From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jet Force Gemini
Corrected version of the NA release cover.
Developer(s)	Rare (Nintendo 64)
Publisher(s)	Rare (Nintendo 64)
Composer(s)	Robin Beanland Alistair Lindsay Graeme Norgate
Engine	Enhanced Diddy Kong Racing
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64
Release date(s)	NA October 11, 1999 EU November 2, 1999 JP December 2, 1999
Genre(s)	Third-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ELSPA: 11+ ESRB: T OFLC: M15+
Media	256-megabit cartridge

Screenshot of gameplay. Here, Juno is aiming in a third-person view and appears translucent.

Jet Force Gemini is a 3D science fiction third-person shooter video game for the Nintendo 64 developed and published by RareWare and released on October 11, 1999. The single-player adventure spans many varied planets as the player assumes the role of Jet Force Gemini--the last remaining group of the once proud and strong military organization, Jet Force. Jet Force Gemini is composed of three members, Juno, his sister Vela, and their cybernetic-enhanced dog Lupus. The main story arc encompasses the trio's quest as they try to stop the advances of the dark insect tyrant Mizar and his near limitless army. The game is unique in that it employs a cooperative style of gameplay, where two can play the story mode at once. Multiplayer modes can be unlocked, including the traditional death-match and survival matches. Also available in multiplayer are racing games, as well as the firing range mode, which is similar to a rail shooter game. Jet Force Gemini shares elements with platform games, first person shooters, and run and gun games.

Storyline

The game begins with Juno, Vela, and Lupus in orbit around the planet Goldwood after barely escaping the destruction of the entire Jet Force fleet at the hands of Mizar. Their ship however, had suffered extraordinary damage, leaving them defenseless and unable to warp out of the system. It is not long before the team witnesses Mizar's attack on Goldwood, and soon afterwards, their cruiser is attacked by a large craft of Mizar's known as the Spawnship. Boarded by drones and out of time, they decide not to wait for orders and act on their own. The three decide to abandon the ship and go off on their own separate paths to stop the invasion and confront Mizar. Juno is the last off the ship, and, like the others, begins following a set path towards Mizar's Palace. As the game progresses, the heroes eventually find themselves reunited at Mizar's Palace--and face to face with Mizar himself.

Severely underestimating the power of three humans, Mizar is quickly overcome, and Jet Force Gemini appear to have done the impossible all too easily. However, Mizar, enraged and vowing revenge on the human race, escapes to a nearby asteroid where he sets course to impact with Earth. King Jeff, the beloved leader of the Tribals, quickly arranges a plan to help the heroes: by providing an ancient starship that can quickly catch up to Mizar's asteroid. Nevertheless, the team needs to locate several vital parts scattered throughout the galaxy, as well as rescue all the Tribals enslaved by Mizar. Also, King Jeff upgrades the heroes with new armor and jet packs that allow them to fly (provided they can fuel them up). From this point on, the team stays united and, together, works to search every world for anything they can find.

After all the Tribals are rescued and the parts found, the team, along with King Jeff, reassemble the old Tribal craft and quickly depart to save Earth. After a rough landing, Juno fights through Mizar's guards in an attempt to locate the tyrant. Eventually, Juno does find Mizar, and in front of a dramatic view of Earth, they clash in epic battle. Mizar does not go down easily this time, but indeed after a long struggle, Juno does defeat him. To the surprise of all though, Mizar is revealed to be a robot controlled by King Jeff's jealous brother, Barry. After realizing destroying Barry's robot ruined their best chance of destroying the asteroid, the team was out of options. In an honorable notion, Floyd, the quiet little robot that defected from Mizar and followed the team, offers to sacrifice himself to destroy the asteroid. Hesitantly, the team agrees and attaches a timed warhead to Floyd before sending him into the core. With no time to spare, the team returns to the Tribal craft and departs only seconds before Floyd reaches the core. In a brilliant flash of light, the asteroid is destroyed mere miles away from entering the atmosphere of Earth.

Afterwards on Earth, Jet Force Gemini is given the highest honors for their many accomplishments.

Main characters

• Juno — The first playable character, and the twin brother of Vela. Juno is a taciturn, somewhat melancholy human male whose parents were killed by space pirates that invaded his home station. In the game's manual, it is mentioned that Juno desires to protect his side of space; it also mentions his frustration with the Federation, since they apparently do not perceive Mizar as a viable threat (Tyrants, after all, are overthrown by either revolution or other tyrants). He has the ability to walk through magma safely. He is named after 3 Juno, the third asteroid to be discovered by humans.

• Vela — Juno's feisty twin sister and the second playable character. Vela desires to stay strong and help her brother protect humanity's side of space, as she feels, according to the manual, she must prove herself as a female in the "skeptical military world." On a frequent basis, Vela relies on her temper to get herself out of predicaments. She has the ability to swim underwater indefinitely. She is named after the constellation Vela.

• Lupus — The third playable character, Lupus is Jet Force Gemini's wardog mascot. He is outfitted with a gun mounted on his armored back and jets on his feet that allow him to hover for a short period of time, approximately five seconds. Later in the game he is fitted with tank-like treads and armor. He is named after the constellation Lupus.

• Floyd — A robot who used to serve under Mizar before being shot by drones for insubordination. A player using the second controller can control Floyd to assist the first player by shooting an unlimited amount of weak energy blasts, but he must follow the first-controller character. Floyd was originally named Pyxis, the Compass of the celestial Argo, but his name was changed because Rare thought "Floyd the Droid" was amusing.

• King Jeff — the leader of the Tribals, and by all appearances the shaman. He has many magical powers that the Tribals admire him for. He helps the Jet Force on many occasions, giving items and also offering to transport the Jet Force to Mizar's Asteroid using an ancient Tribal spacecraft.

• Mizar — The ruler of the Drones and the main villain of the game. Ironically, the Federation does not see him as a threat to their peace, and often ignores his dangerous activity (eventually leading to Jet Force Gemini's frustration and the game's quest itself). He is named after Mizar, a star in the constellation Ursa Major.

• Barry — Jeff's younger brother, who is mentioned at the beginning of the game as having gone missing for some time. However, at the very end of the game, Barry is revealed to be Mizar, and the one who used the drone invasion to enslave the Tribals. Barry assumed the Mizar identity out of jealousy for his brother's royal status, but winds up taking the role too far as "Mizar" and creates chaos throughout the galaxy. How he was able to gather such a large force and earn the allegiance of the drones remains a mystery.

Although not a main character, it is interesting to note that through the use of an in-game cheat Mr. Pants appears in place of basic drones. Also, on the planet Tawfret (Juno's third level), there is a hieroglyph on the wall depicting Mr. Pants.

Development

Juno and Vela were originally designed as younger and more cartoon-like with large heads. They were later changed to their more mature versions. However, a similar set of childish models can still be played with via an in-game cheat.

Jet Force Gemini does not support the 4MB Expansion Pak, although Rare had considered the possibility.^[1] This led to some confusion as the box cover for the original release stated that it did support the Expansion Pak. Nintendo provided a quick-fix to the mislabeled covers by providing stickers declaring its rumble pak compatibility and fixed later printings of the boxes.^[2]

Jet Force Gemini was originally planned for release on August 31, 1999, but was pushed back to September 27 in order to give the programmers time to polish up the game.^[3] It was then pushed back even further to October 11 due to manufacturing delays.^[4]

Recently an unreleased Game Boy Color version of Jet Force Gemini was discovered. The current owner of the prototype cartridge has attested that the game appears to be nearly complete. The Game Boy Color version was never officially announced by either RareWare or Nintendo.^[5]

Jet Force Gemini was localized as Star Twins (スターツインズ^?) in Japan due to Nintendo's opinion that the japanese pronunciation of the original name, "Jetto Fōsu Jeminai" was too difficult to pronounce.^[6]

4Kids Entertainment obtained the rights to merchandising both Jet Force Gemini and Perfect Dark toys, movies, and other recreational products, but nothing seems to have been done with the deal.^[7]

Reception

Jet Force Gemini released to generally good reviews from critics, though not as high as Rare's other N64 games such as GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark. IGN gave Jet Force Gemini an 8.1/10, earning it an Editor's Choice award^[8], and GameSpot gave the game a "great" review of 8.8/10, praising its nonlinear gameplay, length and variety of multiplayer modes^[9]. Overall, it holds a score of 8.3/10 at Gamestats.com and ranks in at #20 among all Nintendo 64 games.^[10]

Nevertheless, despite the good reviews, Jet Force Gemini has remained fairly unpopular and unknown among masses. This classifies it as having a cult following, where not many have played it, but most of those who have regard it very highly. Apparently, some have regarded it highly enough to make an unofficial sequel.^[11]

Cameos

In the game Kameo: Elements of Power, one of the alternate skins is Vela. In the game Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, There are accessories called "Vela Wig, and Juno Helmet".

References

External links

• Official Nintendo Japan Jet Force Gemini site
• Jet Force Gemini APEX the largest Jet Force Gemini fan site and community
• Jet Force Gemini at the Open Directory Project

From StrategyWiki, the free strategy guide and walkthrough wiki

This page is a stub. Help us expand it, and you get a cookie.

Help expand it

This page is a stub. Help us expand it, and you get a cookie.

Jet Force Gemini
Developer(s)	Rare
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Release date(s)	October 11, 1999  November 2, 1999  December 1, 1999
Genre(s)	Third-person shooter
System(s)	Nintendo 64
Players	1-2 (Single Player mode)/2-4 (Multiplayer Mode)
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen

Table of Contents

From Wikia Gaming, your source for walkthroughs, games, guides, and more!

Jet Force Gemini
Developer(s)	Rare
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Release date	September 30, 1999 (NA) November 2, 1999 (EU) December 1, 1999 (JP)
Genre	Third-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, 1-4 players
Age rating(s)	ESRB: T
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64
Credits | Soundtrack | Codes | Walkthrough

Another Rare developed Nintendo 64 exclusive, Jet Force Gemini was one of a handful that wasn't a 3D platformer. Instead, it was a Sci-Fi third-person shooter, featuring three characters to play as. These are Juno, a boy, Vela, Juno's sister, and Lupus, the dog. The game was developed by the team behind the popular Blast Corps. They are three of the last survivors of the Jet Force after the evil insect lord Mizar begun his reign of terror on the galaxy.

You can play a four player deathmatch game with split-screen, or two player co-op. As a bonus, it supports the rumble pak and can be played in wide screen.

The characters are more than just different skins. They have special abilities that make them ideal for traversing specific areas, meaning that you can backtrack to levels where you could only use certain characters to accomplish new goals. The special abilities are as follows: Juno cannot be hurt by fire. In fact, he walks on Lava. Vela is able to swim. The dog, Lupus, can hover. That means if you're stuck as Juno but you notice a river, you can come back when you're playing as Vela to see what used to be out of reach.

Otherwise, they'll be shooting a lot. They have over 15 guns, and a lot of bullets that come out of them. Mostly they'll be shooting Mizar's alien drone hoards and their mechanoid fliers. You'll be doing this for the sake of Tribals, bear creatures you must rescue from the Drones' clutches. Unfortunately, this results in a lot of backtracking and fetch quests that do not rub well with some gamers. The frame rate is also understandably unstable.