Jet Force Gemini
	Genre: Third-Person Shooter (Sci-Fi) Developer: Rare
Publisher Region Released Nintendo NA 10/??/1999 Nintendo EU 11/02/1999 Nintendo JP 12/01/1999
AKA: Star Twins (JP)

Your Account Options

You currently have no privileges related to this game profile because you are not signed into an HonestGamers account. Please log in, or click to register for a free user account.

More Reviews by Mike Suskie
	Diablo III (PC) With so many of Diablo III's core functions being handled on Blizzard's end, the game's performance is directly tied to how well their servers are runnin...
	Prototype 2 (Xbox 360) While Prototype 2 is a definite improvement, it’s not like fixing the first game’s flaws unearths some hidden masterpiece here. It’s not a great sequel s...
	The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Xbox 360) It’s very cold – in the thematic sense, though the snow certainly helps. Skyrim is one of the increasingly few Western RPGs to understand that “dark” is ...
	Mass Effect 3 (Xbox 360) Fans have been railing on BioWare for phasing out certain elements – the side quests are virtually nonexistent at this point, and dialog options are more limite...
	Resident Evil 4 HD (Xbox 360) I didn’t die all that much during my playthrough of RE4, yet I constantly – constantly – felt like I was within an inch of my death, scraping for ...

Best Nintendo 64 Games
	Doom 64 Average Rating: 10.0; Reviews: 2
	Harvest Moon 64 Average Rating: 9.8; Reviews: 3
	WWF No Mercy Average Rating: 9.7; Reviews: 3
	Perfect Dark Average Rating: 9.5; Reviews: 3
	Mario Golf Average Rating: 9.4; Reviews: 3
	The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Average Rating: 9.4; Reviews: 11
	Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber Average Rating: 9.4; Reviews: 5
	Star Fox 64 Average Rating: 9.1; Reviews: 4
	Wave Race 64 Average Rating: 9.0; Reviews: 2
	Rocket: Robot on Wheels Average Rating: 9.0; Reviews: 2

Looking for a good read?
Check out a selection from our database of more than 8000 reviews! ratking has weighed in on Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64 and figures it rates 7.9 out of 10. What do you think? Read the review, then be sure to leave feedback or chime in with one of your own!

Staff Review

Review by Mike Suskie
August 03, 2008

Hang around gaming message boards long enough and you’re bound to eventually stumble into a debate about how old games should be scored, whether they should be viewed in the context of their own era or judged based upon today’s standards. I’ve always been a supporter of the former argument. Games can’t be expected to hold up after ten years or so, especially when other games in the same genre have likely improved and evolved, as new standards are constantly being set. Perhaps the question of whether a retro game is still entertaining today is more relevant, but I’m a pretty lenient guy.

But what if time simply works to expose the flaws that have always been there, the flaws we were simply too naïve to notice earlier? That’s an entirely different story, and boy, have I got the specimen for you. It’s called Jet Force Gemini, and it’s a game I loved until I realized it wasn’t worth loving.

And maddeningly, it’s got a lot going for it. British developer Rare is likely responsible for more N64 classics than Nintendo itself, and the attention to detail present in Gemini proves that even when they screw up, their production values are typically top-notch – these guys always deserve an A for effort. “Epic” isn’t usually a word I’d use to describe a third-person shooter, but there’s an undeniably vast quality to the sheer scope and scale of this adventure. It follows three different characters and spans a number of planets, and Rare has taken care to give each world a distinct atmosphere, a feat of both the variety in visual design and the musical score. Kudos to regular Rare composer Robin Beanland on that last point – his soundtracks always tend to be catchy, but this feels like an evolution of his talents, so grand and orchestral and beyond anything else he’s ever done, it feels like it was pulled out of a piece of classic sci-fi cinema.

There’s also the option of running the game in widescreen – nearly unheard of at the time of its release – and the wealth of unlockable content, the sweet shooting gallery-style boss battles, and the excellent two-player co-op mode. Rare poured a lot of effort into making Gemini all that it could be, which is a shame when you consider how quickly the game loses appeal for the simplest missteps.

I’ve always considered the N64 controller very poorly designed, good for platformers and Zelda and not much else. Rare’s compromise for their FPSs (Goldeneye and Perfect Dark) was fine even if it’d never work by today’s standards, and I don’t blame them for (and can even sympathize with) their struggle to cram Gemini’s convoluted control scheme onto the cruddy N64 pad. But that doesn’t make the game any easier to play.

Basic movement is handled with the analog stick, as you’d expect, while the C buttons are used for specific movement-related actions like jumping, crouching, and strafing. If combat really heats up and this control scheme doesn’t suffice, you can hold the R shoulder button, during which you can move with the C buttons and aim with the analog stick – a backwards attempt at pulling off dual analog control with only one analog stick that will take some time to get used to, unless you’ve played a lot of Turok. With the A and B buttons devoted to cycling through weapons and the Z trigger used for firing, you’ll notice we’ve now used up all available controller resources and we still haven’t incorporated any sort of camera system. Indeed, the camera is often too low to the ground and isn’t always facing the direction you’d like it to, which leads to a lot of sensing as to where your enemies are located. There’s a bit of auto-aim present here, but whereas other games use that sort of thing for assistance, in Gemini it feels like a way to correct one of the game’s key flaws.

Then there’s also the issue of aiming with the R button and analog stick, which by all means should correct the camera problem as long as you’re willing to sacrifice jumping and crouching. Trouble arises when you realize that the targeting reticle never stays in the same place, absolutely flying all over the screen as you’re struggling to hit enemies that are moving fast and shooting at you. What’s worse is that – in contrast to the slippery reticle – turning is way too slow, which can be a major detriment in an adventure as action-packed as this one. I wound up avoiding the use of the R button unless it was absolutely necessary, when in fact it should have been a key factor in how I played Gemini.

The game follows a trio of intergalactic mercenaries as they struggle to save the race of meek, defenseless Tribals from the wicked Drones, an army of oversized bugs that go splat when you shoot them. The group is comprised of a guy, a girl, and a dog with a gun strapped to his back – and I don’t care what you say, a dog with a gun strapped to his back makes any game better. Rare gave each of these characters their own abilities, which provide specific options when it comes to exploration. Juno doesn’t get hurt by lava, for example, which makes him the prime candidate to traverse a volcanic planet later on in the game. Vela can swim underwater, which automatically gives her access to places the other two can’t get to. Ditto for Lupus the dog, who can hover over large gaps.

For a while, he game follows a reliable get-to-the-end-of-the-level design that places the Tribal-saving plot into the background, as nothing more than a side quest, since we know how much the guys at Rare love their collect-a-thons. Our heroes are separated at the beginning of the game, and you’ll constantly be switching between the three as their paths eventually lead them to reunite on a planet that appears to be the Drones’ base of operations. There’s a climactic boss battle against the main villain. Even with the wretched control scheme in mind, the game is still pretty entertaining up to this point.

The fun ends when you realize the game is only half over, and a character tells you that you’ve now got to go back and save all of the Tribals, which means going back to planets you’ve already been to as well as exploring new ones. I’m generally okay with fetch quests – hell, half of my N64 career was positively made of fetch quests – but Rare bumps it up a notch. They obscure some of the Tribals from regular view. The others are thrown out into the open, where they’re more likely to get killed by stray gunfire. What’s worse is that worlds are divided into districts, and you’ve got to collect all of an area’s Tribals before you leave. If an area has ten Tribals and you save nine, you can’t come back later and rescue the one that you missed. You’ve got to get them all in one fell swoop.

This approach was simply the wrong one, especially considering how much I enjoyed myself for the first half of the game. Rare at least demonstrates their talent for foreshadowing here: Why is there an underwater tunnel in one of Juno’s levels, or a pit of lava in one of Vela’s? And what are these fuel pads I keep seeing everywhere? The player’s motivation to explore is definitely there, and I would have no trouble with this Tribal rubbish if it were merely a side quest. But the fact that I need to collect all of them, and the tedium involved in doing so, stops this adventure in its tracks.

And as I said, it’s frustrating because there are a lot of reasons to enjoy Gemini. Rare’s trademark googly-eyed visual style is notably absent, but the game still has cuteness to spare, especially in the supporting characters’ warbled voices. This only makes it all the more shocking when you delve into combat for the first time and realize just how hilariously gory it is. Drones don’t simply die. They explode into a thousand bloody pieces as ant guts splatter all over the walls. It’s not realistic or particularly offensive – the game did snag a T rating, after all – but it’s amazingly fun to watch, an instant reward for any kill. Before this juxtaposition of cuteness and carnage was made blatant and obvious in Conker’s Bad Fur Day, there was Gemini.

Gore is satisfying, there’s no doubt about it, and when it’s incorporated so gratuitously into a game’s design, as it is with Gemini, it becomes a selling point. Damned if Gemini isn’t the best crappy game I’ve ever played.

Feedback

Facebook()

Forums(0)

You can click the tabs on the above bar to choose whether you wish to read comments from visitors who have posted on Facebook, or from registered site users who have left feedback on the forums. Please leave a comment of your own if you have anything to say!

Info | Help | Privacy Policy | Contact | Advertise

© 1998-2012 HonestGamers
None of the material contained within this site--from reviews, guides, cheats and editorials to message board posts--may be reproduced in any conceivable fashion without permission from the author(s) of said material. This site is not sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, or any other such party. Jet Force Gemini is a registered trademark of its copyright holder. This site makes no claim to Jet Force Gemini, its characters, screenshots, artwork, music, or any intellectual property contained within. Opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily represent the opinion of site staff or sponsors.