Jamestown

The Short


Pros
- Bullet-hell shooter set in the lost 1700s settlement of Jamestown. On Mars.
- Takes itself way too seriously, which is just stupidly awesome
- Competent shooter with multiple ships, styles, and four-player co-op
- Various difficulty levels mean even the suckiest player of these games can play it and get better
- Lots of bonus content

Cons
- Later levels are only unlocked by playing on the harder difficulties, which means noobs will only get one level
- Only has five levels total
- Mac version is badly ported; expect massive slowdown

Ok so...this game is kind of weird. 

The Long

Jamestown is straight stupid. Apparently when the colony of Jamestown vanished in the 1700s, it actually went to Mars. Yeah. And so now there's a war between the Americans and the Spanish (who have allied with Martians) battling for the future of Mars. In space. Driving space scooters. And space...sailing...boats. What is...what is videogames?

Point being, this is an indie pixelated bullet-hell shooter and it is great. It's silly premise and extremely ham-fisted story (which works because it takes itself so damn seriously) only adds a layer of fun to an extremely solid, very well made top-down shooter. Lots of little things also are implemented to make this game great, so let's get to this review, shall we?

Expect to kill a lot of Martian Spaniards

As a bullet-hell shooter, Jamestown works. It has a wide range of difficulties available, from "super easy" to "I hope you played Ikaruga." The main trick is the "Vaunt" system. When you gather enough money (represented by coins or golden gears that pop out of enemies), you can activate "Vaunt," which gives you a temporary shield and a bonus multiplier. Keep picking up gears and the multiplier will stay up, earning massive points. I also think you do more damage. Don't quote me on that, though.

It's a balance because the shield doesn't come back, and if your Vaunt is on you can't turn the shield back on, but if you let it drain and then re-fill it you get another shield. So you have to decide if you'd rather keep your multiplier or sacrifice it for a shield. Nothing as deep as Ikaruga's color-swapping combo madness, but it gets the job done. 

There are also lots of bullets. 

There are four ships, one of which is unlocked from the start and the rest you get later, and you can choose between regular and alt-fire. The more powerful ones are also the harder ones to control, so you have another layer of skill there for those who seek it out. 

You can also play this game four player on one box, assuming you have the controllers (getting an Xbox 360 Windows Wi-fi plug helps if you already own an Xbox with four controllers) and four of your friends can blast Spanish Martians together. The game doesn't really scale much (or at all) for more players, but since you share credits if one of your friends totally sucks then you'll probably want to evict him from the team. You also have to share the vaunt-earning powerups, so that's another switch-up. 

There's a lot of unlocks and challenge modes, but the game still feels a bit short. 

This game only has six story missions, and there's an (annoying) twist to unlocking them. Playing on easy only nets you one level; future ones are unlocked by beating the previous levels on harder difficulties. I get that this is a good way to force wimpy players to attempt it on harder difficulties, since that's the only way to unlock the final level, but if you just aren't that great at bullet-hell games (or your Mac version has the worst slowdown of all time due to a shoddy port) you'll not get as much value out of it. 

There's tons of challenge modes, ranging from dodging bullets to scoring a set number of points in a set amount of time. By "tons" I mean "a little over a dozen," but they are good extra content that will help teach you how to do better. The lack of content might be a little disappointing, but these are the types of games you play through shooting for high scores, and are meant to be played again and again. I mean, I love Ikaruga, and that game only has four levels. It's that brutal difficulty that keeps us coming back, and your attempts to get better and better scores (and eventually "one credit" it).

Four players is absolute madness. 

The game looks and sounds great. The graphics are all pixelated in HD and look beautiful and colorful. The music is period-esque sweeping orchestrations that are completely absurd and fit the goofiness perfectly. You could really do a lot worse. 

At $10, Jamestown should be an easy sell to anybody who is a fan of these types of games. If you don't know if you like them or not (or 1943 was your last experience with this genre on the NES), then $10 is a pretty low bar of entry for checking it out. It's colorful and fun, though the poor Mac port, limited content, and restriction of the final levels for only the hardcore is a bit of a pain. 

Still, it's worth a shot just because you'll be shooting Spanish Martians on Mars. In 1770. 

Four out of five stars. 

This game is so stupid. I love it.