Level 30 - A Force To Be Reckoned With

The bugs are coming, but not in peace. Welcome to Remember 64. We're this week we team up to save cute, cuddly tribals around the Galaxy. Ah, just look at them. They're just so sweet. I want to take one home. Oh, I just want to come home. Welcome to the show everyone. My name is David Patrangelo and this week we are playing and chatting about Jet Force Gemini. Jiggy Look Back is back once again. On the show we are going to dig into this classic rare action

adventure shooter game. Quick note off the top as per usual patreon.com/remember 64 show is where you can support this show as it gets bigger and better. At least I hope that's what it's doing. For as little as a dollar a month, you can help us keep the lights on, sort of speak and a new thing that we are going to be adding momentarily. If you're listening to this in July or August of 2023, the new thing we're adding is any new members at any level can choose to receive a holographic.

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So you can sit and watch us play Donkey Kong 64 or Jeffers Gemini or other types of games like that Turok 2 that are in a little bit of a longer play style. And as always, pass us a rating on your podcast app of choice, specifically Apple Podcasts and Spotify, always much appreciated. And of course, tell your friends, tell your family if they are nerds like us, we want

to welcome them to the show. Remember 64 is a very proud member of the Tokyo Beats podcast network spaceships, magic swords, intergalactic empires, dead gods, and creatures from beyond the moon. What Mad Universe could contain all these fantastic visions? What Mad Universe is a Bi Weekly Podcast? Delving into the misty origins of scifi and fantasy pop culture and genre tropes, take a cosmic trip on what? Mad Universe Podcast? Now on the Tokyo Beat Podcast Network.

OK, let's bust out the history books everyone. We're heading back to October of 1999. Jet Force Gemini had players control a team of futuristic bug squashers consisting of siblings Juno and Vela Jetpack, loving Lupus and their Floyd the robot. The goal is to save the Galaxy from the evil My Czar or Mizar. I really should have checked that and save tribal members who have been captured.

Lead programmer for the game Paul Mountain was a little bit newer to Rare than now juggernaut developers, he said. Quote I joined Rare as a software engineer graduate in 1996, just one year before you started working on Jetforce Gemini and he was working at that time at Diddy Kong Racing. He goes on to say, quote An equal measure of the behavior of the bad guys in Jetforce was a mixture of arcade space shooter formations and Quake style attack and cover mechanics.

Super Metroid was also an influence on some areas of the game, such as collecting, upgrading, and unlocking weapons. Throughout the development of Jetforce Gemini, the team described very little interference from Nintendo along the way. Sure, there were suggestions, some checks and balances, and some thumbs up or thumbs down discussions that happens along

the way. Fair enough, but the artistic and technological changes that were made were largely done because those working on the title started to really hone in on their skills and show just how far they could push the N64. Now, if you've played the game before, you may or may not like or remember liking the way that it controlled.

We're going to talk about the center discussion in just a few minutes, but the choice to have a third person view that switched into a sort of 1.5 first person with manual aiming was definitely intentional, Rare says. With the analog stick, it allowed them to create a more precise control scheme for players, and while it might feel a little bit dated, lead artist Lee Musgrave says the difficulty and freedom mixed in were exactly what they were trying to

balance. After months of play testing, other playable characters were added to the roster with their own unique abilities. At first it was only Juno that you could suit up, as then his sister came along and then there was a trusty Dog Lupus Jeff Force.

Gemini was a hit and flew off store shelves in 1999 and early 2000 with big competition now here from a newly released Sega console in the Dreamcast, the sales weren't necessarily a surprise, but interviews with Rare point to the fact that they were a little bit worried internally. Reviews at the time pointed out that the game really did push the console's limits, but could have taken advantage of the about to be released expansion pack.

Now, Rare decided against that because they knew at launch not many players would have it in their hands just yet. A Game Boy Color version of the game was in development by a studio called Bit Studios in 2000, but shortly after was canceled. The port was expected to have an isometric 2D view according to a former Rare designer, Martin Wakely. Jeff Force Gemini on the color was quote the only occasion I can actually remember Rare outsourcing anything. Well, here's a taste of the

opening cutscene. This is an unverified video that was uploaded back in 2016 being played on a Game Boy Advance SP. Today's show is brought to you by epos Gaming Audio. With a comprehensive lineup of both wired and wireless headsets, gaming amplifiers, microphones, and webcams, EPOS has everything you need to experience the power of audio.

Like their H6 Pro lineup, which features 2 versions and open or closed headsets, the closed headset allows you to tap into exceptionally detailed audio and seals out ambient noise, while the open version delivers natural, high fidelity audio with an incredible soundstage. Both headsets include a magnetic detachable microphone and a sleek design that has no wild RGB configurations, just good design.

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Gemini for your Nintendo 64. Blaze into action with your team of adventurers spent on breaking the Alien, My Stars, Interstellar Stranglehold and Awesome. 120 stages awaits you, each bristling with its own brand of terror and robotic power. Ups Jet Force Gemini of Force to be reckoned with. Playing now on your N64? All right, as per usual, it's time to talk about the game.

It's time to talk about our experience with it in the past and now, and I'm so happy that jiggy look Back is here once again returning guest slash cohost slash. Good guy all around. How are you? How you doing? I am doing fantastic, amazing even even after slugging away at at this title at Jeff Force Gemini. I think so. I mean, I got a couple Ant heads to show about it. Yes, exactly. There you go.

Exactly. So we'll jump in because I think there's a decent amount to talk about with this game. I mean, it's another one of those big Ted pull rare titles I think. And you know, I don't want to shortchange anything like this because it is, it's a pretty special title. There's a bit of a history to go with it. And did you have a history with this game going back to when you were younger, or is it something again that maybe you played a little bit later or just knew

of? So. The second one, a little more, but okay. So my relationship with this game is a little complicated because obviously I'm a big rare fan and I've I had it in my N64 collection as a kid and I did not play too much of it. I mean, I played, I think, I don't even think I unlocked Vela like I was. I just played as Juno and I

remember getting to a specific. Area and I got to it again and I remembered this area because when I was a kid it actually scared me and it was it. It's like an abandoned church and there's like the the guy out there that plays like he's like, oh, what have I done? And he like plays a memory for you and like of him like turning the the Ant people into zombies and every zombies. Yeah, yeah. So that scared me as a kid and I think I stopped playing there.

And I just never went back to it until now. And I'm like, I don't know. It was also kind of hard for me. I remember like, when I first played it, I was like, this is really hard. And it wasn't something. And even now I was like this is really hard like well, that that's not, that's not an uncommon feeling. I think it seems like online that is, you know, I think they were going for that a little bit. It wasn't supposed to be walk in the park. But you're not alone, that's for sure.

So. Yeah, it's definitely no. Banjo or conqueror that I could pick up and really go through. I mean there's there's a lot of thought involved in this game. I feel like even your play style, how you're playing, keeping track of where you are in the level. I I still I I don't know if we want to just get into it. We could start right from the beginning before we get into the levels because I really want to talk about the intro and

specifically that theme music. Oh my gosh, yeah, so, so I I actually have a not, not too different story than yours. Going back, I think I mentioned to you mentioned this to you like a few weeks ago when we first said we were going to play this game, I was like, I think I played the first like 2 stages, yeah, and maybe one of the other stages as Lupus because my buddy unlocked it. I never owned this game, but I played it a decent amount at my friend's place.

Who had it? And it would be like, I'm gonna play level, we're gonna play level. And then inevitably, this was the household where I've told the story before in other episodes, but where we would just take this cartridge out and then the four of us would just play Rampage for the next like 5. There you go. And then go, like, all the way to the end, yeah. Rampage is great. It is. It's excellent.

It was great it you know we that for whatever reason it was that group of the four of us that always played a Rampage and then when we went to one of the other guys houses in this same group of friends it was Goldeneye and it was the other Mario parties and like things like that. For whatever reason Rampage took over Jetforce Gemini for us in this one household. But as as far as playing through it not even close not even close. I I like you said the music.

I I still remember like when when that when I hit start or you know the the game booted up and that that splash page just comes on where it has the logo and then running and stuff That music, not only do I think it's it's so well done and it's very like orchestral and very, very awesome. I'd say I immediately it took me back, took me back immediately. So yeah, so you wanted to talk about it. What's What do you think? So.

So the first thing I wanted to say was, and you probably know this, but the fact that it was first a conquer soundtrack thing. Like it was first a theme used in Conquer 12 or 12 tales. Conquer 64, which is just a cool little tidbit there. But there's actually like people had like the the footage of the game and you can be in the Roman Colosseum and it plays the Jetforce Gemini theme and everyone's like, wait a minute. So that's yeah, so that's super cool. I just like that and I feel.

It does have a very even. All the music honestly has a very rare feel to it. You don't realize that that feel. I don't know if it's like, it's like the brass in combination with the like really cynthy sounding stuff, like a lot of rare music. And actually, a lot of the sound effects in this game, I can tell, are either reused assets or they're made in a very similar way. Because even things like Juno, like walking in lava or something makes a splashy noise.

I'm like, hey, I know that noise and I'm like kazooie like it's the same, you know. So I was getting a lot of that. But that theme definitely is. It is iconic and even going further a little bit, but not too much because there is something else I want to talk about that like opening screen, the character, select screen, dude, that music, that's. That might be Top 10 rare. Like, I even appreciate it.

I love the theme song of this game, but that character select music, there's something so epic about it. It's Dun Dun Dun Dun. It's like, so like Star Wars Z. Like, it's exactly what I was going to say. It is Star Wars. It's like Darth Vader. Like coming in and you're like Dawn. Dawn turns the lightsaber. Yeah, but it's, you know, instead of instead of a dude in a black Cape and a big robotic suit, it's a little dog with a machine gun strapped to his back. I mean, that's just as epic, I

would say. Yeah, pretty epic. I mean, yeah, no, it's true. Cuz cuz again when we were messaging back and forth about it, I think you started playing a little bit before me and you said, oh, just be prepared for the character select screen. I did say that, didn't I? And I was like, I was trying to remember it when you said that because actually I when you said that the the theme music actually cute in my head pretty similarly to what it is, but not

exactly. It was like, Oh yeah, I think I remember what the theme music is, OK. And then I played, I think later that night or the next morning or something, I started playing it. And yeah, the second you get to even, it's just judo running on on the treadmill thing. Like even just that. It's not epic because there's epic things going on. It's just flat out epic shit in your face. It just goes fucking hard and it's great.

Yeah, it's awesome. And even just the little touches in that menu of like, so you said they're running on treadmills, so every character is just running on a treadmill. They pull up a symbol like to the left of them that's supposed to represent them, which honestly, I could never keep track of which one was which. Yeah, they look a little too similar. I was like that's kind of a missed thing. But I thought it was cool that they show like for some reason like an X-ray of their body or

something on the right. And it's bizarre, but it's it kind of fits that. I don't know. They're just this is how they're doing, this is their health. This is their like their body is like their condition. And I was like it just kind of adds like a weird like sci-fi E kind of. Yeah. Just adds to the labor of the fact that you are somewhere else in the Galaxy and this is the technology they have. And you know, I think I think it'd be cool if that was reused

somewhere else in the game. Like maybe that was your health bar or something. I I'm fine with the way that the health works in this game doesn't bother me or anything. But but if like I don't know part of the health logo was was that like the body maybe they couldn't pull it off. Maybe just too much power they would need to to kind of do that while the game is running and everything.

But yeah, it's just another layer of detail that's really they didn't have to do. You could have just had their face with that music and it still would have been cool, but there's a lot going on. They're on like a ship and you know, the treadmill like we said, and you could. And when you spin around and pick the different characters, the whole thing shifts as if you're, you know, moving around the room and like all these mechanical sounds are happening.

It's a lot of detail going on in something that really you just flick the joystick a couple times and press A and you move on and it's like it's it's great. Functionally the same as Donkey Kong 64, but it's so much. I mean, as much as I love that character select just because the characters like call out each other, it's kind of funny, but it has charm. Excuse me, it has charm but Jet Forces is just. It's so over the top for what it

is, right? Yeah, over the top Scifi and and there's other over the top details that we'll get into and stuff, but. That was somebody's job and they went hard. They're like, yeah, this is the one thing I'm doing in that game. This is it. Yeah, you know, it's gonna kick so much ass. No one's gonna play this game. They're just gonna sit at this menu.

I even looking on Reddit like. I'm in a lot of like, rare game forums and everything and going in it, that was one thing that somebody said they're like that character select screen is easy top ten. And I'm like it is yeah. Yeah I I cannot disagree. I think the music in general in this game is great. Again like you said a lot of rare games are like that. I think. I think it's, it's be hard pressed to find one that isn't at least, you know enjoyable on some of the stages.

And they're not. None of them are throwaway. And you know, on top of that we'll get into like playing the game itself and stuff too. But as far as sound goes, since you're on that topic, there's a lot of voice acting in this,

which yeah, I didn't. It's not a ton, but there's some every once in a while that you get, there's some like and when you don't, you get some like sound effects of when everyone talks kind of like, you know Banjo Kazooie, things like that little and like that's a little like personality thing. So like, you know, they went for it on all the different levels,

I think. And and you know, whether someone's talking or whether you're reading it, whether the sound effects or not, when someone's actually talking, the writing is really kind of fun and cheeky and everything. Too like, so before we get to say, I just wanted to bring up yeah, sorry, I'm everywhere. Well, there's so much to talk about because there's so many different little details and. Try to cover it all. Yeah, there's layers.

That's a good way of putting it. So in that in that first title sequence screen it's so cool how depending on how far you are in the game, the title sequence like changes like what's happening on screen. So so you start at the beginning, it's just Juno running and then it's like as you unlock the characters they show up on the title screen and then depending how far you get like at one point you get.

Better armor and stuff and then it replaces them and then they all have their different outfits on and it's just it's just a cool little touch that I don't know I've it's just it's just neat it it adds another another layer to it. It just it makes you feel like you progressed and that your team is more you know, I don't. Know exactly yeah I and and I kind of. So I mostly played this. I have the cartridge and I I played it I think.

I don't know three or four stages or something like that on on the 64. And I was like, I'm going to try it on the Rare Replay because I have that, I have Game Pass and it has all these games on it. And I heard it helps with the control scheme, which you know can be hit and miss depending on how you how you like the game and everything. But it's not a huge difference. Honestly, we'll get into that.

But I didn't remember all that much about that detail that you're talking about with the with the title screen, because. On the Xbox, you can just put your Xbox to sleep and the game goes on suspend, and then you can just pick up where you left off, Like you press pause, I'll turn the Xbox off and that's it. It's basically like putting your Switch, pressing the power button on your Switch. Kind of the same idea, right? You know, modern consoles, they all have that now.

So yeah, I forgot about that. And then I had to restart the Xbox for an update or something like that. And then I opened it back up and this was like after I had Lupus. So this is like, you know, a couple hours later at this point. And they're all on the screen. They're in a different spot. Like one of the other stages is like, yeah, this is great. I forgot about this. Yeah, it's just a little. It's a little thing, but it's cool. It was a nice surprise. Yeah. It was a nice surprise.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead, I was gonna say. Should we move into how the game looks? Because yeah. Let's do it, man. I'm kind of curious. I'm kind of curious of the Rare Replay situation because I I only played it on the 64 and there's a couple thing and I'm going to incorporate performance with the graphics because I feel like they go hand in hand. I mean they're like graphically it's okay to me. I can't.

I I've heard people say, oh it's a great looking Rare game and I'm like I there are some aspects of it. I'm like wow, this looks really good. And then other aspects I'm like that looks kind of goofy. And the the big thing that I I couldn't seem to get over, it was particularly with Juno, is his legs. When he runs, they're they're very square and they move in a weird like diagonal like kind of ice skating look. I got it. I know exactly what it looks

like. Judo runs like Ezra Miller as The Flash. That kind of like ice skating, kind of like why? Is he swinging? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Why is he running like that? You know, yeah, it's like it's a whole. It's a, I mean, running is a full body experience. But when you watch him run, compared to the other characters, yeah, it's like a full body, arms, legs, kind of look at that. Yeah. No, that's a good point. It is what it is. He's really the only one that I mean.

The other two look fine when they're running, so I don't. Know especially especially Lupus like it's he doesn't actually looks actually looks pretty good I think his motion and everything is pretty good yeah So as far as as far as the graphics go I think for the most part yeah I like it. I like. You know, the design of of the enemies I think is unique enough and everything, all of that stuff is fine. But that's that's like art style, you know, that's design. That's not necessarily what the

detail is sort of speak. So like, I think that like the way things move and everything, like Juno for example, and and and and Vela too. Vela. Vela. Vela. Vela. Yeah, that's. Yeah. I'm questioning myself because I get things wrong. The names, the names are crazy. They know Lupus Vela. But then the best part is that the tribal leader is named Jeff. Yes, yes, you know. His brothers like Bobby or something like I don't have something like that. I don't know, Barry, I think.

Barry, that's it. Yeah. OK. Yeah, we'll get into that a little bit later, but. Yes, we will. Yeah. So I think, yeah, so when I was, when I was watching sort of some of the animations and things like that. I think most of the details seems like all the little grunts, all the little ants, are the ones that have the most like distinctive running and stuff that kind of hunched over when they run and then when they shoot, some of them might be propped up a little bit.

The guys with the Shields use their Shields in different ways depending on which one it is. The big guys look different, but they kind of don't move or anything, or at least most of them don't. But then like Juno and Valor are running and it looks like I to me it was like it looks like they're running on ice, You know, that's that's kind of what it looked like. Especially when you're strafing, when you're kind of strafing, it's like, oh, their legs move

but their upper body doesn't. So like their legs turn to the left or the right, but their body's facing forward. And you know, I, you know, it is what it is. I it's a yeah exactly thing, but it does look awkward if you really look at it. I think though that I think for the most part, the rest of the game is is pretty good. I think, yeah, I like the way it looked. I don't think it's it's one of the best.

But it's unique and I think that's why it stands out is because it definitely does not based on character design and weapons and stages and the way all of that stuff is structured together in the story and how you progress through all these stages and everything. I think that's why it stands out and that's why people might say like, Oh yeah, This is why this game is has its own unique style and all that kind of stuff. So I think that's what it is for me is I appreciate that, but as

far as the way you know. The the colors and the animations and whatever, it's good, but it's not fantastic. So I I'm not too far off on you. Yeah. Yeah. And I will say that this is one of those games on the N64 that I was like, Oh my gosh, my shadow's an actual shadow, which I don't know why I always look for that because I'm so used to like even, you know, occurring of time, you have two little things for your feet.

Mario 64, it's just a black circle, you know, It's just a thing with platformers you get And later on in the 64 life, they actually became shadows. And I was like, I just, I always see that and I'm like, that's awesome. Yeah it's it's just one of those added things that they put in and like one of the reasons why at the time all the the sort of the some of the research that I've been doing so far in the game is that you know, you're mentioning performance.

There was performance issues especially on the console on on the rare replay. I think I found some like it's funny I found some bugs. But nothing that was game breaking and no major performance issues, but that's because now it's been ported over and they've kind of gone over the code and that whatever, right? But this game definitely could have benefited from having the expansion pack because it really would have given the console a

little bit of an extra boost. And I didn't run into any of it, but I spent most of my time playing on rare replays, so that's why I didn't hit it. So it sounds like you ran into some stuff. Yeah. So nothing, no glitches or anything that really held me back other than like 2 times I did have my game freeze, which I I'm not. I don't have that very often on the 64 and I don't like, I remember it as a kid happening. It's just a thing with the console, you know?

Occasionally, like your game would just freeze and stop, you know, and so. And there's no way to do anything about it on a console. You just hit the reset button and I was so tick though, because it was during a moment. The well, the last one I remember was during a moment I was trying to collect all the tribals and I got to like the last one or two and the game froze and I was so mad I had to stop playing for like probably 3045 minutes because I was just

frustrated. I'm like of all times why couldn't it have happened at the beginning. It had to happen when I was close to the end. So but but that is that is more of a fluke. That's not telling of the performance of the game. The things I did encounter were like in rooms where there were a lot of enemies coming at you or a lot of drones specifically. I think when they would fly at you and the frame rate would dip and it's not it's not unbearable.

It's not like I would say TUI had worse performance issues like and I love Banjo TUI and I totally can get by with those issues that it has, but it's just it's noticeable and especially I think there's moments and I could be totally wrong on this. I don't know if the frame rates unlocked, if it's like they try to cap it at 30 or keep it consistently around 30 or sometimes it gets up because there are moments where there's no enemies.

I'm running in a hall or a cave or something and it seems very smooth, like almost 60FBS smooth. Like it's very like it really got up there and I'm like, wow, this feels great. And then the second enemies show up. It's like boop back down And it's not, it's not chugging, but it's definitely like working. It's noticeable, it's notice and it also changes the way that you are that your feel for that scene or for that instance right like. Right.

Even if it wasn't running extra fast or extra smooth or whatever and it was running normal and then all of a sudden it chugs down just a little bit, just like any other frame rate drop. It's, you know, anyone that want to be precise with your weapon or with your traversal or whatever it is that makes a difference. It's yeah, it throws you off. You don't feel like you're, you don't feel like you have the feel anymore. You know that. That's why people don't like that.

And that's why it's unfortunate when it happens. But I didn't run into that stuff. The only thing I ran into was every once in a while. You know when you have to kill all of the all the enemies in

order to unlock a door there? The door wasn't unlocked, but I couldn't see an enemy anywhere, but I could hear one every once in a while, and every once in a while, the little red indicator on the left or the right of my screen would go off to tell you that one was like around the corner or just out of sight or whatever. Interesting. And then I would throw a grenade at like the corner of the wall where that sound was kind of coming from.

And then I would just see the green blood come out and it would die, and then the door would open. So that happened a couple of times. Yeah, yeah, I just got that on the. 64 Yeah. So it spawned into the wall. It wasn't shooting at me, which is interesting. It's not like it was, Yeah, seen through the wall. It just. And I couldn't see it. It's not like I could see the antenna or its foot or its guns sticking out of the wall. I could just hear it and see the indicators and that's it.

Wow. And because. And the guns wouldn't do anything because the wall was in the way. So I use grenades in order to get an explosion, and one or two grenades later, I was like, OK, the doors unlocked. Like, yeah, that's pretty wild. Yeah, nothing like that happens on the 64, at least not to me. But I will say it was kind of annoying when you do kill all the enemies and then one is like laying on the ground just.

Oh, spasm means yeah, yeah. Then there's just, it's just a matter of time before they just perish. But for some reason, they add that detail and they sit there for like 10 seconds and you're like, why isn't this door opening? And then you turn around, see it on the ground, and then it starts to disappear and you're like, oh, OK And then the door opens. Yeah. You hear the flies buzzing.

That's how you know that that the ones on the ground, Yeah, Which, which is like another one of those details of the game that is like extra gruesome in a game that is sort of sort of lighthearted and sort of like not family friendly but sort of like geared towards maybe slightly gamers but also not. And I'm just like. Is this game supposed to be violent? Or is it not like I don't like?

I know they're just bugs, but but at the same time, at the same time, they give you guns that can like explode things like giant rockets and these bugs, they explode and there's blood everywhere. There's like bug blood everywhere. And it's clearly like trying to push push that rating. It's teen, right? I think it's Teen. I don't. Know right in front of this. But yeah, yeah, it is. Yeah. Which which makes sense. That's totally, there's nothing wrong with that, right.

I think that makes sense. But it's but like those those weapons, the gruesome stuff, the sort of like and like when you have like, a bunch of enemies that say, throw a grenade and it's just like, I'm overwhelmed. I got to throw something. And even if they don't die, the blood splatter is just like, it's like it's all over everywhere. It's everywhere. The sound effect doesn't stop. Like, it's just all these details, yeah, it's green.

They're bugs, like I said, But there's something about that that feels. This like, yeah, this mix of attitude and mix of tone that this game, I don't know, I don't know what kind of balance they're going for here. Like I've seen a couple like clips and interviews and you know, things like that from even like 15 years ago when people were talking about this game and it was only 10 years old and being like, yeah, we wanted to strike this balance and stuff.

And I I don't know if they struck the balance or if they should have just gone to. The full teen or mature side or should have just dumbed it down to be a little bit more child friendly so I it's stuck somewhere in between. I think playing it is totally fine for the way that works, but that balance I think was a little bit off depending on what mission and what area you're in and and what weapons you were using. I think else also matter.

Yeah. And so getting getting into it, we're kind of, we're kind of like crossing the line of the game play. Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, let's do it. Yeah. So the game play, it's kind of, I'm not, it's not bad, but it's not great either. It's kind of, it's kind of in between and I don't know. Again, I don't know what it is on the Rare Replay like if you can you use twin sticks. Is that like? No. So what happens is and I wrote yeah, so, so that.

So that's one of the reasons why we'll get to this, you know eventually like we're gonna be playing Goldeneye on here because obviously we are. Yeah, that. The version of that on the Xbox, not on the Switch, but on the Xbox is twin sticks. It's is, is modern controls and it's great and it feels great. The game is the same game, but it plays even better. They modernized it. It looks for it looks nicer and cleaner and it plays much

better. Fantastic with this the the right hand, the right-handed joystick, the right joystick or whatever. If you flip your controls is the are the C buttons. So it's your it's your strafing, it's your jumping, it's your Crouch or crawl or whatever. So you still so instead of using is it the? Is it the left bumper? Or what? What do you use to aim? No. Right bumper to aim. Yeah, right, Bumper. Yeah. So now it's it's the, it's the left trigger. So that's sort of modernized I

guess. And then shooting is the right trigger, makes sense. That's a little bit natural. But it's the same thing where like if you're kind of overwhelmed and you're shooting especially the the guys that are flying in the sky, regardless of which ones they are you, it's really hard to stand still and shoot a lot of enemies at once. But it's also very difficult to move at the same time because my

hands. Could not move left or right with that right joystick easily without jumping, crouching and aiming at the same time and pressing the trigger. So it's a very hard. I really could not wrap like in a clean way. I could not wrap my head around making that a consistently successful kill or room clear. So it happens sometimes. And when I did, I was like, Oh yeah, I did it. But then the next room I was.

Jumping by accident because the joystick just moves this tiny bit up or I was approaching by accident because it moves slightly down so it it was a little bit unruly I think where so that part of it on the 64 I actually think works better even if it's not clean. But it actually fell. I thought it'd feel better because I'm like I'm used to holding an Xbox for. The last 20 years so I thought it would be fine, but because you need the strafing in some

way in the game. They had to do, they had to implement that some way and they just made the C buttons the joystick. So it's it's fine, but it made the game more frustrating than it maybe could have been. But I also don't know what the solution is because you have to strafe somehow. So yeah, that's really interesting because I I think actually like movement and the strafing works pretty well on the 64 controller. It's really the the part that's that's OK.

So there's two facets that make it frustrating and the first thing is aiming with the stick is very difficult when you go into so. So when you're running you basically have like an auto lock on that you can kind of just blast away and it'll but if it if a drones flying for example, or heaven forbid a freaking sniper sitting in a tree, you got to you got to go into this manual mode by hitting the R

button. And then when you do you aim with the stick and the stick is just so like the sensitivity. And I don't know I didn't really look if there's an option to adjust sensitivity. I just assumed there wasn't because it's a 64 game. Like they don't think of that. But it definitely is like so sensitive because the slightest

movement just sends it flying. And it's it's like I said, it's not, it's not bad, it's not unbearable, but it's definitely something that takes a lot of getting used to because it's not it's not ideal. No, it's not. And certain certain weapons you realize will work better in certain situations. Which, yeah, just in general is what happens with shooters. That's totally fine, yeah. But I tended to use some of the same weapons over and over again because I can control them better.

Let's see, let's see what? What weapon did you use the most? Be honest, because it's probably the same one I did. It's the machine gun. Yeah, it's the machine gun. It's gotta be the machine gun, right? I just they yeah yeah they set you up. They set you up. It's like the machine guns clearly the best gun of the game. Followed by maybe the try rockets I would say. Yeah, I was, because they're pretty strong. They have they have a blast radius at least a little bit. Yeah.

And they and they just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, Just keep it going. Yeah. And when you get like for bosses. Yeah, for bosses it's great when you when you get to like up to like 20-25 shots with the Tri rockets, it's it's pretty sweet because you you don't have to worry about only having 5 or 10 bullets and not being able to like make that work right.

And then with the machine gun, for the most part you get you get up to 100 to 200 to 250 shots pretty easily or pretty quickly within like a few stages for each character. And then you're you're pretty comfortable with it, but like. Anything that's flying in the sky, unless it was like moving really fast or unless it was really far away, it was the machine gun. Every time. Yeah, because I don't care if I missed 70% of the bullets, as long as one or two hit them, they were going to drop.

And that's all I needed. I just needed to get them out of my way. Yeah. So I think, I think for that particular instance, like the drones flying, yeah, the machine guns, great. I also think the pistol actually works fairly well as a backup that you just kind of kind of do a line and just keep firing and just, yeah, it's just obviously more limited than the machine gun. I found the machine. It's accurate. It's it's pretty accurate, which is why it worked and it was easy.

For whatever reason. It's probably just in my head, but I found the pistol, the easiest one, the control. It's probably just in my head though, yeah. No, I I think, I know. I think there's something to that. I think it's it's the rate of fire and you feel like you want to just one shot it, so you kind of line up your shot first. Similar with the sniper, except the sniper is just way less ammo. Yeah, it needs more shots. I like using it.

It needed more, yeah. But the the machine gun I actually found like the ideal weapon for killing those shield, the enemies with Shields that hold it up. Because there's like small windows where either they're running away and you can shoot shoot them from behind or you can kind of shoot around them and get like their their arms sticking out or their legs sticking out. But the machine gun, you just kind of hold Z and forget about it and just feel like they're going to die eventually.

So yeah, you just, you just spray literally just spray the scene like like working in working in media like I do when someone goes to a crime scene or goes to a crash or something like that and you're there after it happens and they're kind of cleaning up the area or whatever. The camera guy says I sprayed the scene, which means he just. Like a scan of the whole thing, a couple shots. Basically. I'd walk into a room with the head Shields with the machine gun like you're saying, and I

would spray the scene. That's what I would do. And there would be dead bodies there, just like there might be at a crime scene. So it's it's just that machine gun. It's the best, best overall weapon, and it's used for a lot of different things. And coincidentally, I think maybe the shotgun is the worst weapon. Yeah, I I really wanted to use it more and. It's it's cool because just like any other shotgun, when you get close it's you know it's

effective. I thought it was going to be good against the guys with the Shields at like a sort of medium distance because it would spray a little bit, but it did nothing against those guys and I tended to use it maybe against some of the bigger guys on the stage is not bosses but the bigger guys sometimes and maybe for the regular ants. But then yeah, it was not I'm I'm with you. It was it was disappointing, yeah. And it you can charge it up, right. So. Yes, which is a cool idea, but

it I don't, I don't. It's really I think the best use cases. A if you're out of ammo of everything else and it's all you have, but just like those big enemies that kind of stand still and you can really line up your shot and then maybe drop a couple hits. But even bosses that are similar to that, that kind of just tanks and take a lot of hits that you still don't really want to use it. Yeah, it was. It was one of the last resorts. You're right, it is.

It is really cool that they give you such a wide array of weapons and things like you have grenades, you have remote minds. Granted, you really don't use a lot of those. Like, they're really, if you run out of ammo. Like, it's just, oh, another thing to have ammo for if I need it. It's in a panic if my machine gun runs out of ammo. I can use, I can use something else. Spray the scene in a different way. That's, Yeah, exactly. Tossing grenades. I like the way that the grenades

kind of work. You can kind of throw them higher. It's not like it's a standard. Just, hey, put forward and that's it. So, like, you can aim them. You can kind of bounce them off a wall. You can shoot enemy grenades out of the sky. Like, that's cool at you. Which is so cool. Which I did by accident a couple times. I was like, whoa, what? Just exploded. Did someone shoot a rocket at me? And I realized I shot a grenade?

Yeah, I mean it was get them in their hand before they even throw it. It's such a. It's so cool and then they drop it and it's great that those little details are are really cool and stuff. But yeah, I think I'm with you on the grenades. And the one thing about those grenades though, and just things that create explosions, you can actually kill the tribals, which are something that you want to collect and you actually need to

collect. So it kind of it kind of makes you want to be careful with how you use rockets or grenades or things like that in the game, which it's kind of a bummer. I I don't know if I I don't know if I dislike the idea that you can kill the tribals because it's kind of funny. But I also I don't like it when the game. So at at a certain point the game requires you to collect the tribals, so to to progress and so you need to go back and

collect all of them. And so it can be frustrating when you're in a room with enemies, say the grenades are all you have, you use it, and you accidentally kill a tribal. Well, they work like the the music notes in Banjo. You have to restart the level if you want to collect. Them. All except you. Except you could in Banjo. At least you couldn't kill them and they couldn't disappear, you know. They were just like Mario Coins. Really. Yeah, you just have to find them.

And this one, it's like, oh, I killed it. I got to completely restart. That was the last one. I mean that is that is very frustrating. I mean, when you messaged me just a couple days ago saying that you need to collect all the tribals to get to like the final boss and everything, I was like, well. My goal was to try and get most of them because I wasn't trying to avoid them. I was like, oh, I found them great. I liked finding them.

I was like, oh, they're cute. I want to save them, especially like the baby ones, the pacifier in their mouth. Yeah. And I love the, I love one of the details where if you can't see it and it's like up on a ledge or something, they like, throw an axe at you to tell you that you're close. Yeah, yeah. That is so fun and adds like this little like.

Like almost like desperate personality that they have because they're like say if you look them up here I know you can't see me but look, look, look, hey, hey. But there's no voices right. So they they I I love that little detail and stuff. I'm not coming down to you. Yeah, but I'm here, so you come up to me and grab me and carry me down. Yeah, especially. Especially Lupus. You got, you got jetpack, man, Get your ass up here. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

This is your job. But like so then this is. This is also part of the tribals are also part of this like. Tone balance that I was speaking about before where they're they're cute, but there's also a very serious situation. You know, when you start the game, they're all being rounded up. Some of them are being shot and blown up, and there's red blood, which for some reason feels like it's more real. Even clearly it's not.

They're crying like there's all these tonal things in there that are very adult, but they look cute. The sound effect when you save them is cute. You know, there's this sort of like friendly mentality to it and I don't know if if because I'm in Canada and I know that in the US this show may or may not have reached a lot of people. But I don't know if you know the show Fraggle Rock or the the franchise of Fraggle Rock at all. It's puppets from the Henson Company.

So saying I've heard of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there's sort of looking up to your right. Yeah, Look it up. Yeah. So there's sort of like in a forest. It's sort of like foresty hippie looking. Muppets is kind of what it is. Yes. And yeah. And I used to watch it as a kid and it was sort of like this. Just before you're a teenager, type of mentality and and jokes and stuff in it.

So as a kid it was like, oh, I'm just watching different Muppets and they didn't really understand what they were saying. This game is kind of like, oh, these are fragile rock characters where the the world is in the forest. Then they look kind of tribal and kind of different or whatever. It's a little bit serious, but it's also kidlike. And I just, I I wanted to save them all because I just, I wanted to save them all and to be the good guy.

Yeah, but every once in a while there'd be something where something funny would kind of happen when one of them gets hurts or dies. And I was like, should I be laughing at this? Yeah, yeah, if I should. Or if it was intentional, well, let's just put this note into game devs and things like that, that when you have, you have something to collect like that especially like a character or something. Don't make don't make someone have to collect all of them. If like make make us collect 50

tribals or something. That's what I thought I had to do. That's why I was like, I'm going to get most of them and that should probably be fine. Yeah, no, you have to go back it. It forces you to backtrack. But interesting enough, forcing you to backtrack kind of reveals mechanics of the game that I actually wasn't aware of when I was playing up and to that point, like I did not. And maybe it just said it. And I'll just say this about the plot in general.

Like, other than that, there's that first cut scene where Juno sipping on coffee, they're all just hanging out. And then they're. Like, feet up on the desk and like, yeah, and then all of a sudden they get raided and they're like, we got to go, we got to whatever. I was not following the plot at all. I mean, I don't know. I don't know what the.

I know, like Misar is the bad guy and but but this is stuff that I learned because I played the game and I like sat through like later I was paying more attention but at the beginning like I don't know why it was hard for me to to follow. It's not it's like it's it's like OK, we're we're some sort of space crew. There's alien sectoids. Why are they attacking us? I was like, I didn't get that.

I didn't get that we were the last remnant of a of a like, police force, of the Galaxy force, whatever. I didn't get that. I was just like, why are they attacking us? This makes no sense. And then we get to this island and the guy asked for help. And Juno's like, yeah, of course. And I'm just like, I don't. This sounds like his problem. It doesn't. I mean, like, I mean,

definitely. If I was in that situation, my first priority would be to find my my sister, who was apparently my twin sister, which I also didn't pick up on. That that didn't, I'd be like find my sister and find my dog would be my first priority and which it kind of is. But then I'm like, OK, and if I see these guys, yeah, I'll try to help them. But I'm not going to, you know, I'm sorry, but. But like, you know, I don't need

to find your pants, man. Like yeah, you know that was that was my favorite mission of this game. Though I'm not going to lie I was laughing so hard. I'm like that is such a rare thing. Like that is such a rare wear games like he's like we I was so scared and they took my pants and then you have to go like climb the tree like in the next area and they're like they just chucked him up there and that that was so funny.

That mission was. I wrote that mission in my notes to talk about because I was like, that was so good and it was so random. It's so silly. The only thing about that, and this is a design choice or it's limitations of the game or the console or the cartridge, whatever is like when you picked something like that up. I didn't know what I was picking up. It just made a sound to tell me that I picked something up That was good cuz it was high pitched.

I was like okay, okay, yeah, what do I do? I can't check. I mean I can check to kind of yeah. But it would be good if it was one of those things that you needed like that in order to progress really. It would be good to have, like a little indicator near your health bar or something. Yeah, that look like, you know, a dude's pants or something. Like just anything. It didn't have to have a fancy graphic. It could literally just be the word pants. And I'd be like, OK, great, I

got the guys pants. Like I got some things. Yeah, I got pants. Can I customize my character now? Yeah, I did the reverse. I talked to the guy 1st and got the mission and I was like, oh, that's funny. And then I was like, where do I find these? I almost wish I found them first, because then I would have been like, what did I just grab, you know? That's what it was. I was like, there's something in that tree. I'm gonna pick it up. Maybe it's not a weapon, but

maybe it's some sort of thing. And yeah, and then the guy's just like, thanks for returning my pants. Like, cool. I mean, I mean, it looks like you're wearing pants. I don't know what the problem is, but okay. Yeah, and like branching off to finish the thought of the different mechanics. So once you reach a point, you get armor that lets you have a jet pack. But that's that's besides the

point. That's actually not what I was going to bring up. I didn't know that each character had their own specific thing that different. Like in my mind when I was playing as Juno and I switched to Vela, I'm like, well, Vela's just Juno, but a little bit faster. And I I just find her like I was. I was having more fun playing as Vela than Juno and then Lupus. But they feel the same. They feel the same. They feel pretty much the same.

And I'm like, why would I want to play as Juno when I can play as Vela? And why would I want to play as Vela when I can play as Lupus? You know, because he can fly. Only to realize that, oh, Vela can swim. I'm like, OK, well, Vela has even more value. And then, you know, lupus can fly. So I was kind of, like, torn between those two. I'm like, OK, well, this one's more for exploring. This one's like, going to help me in the level. And then I found out later Juno can walk in lava.

And there was a very specific I think it's actually Mizar's palace. There's lava in there. But I didn't know that Juno could walk on lava. So I I like, I found the secret hole that I went down, and then I'm going through all the tunnels and I'm like, how do I leave? I'm like, I was literally stuck for like solid 45 minutes. And I just keep going. I'm like, I've been in this tunnel before and I kept looking and finally I'm like, OKI cave. I got to look it up.

I'm like, how do I leave Mezar? Like Mezar's palace, Juneau walkthrough. And then I found this lobby thing and it was like, oh, leave on the lava. And then I was like, what? Why? Would. Why would you walk on lava? I can walk on lava. I didn't even, I didn't even attempt to do it because when I'm when I was particularly, I think it was lupus, I flew over that lava. Get to that bottom section. But at one time I missed and I landed in the lava and got hurt really bad.

So I was like, Oh well, Lava's bad. You know, which is a sane thing to. Think I think that's I think I haven't. I haven't stepped in lava in a long time, but the last time I did, it hurt. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, I think Ed Sheeran can confirm that stepping in lava is bad. If you heard that story a while back, yeah. So I I don't know if they tell you that at some point that you know. Can I do that? I missed, I missed if they did. It was something that I had to

look up as well. In a similar way. I definitely did not give myself 30 to 45 minutes. I was just like alright, I got. I want to keep going. I I really tried. I really tried to do this game without like any walkthrough or say. Anything I I always so difficult. So difficult. It was like, I found myself. So part of part of the charm is exploring and finding new areas and everything. You're like, whoa, that's really cool, which is really cool to do when you're playing through the

game. It's really lame to do when you're backtracking and trying to collect all the tribals and you're like, Oh my gosh, there's an entirely other planet that I need to go to or whatever, which happened as Vela for me. And it was just, it just added more to it and the I I just found that navigating like a lot of places like even just looking at the first world like Outset or or is that what it's called? No, that's the section of it. Goldwood. Goldwood. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Goldwood that that first world when you go in like everywhere kind of just looks the same and you're like did I, did I walk down this way and then you're going to re navigating the same areas or maybe they're slightly different and it's really hard to tell. It's just one of those games.

It's kind of like you got to keep exploring till you find stuff which is cool and I appreciate it, but you know, trying to do something and complete a game for, you know, like we're trying to complete this game so we can talk about it on the podcast. And I was like Dang, this is not one that this is not for the faint of heart. This is for someone that's like they really need to go in and they really need to pay attention to where they've been.

Like, it's enjoyable, but you will be frustrated and it's not something to do if you're trying to get something done. Yeah, yeah. And that's and that's the other thing is like getting something done is, is is kind of a way to put it too. Because for me, games like this or a lot of open world games nowadays, especially, you know, look, I love the Spiderman games, I love the the Horizon

games, they're fantastic games. But if I put that thing down for a few weeks and I was kind of in the middle of a region, even if I wasn't in a main quest and I was like. You know, I kind of had an idea of what my path would be for the next couple of hours. I find myself to be overwhelmed, even though I shouldn't be, because there's just everything looks unfamiliar suddenly, even though I've been in that area

for so long. And with this, if I put it down and picked it back up, even if I was playing on rear replay and I just hit play again and immediately went back, I was like, why am I in this hallway again? Yeah, what am I? Was I supposed to go left or right here? It kind of looks the same. This is a 64 thing. It's not really just this game, because textures and all that kind of stuff can only go so far. So it's kind of the generation of games. So I don't blame this game

specifically for that. But it definitely is a problem when you're going through like the Palace for example, and especially as, as you know, in some of the Juno sections. Like was the first time that I went there, it was like. I feel like I'm running down this hallway 17 times and some of the items, like the coins, respawn when you go back. And yeah, so I'm just like, well, I think I've been here. I think there was 4 coins down this hallway, but maybe it's

slightly different. So I you know it. It's it's deeper than than I expected the game to be, and it's longer than I expected to be, but some of it feels like. Just design and all of that. But all of the stuff that we're saying, it's still fun to play though like I still I still had a good time going in and and shooting all these ants and

baddies. The small details that we're talking about, you know like you mentioned like right off the top like little things like collecting the ants heads, like those types of things were just like. I forgot that that was the thing. And I started picking them up and it's like, oh, you collected this many in this stage. Oh, you set a new record or whatever. Yeah, check back all that stuff. It's fun. There's all these little details if you didn't know. That exactly, Yeah.

I didn't. At first. I was wondering why I was collecting these things Same I was like why can I collect these? I didn't really notice. I was collecting them until later. I was like is there a shop or something that I go to which the shop the the dialogue like another one of those like when you're you're ending it's like get away you you ugly thing or yeah like just.

So when you want to close and walk away from the shop, yeah, they base it. The character basically says, like, you're you're gross and freaky. I'm getting out of here. So yeah, can you just, like, walk away not saying anything? Like, didn't your mom teach you not to say anything bad if you don't have anything else to say? You know what I mean? Like just just walk away or just say bye. Like, just why? Why? It's so weird, so funny.

Also the shop is like, OK, it's not yeah, yeah there's no, there's no I I used the shop maybe twice the whole the whole thing and it was. You have to find it first. Yeah. It was just to fill my ammo too. It wasn't like I I I don't think I ever got a game over. So I don't know if there's any game over splash screen or anything. Like they give you, they give you like two tries every level, right? Three tries, two or three, But sometimes it's in separate

sections of of the level, right? So I think they give you 3 and then they they give you 2 like retries, but they start you off like you have three lives total. Yeah yeah. Per like planet. I guess you could yeah. Yeah and yeah like things got close sometimes but but it's it's does a pretty good job of balancing like losing health and picking it up and those types I I found like a couple times I died especially on bosses and stuff which you know we're

mostly pretty good but. That's usually where I lost my lives was on the bosses. They were they were pretty good. I I don't know. I don't know if there was one that stood out to you the most, or so I'll tell you which one I hated. So I really hated. There's a it's like 2 grasshopper looking dudes. There's two of them and they jumped. Like praying mantis looking things, Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, praying mantis, because they have, they have the arms.

Yeah, freaking hated those because they So the thing, the thing about this game is when you're locked in a boss battle, you only move side to side and then you rely like just on aiming. So it fundamentally changes the gameplay right there. So that's where the controls on the Xbox actually worked better was because I didn't have to worry about, you know, Anyways, yeah. So it actually worked better that way for me.

Yeah, but like, the first boss is kind of, I mean, if I'm remembering right, that may not be the first bus. I'm thinking of. Like it's like a, like a B drill or A, Yeah, yeah, yeah. But. And then the second one is like the that looks like you're in like a sewer tunnel and then I think it's the Mantis guys after that. I think that's the order, Yeah, yeah. And the the Mantis guys, they just have, they have multiple. So you can't, it's not like you can just shoot at it and damage it.

You have to hit specific areas of it and I think that just coincides with the aiming mechanics. But also at the same time, I don't think you can always just hit it. You have to time it at a certain time. And that is what frustrated me, because I would have, you'd like, highlight it with the reticle and then once it turned red, that was kind of your cue

to lock in and shoot. And it made that sound effect that like blinking sound effect thing that's how you went to do it. And so for anybody wondering, OK this is this is kind of my this is my little tidbit. Those the arms, the arms. If you're struggling with this boss, just use the try rockets for right away. And just if you if you nail it, you can knock their arms out and

like one or two hits tops. So you can knock out both arms and then they try to attack you with their tail switch to the machine gun and wait for it to poke over and then you can kind of blast it and it'll turn red and that's your indicator. And once it stops turning red stop firings, Conserve ammo. Exactly. That's and that that's the

issue. And then go ahead and then if you're at a point, if you're at a point where you still have try rockets, that's kind of your ideal situation and then they'll attack you with their head and then you just time it and smash them in the head. But it that is the only boss I think that I really like had to keep playing to beat like the

rest. I was kind of like one or two tries Max, but that one I was like over and over and over and I was like, Dang it, I kept running out of ammo as the reality of it. Like I ran out of the machine gun and the Tri gun and then everything else is like, why am I even here? Cuz yeah, so that's the problem is that you, if you don't know that you have to shoot things at a particular time, which is the case for at least one of the

other bosses before that. But. They have larger hit boxes, they're not moving as fast, they're not jumping around as much as these guys are, so it is less frustrating. But I did find between the Tri rockets and the homing missiles, as long as you had a decent amount of those, excuse me? As long as you're the homing missiles, the the, the lock on on the homing missiles. As long as you have that gun still. Yeah. Stays on where it needs to shoot. So if you could get the timing,

yeah. So if you could get the timing correctly, it stays on it. And if I knew that it was about to turn red after after I figured it out and died a couple times, of course, then I would shoot it just before it was going to turn red. It would slowly go towards it, would hit it, and that's how I would get my hits. So that's how I kind of cheesed that one specifically. I did it for I think the one in the sewer like in Vaila's boss as well. But I had less bullets at that

point. So it was a little bit more difficult, but and that enemy was closer so I could use other guns that were a little bit more effective like. Machine gun and stuff is a little bit better there, but but yeah, that that's how I did it for those guys specifically because the pieces you have to hit, especially like the tail and the head are so small. Yeah.

And they're so far away from you and they move so fast that it's like, well, is this going to be a 15 minute fight or can I actually beat this thing in like the next four or five minutes like the other ones? Yeah, it's frustrating. Yeah, it's a little bit frustrating. I I I was, I I felt less frustrated maybe than you did

because. The controls felt a little bit more intuitive when it kicked into that different mode, so the strafing I didn't have it. I didn't need a separate button to straf anymore, I just needed the left joystick, so that felt a lot better. But it was or. Sorry I I didn't need to to press the other trigger in order to aim. The reticle was always up right? So it was one less thing that I needed to use strafe and run like constantly. Or did the using the Xbox

controller kind of hinder that? Because every time I was running forward, I wasn't running forward. I was holding the C button like to the side. So I'd always be running like forward right. I'd almost be always running diagonally rather than. Yeah, so that's what I that's what I remember always doing as a kid, playing this on the 64 and that's what my habit was and immediately when I picked it up and put the cartridge in. But because of the way that the joystick works, because it's

sensitive. The slight movement a little bit up or like halfway up on the on the, you know, moving the joystick up like a sort of quarter circle would make me jump. So it was a lot harder to do that. So the strafing was not as beneficial as the game probably wants it to be. Like the game wants you to be strafing because it's a better way to avoid like the snipers like you were saying and all that. Like that is key to avoiding a lot of those shots that are hard to hit from a distance.

But I was running into losing a decent amount of life in those instances because, interesting, I couldn't strafe a lot. Yeah, so I was like, so sometimes there were some levels where I could see a sniper in the distance, but it couldn't see me yet. And I pulled out. And this is even before I had the sniper rifle.

I'd pull out the pistol and just get the radical enough to hit the snipers because they only take one bullet or one laser, and I would shoot them from a distance and then now I wouldn't have to worry about the when I ran into that area. So you know I kind of cheese the the program a little bit in the game, but I knew from dying 2 minutes prior that that would help me and I just sort of figured out a way to do it.

So the strafing is so helpful, especially with the with the drones coming in because they would like they often in a line and so I just aim in one spot and then I didn't. I just hold the joystick and straight to the right and just keep firing and it was just like you just go down the line mauling them and it was it was good. So just pushing us forward a little bit, I think we talked

about quite a bit of the game. There is a little a little bonus character you get added to your team, which is Floyd the robot. Yeah, Floyd, what a name. Great name. What a name, Great name for a robot. Yeah. And so they he joins your team and you have to find the parts and that's cool. And then Mezar is the the big bad of the game. Yes. We have to get we have to get to this to to the to the big bad and and the the whole go ahead. I'm going to let you. I'm going to let you carry this.

Yeah so I'll just say so at first you fight it and you you you beat Mezar's palace. You have to you have to get all three of your squad members to Mezar's lobby and his palace to unlock the boss fight, which is a feat because every character, you have to progress through a certain amount of worlds to all meet up and be on the same world, which is kind of an interesting way to do it. I like that there's. I like that. I like that. Yeah, I like that. The paths were different.

You weren't playing the exact same stages just because just because they're different characters and could swim or apparently walk lava or fly. You're still playing different stages, different perspectives or whatever. And then you're me. Like, I like that. I mean that. That made the game definitely feel more epic and and big to a way that I didn't remember because like we've discussed earlier, we never really played through the entirety of it or anything.

So yeah, anyways, yeah, and it's it. It's just one of those things that it also it it does make backtracking a nightmare, but that's besides the point. I think the thing that makes it a nightmare really is you backtrack to certain areas and you have to figure out what character you need for that area to complete it. So like if you go back to Juno's first level, it might not be Juno that can get all the tribals. It might be Vela, you know, or it might be Lupus.

And you have to be selective and kind of like, but you may not know that until you're like 10 tribals in and you need one more. And that one is like above you and only Lupus can hover over to it. It's just it's a little frustrating. It's not make a break. If you have a guide, it's probably a lot easier. Well, it would be nice if the tribals didn't respond every time you went like that. Yeah, I think that like that would have solved it if you.

I'm gonna just stayed that way. I think that would have at least made it a little bit better because you'd be like, oh, I have one more. And then maybe you see them up in a tree, but at least you're not going through the entire stage and doing every last little step. Classic Banjo Kazooie design choice with. The musical notes, that's what it is. Again, just a not good way to do it.

It's not not make or break, but it definitely makes it more difficult than it needs to be. But so anyways, you get them all, you get them all in the same spot. You you fight the final boss and Lupus Jake charge initially. And I I mean that that that fight's super easy is a cakewalk. You don't really have to do too much. And he kind of just retreats and he's like, well, if I can't have my way, I'm going to go destroy your planet. And then he flies up to an

asteroid. And then they prompt you to go collect all these ship parts to repair this old ship that can reach where you need to be and tribal. So you not only have to collect every tribal in the game and backtrack to every world, get every tribal, but you also have to get the ship parts. And the guy Jeff, mother grabbing Jeff had like holds the last ship part hostage. So like, he's like you have to, you have to find all my people and I'll give you the last ship part to save your planet.

It's like so selfish. I can't believe it. I just don't like the guy. I don't like the guy we've. Come this far. Isn't that enough? Yeah. We'll go back. Let me defeat the baddies. I'll go back and I'll save them. It sounds to me right now, yeah, yeah, he's a jerk, Jeff's a jerk. And so going up, you, you get to this asteroid, you find me, Tsar. You fight them, you beat them. And it's revealed, hey, this, this is like a robotic body. And this was.

I was laughing when I saw this because it comes out and it's Barry, Jeff's brother. Oh Barry. Oh man, you don't even know. Is about to go off. And he's like Barry and he's like, I hate you, Jeff. He's like, I hate everything about you. I hate being in your shadow. I hate being your brother. Like you suck. And he's like, apparently he was. I and I may have be misremembering, but he's like I wasn't actually going to blow up the earth. I was just threatening to do it

to like make my point across. And he's like my body. I like with my robotic body. I could have stopped the detonation, but he still actually did a detonation or something. Yeah, and so. He had a bomb in his hand. He's like, yeah, he had a bomb in his hand and like, so Floyd I guess makes the heroic sacrifice, which is sad because he was, he was a pretty cool little robot dude. He just flew around and he had little gameplay, his own gameplay without the thing.

Once you unlocked him, which we didn't mention, but you can stand on a pad and he would like come out, you get this like first person, like ship control. Mini games. Yeah, little flying mini games. Yeah, you know what it reminded me of? And they're pretty much all like this. They're just kind of in different settings. Is if you ever played any of the Star Wars Super Nintendo games when they would put you in the Millennial Falcon or other ship, that's that's what it felt like.

Because that all of a sudden that those games went first person and you're kind of dodging and shooting things every once in a while. It felt just like those the controls were just as somewhat wonky as those ones were. It was it was kind of cool. Yeah, it's very short. It's only a couple minutes, yeah. And it just, it just made me bring up a point I didn't bring up in the control section when we were talking about gameplay.

So I just briefly say it, but I really dislike how the game almost plays like a platformer, a third person shooter platformer. Like it's very it feels fine and then once you get into battle it switches to tank controls for better or worse. Like sometimes. It works really well, but I found it frustrating when I wanted to, like, move out of the way and I wanted to just turn around and run like a normal, like, platformer controls. And then all of a sudden you'd stop and you'd have to, like,

back up like reversing a car. And I'm like so that. Way you have to turn. You have to turn right around all the way around in order to like go the other way. Yeah, so that that like it just switches automatically, which whatever, it's fine. To me, other than other than maybe those specific scenarios I liked, like to me, I like third person shooters and games much more than first person these days. Maybe it's just sort of lost its luster on me a little bit. I don't know what it is, but I

like third person. I was excited to play this for that reason and I kind of like how it's like half first person, half third person when you shoot. So like to me, I kind of like that idea. You know you you pretty much are playing an FPS at that point but you know you can still see your character and you're still moving around. All the controls kind of almost stay the same and stuff like almost feel the same and.

I I like that part of it, but I do I I know what you mean that that part that scenario like that is a little bit frustrating and I guess I gave it a pass on that because it's a game from the late 90s and 2000 and it was just it is what it is you know. So I just kind of let that go. But but your point is made and I think you're you're not wrong. I just, I just had to throw it out there because I was like, but and again, it wasn't, it

wasn't make or break. It was just like every once in a while it would make a frustrating situation and I'd be like, all right, that sucked. But yeah, otherwise I mean pretty solid games. Pretty funny. It's pretty funny. And we we mentioned Star Wars earlier, just as we were talking about the ending. The ending of this is 100% Star Wars because they all walk into this big auditorium. They get a medal.

They get a medal. All the other, you know, fighters, which apparently there's other fighters. So let's see more jet force stories and they they get a medal and then like the ships are flying over top and all this stuff. And I was just like, this is great. So I didn't, I didn't play any of this very ending fight or any because I didn't get all the

tribals. I just yeah, my my story of reason why I couldn't finish is because my furnace busted in the house and I just wasn't home for a few days and it was just way too hot in the house. Because it wasn't blowing any air from the A/C, so the whole house was just baking at yeah, yeah. Anyways, so I just whatever took the took the stuff to my parents place and that's it.

And so I watched. I watched the last, I would say half hour of the game roughly somewhere in there or at least an efficient playthrough of the last half hour. And then watch the cutscene and whatever. But it's just like the Berry thing, the Jeff thing, the twist at the end. And then the Star Wars. And then did you watch the credits? Yeah, when you're dancing, you're dancing in the nightclub. What is happening? OK, wait, wait, wait.

Oh gosh. There's a there's a mission where you go undercover as an Ant drone and you go into that nightclub. Oh, yeah. Oh, there is. It's like a little, yeah, it's a little thing. So it's a nod to that, but yeah. It was just it's so funny because the tone again, the whole tone thing of this is. It's epic. It's Star Wars, you have your medals, you save the day every the ships are flying overhead, whatever.

And then it cuts the black. 2 seconds later it's Juno doing disco inferno in a nightclub and everybody's dancing and stuff and I'm like, what is happening right now? This is so all over the place. I think I said something in my notes. I said Okay, I said Fortnite moves have nothing on Juno. Yes, yes, there you go. Never mind the the. I don't even know what the moves are called anymore, but like bring those into Fortnite.

I am so glad I wrote this down because I totally forgot about it and I just looked at my notes. So Juno and Vela, high five at the end when they get their medals, they like high 5. And I said they never actually touch hands. And it made me laugh because they're like, well, they're like high five and they're just like and there's like like it's just the the models and the animation. Like they just never actually

touch and it's. Just they touch squares like they didn't touch, They didn't touch, they didn't touch at all. It was like there's a gap of air between it and then they put their hands down. Well, you know what? They're they're twins. They're siblings. Maybe it was just a secret handshake. We just didn't know it. Maybe it's the good thing they do. You know, like the whole Fresh Prince have five That thing. Maybe that's all it was. You know, maybe that's what was happening.

Yeah, it was funny. It's so there. So there's aspects of this game. Obviously there's there's things that probably could be refined and whatever. I was a little bit disappointed that the Xbox version wasn't more refined, but it didn't make it a terrible experience. But I think overall I still had a good time playing. Yeah, a lot of it is the epicness of it, the ideas that are in it. Variety of enemies, weapons like we were talking about. Like there's stuff in here

that's really good. Is it a complete home run? Not really, but it's. But it's. But I don't think that it's far off. You know, I don't think that it's a complete disaster in any way and there's some fun to be had, but definitely expect to. I think you mentioned earlier to dig into this a little bit more than maybe you would have expected.

I think, yeah, you're definitely going to have to sink a lot more time into this, even if you do what I do and and don't complete the entire game and and get all the tribals. There's there's still a lot to do and a lot of fun to be had. And then you know what if you can't find them all like I did, I was fine with watching the ending and stuff. It happens. You know, you can't finish everything and you can't spend your whole life playing one game

for for a month and stuff. But I I think it was. I think it was a good time. I still, I still think I really enjoyed it. I still recommend it. Just be prepared for some of the things that we're talking about. That's if I if I had to give it a number because I'm a I'm a give it a number kind of a person, I'd probably give it like a 7.5 out of 10. Because I think it was, it was

good, it wasn't great. It was definitely the the reviews at the times, a lot of like kind of B Plus was kind of the sentiment going around like you know, 80s out of 100, stuff like that. And I'd say that's that's I'm probably more in the C Plus territory, maybe leaning toward B -. I think there's a lot of elements of it that make it good. I think like graphics are decent. The music's phenomenal. The story is fine. The game play is sometimes clunky, but overall fun.

It's it's just not perfect. It's not as refined, but it is. You'll have a good time playing it, except for the part where you're like, Oh my gosh, I have to collect everything to finish the game. Yeah, that's that's that's just a little frustrating to me. And for that, that's what brings it. Like, if it didn't have that, I'd probably give it an 8 because it it's enjoy. I think it makes. I think it makes a difference.

I think it absolutely makes a difference for sure because you don't feel in some ways it feels like you're not wasting your time but it feels like what you've done up until that point, even though you didn't complete it feels less than when it should you know. So I think that there's something to that for sure. I I think you're onto something and and I once you told me that I had to collect all of them. I know I wasn't close. And I was like, well, I'm, I'm not. I'm not doing it.

Thank God. I'm not home right now to play the game because I'm not. I wasn't going to do it. So, you know, I took a few days off from not playing it, but I I still was thinking about it afterwards. I was still, you know, thinking about us, talking about it, but also thinking about just the fact that I had a good time. I like the ideas in here. Most of the execution's pretty good, but there's some of those things that that could improve

upon. And hey, if you know, if you got some time to sink into it, even if you only play like half this game, as long as you get all three characters and experience. Like a couple stages per character I think you have, you'll have a good time getting to that point and you'll probably play the best parts of it. I think if if you do that and that's probably. A fun multiplayer too, if if Yeah, anybody cares about that.

Multiplayer is great if you can. If you can get that running on the 64 with some friends, I think it's worth a shot. Why not? Yeah. And you know what? I still recommend? Yeah, Yes, exactly. I still recommend. I mean, I think the controls feel, which is crazy to say because normally this wouldn't be the case, but the controls feel better on the 64. But I still think it's worth picking it up on the Xbox controller.

If you have Game Pass, it's on Rare Replay or you have an older Xbox generation pick it up, this game and all the other ones on it are well worth the price of admission, I would say. So yeah, that's right. That's that's Jeff Forest Gemini everybody we we we beat it to the ground just like or we or we cut the head off. Jeff Forest, Gemini like all the ants that we collected and I don't know whatever the the term I don't know what it is we we. We blew them up into little

bloody pieces across the world. We we picked it up by the head and we said here world, we're not collecting the rest of these tribals. We're done. We're done. We're going to YouTube. Exactly. Actually, perfect transition, which is exactly what professionals do they they they mention their transitions and and segues. Sir, you are a monster on YouTube. Let's let everybody know what what you're doing lately and where they can find you. Well, you can find me.

I got, I got all my socials. I've got, I've got a YouTube, I've got a TikTok. I've got a Twitter, I've got an Instagram. YouTube's my main thing. TikTok, probably secondary. Followed by Twitter and then Instagram. Feel free to follow me on all of those. I am pretty active, but YouTube is my bread and butter. Last thing I made was overthinking it, the most powerful ammo of the DK crew, which on a previous episode of Remember 64 we talked about Donkey Kong 64. So I love it.

So any time to push some content related to that game, I I love to do it. And if you like Donkey Kong. If you like slow motion, fruit exploding, and if you like the sound of my voice, you'll love this video. So I recommend you. I will say I will interject just slightly and say this video has more in it than you would think, has different enough, it has enough different aspects in it then then you would think when you would first click on it. So just be prepared and in a good way.

Believe me in a good way but just be ready for something different, fun and and goofy in the best possible way. So well done, Sir. It's pretty silly. People, people are latching onto it, which I'm super proud of. And then one thing I just want to mention so Tim Stamper of Rare, because we're talking about rare, he posted a comment about Banjo Kazooie on Twitter and was like, hey. I always intended Banjo to be more than it was.

Have a bunch of games in the series, grow the fan base, and so I commented on that and I'm like, it can still be that. Long story short, I started really pushing kind of a Twitter campaign of hashtag bring Banjo back in hashtag 2023 E and I've been pushing it every day and it is gaining traction. So if you love Banjo and you love Rare, all I'm asking.

Go on Twitter, make a post. Post your favorite memory about banjo, rarewear, anything, any content you have, if you have figures, if you have art, if you love the music like pictures of your collection. Pictures of your collection. Post it out there, post it on any of your social media. But we're trying to get it trending on Twitter just for the heck of it and really tell Rare hey, like you got to look at some of your old Ip's and bring them back.

I said, I think I said in my first tweet, we're starting with Banjo and then we're going to move to conquer. And then who's to say we won't move to Jetforest? Gemini, please, could we, Please could we? Let's keep pushing. Like I I swear this game could definitely be a an Allstar title with unmodern consoles and controls and I honestly do like there's so many ideas in this like we've been talking about that I think it could it could stand out. Anyway, nice to see you again.

Nice to talk to you again, man. We'll we'll have you back very soon. Get ready everybody, We got some big stuff coming. The two of us are doing some awesome stuff and this show is going to keep kicking some ass. So thanks everyone for for joining us on this crazy journey of Jeff first. Jim and I once again, thanks again everyone for joining us on this adventure of Jet Force Gemini. And remember 64 Giggy Look Back

will be back soon on the show. He's going to be here a little bit more often and we're going to play some awesome games and maybe some not so awesome games. Hey, it's the N64. You get a real mixed bag, some really exciting titles with him and with other guests coming up. So if you're listening to this on this release, I hope you stick with us and hope that you enjoy what we're doing here. Remember 64. As always, if you want to give us a rating on your podcast app

of choice, that would be lovely. Much, much appreciated. And if you want to support the show on patreonpatreon.com/remember 64 show and if you heard me at the beginning of the episode, you'll know that now we have a little bit of a bonus coming your way. A limited supply, but we do have some holographic Remember 64 logo stickers that can be yours for free if you sign up to the Patreon. All right, everybody. Thanks so much for joining me. We'll see you next time on Remember 64.