A Trip Back in Time to 1999! – Jet Force Gemini

Where's an aardvark when you need one?

Released in late 1999 and published by Rare, Jet Force Gemini was available only for the Nintendo 64. Overall, it received mostly positive reviews on its release, though sales figures didn’t reflect this and no sequel was forthcoming. 

The game's plot revolves around the three members of the Jet Force Gemini team – a human named Juno, his twin sister Vela and a dog called Lupus. Specifically, the group is attempting to defeat an evil warlord called Mizar and save the galaxy.

The basic plot of Jet Force Gemini consists of the team being split up in the opening exchanges of the game as Mizar and his army attack their spaceship. After the attack, the three have no option but to abandon their cruiser and go their separate ways. You control each of the characters in a third-person perspective as you set upon and explore different planets.

Each world has hostile inhabitants, which results in a little space combat, although the game isn’t just a blast everything in sight experience. Throughout the adventure, exploration is vital, as to progress past each stage, you must find and save prisoners known as Tribals. Additionally, you must also collect spaceship parts later in the game.

As Mizar sets an asteroid to impact with Earth, the team is given a chance to stop the impending threat to humanity by the leader of the Tribals - King Jeff.

King Jeff provides the team with access to an ancient spacecraft that can catch up with the asteroid. However, the ship needs specific parts to operate at maximum capacity. Hence, you must explore each world you visit and pick up some essential components.


Ultimately, you're faced with different challenges as you investigate each world. Therefore, it’s vital to pick the right character to play with during certain stages of the adventure. 

For example, Lupus can hover for very brief moments, allowing him to reach inaccessible areas of levels that Juno and Vela can’t get to. Also, Juno and Vela have their own unique attributes too, meaning each member of the Jet Force Gemini team is as important as the other.

Now, as simple as the gist of the game sounds, at times, Jet Force Gemini drove me insane. I remember receiving it for Christmas in 1999. When I was a kid, Christmas usually meant a FIFA game or a Tomb Raider was sat underneath the tree, but after I unwrapped this particular box, I was left feeling a little dumbstruck.

In all honesty, I knew absolutely nothing about Jet Force Gemini or even heard of it! Nevertheless, once I popped the cartridge into my N64 and flicked the power on, I instantly fell in love with it.



But what was it that drove me insane?

Well, it was the Tribals. You had to find each one to advance to the next stage, and if one of them died, you had to restart the level. And when this happened (often) it drove me up the wall!

While keeping the Tribals safe was tough and sometimes next to impossible, this frustrating element of the game was the only thing that I really had an issue with. Indeed, when looking at the bigger picture, Gemini's good aspects certainly outweighed its bad.

For example, the musical score was marvellous throughout, and the sound effects of the blasters were quite brilliant. In fact, they were so good that I’m struggling to remember an N64 title that bettered the audio effects of Jet Force Gemini. Graphically it was terrific too; the worlds were lush, and the main characters' and enemy space ants all looked unique and expertly designed.

Furthermore, Jet force Gemini also included a multiplayer which consisted of the usual standard deathmatch mode. And although it was fun, at this particular time of my childhood, my multiplayer fix belonged to one of Rare's other N64 releases, GoldenEye 007.

As mentioned earlier, Jet Force Gemini didn’t sell as many copies as it deserved to, which meant no sequel was forthcoming. It's a shame it didn't get a second outing, especially when you consider the vast amount of crap that inexplicably gets a sequel these days.

Jet Force Gemini certainly sticks in my mind as something I enjoyed a great deal, even if its sales figures were not what they should have been. If you played it all those years ago, I’m sure you have some fond memories too, and if you’d never of heard of it until now, it’s not too late to dust off your N64 and grab yourself a copy.

Go on, do it, the Tribals are waiting.

(Originally written in for Jam Jar Gaming. Also featured in Brash Games).