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Video Game / Rex Nebular And The Cosmic Gender Bender

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Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender is a point-and-click Adventure Game developed by MicroProse. It is one of the three games based on Microprose's MADS engine, along with Dragonsphere and Return of the Phantom.

The game is set in a comedic Space Opera universe similar to Space Quest, except that the humor is a lot raunchier and more sexist. The protagonist, Rex Nebular, is a lone space traveler doing odd jobs. One such job required Rex to retrieve a precious vase from a cloaked planet called Terra Androgena. Rex finds the planet quite easily with his mass indicator, but finds out very soon that the planet's exclusively female inhabitants are very hostile to outsiders, especially if they are male. Rex's ship is shot down, though he manages to survive the crash-landing on the planet. He must now find another way off the planet, as well as complete his original objective – find the precious vase.


Tropes:

  • All for Nothing: In the final scene of the game, Rex accidentally breaks the vase, rendering all the quest pointless since he wont get paid.
  • Covers Always Lie: The cover of the box art shows a horrified Rex being chased by hordes of women. In the game, the very large majority of women wants to kill him or capture him.
  • Does Not Like Men: The women of Terra Androgena openly treat all men as subhuman beings. Any men that make it to their planet are relegated to the role of breeding stock.
  • Durable Deathtrap: There are many of them in Machopolis, all triggered when they detect a woman in the vicinity. They are still functioning after all these years since high-technology are powering them.
  • Excuse Plot: Rex being hired to find the vase exists pretty much just as a reason to get him to the planet for hijinks to ensue.
  • Face Palm: In the opening movie, Colonel Stone watches Rex from afar who falls flat on his face. Stone could only bury his face on his hand.
  • Fantastic Caste System: The all-female population is divided between Keepers and Stock. Keepers have access to high technology, live underground and rule the planet. Stock are stuck on the surface with no access to technology and are used to perpetuate the species' population, mostly with gender-bended men.
  • Fictional Currency: Galactar is the currency used in the game.
  • Gender Bender: There is actually a machine called this in the game, and it does Exactly What It Says on the Tin. The women of Terra Androgena use it to continue their race, though they find the process extremely degrading. Rex himself has to use it at one point.
  • Gendercide: The Great Gender War ended in this, as the women developed a virus that killed all the men.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: When you release the alien prisoner from his cell, he goes on a rampage and kill all the guards. This happens off-screen, but from the noises and screams you hear, is was truly bloody and violent.
  • Gravity Sucks: Once the Slippery Pig's engines are disabled, it falls straight down to the planet below.
  • How We Got Here: In the opening movie, Rex recounts how he found the vase and the game begins with you trying to locate it.
  • I Call Him "Mister Happy": Rex calls it "Little Rexie".
  • In Medias Res: The intro starts with Rex presenting the vase to his employer, Colonel Stone, and the game is basically his retelling of how he got it.
  • Lady Land: Terra Androgena is this, after the successful Gendercide of the male population in the Great Gender War.
  • The Many Deaths of You: Like Sierra's games, there are many ways to die in the game.
  • Optional Sexual Encounter: It's actually mandatory to progress in the game. You meet one female Breeder and you have to convince her that you're a real man, not gender-bended man.
  • Priceless Ming Vase: In the ending movie, Rex finished telling his tale and he accidentally knocked the vase off the desk which break in many pieces. Too bad his employer hasn't paid him yet.
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: Rex is sent to a Gendercide-ridden planet to retrieve a valuable vase. Over the course of the game, he loses his ship, destroys a large city, causes the deaths of several people, kills a small dog, suffers through repeated bouts of gender-bending, and gets kicked in the nuts, not to mention averting several deaths by a hair along the way. In the end, he accidentally breaks the vase in front of his customer while arguing about payment. Which they had already agreed on, note.
  • Sole Survivor: Rex can find the only man who has survived the Gendercide. He keeps to himself and has no interest in leaving the planet.
  • Space Fighter: Rex finds and repairs one to escape the planet. He also uses it to destroy the ship that shot him down at the beginning of the game.
  • Unwinnable by Design:
    • There are two Tough moments when you need to retrieve certain items or complete certain objectives, and you will be unable to do so after you do a certain thing. In both cases, the game will give you a pop-up warning that you are about to do so. The first one is when you are about to leave the Slippery Pig, and the second one is when you are about to flood Machopolis. Otherwise, the game is Polite or even Merciful. Rex can die, but the game will always restart at the moment before the fatal mistake was made.
    • In Machopolis, there is also one puzzle where this trope is subverted. You can lose both of your bones and still not get rid of the dog at Abdul's Service Station, but you can later get new bones when you get up the south elevator.

Alternative Title(s): Rex Nebular

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