Jet Force Gemini

Summary

Genre: Shooter
Number of players: 1-4
Rumble Pak: Yes
Controller Pak: No
Expansion Pak: Not used

Review

Jet Force Gemini was the second shooter game for the N64 from Rare, after the excellent Goldeneye, and before the very excellent Perfect Dark. However, unlike those two titles, Jet Force Gemini is not first-person, but third-person, with your character able to perform jumps and other acrobatic feats which can only be explained by very low gravity on many of the planets the Jet Force team visit. Does this departure from Rare's standard FPS game make an improvement, or is it all too much?


Gameplay: In Jet Force Gemini, you control the three members of the JFG team - Juno, Vela, and their cyborg dog, Lupus. The game pits you against a veritable legion of enemies, mainly consisting of heavily-armed walking ants and flying robots. To deal with these rogue insects, you have access to a vast array of over-the-top weaponry, including triple-rocket launchers, machine guns, grenades, plasma shotguns, sniper rifles, electric shockers, homing missiles and more.

The first thing to note is that it plays totally different to Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. While you can still use an aiming sight by pressing the R button, as a rule the precise aiming and targeting of Rare's other shooters is absent from the game, which has a far more arcade feel to it. Basically, you blast away at anything that moves, and you have an abundance of easily- recoverable health. Full-on charges with the machine gun blazing is the order of the day, with stealth going out the window.

Not that that's a bad thing. It's more fast-paced and exciting, if a little less taxing, than the other titles. In fact, it's such a different game that the comparisons stop here. Honest.

The various weapons are all top fun to use, and mowing down wave after wave of enemies is most satisfying. The realism of Golden... oops, sorry. Realism is absent, and the violence is handled in a more light-hearted way than... um... is handled in a light-hearted way. However, the ants and other bad guys do go down in a veritable cascade of splashing green blood, but it's not in any way what you'd call 'gory'. And that's really second to the main fun of the game, which is just letting rip with the guns.

There's a lot of emphasis about leaping around in the game, and there are several areas where a bit of precision jumping is needed. It's not an annoying break from combat, but rather feels a solid part of the overall gameplay. Different levels have different types of challenge, and the three different characters - who each have their own levels to complete, and who you have to locate individually before you can play with - all handle in a different way. Variety is plentiful, and the game always moves forwards, without you ever feeling 'stuck'.

Overall, the game's great fun to play - although the lack of precision which is abundant perhaps makes it feel a little bit shallow. But then again, sometimes a good bit of arcade-style mania is a welcome break from having to think...


Challenge: That doesn't mean JFG is easy. Oh, no, far from it. The game is actually very, very challenging. Each character has four levels to get through, with each level consisting of a number of sublevels. The levels get harder as you progress, and each character has to fight a rather nasty boss character before getting to the final level. Once all the characters reach the final level, and you face the final boss, you'll discover that the real challenge has just begun.

For there is a secondary mission, which is guaranteed to take as long, or longer, as the initial quest. You now have to go back over the earlier levels, using the other characters, and locate 12 hidden items. The final item can only be won by finding and rescuing every single one of the cute captured bears from all the sublevels, which is a very arduous and time-consuming task. Particularly as you can accidentally kill these bears.

It's very challenging, and will take a long time. This game will not be finished in a weekend. Believe me.


Graphics: The graphics are very good indeed. The detail on the main characters, and their animation, is excellent, and there is a similar level of detail and quality on the enemies, and the levels themselves. There is never any slowdown, and the cutscenes too look stunning. The overall feel is one of impressive solidness, and it's well-nigh impossible to find fault with the graphics.


Sounds: Sounds, too, are good. The background music is very well done, as is usual in Rare's games, and captures the mood of each level very well. The various sound effects are great, too; the guns make very satisfying firing noises, and the enemies roar and snarl convincingly. Even little things like falling water and footsteps are provided for, and all of the sounds feel 'right'.


Multiplayer: Multiplayer is rather so-so. The standard deathmatch mode is rather poor; the jumping, third-person view and lack of options let it down somewhat, and make it quite hard to get kills. There is another mode - the racing mode - that is also a bit unsatisfactory; it features some rather bland racing on a handful of tracks, with a couple of powerups. The third mode - target range mode - is the best mode, and provides a lot of fun. In this mode, you and the other players control a gunsight as the camera moves through a level, and ant-shaped targets pop up. Your aim is to shoot as many of these as possible before the other players hit them, while avoiding any bear-shaped targets that appear.

All-in-all, the multiplayer mode is fairly disappointing, which is a shame as the weapons and level design of the single-player mode could have made for a most entertaining multiplayer.


Summing up: A most enjoyable and very challenging single-player mode, with less emphasis on accuracy and more on charges and firefights, make for a very decent one-player game; multiplayer is less good, although it has a few redeeming features. Overall, a perfectly worthy game to own, and one that'll take ages to complete.


Gamesmark: 85%


Reviewer: Maverik