Jamestown+

Jamestown is a shmup that takes place in 17th Century British Colonial Mars. I originally picked this game up back in 2013, and more recently purchased the + version for Switch, which includes DLC and new ships.

Jamestown is kind of an odd shmup, not for the setting so much as the game structure. Each level is modular and once unlocked they can be played in any order. Additionally, the game has a shoppe where permanent upgrades can be purchased. Throw in the AU history storyline with cut scenes between chapters and Jamestown ends up feeling more like an RPG-shooter hybrid than a traditional shmup. There are also challenges (survive x seconds, collect x rings, and so on). Levels are unlocked by beating previous levels on a certain difficulty (Normal, Difficult, Legendary, Divine). Another interesting deviation from formula is Jamestown has up to 4-player coop.

We experimented with coop a bit and my kid prefers to watch this one but I found it enjoyable. One interesting element is after death the player has a few seconds cooldown timer before revival, but this can be circumvented by a Revive power-up that automatically revives all fallen players.

As far as the level design and bosses go, Jamestown is adequate. The bosses are fun but the attack patterns are not novel. The pixel art is quality and the theme is unique. I kept wondering, why didn’t I beat this on PC? Then I finished the first 4 levels on Legendary difficulty and unlocked the 5th level, Croatia. This level is different in that it switches over to puzzle shmup gameplay a la Ikagura and requires the player to navigate obstacles like walls and spikes. I’m generally not as interested in this type of shooter-gameplay as it often requires route memorization and I lost interest in it very quickly.

Fortunately since the levels are modular I’m still able to enjoy the other parts of the game. The DLC features two additional Moon levels, Phobos and Demios. Phobos channels Cave, from the insect-based enemies to the boss spider’s bullet patterns. It’s different from the core levels but a welcome change. The challenges were hit or miss, especially for single-player. Some seemed prohibitively hard but others I managed after a few tries.

The big draw on this one is coop and the highly unusual theme, and those aspects and the more RPG-like design likely make the game more accessible to players who enjoy coop and might not traditionally care for shmups. Genre enthusiasts may not be impressed. I like it well enough, and played through the levels several times to my satisfaction, but generally what drives me to play shmups is a desire to git gud and that feeling isn’t present here.