The story is your standard evil-dictator-invades-galaxy-and-only-you-can-save-everyone type of story. The bad boss is Mizar, who has enslaved a peace loving race of disturbingly Ewok-like bears known as the Tribals. The last remaining Jet Force Gemini team, consisting of twins Juno and Vela and mascot dog Lupus, are called in to action but a surprise raid on their ship means they get split up. Thus, the first part of the game has the JFG team on three different paths leading to Mizar's Palace. Once you get there, the game takes an infuriating turn for the worst--but more on that later.

JFG is basically Mega Man in 3D. As you traverse the diverse stages, loads of enemies pop up and attack you. Mind you, the main type of enemy you find isn't your plain old mindless drone, because these guys are smart. They duck behind boxes, they run behind larger enemies, they try to out-flank you... they even execute little Tribals just to piss you off! To deal with their menace, the JFG team can pick up some rather interesting--and VERY satisfying--weapons. You have machine guns, you have tri-rocket launchers, you have cluster bombs, you have grenades, and you have... fish food. Apparently, in the preview copies of this game, the fish food, when fed to (duh) fish would cause them to explode. Now, Nintendo's censorship obviously at work, the fish food does nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. D'oh.

Speaking of censorship, the game is odd in the level of violence it has. It's quite odd, really. You blow up ants and see their body parts fly all over, little legs and arms bouncing about, as well as collectable heads and a nice dollop of green blood. Blowing up Tribals produces a surprisingly satisfying amount of reddish blood. Yet, it's not gory in the slightest. It's not over-the-top, but somehow it doesn't seem all that violent--despite what I described above.

The control system is complex, but once you get the hang of it after about an hour's play, it does get quite easy to use. Basically, the controls are like GoldenEye at first, as you walk around with the control stick, use Z to shoot and use the C buttons to strafe (in lieu of looking up and down, the Up/Down C buttons Jump and Crouch respectively), but hold R and you switch to aiming mode. Here, it's a Turok-styled approach. The camera zooms in behind your (now transparent) head, the analogue stick controls the aiming sight and the C buttons move the character around.

With all this, the game is a lot of fun to play. Running through the levels blasting the ants with your selection of weapons is great fun, and more so given the intelligence of the ants. I also like the flying drones, which appear in formations and swirl around ‡ la Galaga. The game's environments are also incredible to look at. Without the help of the Expansion Pak, the game displays vast levels with glorious textures--and in places, some amazing reflections add to that. The framerate is generally smooth, although there are some places where it seriously slows down, which does get annoying but is relatively rare. The graphical splendour does make it a treat when exploring some of the levels, although some important switches can get lost in some of the multi-coloured textures.

One problem concerns the game's multiplayer modes. You see, they're not very good at all. The four-player mode, which admittedly includes a lot of different modes such as King of the Hill, is extremely hard to play because the 3rd person view means your characters take up far too much of the already tiny split screen. Additionally, the complex control system doesn't make it a game to pick-up-and-play, and none of the weapons seem to do enough damage (it takes AGES to kill someone). Also, the promised two player co-operative mode has arrived with a rather nasty adjustment. Rather than fighting together with another JFG operative, you control a small hovering bot called Floyd. Floyd has unlimited ammo for his small gun and no control over his movement, other than an aiming sight. Rare dubs it a "father and son" mode, but in reality it's a dumbed-down option which isn't all that much fun. Although it does have advantages for the less skilled to enjoy the game with you--say, your little brother or perhaps a girlfriend--it is no substitute for a PROPER co-operative mode.

Now, on to my main grievance with the game. And it's a big one. Right, for the first half of the game, you blaze through the levels, trying to but not paying too much attention to saving the Tribals (OK, and killing a few too...). Then, halfway through the game, two things happen. Firstly, all the characters can now go explore the other's levels and use their unique skills (Juno can walk on fire, Vela can swim, and Lupus can hover) to uncover new areas which the other characters can't reach. It is a bit of a chore fighting through some old worlds again in order to reach new areas, but that isn't the problem. You see, your new mission is to rescue the Tribals. All of them. Now picture this situation--you've rescued all but one Tribal. It's taken you an hour to work through the level. You see the last Tribal. But then an ant decides to blow it away and annoy you. Or it dies because of the Tribal standing next to explosive drums. Or it happens to be right underneath the big-baddie-that-requires-explosives-to-kill. And then, when it dies, you have to exit and restart the level and do it ALL OVER AGAIN--all the Tribals have to be collected again, and all the enemies have to be killed again. I could say this is frustrating, but I wouldn't be doing my feelings any justice. A lot of expletives go some way in explaining it, though.