Jet Force Gemini - You all look like ants from outer space

[ThornBrain]

Jet Force Gemini is a Sci Fi third-person shooter originally made for the Nintendo 64 by Rare's Blast Corp team. While impressive for 1999 and a cult favorite since, its controls have aged poorly. Luckily, the game was included in Rare Replay in 2015 with updated twin stick controls that... are still kinda wonky, but at least the game is much more approachable now for newer players. So let's revisit my childhood and pop some heads off of oversized ants!


The Story is Such:
You are the Gemini team for the intergalactic space police, Jet Force: twins Juno and Vela and their enhanced tank dog Lupus. While flying through space, your team's ship is set upon by giant ant soldiers, and the three are scattered. Juno learns from the leader of the furry koala people, the Tribals, that the evil bug emperor Mizar is invading the galaxy and has captured and enslaved his people. It's up to Jet Force Gemini to rescue all of the Tribals (all of them), reconvene at Mizar's palace, and put a stop to his plans.


The LP:
This is largely a 100% LP, if only because you literally need to save every Tribal to complete the game, but I will also show off the Floyd missions and secrets. I'm stuck solo, so we won't be able to see what we unlock for multiplayer though.
I'm joined on co-commentary by JigglyJacob, who is unfamiliar with JFG, but is a fan of the remarkably similar third-person shooter series MDK.

Content Warnings: Lots of colorful blood and dismemberment, enslavement, war

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[DoubleNegative]

Heck yes! I've been waiting for someone to do this for a long time. Just watching the first couple stages brings back memories of playing this after getting out from school for the day.

[TuxedoTed]

Ditto, been waiting a while to see this showcased.

[ThornBrain]

I wonder if the Geneva Conventions apply in the intergalactic future.

[azren]

I would absolutely love to see you guys do Perfect Dark; a friend of mine had it, and we played it a fair amount when I was a kid. Cool game with some awesome weapons.

[ThornBrain]

The last of Juno's levels for a while, wherein we also get our first über gross boss.
Next week: Vela.

[Gordon Threemen]

Jet Force Gemini happens to be one of those very few high-profile games I actually owned for the N64 - basically, everything I had for it was obscure shit like Chopper Attack or the Command & Conquer port unless it came out in 1999 specifically (maybe very late 1998, since I did have Turok 2 and bought Ocarina of Time over eBay at some point).

I personally never played on my own much further than the first area or two of Tawfret, because I was barely 10 years old at the time and the zombies creeped the shit out of me - mostly I just played as Floyd while my step-brother played normally. I was really good at that, I remember he complained at one point that he was actually getting worse at shooting things because my aim was so good. Still, the need to save every tribal ended up being too much and we never actually finished.

EDIT: I remember this was the very first game I ever tried an LP of, way back in early 2009, I did a test video of part of Goldwood. It was kind of a disaster, and much of the reason I ended up doing subtitles for commentary until about 2012.

I also remember getting an accuracy rating of like 228% at one point when I finally got past Tawfret on my own in emulation. My Bilders Touch was getting really strong at that point, because I also remember getting an 807% kill rating in a modded Doom level around the same time, to say nothing of that time an AI racer in Mario Kart 64 beat me by just straight-up warping to the end of the track for no reason.

[TuxedoTed]

... everything I had for it was obscure shit like Chopper Attack ...

Oh wow, I hadn't thought about that game for decades, but it all came back in a rush. Never owned it, but I think I rented it three or four weekends in a row to try and beat it. Never did. Now I'm kinda wondering what the ending is like.


Oh, uh, I've been looking forward to another LP of this game too. Thanks for sharing. Kinda makes me want to play it myself, but it seems like there's juuuust enough Old Game Jankiness to turn me off.

[ThornBrain]

It's Vela's time to shine, and nothing shines like gold.

[ThornBrain]

Vela's level is one of the harder ones in the game, but not so hard that child!me couldn't reach the boss and get permanently stuck on it.

[Fish Noise]

I believe "ichor" also has connotations of "gross fluid" so it gets used for like bug juices and so on but I dunno how that came about.

[TuxedoTed]

Is it finally dogtime?

[ThornBrain]

Next week is dogtank time

[ThornBrain]

It's dogtank time

[TuxedoTed]

dogs dogs dogs

Also, you gotta be kidding me, Lupus' little space ship has little dog ear fins? Adorable.

[ThornBrain]

It's dogshit time

[KeiraWalker]

"Knob cheese"... yeah, that's classic Rare all right. Wouldn't be terribly surprised if Grant "ooh me knackers" Kirkhope had something to do with that one, really.

[ThornBrain]

The team converges on Mizar's location, but Lupus couldn't find the same parking spot.

[KeiraWalker]

Hum. Remind me, Thorn; if there are no lives, what are Continues for? Do they allow you to respawn in the same room instead of having to restart the area?

[ThornBrain]

Basically, and I think you keep the progress you made. So, they're lives.

[ThornBrain]

The galaxy has opened up, so it's time to send our dog back where we already were.

[KeiraWalker]

You know, for some reason, Lupus's space-dog ears really bother me. I'm not really sure why.

[ThornBrain]

First of a few parts that are just mouthfuls.

[KeiraWalker]

That title on the actual video page takes up half my screen's width at 1920x1080, hahaha

"Of all the levels, [the space station] feels the most incomplete." Well yeah, at least 30% of it got blown up before you even got there.

[Staticpulse]

My memory of this game is a bit fuzzy since I haven't played it since I was a kid, but I found shuriken were the best way to deal with shield drones. The shuriken either just ignores the shield or curves around it. Only problem is the limited ammo and that I'm not sure if everyone has access to shuriken. I think some other weapons like the shocker and flamethrower can also ignore shields.

[ThornBrain]

And also the Water Ruins for all three characters, but I ran out of text space.

[azren]

I just realized while watching this video that what with collecting up innocent natives and looking for parts for your ship, this is 3rd person shooter Pikmin.

[ThornBrain]

[ThornBrain]

Capitalism continuing to function as intended

[ThornBrain]

Time to save Earth and the galaxy and feed the fishies!

Since most of our current LPs have wrapped up this week, I'm unsure what our LP schedule is going to look like from hereon-out. There isn't anything like JFG on the docket, but be on the lookout for Doom 2016 and Sonic Heroes tomorrow and the coming weeks respectively, and hopefully Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town won't be far off either.