Jet Force Gemini

This was one of my all-time favorite N64 games from Rare while growing up. It may not have been as successful as Banjo Kazooie or Goldeneye, but it still shares a special place in my heart. It's a spectacular and criminally underrated sci-fi game with both adventure and third-person shooter features.

In the distant future, an interplanetary insectoid tyrant named Mizar and his army of Drones has invaded the planet Goldwood and enslaved a peaceful bear-like species named Tribals. Fortunately, the remnants of Jet Force Gemini, consisting of twin siblings, Juno and Vela and their canine companion, Lupus, arrive at the planet to defeat Mizar, save the Tribals, and eventually, planet Earth itself.

You'll travel across 15 diverse levels, like Goldwood itself, a forest world, the barren and cold Cerulean, through the insides of a gargantuan space worm on the volcanic world Eschebone, and Ichor, a Drone military base with a groovy nightclub. The levels are all beautifully designed, well detailed, and have rich colors and textures everywhere. Plus, their huge size provides plenty of opportunities to explore and are split into separate areas interconnected by certain doors that serve as checkpoints that keeps a tally of how many Tribals were rescued, missed, or killed.

You'll wield an armament of futuristic weapons to combat Mizars forces, like a laser pistol, machine gun, shotgun, and the ever popular and lethal Tri-Rocket launcher. Throwables, like grenades, remote and proximity mines, and flares are also available. You'll have the chance to collect ammunition crates and Gemini containers to increase your overall ammo capacity and health respectively. You'll need them.

The music was spectacular and some of the best ever played on the N64. Robin Beanland, Graeme Norgate, and Alistair Lindsay all outdid themselves composing such a powerful and awe-inspiring space opera soundtrack that was largely inspired by "Star Wars". "SS Anubis" and "Sekhment" were the best and really helped motivate me to soldier on until they beat the level. Even today I still listen to them.

Unfortunately, like many early 3D games, the controls were clumsy, especially when dealing with certain enemies that required manual aiming, like shield or sniper drones. Luckily, modern controls on the Nintendo Switch and X-Box lessen the difficulty a bit. And I feel the characters weren't very developed. It could have been better if they shed more light onto Juno and Vela's tragic past or their bond as siblings.

There are multiple minigames that are either enjoyable or a pain to play. The best ones are the classic 2-D racing games in the arcade at the "Big Bug Fun Club" and a 3D racer at Mizar's palace that shares similar features to "Diddy Kong Racing" released in 1997. But the non-enjoyable ones were the five Floyd missions. Floyds high speed and horrible controls, combined with the stages narrow passages, sharp turns, and multiple small pickups that were easy to miss made these extremely frustrating. Worse still, you're required to complete two of them to beat the game.

But worst of all was the aggravating task of saving the Tribals, which is your primary objective. Not all of them can be rescued by just one character and if even one gets killed, you must start the zone they died in all over again. And to put the cherry on the cake, you need to save every single one in order to beat the game.

Despite these flaws, Jet Force Gemini is a great game and a must play for retro gamers who enjoyed Rare's other releases.

Among N64 games I place this behind only the two Zelda adventures. Every few years for twenty-five years now I've tried to figure out what exactly it is that made J. F. G. A masterpiece standing so completely outside of time despite being on the surface a game mostly about mowing down giant bipedal ants and collecting cutesy monkeyfolk. One key seems to be the score combined with the many vast landscapes and technoscapes, which together often speak what seem odes to a great and lost splendor. Sekhmet, Anubis and the Lost Island are among the best examples of this.

Another key is simply the scope and sheer beauty - often majesty - of its worlds. I don't know how it is that Rare excelled in lighting details, gradations and effects so far beyond any other gaming company and regardless whether they were working in Super Nintendo, N64 or their famously unparalleled promotional renders, but excel they did. And never more than here. They put in the extra grief and sweat to make every last hidden nook look totally unique. The game is a meditation on light and shade. I've also never seen lens-flare effects used anywhere skillfully as here. The Lost Island area alone should've won some sort of Oscar for breaking new ground in video-game beauty.

This game is one of desperate few games I can think of that were known well to everyone when they came to us, but now seem very nearly forgotten. And this a profound travesty, Jet Force being so much greater an achievement than the Banjo games and all else Rare made for the system. I've always thought a sequel made on GameCube graphics would've fit its fabric so well. May it be accomplished one day.

More would I, but life is short and words are cheap and great works like this one beckon us on in our shrinking time. Boom shanka.