Or at least re-release the old version on Gamepass/Steam/Switch
I remember playing this at a friends house as a kid and being like “Is that a human heart? Wtf?”
I grew up with Vexx and.. its still one of my favorite platformers the world design was just so cool Still sad that we never saw a second game or at least a port to pc
I was literally just replaying Vexx after remembering it and then this video shows up. Frequency Illusion is working hard.
Stay tuned next week for "Wha Happun: Hyper Violent"
Man, Vexx is such a gem of a game. Some of the best controls from a 6th generation platformer. The lore was so mysterious and interesting, I loved how sometimes you could see other stages when looking through the ring of asteroids the game takes place in.
It's interesting that the reason for a lack of NPCs is because of the voice budget; Vexx is an extremely lonely game taking place after a literal genocide, creating one of the most doomed and ominous atmospheres ever. Crazy that was all because of a huge oversight
Absolutely loved this game and still have my PS2 copy! Like many others, I was very young when I played it and didn't quite get the mechanics, or get very far but I remember distinctly some of the hub worlds and the music. The soundtrack was a banger. It was like this weird dark mix of games, certainly a unique mishmash of things. I'd never heard of a sequel though! Hearing about all the cut content makes me wonder if anyone would eventually pick up the rights to this again. Thanks for the informative video Matt, always happy to get a nostalgia hit with these series ☺
I like how this game was my version of Super Mario 64, down to the power ups and collectibles. It had one of the most interesting versions of a tired story trope. The fact that Vexx ends the game fighting for his life, presumably for the rest of his mortal life, is kinda unironically badass.
I’m having a horrible day (horrible life I’m being honest) but seeing a new one of these videos made me smile. Thanks for the upload!
I hope your day and life improves.
Keep on the good fight, chief.
Hope things improve for you soon!
Not surprised that this game is here.
I love that you used the word “cromulent”. A few years ago, my daughter watched the first ten seasons of “The Simpsons” with me and discovered that much of her childhood was made up of Simpsons references. When we came to that episode (“It’s a perfectly cromulent word”), my daughter looked at me and said,”Is THAT where that’s from?!”
I honestly didn't know there were talks of a Vexx sequel before Acclaim went under.
I absolutely LOVE this game. Played the heck out of the GC version :D.
Thank you for covering this game!!
I remember when the gauntlets attached to him in the cutscene it was terrifying XD
Vexx was that game I remembered very fondly, but couldn't recall the name of it when wanting to talk about it. The game with claws and side burns
The thing I liked most about Vexx were the music and worlds. Especially the room level with the creature on the floor.
Always wondered why there haven't been anymore Vexx after the game came out when I first played it back then.
For 9 years, I've waited for this game to be ported to PC. But now I'd like to see it uncut and remastered from the ground up.
For some reason I am compelled to call this game Vexx: Enter the Vekko
It's a small thing, but deleting Mischief, leaving only the alpha channel, and having Matt appear from behind the higher layer was extremely satisfying.
"Vexx before you Sexx"
Is the best fucking thing in the universe. It looks like a shit post id see on twitter or something. Love it!
I remember seeing this game EVERYWHERE growing up when I had a GameCube
I have been waiting for this one forever, I knew it was only a matter of time, as soon as I saw you peep it a couple years back. Hands-down my favorite game of all time, glad it's been getting more attention.
Vexx! This one has a special place in my heart. My eldest sister, who got me into gaming, rented this from Blockbuster after her friend recommended it. I loved watching her play through the mansion bit- it was suspenseful for me, lol.
Man I miss this game a lot actually. It was so tough that me, my bros and my dad all would play the same profile to try and complete everything. I guess it doesn't come as a surprise that it wasn't well known, but I think it at least deserved better. Though this was kind of the Dark Souls of early 3D platformers. Git gud or git gone.
I loved Vexx when I was in high school. Even a couple of years ago I picked up a used copy for dirt cheap and it was still a damn fun time to play.
This game will forever live on in my heart. I remember playing it on a demo disc for weeks and finally getting it at the store as a early birthday gift. I wish it would re-release as a port or even a remake/remaster for current consoles/steam.
Ah, Vexx. I playtested this at Acclaim HQ back in the day for consumer feedback. Felt just okay then, and wound up being just okay in the end when it released. Fun fact, they had ideas for what Dead by Daylight wound eventually be.
I had fun with this at the time. Absolutely brutal final boss battle. Long drawn out fight where the boss evolves three different times, you get no health pick ups and no checkpoints.
Alien: Isolation! After doing some research I found that the production of this game was a bit more troubled than I initially thought. It was supposed to be a third person horror game. But the developers thought that making first person would scare the player more. They were right, but the change from first person to third person was a lot harder than originally thought. The AI for the Alien was also very hard to get right, with the Alien being either too buggy or too stupid to be threatening in the early stages of production. There were also lots of story beats that had to be abandoned. It would nice to dig deeper and find out why!
i rented this game as a kid and really liked it but i could never remember what it was called, thank you!!
Oh wow! Vexx has always been one of my favorite games ever that nobody ever heard of when i talk about it!! So cool to see it isnt just my imagination. Thanks for the vid!!
Great Stuff! As always!
I'd been waiting for this one!
I have a complete north American CiB Xbox collection, and Vexx is my favorite game in it. My sealed copy just brings me joy. It sits on my shelf alongside the prima strategy guide, and the official xbox magazine demo disc #16 in which it was featured on the cover.
Or as I called him at the time.
"Chibi Raziel"
(Seriously his design was a bit uncanny to soul reaver's)
Yeah, that's all I could think during this video.
Wow, just wow. Imagine if those got distributed. Bunch of gen z now growing up as the second baby boom because of Vexx-themed prophylactics.
Man, I've always wanted to find this game again on my gamecube cause I never beat it as a kid. It always scared me too much to play lmao
I have been waiting for this episode for years!
In an alternative universe Vexx and Blinx the cat would have had their own team up game with at least 3 Xs in the title.
Gotta have Gex in there too
@@keithmichael112 "Don't drink the water at Jerry Garcia's house."
- Gex
Blinx the cat and Vexx were awesome games in their own right.
This is one of my most beloved games, was my very first PS2 game and it was a surreal experience back then (never beat the final boss because he was extremely hard) Still got my old PS2 copy and because of this video I realized that there was a freaking Vinyl release of the soundtrack and there were still some left so that was an instant buy, thanks for making me realize this!
It wasn't marketed very well. I rented the game, and i kinda like it. The issue is that the game was not marketed well enough.
The game was sandwiched between all the 3D action/adventure games.
you dont know how long i've waited for this one. HYPEEE
I don't understand the hate, I love this game so much! I actually have started playing it again! Also it has amazing music!
Alvin departed from the chipmunks to grew up into a pre-teen emo edgelord
I actually played this game when i was like 8 and honestly I remember loving this game. It was kinda hard but figuring out the different combo's you could do with these cool ass gauntlets and finding hidden things around areas with these enemies with freaky ass designs trying to kill you was so cool.
I have never played Vexx but I've seen the Xbox cover when I was in a video store renting a game
This game actually inspired my username! 🤣 The PS2 version ran like trash, but the Xbox version performed pretty alright. Kinda felt like Super Mario 64's Evil Cousin, lol. Pretty difficult in some places, (some bosses I've NEVER been able to beat even years later! 😂) but it had some interesting moments and mechanics. If you can find it on PC emulated or whatever, give it a try! 🙂💖🤘
Good video, love listening to the behind the scenes of video games. Watched Tetris movie over the weekend and got “what happened” vibes after learning the story
Wait that's out!!
@@castonyoung7514 Watched it on Apple TV +
I absolutely loved this game as a young kid. Don't understand the hate. It was challenging in a frustrating but satisfying way and a blast to explore and find all the secrets.
holy fuck very ecstatic to see a vid on this game, its one of many franchises i love to deep dive the developmental history of and keep track off, never thought i would see vexx 2 footage tho
very curious as to where you found the stuff from 17:48
I loved Vexx as a kid was one of the very first games I had and it still amazes me to this day with all the unique gameplay it had, I always seemed to be the only one who heard of it though, was like my own lil version of Mario 64, still saddens me to this day with how underappreciated it is.
17:03 That's like, the least objectional marketing gimmick Acclaim has ever tried. Bless them.
Chad Warden is a wonderful part of how culture developed and I really appreciate your nod to him and his legacy.
ballin'
oh my mom's cousin worked on this game. i remember playing it at a family friend's house. really clunky gameplay but I remember enjoying the level that was just a giant house.
happy easter, was just w
onder when you were gonna post a new one lol
Oh my god, I literally forgot this was a thing that existed until I saw the thumbnail and now I'm like "yeah makes sense it's here 😂"
Things that I did not expect with this game:
A literal Jojo reference.
Even as a kid I thought this game wasn't well fleshed out and felt flat & rushed.. I always remember the back of the box said "To Hell with the princess.." and I was like why are we resenting her?? It all seemed forcibly edgy for such a twerpy character.
Man, I really loved this game growing up. It always makes me sad to hear the story behind what happened. I wish they would have been able to make a sequel. Heck, I honestly just wish there was a way to release it for PC so I could play it again
2:19
I think I remember seeing this character and game title in this intro to the Gamecube type promo book back in the early 2000s that listed off descriptions of various games that were available on the system at the time.
God have such crystallized memories of the marketing for this game for some reason. Being an emo teen and thinking it was hilarious how hard the print ads in magazines were trying to sell this game as edgy and Not Like Those Baby Games For Kids. I rented it a couple of times, it reminded me of other midshelf mascot games like Tak and the Power of Juju and Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy
Thanks for the Hyperviolent ad! I'm literally buying (3rd?) game that you're recommending in the ad...so cool! and great video as always...
p.s. Why Vexx is shown as Jak and Daxter in YT description? lol
Finally! The what happened we've all been waiting for!
I saw this game on the shelves on my local movie and video game rental store when the place was still up, I was basically like "What the hell is this"? back then.
As a kid, I remember getting this game for the PS2 because I thought the name was cool. I really liked it, but the final boss was impossible. I remember spending hours upon hours fighting him, but to no avail. Even now, I don't know if it's possible.
"Huh. Never heard of this game before," I thought as I start the video, unaware that the ad shown at 15:34 was going to suddenly send me spiraling back to 2002 when I was coming home from the comic book store with a recent issue of JLA in one hand and a Caprisun in the other.
We really lost the chance to have Vexx Bizzare Adventure
My Easter gift finally arrived! Thanks Matt!