Nintendo has announced that Jet Force Gemini will be coming to Nintendo Switch Online sometime next month, though a specific release date hasn’t been announced. Jet Force Gemini was developed and published by Rare for the N64 back in 1999, and though it certainly wasn’t as prominent of a hit as some other titles made for the console by the studio – from Banjo-Kazooie to GoldenEye 007 – the third person shooter still very much something of a fan-favourite.

With Jet Force Gemini being an N64 title, it will be availably only to subscribers of Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, so if you’re a member of the service’s base tier and want to dive into the game, you’re going to have to upgrade.

Adventure calls in the galaxy of Jet Force Gemini, coming to #NintendoSwitch for #NintendoSwitchOnline + Expansion Pack members this December! #Nintendo64 pic.twitter.com/Nne8huwalW

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) November 22, 2023

In the Nintendo 64 days, Rare was legendary- Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie. Donkey Kong 64. Diddy Kong Racing. Conker’s bad Fur Day. Perfect Dark. Goldeneye 007. And Jet Force Gemini– they just made so many incredible games, one after the other, that they almost single handedly bolstered the N64 library and made the console worth owning.

The biggest tragedy of Rare’s sale to Microsoft was that almost none of these IPs were developed further on the Xbox- while Perfect, Conker, and Banjo all saw new (less successful) entries on Xbox, most of Rare’s old properties fell by the wayside.

Thankfully, over the last year or so, Microsoft has been working at tapping into this old Rare heritage- last year, we saw the announcement of a brand new Rare game, Sea of Thieves, which looks like it has the potential to be something special in the tradition of the best old Rare games. We also Microsoft celebrate Rare’s past with the release of Rare Replay, which had 30 years’ worth of great Rare games in the same package. And now, it seems like they may also be reviving Rare’s cult classic third person shooter, Jet Force Gemini.

Microsoft filed a trademark for the name in November– this might be considered to be standard business procedure to retain ownership of the IP name, but as DualShockers points out, the interesting bit here is that Microsoft does not in fact have a trademark on all of Rare’s old games, not even all of the ones that showed up in Rare Replay. Does this indicate some interest on Microsoft’s part to revive the classic shooter?

I genuinely hope so. Jet Force Gemini was great in some of the best ways- and playing games like the Xbox One exclusive Sunset Overdrive only reminded me how badly I would want to play something like it again.