Jamestown+

Took a little while to get the feel of it, but as a multiplayer experience, Jamestown is awesome. As far as shmups go, I'm a bit of a novice, but my only real gripe here is that visual clarity is not as good as quite a few other games I've played. I've seen worse, though. An the graphics themselves are great. Sound is good. Controls are tight. Level and enemy designs are good. Overall, very solid shooter. Jamestown has co-op in mind at the game's core. Plays fine solo, but really shines with a friend or three. At time of review (7+ hours) a friend and I just finished the last boss, but there's still several challenge missions and higher difficulties for us to work though. Well worth the $18, and even better if you catch a good sale.

Jamestown goes far beyond what you'd expect from shoot 'em up lore, offering a very creative interplanetary steampunk setting. Unfortunately, that was the only thing that impressed me. The game does feature charming pixel art, some unlockable content and a few modes to add variety, but stages are too short, sound design is quite weak and the ship mechanics didn’t really grab me.