Hi, I’m Rilgon, and I’m lucky enough to have Pike and Mister Adequate let me grace the Android’s Closet! Today, I’m here to talk to you about Jamestown and why you should be buying it and playing it – ideally as part of the Humble Indie Bundle #4. I consider myself somewhat of a shmup person. I’m not the greatest, by any means – I’ve never 1CC’d Ikaruga, never even come close to beating any of Treasure’s greatest on their hardest difficulties, and playing Touhou on Lunatic’s still a pipedream. I enjoy them dearly, however, and when a good one comes along, it’s hard to not take notice! I initially bought the Humble Indie Bundle #4 for Cave Story+, but Jamestown has stolen my heart – or, at least, the adrenaline-filled shmup-loving part of it!

For a game to be good enough to grace the annals of the Android’s Closet, it’s got to be best-in-breed. This is the blog that sings the praises of X-COM and SMAC on high (worthy recipients, mind you), so anything reviewed has gotta be up to snuff – and Jamestown fits the bill. Right off the bat, the steampunk styling and quirky story will grab anyone to whom a good steampunk slant attracts. The premise is simple – it is the year 1619, and you have escaped execution at the hands of the British king. You have made your escape to what some call The New World and other call Mars on a quest to clear your name. From here… well, that would be spoiling, wouldn’t it?

Novices to the shmup genre are more than welcome. Jamestown has a staggering five difficulty levels – Normal, Difficult, Legendary, Divine, and Judgment. Normal will be approchable by anyone who’s been gaming as long as readers of the Closet no doubt have, especially after Jamestown’s fantastic tutorial that teaches you the basics of the minimalist hitbox that defines so many bullet hell shmups, the interaction between your weapons, and the Vaunt scoring/comboing system. Those of us to whom shmups are our bread and butter, though, will be treated to some seriously intense stuff. I saw a bullet arrangement that’s right out of Touhou 8, Imperishable Night on the second stage as early as Difficult level, and I’m still struggling to finish the final stage on Legendary. Divine and Judgment are… still to come, let’s say.

Shmups are visceral things, though – you’ve got to have catchy visuals and catchy music, or the whole thing just feels bland and unfulfilling. Jamestown brings this to play with bravado. Final Form Games, the makers of Jamestown, have something great here. The soundtrack is amazing (and comes with your Humble Indie Bundle 4, hint hint!), and definitely gives both context and conflict to the game, especially its bosses. One of the bosses you face is a steam-powered battle train, and the boss theme for it is sublime. You really FEEL like you’re racing this train down a railway, dodging its littany of fire and returning attack with your own.

Oh, and if you happen to be lucky enough to have friends over, Jamestown supports 1-4 players, using keyboard, mouse, and Xbox 360 controller schemes. It will also apparently recognize multiple mice independently. And if you’re a Mac or Linux gamer (*nods to Pike*), you’re also in luck, because as of the release of the Humble Indie Bundle, Jamestown works in Mac and Linux as well! I can’t speak to how easy it is to install, given I have nothing to do with OSX and all of my Linux installs are textual, but I’m sure Pike could cook something up on the Linux front as a follow-up post, should it be needed.

Today’s post was written by Rilgon, who you can also find on Twitter and on Tumblr!