Jamestown

By: Derek Yu

On: June 18th, 2011

Japanese developers have refined shoot ’em ups to a point where many casual observers are fascinated by the action and speed but are too intimidated to play. “It’s like standing in the rain without getting wet” is a phrase fans came up with to describe playing the games of ZUN, and it touches on the kind of fear and awe that bullet hell shoot ’em ups can inspire. It’s not only the playing of them that’s awe-inspiring, though, but also the development – ZUN is a single individual who handles every aspect of the dozen or so games that he’s released in as many years. (In the West, you could maybe make an analogy to roguelikes, which are usually made by a small team – oftentimes an individual – and are legendary for their challenge.)

It’s under this backdrop that Jamestown was released by a small American team, Final Form Games. From the get-go, it’s obvious that FFG was careful to make a shoot ’em up that fans of the genre might appreciate, while avoiding the pitfalls that enrage (or at least bore) them. At the same time, the game is very accessible to newer or more casual players, offering five difficulty levels and a very clear tutorial that explains the game’s scoring system.

The core mechanic in Jamestown is “Vaunt”, which can be activated after you’ve collected enough gold to fill your Vaunt meter. Once activated, the meter starts ticking down and a shield is raised that destroys bullets, but only lasts for a few seconds. While the meter is depleting your ship deals 1.5 times more damage and your score is doubled; once it empties, you receive a bonus depending on how long you kept the meter going. The meter is replenished by collecting more gold.

The way to achieve a high score is by keeping your Vaunt meter going as long as possible, and the levels are designed to give you many opportunities to do this if you’re brave enough and deft enough. Vaunting again while your meter is depleting will raise another, even smaller and shorter, shield, but it ends your chain without any kind of ending bonus. There’s a nice trade-off here between using Vaunt for score and saving it for emergencies.

In terms of presentation, Jamestown looks and sounds good, but, in my opinion, it’s not really at the level of the top-tier bullet hell games that it draws inspiration from. It’s still quite an attractive game, though, and with all the options on deck (four ship types, five difficulty levels, multiple play modes, up to four-player multiplayer, etc.), Jamestown can provide a lot of entertainment for newbies and veterans alike. It’s obvious that a lot of love and care went into this impressive debut.

Released: June 16th, 2011
Price: $9.99
TIGdb: Entry for Jamestown