Jet Force Gemini

[JaySevenZero]

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions of Jet Force Gemini for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder to all that where feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but self-editing (brevity) is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mainly reading. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.

[Ben77000000]

I haven't played Jet Force Gemini since I was about twelve, and am hesitant to go back to it. Not only due to the nature of its early 3D controls , but also because I don't want to taint my memories of it. This was as immersive a world to me as Ocarina of Time's, and I remember being astonished by the level of detail Rare had imbued this universe with. My backlog is such now that I rarely spend time appreciating the minor touches that make all the difference, and that this game had in abundance. The intricate weapon animations that you could watch in the menus, the flies buzzing around the bodies of the ants you'd gunned down, and the creepy backstory for the Tawfret bog lent this game massive amounts of personality.

My younger brother and I played this together, with him as Floyd, but we stopped shortly after beating Mizar's first form. At the time I didn't realise we had only scratched the surface of the game, but simply getting that far felt like an enormous achievement. This achievement seemed greater in hindsight since we didn't know it was possible to strafe until the giant bee boss fight at the end of Vela's campaign. We tried dozens of times to clear that bee boss, assuming all the while that the only way to avoid damage was to jump at the right moment, and it wasn't until I mashed the controller out of sheer frustration that I noticed Vela had actually moved from the starting spot on that narrow platform. We'd somehow managed to clear all of Juno's campaign and most of Vela's without using C left or C right. I had found it strange that the game forced you to stand still and take countless hits whenever you wanted to aim properly, but my twelve-year-old mind didn't know what strafing was, much less think to try it.

Whenever I revisit the main theme, its rousing blast of horns takes me back about 20 years to an imperiled universe that was as inviting as it was intimidating. The prospect of revisiting the forced collectathon that comprises the second half of the game fills me with dread, but it just might be worth the trouble if it means settling my decades-old score with Mizar.

[Simonsloth]

In an alternate universe if my older brother had chosen Nintendo rather than PlayStation I would have no doubt played and loved Jet Force Gemini. The poorly explained systems, hidden objects and forced mini games like Donkey Kong 64 would have been easily been conquered given my parents one game per birthday or Christmas rule. I would almost certainly have fond memories of this game.

As it stands he chose a PlayStation and I didn’t play Jet Force Gemini until I knew Cane and Rinse were covering it this year. I don’t have any nostalgia for it and to be brutally honest I didn’t enjoy it too much despite being somewhat spruced up in the rare replay collection.

The basic mechanics and controls take a while to get used to but seem ok and in principle I understood the aim to collect all the tribals although I spent the whole time calling them *Bleeping* koalas as they were the source of much frustration.

I firmly believe that a game should not demand obscure collectibles to be obtained, nor hard mini games be forced upon you to complete a game. Big head mode, silly voices, prestige costumes etc should be ample reward for finding those trinkets off the beaten track. I shouldn’t be strong armed into a frankly terrible mini game which I must get a gold medal in so I can get an item to give to a *bleeping* koala who will give me a part to my ship. In that moment how I longed for a modern day big shiny arrow pointing me in the right direction.

I actually liked some of the enemies, the combat and level design was on the whole interesting but not enough to warrant the several playthroughs forced upon you. When said Koalas ran in front of my bullets or met their doom cuddling a giant ant my patience was being truly tested. The planetary map display and character select were so confusing that I didn’t even realise you could change characters until I looked it up.

I finished the game and it’s no longer on my backlog but until I saw the show reminder on Twitter I had forgotten I’d even played it this year. I’m sorry to everyone who liked it. I’m sorry to the alternate universe version of me but I didn’t enjoy this at all. I now see a Koala and shudder.

[DeadpoolNegative]

I wanted to play this on my copy of Rare Replay for the podcast, but I'm finding aiming incredibly frustrating. Is the XBox controller just not compatible with the original style or am I doing it wrong?

[Flabyo]

The rare replay version has two sets of controls, one that is the original n64 ‘single stick’ version, and another that attempts to map it to a modern twin stick setup.

They’re both pretty rough, it’s the main aspect of the game that doesn’t hold up that well.

[DeadpoolNegative]

Yeah, it's pretty frustrating. For whatever reason, I couldn't get used to the N64 stick.