Jet Force Gemini is not without its problems. While the aiming and shooting mechanics are handled wonderfully, the same cannot be said for the general platforming. Any time players are required to jump around on moving platforms, it can be an ordeal. The camera tends to watch the avatar, not the environment, so there are times when the player jumps and the camera pulls back to stay on the character, which can make it difficult to stick the landing. The camera sometimes will zoom out to make platforming in some areas a bit easier, but this is not always the case. Things are less complicated when controlling Lupus with his rocket feet, but Juno and Vela do not have the same luxury. Fortunately, the game is not that heavy on the platforming, so these situations are not encountered often. The game also features nice cutscenes when players arrive on or depart from a planet. At least… they’re nice the first few times. The problem is that these scenes are shown every time players jump between planets, and they are unskippable. They start to lose their charm after a while when all you want to do is get out and start fighting bugs and find items you may have missed during your last trip.
Probably the worst offense, however, is one of the requirements to complete the game. Remember those random Tribals that you can save while you’re out and about? Well, late in the game, there is an item that the team needs to reach the final boss, but King Jeff will only give it to you if you do something for him – save all of the Tribals in the game. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Now, there are games that people like to play to experience every little bit of it, but Jet Force Gemini may be one of the only games where 100% completion is practically a requirement. Even with a guide, this can be quite the ordeal. You’ll be scouring every dark corner of every area in the game to make sure you didn’t miss anyone. Fortunately, while the game gives no clues as to where missing Tribals may be hiding, it does tell you how many of them are in any given section. Be careful, though, as even one dead Tribal means you’ll have to start the entire section over again to save them all. It likely won’t be an issue for completionists, but less hardcore players may find this a pretty tall order. While having to complete such a large majority of the game just to see the ending might hurt the replay value a bit, there are speed records you can set for each game section, which at least helps keep things interesting for the more competitively-minded gamer.
Of course, if you’re going to be running back and forth across the game looking for those damn teddy bears, it helps that the environments that you’ll be exploring look simply fantastic. Even by N64 standards, you’re sure to be impressed with the level of detail that was put into both the 3D spaces and the 2D backdrops. While most of the areas that you will be exploring tend to be blocked off – with only the sky being visible – there are a few planets with large canyons and other big drops, allowing you to see much more of the surrounding environment. Even seeing the stars from the large bay windows of the spaceships you’ll explore look great. Given much more detail than simple dots on a black background, the amount of work put into the game’s art design greatly helps with the immersion, and you won’t be getting tired visiting these locations again and again.
The music in Jet Force Gemini tends to fall into three different categories: fun, epic and extremely ominous. More often than not, any given track is likely to fall into the latter. What this does is give the game a very specific tone: danger. And with good reason, because you never know when enemy forces are lurking around the corner, waiting to strike (which is almost always). Not that I would classify the game as anything resembling horror (aside from one specific planet), but the music certainly does ensure that you never feel too comfortable.
It’s been years since the last time I played Jet Force Gemini, but it was a real treat to experience this great title again. There’s a lot of content to explore, from secret, hard-to-reach areas to hidden weapons to arcade games to play when you need a little break. The game takes around 30 hours to complete, though this would probably have been cut down by at least a few hours if not for the Tribal hunt in the game’s third act. I know I usually say that these great N64 games deserve to be on the Wii U’s Virtual Console, and, while it does, I’m going to go one step further with Jet Force Gemini and say that it warrants a total remake. The gameplay has easily stood the test of time, and I’m confident that, with remastered graphics and a little tweaking to the few problems, it would find an honored place with a new generation of gamers. Make it happen, Rare. Make it happen.
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