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 and have rich colors and textures everywhere. Plus, their huge size provide 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 are given access to quite an armament of futuristic weapons to combat Mizars forces, such as 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 by far the best part of the game and is some of the best you'll ever hear on the N64. Robin Beanland, Graeme Norgate, and Alistair Lindsay all outdid themselves composing such a majestic and awe-inspiring space opera styled soundtrack that was largely inspired by "Star Wars". "SS Anubis" and "Sekhment" were the best and really helped motivated players up for battle.
Unfortunately, this game isn't without its drawbacks. Like many early 3D games, the controls were wonky, 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.
There are several minigames that are either enjoyable or infuriating 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 corridors, 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 the most aggravating part of all is saving the Tribals, which is your primary objective. Some of them are harder to save than others and require a lot of changing between characters, so this is an especially tedious and time-consuming objective, because if even one dies, you must start over again. The worst part of all is that you must rescue 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.
