Jet Force Gemini Retro ReviewJuly 16, 2013 by

Do you have a game that you played at an early age, perhaps one of the earliest games you played? You have fond memories of the game, either playing it a lot with friends or sinking hours into the single player campaign, but you never really finished it, so it still houses a lot of mystery. Today, I'd like to talk about one game I had such an experience with. It was one of the first console games I'd ever played, one that was bought alongside our Nintendo 64. It was a game made by Rare, back when they were in their prime. It never lived up to the success of other Rare titles like Banjo Kazooie and Goldeneye 007 nor did it become a cult classic like Conker's Bad Fur Day. Still, it holds a special place in my heart and I have many fond memories of blasting my buddies in multiplayer and scratching the surface of the single player campaign. I know there are probably just two people who now what I'm going to talk about now, so let's cut to the chase and have a look at the forgotten game of Jet Force Gemini.

So many fond memories of this game!

So many fond memories of this game!

Flashback to late 1999! Rare is at the top of the world, having just created two breakthrough hits in the form of Goldeneye 007 and Banjo Kazooie. But they weren't content to simply ride the waves of their success. Oh no, they were masters of experimentation. In 1997, development of a new, original game had begun, one that combined tropes and mechanics of popular sci-fi games like Metroid and Quake and drew inspiration from the likes of Star Wars. It was to be a third-person shooter with a distinctly arcade vibe. In October of 1999, this new labor of love was released to the American public as Jet Force Gemini.

Jet Force Gemini is the story of a pair of twins, Juno and Vela, and their pet dog. Yes, their pet dog, Lupus, is a playable character, and one of the best canine companions in any video game, if I may dare say so.

He turns into a tank part way through the game.  Try and top that, CoD: Ghosts!



When drones led by the evil tyrant, Mizar, invade peaceful planets and subjugate their tribal inhabitants, it's up to Juno, Vela, and Lupus to stop his ambitions.

And the premise is just one of the things I love about this game. If Jet Force Gemini were made today, it would probably star a squad of macho, grizzled space marines a la Halo or Gears of War. Fortunately, our protagonists are a little more creative than that: just a couple of kids (one of whom is a girl of all things! You'd never see one of those as a playable protagonist in a modern shooter) and their pet dog.

The game's visuals look very impressive, even for a game that doesn't take advantage of the N64's expansion pack. The colors are bright and vibrant. There's a nice assortment of environments as well, ranging from foggy swamps to dense jungles.

The environments looks very nice for the N64.

The environments look very nice for the N64.


The audio is also topnotch as well. You can definitely hear the Star Wars/John Williams influence with the soundtrack. I applaud composer Robin Beanland's ability to give us such a sweeping, quasi-orchestral scores given the N64's limited musical capabilities.

Of course, the main attraction for a game like Jet Force Gemini is the gun play, and it easily delivers in that respect. The various weapons available throughout the game are mostly satisfying to use, with few exceptions. Unlike Goldeneye 007, there's no reloading, which means you don't have to pause your rain of machine gun fire to stick another magazine into the weapon. You can just keep firing the darn thing to your heart's content, provided you still have ammo for it, of course. The main enemy of the game, the ant-like drones of Mizar's army, make for great enemies as well. When killed with the more explosive and high-powered weaponry, they explode in a glorious shower limbs and discolored blood. You can even collect their heads as trophies. It may sound gruesome, but it's all kept within the T-rating, so younger players have nothing to worry about.

Unfortunately, there are parts of the game's design that simply make me cringe and say, “Why the heck would they do that?” The most widely criticized aspect of Jet Force Gemini is that it forces you to collect all of the hostage tribals in the game. All of them. And if even one single tribal is killed (and these suckers die easily) or miss one (and some of them are sadistically well hidden), you have to start the whole level all over again. And then there's an annoying fetch quest involving collecting various parts to a broken down spacecraft. That would be bad enough as it is, but certain ship parts have to be obtained by fetching quest items from one level, sometimes having to complete a frustratingly awkward minigame to obtain it, and bringing them to the appropriate character in a different one. For a game that emphasizes fast-paced arcade action, having you backtrack through previous levels for quest items and those @&%*-ing tribals does not do Jet Force Gemini any favors.

Well-hidden, fragile, and completely necessary to progress, these tribals are a complete pain in the ass to collect.


The controls are another issue entirely. Usually, they don't cause that much of a problem. Basic running'n'gunning is handled fairly well. There's a slight bit of auto-aiming when running around, so that your shots will connect if you are facing in the enemy's direction. But, when you have to aim manually, several problems arise. First of all, the controls are barely customizable. Do you have trouble aiming with a control stick when the Y-axis is inverted? Well, you're going to have a great time with Jet Force Gemini, because, when aiming, the Y-axis is inverted whether you like it or not. The N64's wobbly thumbstick only makes aiming an even greater pain in the arse, especially when you're trying to hit the many, small moving enemies the game has a tendency to throw at you. Because of this, boss fights, where you're forced into the awkward manual aiming mode, are usually frustrating and feel incongruous with the rest of the game. Still, their colossal size and blood-pumping intensity make up for this, so you still feel like a badass after taking down one of these towering insects.

I've had this game for years and I still haven't beaten this guy!


And then there's the poor enemy A.I. Out of all of Jet Force Gemini's flaws, this one is the least offensive. After all, it's hard to get too mad at a game when an enemy shoots his buddy's grenade point blank, blasting them both in the process. As a matter of fact, that sort of thing can be rather funny at times.

I've already briefly mentioned the multiplayer, so let's have a brief word on how that element of the game fairs. It supports up to four players via splitscreen and offers a variety of modes. It's your standard local multiplayer shooter affair with options like deathmatch and survival. Matches consist of running around a map, looking for weapons, power-ups, and opponents to riddle bullet holes. It's good, clean fun, even if certain matches can devolve into players running circles around each other spraying machine gun fire everywhere in a comically vain attempt to hit their target.

There's even a sort of two player mode option hidden in the single player campaign. A second player can jump in to take control of a small, propeller-powered robot named Floyd. Floyd hovers over the player's shoulder and can help take out enemies onscreen. Think of it like the Helper Luma from Super Mario Galaxy 2, but armed with lasers instead of Star Bits.

And there you have it. That's Jet Force Gemini in a nutshell. You know, I'm probably one of two and a half people who will ever play this game. Regardless, it will forever be in my standing as an unfairly underappreciated gem. Sure, it may have its faults and quirks, from wonky controls to infuriating tribal collecting, but the charms outweigh the faults. The set-up is unique and quirky and the fast-paced, arcadey action makes for a usually fun experience.

But will this be the last we see of Jet Force Gemini?


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