Jamestown - Fantastic

Welcome to mars, Comrade!

Lately I've been blasting through my backlog, one game after another, posting as I go. Latest in my list of exploits is Jamestown, an indie shmup. Now usually I don't even bother counting shmups as a backlogged games or trying to beat them. Shoot em ups are hard, usually requiring a perfect playthrough limited by credits and without the aid of checkpoints or mid campaign saves. The entire genre is enough to give me flashbacks. I don't often recommend shmups, when I do it's a guarantee that it's a noob friendly game that stands out in some way or another. Let me tell you, Jamestown stands out in a big way. Final Form Games have released and re-released a masterpiece of indie and shooter gameplay, stick around and I'll be specific.

Keeping the vertical shmup genre fresh for 30ish years is going to take us in some strange, novel directions. A 17th century English colony called Jamestown would be pretty typical, though this time it's on the surface of Mars. It's a pretty odd combination and I'd take the opportunity to make some social commentary about English colonialism here, but Jamestown was released back in 2011, so I'd be far too late to the party, heck, if you really want to feel old just look at the 2015 Jamestown+ upgraded edition was ported to the Nintendo Switch back in 2019. Talk about a history. Jamestown might be a household name for hardcore shmuppers, but not for me, it's a whole new world, one full of conniving Spaniards, Martians and my own bullet-phobia.

Sounds Good

Things start off with some epic music, really epic. From start screen to final boss, Jamestown hits with awe-inspiring tunes that set the stage for a classical, steampunk adventure on Mars. While it may seem more appropriate to have a chiptune soundtrack for a retro-styled game, older consoles like the Sega CD and PC Engine would have similar graphics and an almost un-fitting high quality soundtracks. The fact that Jamestown's soundtrack can be bought separately as a dlc speaks for itself here. I'm giving the music 16/16 fluid ounces here. 

At first glance Jamestown has retro 16bit graphics, but its so much more. From beefy explosions to absolutely beautiful pixel art. Its all tied together with a consistent pallet that somehow keeps the surface of mars from looking like a drab, reddish brown, probably the biggest hurdle when artists start sketching out the giant red dustball. Between missions, the story plays out with detailed stills that take me way back to the 16 bit days. That's not to say that Jamestown is fully retro, it actually keeps a solid framerate and smooth animations that would otherwise be impossible on older consoles. It's the best mix of new capabilities with old themes.

Does Steampunk Feature Power-Steering?

Gameplay is the bread and butter of these shmup games, so here's the deal. Jamestown won't force a single perfect playthrough to get the coveted completion achievement. Jamestown mercifully saves progress through the five campaign missions. Each stage ends with a bossfight and lets you return to the fanciful title screen with your earned progress and cash. In the games shop is where players can unlock different ships to blast through the levels in either single or co-op. There's things like Gauntlet mode and the bonus levels, but I just stuck to the campaign. 

Getting through the campaign is a little unique. Completing the game will mean replaying some missions on harder difficulties to progress, at first glance this looks like a cheap way to boost the games length, but in my opinion it makes sense. If I tried to play the game all in one run, then I'd be revisiting levels anyways. The levels are short and fun, no shortage of bossfights either. Once it's time to wrap up the story of Jamestown there's the dreaded final bossfight. I don't want to give away the plot, but the final two-stage boss is actually easier than the final level leading up to it. I'd say I spent most of my three plus hours stuck trying to beat that one final level before I could add this to the 'won' Steam category. 

That's All For Now

To wrap up here. There's only one reason not to buy Jamestown, that reason being that there's a Jamestown+ edition that's probably much better. Either on pc or Switch I think it's a no-brainer, great indie game with a fantastic soundtrack and graphics to match it. It maybe more expensive than bargain shmup titles, but it's better to have one quality game than ten bad ones. Speaking of bad games, I have a lot more games of varying quality coming, so stay tuned, Comrades!