Toxic Turtle is the fourth boss of Gex, which following Kung Fuville's Asiatic inspiration references the Japanese kaijū film genre made popular by films featuring destructive and massive creatures such as the iconic Godzilla.
Background[]
Toxic Turtle was an associate of Rez and he was given the order to guard Kung Fuville. As a boss-class enemy, he surrendered the Rezopolis remote upon being defeated after which Gex returns straight to the Dome which explodes, revealing the elevator down to Rezopolis itself.
Design and inspiration[]
A massive cybernetically-enhanced alligator snapping turtle that is capable of flight trough rockets implanted in his legs, Toxic Turtle serves as the last boss of the movie-inspired worlds. The battle takes place in a bamboo thicket, an iconic image in martial arts films that has become associated with samurai and ninja showdowns. The background art mimics an image created by using woodblock printing, a common art form in both Japan and China. Toxic Turtle's robotics reference a 1970s trend where several prominent kaijū monsters received mechanical counterparts, including Mechagodzilla and Mecha-King Ghidorah. The inspiration for the physical appearance of the character was likely Gamera, as mentioned by Gex himself during the course of the battle. His name is a subtle Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles homage, referencing the prominent role that toxic waste originally had in powering the heroes of that franchise, which was later retconned with alien mutagen. Toxic Turtle serves as the final guardian of a Media Dimension remote, a role that was later inherited by Mecharez, another kaijū-inspired character, in Gex: Enter The Gecko.
Involvement[]
Toxic Turtle serves at the fourth boss of the game, with his namesake boss level becoming accessible when Gex gets the remote for it from "Chop Chop".
Strategy[]
When the fight starts, Toxic Turtle will assemble himself and fly around and try to either charge into Gex, drop exploding tails onto him or exhale mini-tornadoes his way. Gex has to tail attack Toxic Turtle at the appropriate time and he appears to grow larger each time he is hit. Once defeated, Toxic Turtle will grow at an unsafe rate and explode.
Trivia[]
- Because Toxic Turtle uses the same sprite each time he grows bigger, the pixels start to look more noticeable.
| Characters in Gex (series) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Heroes | Gex | Agent Xtra | Alfred | Cuz | Rex | ||
| Villains | Rez | Morphina | The Flatulator | Sun Snake | Toxic Turtle | The Tiki Brothers | Mooshoo Pork | Mecharez | Rock Hard | Brain of Oz | ||
| Helpers | Paunch | Humps | Tank | Snowboard | Al Nino | Scales | Turtle Taxis | ||
| Minor characters | Uncle Charlie | Gex's Mother | ||