Jamestown harkens back to an era when we played games just to get a high score--when beating a game this challenging actually earned you bragging rights. [Oct 2011, p.77]
I played Ikaruga, R-Type, Gradius, etc... but "Jamestown" is for me the best shoot'em up of all. Not only because it's a lot of fun with pretty 2D pixel art graphics, it's also the well balance difficulty that give a great replay value. The others popular Shmups are usually insanely-killthefunofit-hard. Jamestown is just right.
Despite the seemingly short gameplay, Jamestown makes up for its replayability, through varying difficulties that help even the newbies to the genre to slowly get up to speed.
What people don't realise is probably the amount of work that this small team has put into its challenge modes and the absolutely amazing choreography of the enemy ships, and uniquely painted terrain of each level. The music was also nothing short of fantastic and fitting for the game.
The controls feels just right, and the visual response (when bullets hit an ally or enemy) are spot-on, if you were to compare this game to most shooters out there, there's sometimes the lack of "oomph" in this area. Clearly the creators put a lot of thought and tested a lot of things to get the details right.
Lastly, the game mechanics are simple yet fun. A casual danmaku fan like myself had no difficulty or complaints with it, and heck I introduced this game to all my colleagues (who have rarely or never played shmups before) and all of them loved it. For what it's worth, you won't be disappointed with this game, if you're looking for hours of fun.
An example of perfect indie shoot'em up – Jamestown brings a combination of excellent stylish visuals and splendid playability. Only pity is that the game lacks an online multiplay option. [Issue#207]
The game, for all of these kids calling it short/expensive/hard, is actually a flawlessly paced top-down bullet hell. Since many of the people writing a review for this game have evidently never played a bullet hell before, they are known for being both hard and, compared to other types of games, short. Now that we're passed the introduction to the genre, here's what sets Jamestown apart: a whole slew of challenge levels, a unique style of combos (vaunt), and above all else, the sheer LACK of pointless BS. Really, though, the challenge levels introduce you to various aspects of the point system in a controlled setting (a point system that you don't even care about if you don't like Bullet hellz), the vaunt system makes for incredibly engaging multiplayer if you and your friends learn to protect each other, and there isn't a single out of place narrator trying to shove complicated mechanics down your gullet. I rate very few games as highly as I rate Jamestown, but if you like Tohou or Exceed, you really have to pick this game up.
Pretty hard even on Normal. Fun to play with someone. As a single-player tough and monotonous. Complete Mouse control (unable to use mouse-keyboard combination) takes away from the enjoyment of the game.
You'll start playing, and complete the entire game in less than 2 hours. It'll be a great 2 hours. But 2 hours.. really? Extremely short game. The gameplay is good and well done, for this genre it's one of the best, if the game was 4x longer it could have been epic. Right now, only an idiot would buy this, it should be freeware or something.
What a waist of $10, you get a little more then 5 levels and 4 players types where 3 out of the 4 completely ****. the controls ****, the graphics are... well its pixelated. the story is complete gibberish.