Set in the year 1619, Jamestown is based around the legend of the lost American colony of Roanoke. You are cast in the role of one of four historic figures, Walter Raleigh, Virginia Dare, John Smith and Joachim Gans, fighting against a combination of the Spanish armada and the natives in the hope of discovering what happened to Roanoke. Hang on a minute, I hear you say, isn't this a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up? Why, yes, yes it is. You see, while the game is set in the 17th century, the location is Mars, so those natives are not Cherokee or Navajo, but bug-eyed Martians! It seems Raleigh and his team of adventurers have all built fighter crafts, referred to as Conveyances, each with different weapons and play-styles. Raleighs fires in a spread pattern and has a powerful beam as its alt fire; John Smith's has a basic forward shot, but its alt fire can be directed by the player; Dare's Conveyance also has a basic forward shot, but has a powerful charge shot for its alt fire; and Joachim's Conveyance can detonate its bullets mid-flight.
The game is a little devious with its difficulty settings. There are five levels and five difficulty settings, Normal, Difficult, Legendary, Divine and Judgement. You can only play the first three levels at Normal difficulty, to play the fourth level you have to up the setting to Difficult and to play the fifth and final level you have to play all of the previous levels on at least Difficult and the final level itself on Legendary. If you want to challenge the highest difficulty (Judgement) you must first beat the entire game on the penultimate setting, Divine. I'm not sure why Final Form did that and in some ways it feels a bit of a cheap way to extend the game's longevity, but it is in keeping with its bullet hell aspirations.
Jamestown support up to 4 players in simultaneous local co-op and Final Form have been considerate enough to support every possible control option. So, if you like you can all use the keyboard or you can each use a differently-configured joypad or even the mouse, which works better than you might expect. It's just a shame that it didn't support online play, but then that's not how you'd play an arcade game.
The star of the show though is the Vaunt mode. As you destroy enemies you collect golden cogs and nuts that cascade down the screen. Collect enough and you can press the Vaunt button, which acts as a temporary shield but also doubles your points. Although the shield is temporary, the multiplier remains while ever you keep collecting the gold, but if you find yourself in a tight spot you can activate it again, cancelling the point multiplier and reengaging the temporary shield. In multiplayer mode, if you're well organised, you can effectively shield each other, but that requires a high degree of discipline. Nonetheless, it's a clever system that gives the game a feel of its own and separates it from the games that inspired it.
As you can see from the video below, it has a brilliant steam punk pixel art aesthetic. Final Form say their main influences were Cave's bullet hell shooters and the art style of Studio Ghibli films Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Laputa: Castle in the Sky. However, I also get a whiff of Capcom's Gunbird series from playing it.
Plays like
- Gigawing
- GuWange
- Gun Bird
- Progear (stated influence)
Highs
- Beautiful pixel-art
- Fantastic orchestral score.
- Unique and amusing setting.
- Four-playing co-op action.
- The four ships cater well for different play styles.
- Vaunt is a clever and unique risk/reward system.
- Lots of bonus content.
Lows
- No online multiplayer.
- Later levels are only available if you increase the difficulty, which is a cheap way to extend a game's life.
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