Jet Force Gemini developer Rare Ltd.
Jet Force Gemini is a 1999 third-person shooter developed and published by Rare for the Nintendo 64 video game console. The game follows the story of three members of a galactic law enforcement team as they try to stop a horde of drones led by an insectoid called Mizar. It features a single-player mode where the player must explore a galaxy and save Tribals, a race of survivors who have been enslaved and imprisoned by Mizar, and places strong emphasis on shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The game also includes a multiplayer mode where two to four players can compete in traditional deathmatch games.
Inspired by 80s arcade games and more recent titles of the time, such as Super Metroid and Super Mario 64, Jet Force Gemini blends elements of both shoot 'em up and action-adventure games. Works such as Aliens, Stargate and Battle of the Planets were also major influences. The game received generally positive reviews from critics. Praise was given to its detailed graphics and lifespan, while criticism was targeted at its confusing controls and insistence on having to save every Tribal to fully complete the game. In 2015, Jet Force Gemini was included as part of the Rare Replay video game compilation for Xbox One.Development
Jet Force Gemini was developed by Rare's Blast Corps team. Work on the game began in 1997 with lead engineer Paul Mountain, who had previously worked on Diddy Kong Racing. The inspirations of the game ranged from 80s arcade classics to more recent titles of the time. The free-roaming nature of Nintendo's Super Mario 64 influenced the scale and the openness of some of the backgrounds and settings, while the collecting and upgrading of weapons were inspired by Super Metroid. Mountain revealed that "the behaviour of the bad guys was a mixture of arcade space shooter formations and Quake-style 'attack and cover' mechanics". According to him, "I suppose, in short, we were inspired by all the good stuff we'd played and enjoyed playing." Jet Force Gemini also borrowed elements from non-video game sources. Lead artist Lee Musgrave admitted, "There are elements of Star Wars in there, Aliens, Dune, Battle of the Planets, even Stargate – it was a real mix of everything and anything 'space' related."Most of the characters in the game were named after stars and constellations, such as Mizar and Vela. Originally, the protagonists Juno and Vela were designed as younger and more cartoon-like with large heads, but they were ultimately changed to a more mature version because Nintendo expressed concerns over a game starring two children killing a large number of creatures. The game's controls were one of the main concerns during development. The idea was to retain a character-based game, where players could see the character they were playing while keeping the tightness and accuracy of first-person shooters. Rare initially attempted to automate the change of view and targeting mode based on the context of the action, but this idea was eventually replaced with a manual system. According to Mountain, "The solution we ended with is a beautiful thing. It feels very old-school to me; difficult, unforgiving, but ultimately precise."Because several members of the team enjoyed racing games and had also worked on Diddy Kong Racing, they decided to include the futuristic Ant racing mini-game in the campaign mode and the top-down arcade racing games in the multiplayer mode. Developers initially considered the possibility to use the 4MB Nintendo 64 Expansion Pak, but the idea was eventually dropped. According to Mountain, "we wanted to deliver the same experience to all players and were confident that we could do this using the standard 4MB of RAM on the console." This led to some confusion as the box cover for the original release stated that it did support such a feature. Nintendo provided a quick-fix to the mislabeled covers by providing stickers declaring its Rumble Pak compatibility and fixed later printings of the boxes.In May 1999, a playable demonstration of the game was presented at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, California. A more complete version of the game was showcased at Nintendo Spaceworld in Japan in August 1999, alongside Rare's Donkey Kong 64 and Perfect Dark. The game was originally intended to be released in North America on August 31, 1999, but was pushed back to September 27, 1999, to give the developers more time to polish up the game. It was then pushed back even further to October 11, 1999, due to manufacturing delays. In Europe, the game was released on October 29, 1999, and on December 1, 1999, in Japan. The Japanese release of Jet Force Gemini was localized as Star Twins (スターツインズ) because Nintendo felt that the Japanese pronunciation of the Western title, "Jetto Fōsu Jeminai", was too difficult to pronounce. Although 4Kids Entertainment obtained the rights to merchandising Jet Force Gemini and Perfect Dark toys, movies, and other recreational products, the company did not produce any merchandise.
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