Almost a decade ago, on October 11, 1999, famed video game developer Rare released an N64 third-person shooter called Jet Force Gemini to the public. Most gamers know Rare for hits like Goldeneye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark and Donkey Kong 64, but Jet Force Gemini managed to fly under radar for the most part. Players take control of twins Juno and Vela, along with their dog Lupus, and follow them on their quest to rid the galaxy of Mizar, the leader of the bug armies.
I first heard of Jet Force Gemini when a friend showed me the "HotNewz 64" videotape he received with his monthly copy of Nintendo Power magazine back in junior high. The video is cringe-inducing to watch today, mostly because of the tape's host, but the Jet Force Gemini preview that is shown will still make you want to play the game. I managed to dig up the clip after a bit of searching, you can watch it here, courtesy of Gametrailers.com and user chaddie84. Watch the host's face.
I picked up the game as soon as I could, and it most definitely lived up to my expectations. Jet Force serves up a heaping mound of goo and gore, despite a surprising "Teen" rating. It also introduced me to cooperative gaming. A second player could take control of Floyd, a small hovering robot you put together partway through the game. Though player two was limited to hovering next to player one's head, the game was still a blast to play with a buddy. The action was fierce, the cinema scenes epic, the bosses colossal and the content surprisingly funny at times.
Sadly enough, however, I never actually beat Jet Force Gemini.
There comes a point in the game, after you beat Mizar for the first time, when you're ordered to scrounge the galaxy for parts to a ship, which happens to be fast enough to reach Mizar's asteroid base, which happens to be hurtling towards Earth. I found all the parts, save one...
A little background first. Amidst the action of Jet Force Gemini, these little guys are ever-present...
They're called "tribals," and they are the single biggest flaw in this game. Walking through them makes them disappear into a cloud of pretty sparkles, and the game considers them rescued. At first, we don't quite get the impact they'll have on the game's outcome. In fact, they're pretty fun to shoot, or better yet, explode into a cloud of crimson liquid.
However, the player quickly learns that, in order to retrieve the final ship part and access the final boss, he or she must save every single tribal in the entire game. That's 120 stages of being careful not to shoot the white teddy bears in the corner. Not an easy task, and not one that I ever saw the need to complete. I basically saw it as a cheap attempt to increase the game's longevity. It works in that regard, but in the most annoying way possible.
Flash forward 10 years, and here we are. I know what happens when you finally save all the tribals, and I also know the Mizar is widely considered to be the most difficult boss in the history of video games. I decided that, with the help of my brother, I'd like to finally go back and complete Jet Force Gemini. I'll finally have a review, 10 years overdue, whenever we complete our task.
It could be awhile.
Box shot courtesy of GameFAQS.
Tribal render image courtesy of Jet Force Gemini APEX.
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