The Underrated N64 Shooter You May Have Missed

Back in its heyday, the video game developer known as Rare was a highly-regarded Nintendo staple.

Rare presented the NES with one of the hardest beat 'em up's of all time in Battletoads. It blew minds with the incredibly loud and extremely hype fighting game, Killer Instinct. And it turned Nintendo's once bad ape into a platforming icon with Donkey Kong Country.

Once Nintendo entered the world of 3D with its Nintendo 64 hardware, Rare produced its usual brand of excellence with a collection of well-received gems. It's quite staggering how many great games it launched on the N64: there's GoldenEye 007, the Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie series, Perfect Dark, and countless others.

It's easy to forget that Rare also released a third-person shooter on the N64 at one point. For those who remember it, they hold it in high regard. If you let it pass you by, now's the best time to right that wrong and give it the attention it deserves. Here is why Jet Force Gemini is one of the N64's best hidden gems.

Jet Force Gemini made its debut on the N64 back in 1999.

It focuses on placing players in science fiction worlds full of insectoid foes to blast to bits. The three characters sent out to take down all those bugs (Juno, Vela, and their powerful pup, Lupus) fight on behalf of a galactic law enforcement force. Each of the three heroes utilize special abilities that allow them to access areas that the others couldn't: Juno can walk on volcanic acid, Vela can swim underwater for an infinite amount of time, and Lupus can hover in the air for a few seconds.

Jet Force Gemini was a critical hit upon release. GameSpot awarded it with a high score of 8.8 and it holds an Metacritic rating of 80. If you're interested in giving Jet Force Gemini a spin today, you can do so on a modern Microsoft console. 2015's Rare Replay, which is an amazing compilation of the dev's games for the Xbox One, features the underrated N64 shooter in all its Starship Troopers-esque glory.