If you haven't heard of Jamestown yet, it is a shmup with a strange concept. You play in 17th century colonial America as Sir Walter Raleigh, the Englishman who famously financed and organized the Roanoke Colony in the Virginia Islands. History is a little "revisionist" in this game though in that Roanoke has become the "lost colony" because Martian space invaders have allied with the spanish conquistidor and, drunk on power, are destroying everything.
So yeah, the game is a tad crazy. That's just to get your attention and create a fun setting to shoot in though. Where this game shines is in the gameplay. You can get up to four different ships, each with 2 different weapon types and an ability called a "vaunt" which creates a temporary wide-perimeter shield around your ship, that disappears and then leaves you with a powered up weapon that you can sustain by collecting coins.
As you can see in the image above, the graphics have a lovely retro 16-bit style. There are some lovely environments that you will be fighting in, with an emphasis on wide vistas and odd colonial martian settlements and technologies. The soundtrack is intensely dramatic with strains of americana nationalism pouring out in the melodies. The score enhances both the epic nature of the battles and the ridiculousness of the plot line. The developer has said that they have plans to release an official soundtrack, and that is one OST I will be on the lookout for.
What I am oddly most enjoying about this game though is the point system. I say "oddly" because I am not usually a high score gamer. I don't care about points. Jamestown makes racking up a big score very enjoyable though, and it greatly adds to the replayability of the game, which is really kind of short at 5 levels (though there are a ton of bonus challenges to complete after that). Here's why the scoring works: it forces you to take risks and rewards you for it in both points and gun power. You get more points and gold coins if you hit an enemy when they are at their most dangerous point right before attack. You have to pick up the gold coins, which forces you into risky scenarios. You want the gold coins because they fill your "vaunt" meter, which you can use to create a defensive shield. You also want the coins to sustain your vaunt after the shield wears off though because if you keep grabbing coins, your weapon will stay powered up. This does mean you have to fly without using a shield though. So, getting points also helps keep your strenght up, but it forces you into taking more risks in your flight paths. Combined, this makes the game even more fun and you soon start trying to sustain your vaunt for longer and collect more coins. Before you know it you suddenly care about your high score and then the game is about more than just completing the levels.
Hopefully that explanation of the scoring system wasn't too boring. Long story short- Jamestown is a great shmup and you should give it a try if you haven't already.
Local's what I like.