Since the advent of the first 3D platformer, there have been numerous mediocre imitators and a few standouts that further the genre. Unfortunately for Acclaim, Vexx falls squarely into the first category. Even so, it is very playable and should provide a lengthy romp for platformer fans.

My primary complaint against Vexx is that the camera system feels unrefined. It works well enough to play the game, but it's very rough. When you move the C-stick to the side, the camera jumps into motion. It is actually too responsive. In a side-by-side comparison with the camera in Mario Sunshine, the slightly delayed (yet smooth) reaction of Mario's camera feels much better. Additionally, the vertical camera movement in Vexx is poor for two reasons. First, when the camera is moved all the way toward the ground, it tends to some developers (and gamers) think of pulling back on the C stick as being analogous to pressing down collide with and bounce against the terrain, which hurts the responsiveness. Second, when you pull back on the C-stick, the camera moves down and toward the character rather than up and away from the character. While this may seem logical in theory, in practice, Mario Sunshine has established the idea that the camera should move toward the character when the C-stick is pushed forward. The problem seems to be that on a directional pad. There are only two ways to address this situation. The developer can either choose one method over the other or provide both methods of control and give the player the option of choosing between them. The second choice is the more generous of the two, but if a developer were to go with the first (as Iguana did with Vexx), they would do well to choose the method used by the most popular game in the genre (read: Mario Sunshine). Vexx's movement is responsive enough, but since the movement is dependent on the camera angle, it is slightly marred by the unrefined camera system. Finally, Vexx's movement underwater works wonderfully until you reach the surface. With the help of his Astani War Talons, Vexx swims around like a dolphin and dives out of the water when he reaches the surface. Unfortunately, this stops Vexx dead in his tracks, and to continue the graceful dolphin-like swimming, he must submerge again manually.

Vexx's gameplay brings very little to the platformer genre that isn't already there. Mario has stars and shines, Banjo has jiggies, and Vexx has wraith hearts. Mario has yellow coins, Banjo has music notes, and Vexx has wraith heart shards. Mario has red coins, Banjo has Jinjos and Vexx has soul jars. One thing Vexx does not have is a great deal of character interaction. The worlds of Mario Sunshine and the Banjo series have numerous inhabitants to add character. Vexx has one puny scrap of journal paper in each level and an opening cut-scene (which is quite nice at least). The hub area in Vexx is an entirely unimaginative circular room, with a vaulted ceiling and gateways to each of the nine levels.

Vexx's moves have, for the most part, been seen before. He has a high jump and a long jump as his primary means of getting around, plus a few combative moves that can be useful for reaching places as well. Speaking of combat, this is the one element of Vexx that isn't readily found in other platformers. Vexx can pound his enemies into oblivion using various combinations of his fighting moves, including an uppercut, a midair kick, a downward energy shot (when jumping), a charge attack and the usual flurry of punches/slashes. Most enemies are easily dispatched though, and the moves are primarily useful in particular instances only (i.e. uppercuts are good for air targets while slashes are good for ground targets). Even so, using Vexx's combo system can be a small game unto itself. The game keeps track of your combo score as you attack your enemies repeatedly; they don't vanish until you stop pummeling them, even if they have run out of health.

Graphically, Vexx is a mixed bag. The art style shows promise, but it's held back by an iffy execution and a struggling graphics engine. The opening cut-scene is pre-rendered in the style of the game's graphics. It appears to be the ideal that the graphics team was hoping to achieve in the game itself. Unfortunately, the in-game graphics fall significantly short of the well-directed opening scene. The problems are not difficult to see. Many prominent textures have far too little detail. For example, Vexx finds himself climbing quite a few walls. This brings the camera into close proximity with the wall and aims it directly at the wall texture, revealing the low detail. The graphics team added ultra-high resolution detail textures to many surfaces, which provides high definition gray-scale detail (think of them as a poor man's bump-map). Unfortunately, they do not look very good on top of Vexx's low-resolution textures. In other places, the texture resolution is good and the detail textures look great. However, the inconsistent nature of Vexx's texturing, the poor camera presentation and the uneven frame rate all contribute to an ultimately mediocre visual presentation.

Vexx's music and sound are fine if not good at times. The sound effects don't usually stand out (either in a good or bad way) but I do have to complain about the frequent use of backwards echoes. It's a fairly common sound effect that can be produced by reversing a sound sample, adding some degree of echo to it, and then reversing it again. The music is subdued, but well composed and instrumented. It’s too bad there is no way to adjust how loud the music and effects are. I would have turned the music up a little if possible.

Despite all of my complaining, Vexx is still a very playable platformer with 90 wraith hearts to collect, good music, a variety of enemies and environments, and an unusually dark art style for a platformer.