Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony Image
Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 20 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 93 Ratings

  • Summary: Jamestown is a neo-classical top-down shooter for up to four players set on 17th-century British Colonial Mars.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 20
  2. Negative: 0 out of 20
  1. Jul 17, 2011
    100
    It just does its style of controlled chaos really well.
  2. Jun 29, 2011
    85
    The level of polish found in the graphics and gameplay alike is outstanding for an indie title. Peculiar ideas and inventive mechanics make this quirky bullet-hell shooter a frenzied, fun affair.
  3. Nov 7, 2011
    80
    Jamestown is an old school hardcore arcade shooter. By its visual approach, its music and its gaming philosophy, it creates an imaginary comeback of the golden age of video arcade games. Its background set in the 17th steampunked century is only strengthening the overall enjoyment drawing young gamers on a peep show at those olden times of video gaming.
  4. Aug 8, 2011
    70
    A loving celebration of bullet-hell, which relishes its intricate perfection without the distraction of a whole game's worth of content. [Sept 2011, p.63]

See all 20 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 32
  2. Negative: 2 out of 32
  1. 10
    It seems to me while a lot of people here enjoy the game, they still often lack the insight of having played shmups for years. Because as somebody who has played dozens of them extensively, I can tell you that Jamestown is not only great but a damn steal!
    In harsh contrast to almost any shmup out there, Jamestown offers numerous bonus features at a price that is also well below almost any shmup out there.
    So lacking online multiplayer or not, considering the huge amount of content (while also not looking amateurish) one gets for that ridiculous price, it deserves no less than a perfect rating!
    And for uneducated gamers who complain about it only having a couple of levels: take a look at games like DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou that were released as full price games for consoles or newer arcade PCBs that cost multiple hundreds of dollars!! If you're not into the genre in general and don't see a point in score hunting on the same couple of levels over and over again, that's fine - but don't act like this is expensive when nothing could be farther from the truth.
    Expand
  2. It's a game that brings the old school high-score smashing feeling, trying for hours to get your friend off the top of the leaderboard. It is well made, graphics are just what you would expect from an old school shmup like this one. Only faults I had with it is the lack of content, you can count the levels with the fingers of your left hand and it having huge FPS drops sometimes despite the old graphics. Expand
  3. Jamestown is a fairly fun retro-shooter that keeps you interested for the one or two hours it takes to finish, in no small part due to its very intriguing story cut scenes and incredibly amazing music. Sadly, the game is just way too short with not much replay value. Once you beat the game, there are some challenge levels and modes, but honestly these become very frustrating more than challenging. Warning: the mouse is horrible for this game; only use a gamepad! Regardless, for a couple bucks Jamestown is a good experience. You'll remember your time with it, half because of the crazy setting (that totally works!) and half because of the crazy frustration at the mandatory higher difficulty levels. Did I mention the music is phenomenal? The world-class soundtrack alone makes the game worth buying. Overall a solid 7.5. Expand
  4. What a waist of $10, you get a little more then 5 levels and 4 players types where 3 out of the 4 completely suck. the controls suck, the graphics are... well its pixelated. the story is complete gibberish. Expand

See all 32 User Reviews