This product is like new. At NexWave Games, like new means:
Additionally, all discs at NexWave Games are carefully inspected and assessed for quality. When discs arrive, we do not accept any that are so badly damaged that they are unlikely to work. We only accept discs with light scratches at most. Discs with scratches are then treated in our professional disc repair machine. By warming the disc and polishing it with soft brushes, these machines can remove a very thin layer from the disc. This removes the layer containing surface scratches and improves the disc’s readability. This ensures the disc works properly, even on consoles with ageing lasers that have difficulty reading games! Great news for the player.
Jet Force Gemini for Nintendo 64
Jet Force Gemini for Nintendo 64 is a science-fiction action adventure combining shooting, exploration and rescuing captives. Juno, his twin sister Vela and their cybernetic dog Lupus fight Mizar and his insect army. You start with Juno and only gain control of the other two when you reach them during the story. Viewing the action from behind your character, you explore planets, spaceships and networks of passages. For accurate fire, you switch to an aiming view closer behind the head.
The three heroes initially follow different routes and have their own abilities. Vela can reach passages underwater; Lupus hovers across wide gaps using his jet boots. Later, equipment upgrades open new routes. You search for keys, weapons and ammunition, defeat large enemies and check areas for Tribals: small captives you must not mistake for enemy targets. Rescuing every Tribal is necessary to reach the ultimate finale. Searching previously visited locations again is therefore an important part of the campaign.
After rescuing the robot Floyd, a second player can control his crosshair and supporting fire on the same screen, using their own controller. That player therefore does not control a second freely moving main character. Separately, the game includes competitive split-screen battles for two to four players, each with a Nintendo 64 controller. An Expansion Pak is not needed; this is the original cartridge, with its original controls.
Region and language
Our Nintendo 64 games are PAL editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
Jet Force Gemini for Nintendo 64 includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of Jet Force Gemini
Rare developed Jet Force Gemini and Nintendo released it for Nintendo 64 in 1999. Lead programmer Paul Mountain joined the project after Diddy Kong Racing. The team combined free three-dimensional exploration with shooting and a space story centred on three playable heroes. According to Mountain, Super Mario 64 influenced the scale and openness of the environments. Enemy attacks also drew ideas from older space shooters and from enemies that seek cover during combat.
The controls needed to retain both a visible character and accurate aiming. Rare tried automatic camera changes, but eventually chose an aiming view you activate yourself. The individual abilities of Juno, Vela and Lupus then determined where they could and could not go. In a later developer interview, Mountain and lead artist Lee Musgrave explained that the requirement to rescue every Tribal was a late, demanding addition. This explains why the second half involves plenty of backtracking and careful searching.
The small races also grew out of experiments by developers who had previously worked on Diddy Kong Racing. A controllable hover vehicle developed into additional racing activities alongside the larger campaign. Rare deliberately chose to make everything work within the Nintendo 64's standard memory, so players would not need an Expansion Pak. Jet Force Gemini thus retained its own combination of shooting, character abilities and collecting. The later Rare Replay edition is a separate reissue, not this Nintendo 64 cartridge.
Similar games for Nintendo 64
GoldenEye 007 and Jet Force Gemini both come from Rare for Nintendo 64 and combine shooting with objectives beyond combat. Bond focuses on espionage, equipment and contacts; Jet Force Gemini on alien environments, character abilities and rescuing Tribals. GoldenEye looks through Bond's eyes and uses separate missions. Jet Force Gemini usually shows your character and lets you return to previously visited parts of space with new abilities.
Perfect Dark and Jet Force Gemini both give you futuristic weapons and a story involving an alien threat on Nintendo 64. Perfect Dark uses Joanna Dark and self-contained espionage missions seen through her eyes. Jet Force Gemini divides exploration between three main characters with different abilities and a camera behind them. The hardware also differs: Perfect Dark's solo campaign requires an Expansion Pak, while Rare developed Jet Force Gemini for the standard memory.
Banjo-Kazooie shares Rare's attention to three-dimensional environments, recognisable characters and areas you gradually learn to search on Nintendo 64. Jumping, learning moves and collecting puzzle pieces form its foundation. Jet Force Gemini uses similar searching for Tribals and passages, but makes accurate shooting and ammunition more important. Banjo and Kazooie usually act as one controllable duo; Juno, Vela and Lupus follow their own routes and each receive a part of the campaign.
Lylat Wars also pits you against an enemy space army on Nintendo 64, but mostly has Fox fight from vehicles. The campaign alternates forward-scrolling routes with areas in which you steer freely. Jet Force Gemini mostly takes place on foot and lets you investigate rooms, platforms and hidden passages. Both connect aiming to positioning, but Lylat Wars places greater emphasis on a direct sequence of battles; Jet Force Gemini gives rescuing and finding captives a larger role.
Super Mario 64 and Jet Force Gemini both use a camera behind the character and three-dimensional areas with different routes on Nintendo 64. Mario solves many situations through jumps and precise movement; Jet Force Gemini adds a separate aiming view and an arsenal of weapons. Stars guide repeated visits in Mario. In Jet Force Gemini, Tribals, keys and the special abilities of three heroes determine which parts you need to search again.
