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Jet Force Gemini
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  Developer Rare
  Publisher Rare
  Released October 11 , 1999
  Genre Third-person Shooter
  Modes Single Player , Multiplayer
  Ratings ESRB : Teen (T)
  Platforms Nintendo 64
  Media 64- Megabit Cartridge


''Jet Force Gemini'' (or '''''Star Twins''''' in Japan ) is a Third-person Shooter game for the Nintendo 64 developed and published by Rare that was released on October 11 , 1999 . The gameplay is remarkably like '' Banjo-Kazooie '' in design, with similarly complex levels and a familiar character control system. The shooting is remeniscent of '' GoldenEye 007 ''. The game is unique in that it employs the rare "co-op" style of gameplay, where two people can play the storyline mode at once.

Jet Force Gemini is rated "Teen" due to the graphic nature of its gameplay. When enemies are shot, they spew large quantities of blood that then splatters all over the area; the animated look of the game most likely saves it from a "Mature" rating.


CHARACTERS AND RACES


  • Juno — A human male whose parents were killed by the space pirates who invaded his home station. As a part of Jet Force, he is obligated to protect humanity. His clothing and armor protects him from extreme heat, even giving him the ability to walk through Magma and come out unscathed.


  • Vela — Juno's twin sister, who can survive underwater for a long period of time. It isn't known whether she can breathe underwater or just hold her breath for many minutes without passing out.


  • Lupus — The twins' pet, outfitted with machinery that allows him to communicate with the humans. He carries a Gun mounted on his armored back, and later his armor is upgraded to a small Tank . He has jets on his feet that allow him to Hover , and these jets allow him to fly for a short period of time once upgraded.


  • Floyd — One of Mizar's robots, he was given such an advanced AI program that he gained a conscience. When he rescued a Tribal, thus refusing fight for Mizar, the Drones removed three of his basic parts and nailed the rest of him to a post. The twins remove him later and repair him, and he follows the current played character. The player on the second controller can use Floyd, though he must follow the first-controller character. He has unlimited ammunition, but only has one type of weapon.


  • Tribals — A bear-like race that reminds one of the Ewoks. They are peaceful, nature-loving creatures that live in huts on the planet Goldwood, but the Drones capture them for slave labor. These creatures are scattered all over the game and all must be rescued for the player to finish the game. The catch is, they can be killed by weapons just like the Drones, and sometimes enemy insects kill them if the player doesn't reach them first. They also tend to be hidden in obscure places.


  • King Jeff — The Tribal leader who asks you to save his race. In the end, he forces you to do so by withholding the use of his ship until you go and save all his underlings as well as bring him the missing ship parts.


  • Barry — Jeff's vengeful brother who sometimes takes his plans a little too far. He has issues with his brother; what those are, we never know.


  • Drones — A collection of various types of Insects that Mizar employs as his soldiers. The foot-soldiers and snipers are Ants and the grenadiers are Beetles . Airborne fighters are not bugs; instead, they are Machines .


  • Fett-Bubb — Juno's boss of the game, Fett-Bubb is a giant insect resembling one of the horned beetles.


  • Lurg — Vela fights this worm-like Drone that lives in magma.


  • Mechantids — Lupus must fight two bosses instead of one; the Mechantids are a pair of mechanized grasshoppers that work together during battle. They are only vulnerable shortly after they attack.


  • Mizar — The ruler of the Drones, resembling an enormous Spider with an Ant -like face, Mandibles , and a Robotic arm. He bleeds when shot, but has vulnerable machinery on his back, marking him as most likely a biomechanical creature.



LEVELS

Jet Force Gemini features a number of levels, all are different planets, spaceships or asteroids.

  • Goldwood , the forest home of the Tribals, it was invaded and occupied by Mizar's drone soldiers. The Tribals were then transferred to other planets and vessels to be used as slave labor.


  • SS Anubis , a bright yellow cargo vessel that Mizar captured and employed for his own uses. Anubis is an Egyptian god with the head of a dog.


  • Tawfret , a swampy marsh world, where it is constantly raining. Treehouses are made above groud to avoid being flooded. This planet was once a beautiful paradise similar to Goldwood, but due to a horrid incident, has been condemned to a perpetual curse.


  • Sekhmet , a red battlecruiser filled with Mizar's drone army. This was the vessel that attacked and conquered Goldwood. It is named after a war goddess of Egypt .


  • Cerulean , a beautiful cold and blue world, it has a twisting cave system where young insects grow in Cocoons . Cerulean is a shade of blue, hence the name.


  • Ichor , a military base for Mizar's forces. It is a seemingly impenetrable fortress where the strongest Drones, such as the purple Goliath Beetles, are stationed. Its name means "blood," which fits the level quite well; Ichor is nothing but a shootout from start to finish.


  • Spawnship , the vessel that spawns the Drone army. It has numerous watery areas that make it a more suitable place for the creation of Drones.


  • Rith Essa , a mining planet whose facilities Mizar has conquered in order to fuel the creation of his armies' weapons.


  • Eschebone , a planet almost totally covered in lava. It also the home of a huge maggot-like creature, of which the majority of the stage is inside. It is a boss stage, featuring two mechanized Grasshoppers , the Mechantids.


  • Mizar's Palace , a magnificent palace that is shaped like a Pyramid and covered with Hieroglyphics . Mizar lives in the central, smaller pyramid. Mizar's palace consists of one level for each character -- the Flume (Vela), the Lobby (Juno), and the Chasm (Lupus).


  • Asteroid , the last level and the site of the final battle. Mizar and the remnants of his troops flee here to begin their kamikaze final strike at Earth .



WEAPONRY


Pistol -- Standard Jet-Force weapon, in othwer words, the basic blaster. It has limited ammunition in a way; when the ammo runs out, the pistol fires an auxiliary Laser weapon that is not as powerful as its standard shots. It has a charge function that allows a more powerful shot, making it a formidable but slower weapon. Because it has a limited auto-aiming function, it works well for on-the-fly precision, such as during a boss battle or when the character must shoot quickly and then hide.

Machine Gun -- What it sounds like. It peppers the target with a steady stream of bullets that isn't very accurate but makes up for its spread in speed. Because of the sheer amount of shots fired per second, it's perfect for large groups of unarmored or flying enemies.

Plasma Shotgun -- Rather unnecessary to the game, it requires a long charge time to be effective. Its only shining moment is on the first Tawfret levels, when it can be charged and used to kill the zombie drones that require more powerful weapons to kill. Two shots kill a zombie ant, and around four kill a Zombie beetle. Once the player obtains the Tri-Rocket Launcher, the Shotgun becomes useless. Strangely, the Shotgun doesn't work like a shotgun at all; it fires two spheres of energy side by side, while real shotguns send out a single burst of smaller projectiles in a wide and messy spray.

Tri-Rocket Launcher -- The weapon of mass destruction, good for players who like to charge into battle and obliterate everything no matter the cost in health. One shot with the Tri-Rocket launcher will kill anything short of a boss. However, Jet Force Gemini allows friendly fire; don't stand too close to the while shooting the Launcher. It is also one of only two guns that can blow up huge Wooden barriers.

Homing Missile -- Again, self-explanatory. A Missile launcher that auto-aims. However, the player must lock on to the target first; it doesn't seek out any target in the area. It can also be used without its lock-on function, but the missiles will fly straight and not home. This is the other of the two guns that can destroy wooden barriers.

Shocker -- More of a novelty than practical. Its range is too small for decent use; Drones tend to shoot on sight and not allow a character to get close enough to use a weapon that requires that the person stand right next to the target.

Flamethrower -- Fun, but similar to the Shocker in practical use. Its ammo runs out quickly, and its range is tiny. The Pyromaniac factor does add to its appeal, though.

Shuriken -- It is a Throwing Star and also the only weapon whose ammo can be retrieved after use. Despite the fact that it isn't a gun, the Shuriken is very useful, especially for obtaining enemy Heads . The Shuriken auto-aims on a selected target, slicing through the air and precisely cutting off the enemy's head in a single stroke. The star will then skitter across the ground and come to rest or embed itself in a nearby wall or other vertical surface, ready for the player to return and pick it up. Drones carrying shields can deflect the Shuriken if facing the character, but they bounce off and land on the ground and can still be retrieved. The only way to lose a Shuriken is to hurl it off a cliff or else lose it among similarly colored scenery.

Sniper Rifle -- The weapon of choice for sneaky players. For those who like to keep their health bar high, the Rifle is a brilliant weapon; each single shot is more powerful than the Plasma Shotgun, and it has a scope that allows long-distance sniping. Good for those low-health emergencies when there is a huge enemy just around the corner and the player can't afford to reveal themselves.

Grenade -- Throw it, and it goes boom. Don't stand too close.

Cluster Bomb -- A barrel of fun when used on huge packs of enemies. When it strikes the ground, it blow up once and splits into three smaller bombs that Parachute to the ground in a Triangle and explode. A very wide range of sheer destruction for a single thrown weapon. Again, beware the friendly fire.

Remote Bomb -- Useless except in multiplayer mode or when used just for the fun of it. Remote bombs can be placed and then detonated from afar when an enemy of choice approaches. Don't stand next to it and detonate.

Proximity Bomb -- Similar to the remote bomb, except anyone can trigger it by walking past -- even the person who placed it -- and it can't be remote-detonated. The first person that walks within range takes the hit. These can be useful when an enemy is walking back and forth in a pattern. If the fire button is held down, the proximity bomb will also double as a timed bomb. The longer the fire button is held, the longer the fuse, to a maximum of ten seconds.

Fish Food -- Yes, it's really in the game. No, it doesn't serve a purpose other than to feed the fish on Goldwood. It does have a neat effect, though; the fish really do rise to the surface to eat it. It's just there to be amusing. It also distracts cockroaches, who can be quite annoying, while you pick them and other, more powerful enemies off, and can be used to remove enemy proximity bombs without wasting more useful ammo.


UNLOCKABLE FEATURES AND GLITCHES


Collecting heads (whether Drone or Tribal) and gaining medals in the Floyd mini-missions allow players to unlock items.

Rainbow Blood -- 100 Heads. Causes enemies to spew splatters of multicolored blood instead of the Blood of their type. Ants normally have green blood, and beetles have yellow.

Jet Force Kids -- 200 Heads. It doesn't do much other than enlarging the heads and shrinking the bodies of the main characters just enough for them to look different. The cheat is a sort of self-depricating inside joke. During Jet Force Gemini's development, Rare had initially given the human protagonists a younger and brighter appearance, but changed their look late in the game's development due to pressure from Nintendo - they were unhappy at the idea of the child-like characters wielding guns and shooting at enemies, and so ordered Rareware to "mature" their appearance.

Ants in Pants -- 300 Heads. Changes the standard non-shielded blue Drone to Mr. Pants - Rareware's odd "mascot". This is considered by fans as one of the biggest inside jokes in videogames.

Depending on the Floyd mission and the medal earned on that mission, players can unlock new characters and stages for the multiplayer mode. Sadly, there are no more human playable characters, save for the jetpack forms of the original two and Floyd never appears in multiplayer.

Debug Mode -- This is a Button code that was never officially released by Rareware, it was discovered by a hacker that viewed the games RAM with an Action Replay, who only just released the code to the public.

At the Title Screen (where Juno and the other JFG team endlessly run) enter,
C-Left, C-Right, C-Up, C-Down, R, L, L, R, C-Up, R, C-Down, R, L, C-Right.
Once entered you will see it appear in the Bottom-Right corner of the screen on US and European Games, but on Star Twins, the Japanese version of the game, the code behaves differently (not showing the current location is 1 thing).
It was found after much hard work by OmegaPirate who is a forum member of http://www.rarewitchproject.com


TRIVIA

All of the main characters' names (except Floyd's) are related to Astronomy .

Juno - an Asteroid . It is also the Roman name for the Greek goddess Hera , in which case Juno's gender would take a Mythology buff by surprise.

Vela - a Constellation that is one of four in the ship Argo . Carina , Pyxis , and Puppis are the other three. Vela translates to Sails .

Lupus - Latin for Wolf , also a constellation.

Mizar - the second Star in the handle of the Asterism Big Dipper , which is in the constellation Ursa Major .

There was originally a Shrinker in the game, but the Shocker replaced it. A gun similar to the Tri-Rocket, but with only two missiles, was also cut.

Floyd was originally named Pyxis , the Compass of the celestial Argo, but his name was changed because Rare thought "Floyd the Droid" was amusing. Floyd is also the name of the player's robot sidekick in the game Planetfall , who also sacrificed himself to save the player.

The game was much more cartoon-like in its first stages of development. The characters had large heads and resembled children.

Mr. Pants is a Rareware inside-joke of sorts, an informal symbol of Rare ever since the clothed snowman was created.

Mizar was only given his name because Rare noticed a trend in the main characters' names and couldn't resist naming the antagonist after an astronomical object as well.

Floyd's weapon is the same as the Pistol's auxiliary laser. When you zoom in with the sniper rifle, however, Floyd's gun becomes just as accurate as the sniper rifle.


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