You are part of an elite force of police officers that patrol the galaxy.
Your sister and dog are also part of this precinct.
Your ship is being boarded by gigantic bugs.
Your friends, the Tribals, have been kidnapped.
You are only 14 years old.
Jet Force Gemini is a revolutionary game. And here’s why:
First off, one of the best parts of this game is the characters. There are three selectable characters: Juno, the typical hero guy; Vela, his sister who kicks just as much (if not more) bug ass; and their dog Lupus, who has rocket jets.
Each character has a unique ability. Juno can walk on lava (I don’t get it either, but it’s damn cool), Vela can swim underwater, and Lupus has rocket jets. They are all equipped with the standard Jet Force pistol at the beginning of the game, which has unlimited ammo, though it is fairly weak. But they soon upgrade to other guns such as the machine gun, the shuriken, and the tri-rocket launcher (my personal favorite). They also get some advanced space suits, and acquire many new allies. And believe me, they’re gonna need all the help they can get.
At the beginning of the game, the three characters are separated from one another. This makes each character take separate paths until they meet up at the middle. After you beat Mizar (the big bad villain) for the first time, you are required to “rescue” all the Tribals in order to gain an essential ship piece. You cannot progress through the game until you complete this task. So of course, I never finished it. I don’t have enough patience to go back to every single level and search for every single Tribal there is. So I didn’t. I have never actually finished the game because of this reason. It made the game tedious and monotonous. But, before this happens, the game is extremely well made.
The sound is very catchy. There are some nice underscores and beats to tap your feet to. Of course, it is overshadowed by loud gunshots and rocket launches, but it’s still a nice atmosphere. The controls are right on target for a third-person shooter. You can easily change guns, strafe (a vital part of any shooter), and the movement is smooth and simple.
The game’s levels are gigantic, but formulaic to a certain extent. At some points in the game, it just consists of running through a room while shooting multiple times. Luckily, Rareware caught this before it ruined the game, and changed it as soon as possible. (As you can tell by my reviews, I am a huge fan of Rare.)
The multiplayer is possibly the best part of the game. The arena mode is nothing special, but the other modes are. The gun range style of multiplayer is extremely useful and fun for tournament play. The cooperative play is the best feature of the whole game. After you collect all the pieces of an abandoned robot named Floyd, another person is allowed to cooperatively play with you as Floyd. Pretty sweet, huh?
Jet Force Gemini is an awesome game. It is a smooth, sleek third-person shooter, perfect for its time period. There were quite a few fatal flaws, including the monotonous Tribal hunting, but overall, it’s not a bad game at all. If you even have the shred of a notion to get a new game for N64, get this game.
