I'm really happy that you went into this game. Glad to hear your toughts. I appriciate that you took your time to try to pinpoint your problem. Especially as a dev that helps a lot. Generally, I think your critique rings true. I don't think these probles are something that could be solved by the relatively subtle effects like bullet sealing and bullet cutoff. I think the problem sits deeper. You kinda mentioned it too. Because of the horizontal screen enemies are more likely to spawn far left or right from the player. So the bullets will always come more from the sides rather than from the front. It makes for awkward dodging. Also because there is so much more lateral space, it takes much more moving around to get ahead of the enemy spawns. Which makes you ship speed FEEL slow because the distances you need to cover are so much longer. Finally, because it's harder to cover the screen you are also more likely to get swamped with enemies and this makes it feel like your shooting isn't that effectual. I think this just adds to the problems you've listed just keep adding up to that lackluster feel. I don't think the devs aren't in the know on Shmups. Hard to draw the line on that. But you just don't make a Shmup like Jamestown without knowing a lot about Shmups. I think it shows. They nailed a lot of details. The precision mode. The pickups. Some of the ships have shots which are clear hommages to other Shmups. If the were truly inexperienced with the genre they would have dropped the ball long before they got there. However, I do believe the game was just heavily tested and designed with multiplayer in mind. I have to say I totally agree that word map meta-structure is incredible. Would love to see this in more Shmups.
I would venture a guess that you played it on switch with a stick? My only complaint with cuphead is that the items and weapons are a little underwhelming, but the boss fights are pretty dope and obviously the animations. I like cuphead as much as contra if not more I think. By the way are we going to get your Elden Ring opinion?
Thanks for the review Mark, very cool to have a point of view from someone with your background on Jamestown. Also interesting stuff about Shmup game design!
Some of the graphics really are beautiful, approaching Metal Slug levels! I would say another big problem with the core gameplay is the bullet patterns, specifically the constant speed of enemy projectiles. If they had much more flexibility, being able to speed up, slow down and change direction if would be much more familiar and challenging, it just seems too simplistic to me.
I like this game a lot (the art and music really appeal to me) but I think you're dead on in your criticism and guess that the developers weren't all that familiar with the shmup genre. If they ever made a sequel, they could knock it out of the park with some outside consulting from someone like yourself. 👍🏻
I m really glad to hear that! I tried my best to give the game a fair shake without sugar coating its flaws. I do think the dev team has a lot of talent and potential and it would be really cool to see them make a sequel with a bit more understanding of some of the genre basics and such :-)
Haha, I mean, we grew up playing Japanese arcade shmups in the 1980's and 90's, but I think it's more that we weren't part of the hardcore shmup "scene". The points on bullet sealing (we called it point-blank protection) and disabling shots from the bottom 3rd of the screen are well taken. Both of those features do exist but they were implemented per-enemy. In retrospect it would have been wiser to implement it universally. Oh well, there's always next game! :)
@@westquote lol I came here to say this. :) Hi all, lead Jamestown artist here (westquote was the lead programmer, and we co-designed it with our colleague Hallie) -- I think the review is thoughtful and fair, and I appreciate you taking the time to make a video! I was watching those enemies fire from the dead zone at the bottom of the screen like "WTF WE DIDN'T ALLOW THAT" but am now remembering that we made a few exceptions. Folly of youth!
@@mikeambrogiprimo8927 Great to hear from the devs!! I'll definitely be buying this game now on Switch to play with the kids and get them into the genre, well done.. It would be nice if there was more material around shmup game design elements that Mark mentions alot in his videos and in interviews with other devs, negative comments on euroshmup etc are annoying but good to understand those design differences, i love euroshmups as i grew up with the AMiga (Xenon 2, Battle Squadron are great), are their such resources out there in video or book form?
Great, in-depth and honest review. Honestly it made me more interested in Jamestown than I was before- warts and all it looks really interesting and seems like I'll get a lot of fun out of it, but now I also know what stuff might be frustrating ahead of time!
Thanks my dude! Yeah I do think the game can be a lot of fun when played causally and sort of on and off ha. The part where it will drive you crazy is if you get more in depth with it, at least single player ha
I just wanna weigh in on not recommending it for solo, because well... how could I possibly not do so for my favorite game in the genre. First of all, yes. The poor ship balance is this game's greatest flaw as you simply have not enough coverage in solo, making higher difficulties near impossible to play with them. If somebody else hadn't recommended me to play the Treason ship after I was about to give up on the game due to the slow movement of the ships I used, I'd have dumped the game for sure. And I wouldn't be surprised if that happened to a lot of other players. Beam has good dps but is very slow while using the laser. I was surprised at first that the Treason ship wasn't quite to your liking but from what I saw during the review, it seems like you never fully charged the homing missiles. Homing missiles are 50% stronger if you charge all 4. Basically, charging 4 is worth twice the amount of damage as charging 3. The base speed of the ship is also 50% faster which helps a lot with coverage and dodging. But yeah, Treason ship is the absolute best in the game. While the devs may have not done their best job to make the game a solid solo experience, playing on the higher difficulties with Treason is the most fun I've had in this entire genre so far. There is no bullet sealing but most enemies do stop firing below a certain height on the screen. But there are a few exceptions like the statue you pointed out at 15:13. Side note regarding that statue: If you move to the right of the screen, it won't fire as it's outside of the screen. This works on other enemies as well. I can't argue with you not liking the soundtrack. If you don't like it, you don't like it. But I will say that hearing Phobos's music in a Judgement Super Gauntlet run is adding quite a lot to the stress for how incredibly intense it is, on top of the stage itself being quite difficult. I thought the review was good but I was disappointed you didn't talk much about the Vaunt mechanic as it's essential for scoring and survival. In Vaunt, damage is increased by 50% and score is doubled. Plus, you get an exponential bonus when it runs out based on how long you maintained it by collecting more items during the vaunt. Or you can cancel the vaunt to gain invulnerability but that'll half the bonus you get. You can fully vaunt through someof the stages (bosses excluded) with that which can get quite technical and interesting as you have to defeat enemies in certain ways to get more items out of them. It's a simple but fun system.
Great stuff! I didn't really go into the vaunt stuff as I did want to focus on the overall level design and such, but it is a cool mechanic. I think the game relies too much on the mechanic for damage output, so yeah I could have discussed that point a bit when I talked about the games damage issues.
At least somebody gets it! This "review" reeks shallow to me. Kudos for your comment. I picked the sword ship and had a blast with it! Beat it solo with some struggle but zero frustration as it was always on me to do great with no ВS situations. I'd describe Jamestown+ as the most honest bullethell there is and its risk-reward system is on its own level with Vaunt mechanic and perfect timing/consecutive kills.
I love this game. I played it initially on Steam, I have it on ps4 and switch. I enjoy it alone but in times I've had 3 others with me, it's a blast. Great for a game night, and being the one that keeps everything going while everyone dies is funny and you feel like a bad ass lol The ghost ship has always been my jam!
I always thought this was just built as a fun 2-4 player SHMUP and wasn't to be played alone really. Kind of like Castle Crashers. And in that regard, the game is pretty sweet. Also, I don't think the guy who made this made wound up making any other games but I could be wrong.
@@TheElectricUnderground , it occurred because as I was on UA-cam on my phone i was also looking at my steam library and yeah jamestown is there. Good review my guy, thanks!
I do agree with the "bullet sealing" and "enemies shooting from bottom of the screen" critique, and that one can feel a bit pee shooty. However, I did manage to find "my" ship, which was the Treason ship, that I felt made the game come alive, because it's the only ship in the game that moves somewhat quickly, which makes the game much more fun for me. I do enjoy Jamestown+ a lot, top 20 territory for me, but if it wasn't for that Treason ship, damn, it maybe wouldn't even be in my top 50!
Yeah it sounds like the treason ship is the way to go, there was a whole discussion about this on the discord after my review ha. I thought the ship was pretty cool and it's somewhat faster then the beam ship at least XD
I've had this on PS4 and PC and my opinion of it has always been that it's a Shmup by committee by people who've watched videos of Shmups, but aren't actually players. Totally agree that there is a lot of choice when it comes to ship selection, but most of them are pointless novelties in 1 player mode.
Euro shmup is exactly what I was thinking, nice graphics but weird gameplay. I've been playing a Euro shmup on Genesis recently called Battle Squadron, which has some good points but also suffers from three of these exact problems, lack of speed and offensive power, no cut-off point for enemy fire and no bullet ceiling for grounded enemies. That was made in 1989 though, so it's slightly more forgivable.
Yeah in the case of Jamestown, I honestly think they were just unaware of these concepts, rather then not being willing to put in the effort in the design. I think it's kinda a shame that they didn't have more experienced testers at their disposal to help point them in the right direction.
With respect and love... I think you're a little too harsh here. Gameplay is classic "whack a mole" style here: put some shit on one side of the screen, make you shoot at it, put some shit on the other side of the screen, make you go over there and shoot at it. It's a classic like four chord pop songs or cheeseburgers or eight worlds in Mario. That's how Gradius did it, that's how Dad did it etc. The choice to do a vertical scroller that plays in Yoko is in service of that (because all the dodging is going to be slipping to the left or right), and for another important reason I'll get to in two paragraphs. The gameplay hook is the "Vaunt" system which rewards aggressive play by trading kills for spells of invulnerability that can be leveraged into even more aggressive positioning. The game is teaching the players through the mechanics that they can't hang at the back and be afraid of the patterns-- which is not news to you or me but IS a revolution in how a new player will think about the genre. You can't play the game for more than an hour and not have the light bulb go off "Oh-- this game is about controlling space." We need games like Jamestown if this genre is going to grow again-- we need games that get the kids in the pool and keep them there with the belief that they can learn to swim. It supports multiplayer. It looks great (at least in OG form, I don't like the PLUS revision) it has a cool setting that feels authentic, it works in moments of real emotion (the discovery of the Roanoke colony is shocking and I can't think of another moment like that in a shmup besides the final stage of R-TYPE DELTA), it does not require optimized equipment for adequate precision and it looks great without turning your lap top or television on its side which no newbie to the genre is going to do.
Out of curiosity what don't you like about the "+' plus edition of Jamestown ? I'm a lover of the original as well (first ever shmup for me), I (I mean we) attempted a lot (lots) of Divine "Gauntlet"' runs alongside my little brother (and failed a lot at the last stage, the boss multi stage is insane), but since we LOVE Jamestown so much (as one other commenter said, when you're the only one left alive is one of the most EPICcly satisfying and tense moments of gaming I lived!) I figured our gift for making it (if we ever do, but we will!) was indulging myself to buy and 'upgrade' to the "+" edition on steam. So now I'd be curious on where the new edition fails to the original. Also any rec of another smup if I liked and went hardcore on Jamestown ? cuz I do not know where to go but I want moar of that newfond gaming flow :) I'm bit sad the dev of J didn't released another thing i was looking for it^^
"Is it good?" Oh snap this man coming for a beloved Ameri-shmup. Looking forward to watching this later. Personally, I always thought it was just meh and felt weird. Also, as a side note I just wanna say I really appreciate your channel and how in depth it is. I know because you go so deep into this niche genre you don't really get the following you deserve, but for what it's worth I always enjoy your content a ton.
Hey my dude I really appreciate the awesome comment, it means a lot :-) Yeah it's a shame how niche the genre is, hopefully I can claw my way slowly into a wider conversation outside the niche ha.
I love this game, probably top ten shmup for me. I'm not an expert player so this has a nice difficulty level and has a nice way of training you by forcing you to reply stages at the next difficulty level. The customisable ship is a great addition. The Soundtrack is a banger.
It's a bummer that the soundtrack bounced off of you. I absolutely adore its cinematic scope, and I think it really takes advantage of the constant scroll speed to really match the score with the peaks and valleys of the level itself. I'm also curious if you were aware that you could end vaunt early to get a second shield in case you really need to get out of a pinch. It's something that they don't talk about in the tutorial but can be rather important in the hardest difficulties.
The soundtrack has some highlights in it for sure, but I found it to be a bit uneven if that makes sense. The later stages had some real character to them music wise, but the early stages have more a generic epic string sort of feel to them.
The way I always thought of it was the soundtrack is very well executed, if not terribly distinct, but not a good match for a game that plays off of nerves and reflexes. Jamestown always had an odd quality where I couldn't say why exactly it doesn't keep me in it for very long. I think the dulcet soundtrack plays a part.
Jamestown was hella rough last time I tried it. I put it on a harder difficulty and the enemies HP increased! It was obvious they wanted you to have multiple players for hard difficulties for this reason alone. Anyway, the increased HP meant you could hardly kill enemies and had to try to dodge them leaving the screen. Just an all-round janky experience. Nice presentation but really missed the mark for me in gameplay.
You pretty much echoed a lot of the sentiments I shared when we covered this on the podcast a while back. One thing I didn't pick up on, which I'm glad you highlighted, is the lack of bullet sealing. It does make some sections unnecessarily difficult. And yes, the ship balance is very uneven. But I'm with you in that, I'd like to see the devs take another shot at the genre, because I think with some fine tuning, they could really turn out something worthwhile.
I love this game. I picked it up b/c it was mentioned in a document of beginner shmup challenges. But I hate Croatoa. I cant beat this damn level. I know I'm green when it comes to shmups but this level hands my ass to me every time and I refuse to dial the "story mode" in. I've unlocked the majority so far and I refuse to throw in the towel for this fricking, awesome designed, temple.
Is that the Metal Slug 3 stage ha? I forget the stage names but yes the last two stages are a massive jump in difficulty, but not in the most fun way. That being said the metal slug 3 stage does look cool ha.
Question! You talk about Jamestown getting a high grade for good game design but not necessarily for good shmup design. If you have existing videos talking about good shmup design, do you happen to have a playlist or conveniently named videos to that effect?
Review Pop'n TwinBee for the SNES, please. It's similar to this. :d Heh, about to play this. I'm concerned after your take. lol I played through it. I can confirm your takes and validate my concerns. It's all right but flawed in many ways. Eh, one and done.
you are judging the aspect ratio like any other smhup but you have to understand that It has It purpose and it's multiplayer. More space for more players. The gunner Is the best for single player but i wouldn't rate or judge the game taking the single player aspect as the focus point because it's made for multi and there it shines and goes pretty High with few competitors. Sure, in single a lot Is thrown away and that's to keep in mind simply
This game was one of the first shmups I played "for real". I loved it at the time. But the last time I played it, it felt weird. This aspect ratio feels kind of wrong. The horizontal movement is too slow, while the screen is too wide. I still like it, though.
I feel that bullet patterns do their job but are are uninspired. The different Controls input are Also great even when they don t work as we want (mmmm....ouse). I like that some stages have tunnels. I always felt that this game is made by people that grew playing euroshootemup and recently Started to play touhou games. Anyway the game is good, just not for the hardcore gamer. If you Compare this game with others that try to appeal to the casual market(sinne mora , jetn guns,etc) you Will find a gem.also some missions chalkenges are quite original and hardcore shootem Ups could learn something.
Oh that is an interesting idea about mouse control. I honestly do think it would make the game work better since you'd be able to zip around the screen faster ha.
Atm I'm playing Skyforce Anniversary, Caladrius Blaze and Gundemonium. And I'm probably gonna get the newest Cotton game when it releases for PC. What shmups do you recommend? Top 3 ?
Anyone know what sales were like for this title? I'm curious since it generally got high reviews from most critics and players. Certainly it has valid critiques, but my theory is the presentation (art, music, etc.) is what generated so much interest. There might be diminishing returns, but I feel like spending the time/money on these aspects is worth the effort for indie games.
I didn't click with this game but then again I never tried multilayer.Then again I got scared off buying a predominantly multilayer focused game (with soloplay available)ever since I got FF crystal chronicles on the NGC way back.Granrted it was more complicated to set up multilayer t but the dependence on multilayer for best play took away its value somewha and its fun t to me As usual a great, balanced review
I think I've probably started a series of runs for Jamestown more than any other game. I say "series" in the sense that I radomnly sit down and play a bit, getting to the point where I think I will 1cc it in the next few runs. And then inevitably quit and repeat the process at some later time. I'm not even sure what keeps me coming back... maybe just the fact I haven't 1cc'd it. Though that would hardly feel an achievement at this point. It's just a weird game because it has a lot going for it but misses that certain something.
It is an interesting game in that regard! Basically it has a really well done surface that keeps bringing you back but then the core issues keep turning you off after you play for a bit ha
The ships firing at bottom screen doesnt seem correct for the era style this was going for. Pretty much confirmed some of my assumptions, thanks for the transparency on this.
What really I don't like is that the later levels of the Gauntlet mode are locked behind higher difficulties. Unless you play on Legendary, you can't have the full Gauntlet, and Legendary is simply too hard for me to complete the Gauntlet on. Why did they do such a silly thing?
Do u believe a vertical scrolling SHMUP could be intentionally designed with a widescreen format that takes advantage of it to do something satisfying or at least interesting?
I really like this game but to be played with friends. I feel you tested the game in single player only. And in my opinion is not very good in that way. One of the MAIN gameplay elements that you didn't mentioned is that you can revive your friend when dies. Also the game has challenges that are very fun. I feel that the vertizontal screen works really well in multi. I think that's why they choose this proportion. If you play with 1 friend you feel like 2 vertical shmups side by side. each player can cover a screen section. But this doesn't work very well in single player. I think the only way to enjoy this game is playing it at least with 1 friend. I think it's core gameplay was designed this way. You should have done the review playing it with someone.
yes hang tight for the end of the review where I basically say that the game's single player content is meh but I def recommend it for multiplayer ha. There's no doubt that is the area where the game shines.
@@TheElectricUnderground yes sure. Anyway is not the best shmups ever. But is really fun with friends. As you can revive teammates, is good for newer players. You can keep their back safe so they don't feel frustrated. I think that's why is popular. Because you can play in team. I agree single player is boring and very meh.
I buy a lot of shmups on steam, even meh ports just to own them and have cheevos to chase. Jamestown+ is the only one I have ever refunded. It leans so heavily on the first level but degrades quickly. The spritework is flash game tier from then on out and with each successive level the visuals and enemies get worse. Never had such a revulsion to a shmups presentation or design.
I feel like vertizontal shmups are always a bit awkwards. It is frustrating that you have a lot of horizontal freedom, when in vertical scroll, what you really want is vertical freedom and don't want to wander too far on the sides. Even the great vertizontal shmups like Gigawing or Mars Matrix are made harder solely because of their landscape format. There is a reason those japanese shmups were not followed by sequels or new games after those experimental years (1995-2000). Vertizontal shmups is a genra filled with euroshmups. I got the same feeling when playing the recent Shinorubi. This format has yet to find a shmup that convince me it's not a poor compromise.
All of the criticisms you made seem to be based on your preferred style, but you treat them as flaws even going to the extent of referring to these design decisions as unpolished. Nothing you brought up is in itself a flaw, and your reasons for disliking them could easily be countered by someone that may be more familiar with its mechanics and how to exploit them. Move too slow? This is only a problem if there are instances that it's impossible to get out of (if the developer wants you to get out of it). Too much horizontal space? This is only a problem if it creates an unintended exploit. Tank sealing? It's an interesting concept, but could easily be interpreted as babying the player. Enemies don't shoot behind you? Again: Babying the player. You could summarize all of these criticisms as: They dont have the set of features I expect every Shmup to have and the game is worse for it. You need to explain why these features are a detriment to the experience, or accept that you have a strong bias that you're misconstruing as inferior design elements.
I only trust Japanese developers with shmups much like fighting games. Japanese people experienced arcade culture. The west only experienced internet e-sport cafes and trolling in CoD.
I'm really happy that you went into this game. Glad to hear your toughts. I appriciate that you took your time to try to pinpoint your problem. Especially as a dev that helps a lot. Generally, I think your critique rings true. I don't think these probles are something that could be solved by the relatively subtle effects like bullet sealing and bullet cutoff. I think the problem sits deeper. You kinda mentioned it too. Because of the horizontal screen enemies are more likely to spawn far left or right from the player. So the bullets will always come more from the sides rather than from the front. It makes for awkward dodging. Also because there is so much more lateral space, it takes much more moving around to get ahead of the enemy spawns. Which makes you ship speed FEEL slow because the distances you need to cover are so much longer. Finally, because it's harder to cover the screen you are also more likely to get swamped with enemies and this makes it feel like your shooting isn't that effectual. I think this just adds to the problems you've listed just keep adding up to that lackluster feel.
I don't think the devs aren't in the know on Shmups. Hard to draw the line on that. But you just don't make a Shmup like Jamestown without knowing a lot about Shmups. I think it shows. They nailed a lot of details. The precision mode. The pickups. Some of the ships have shots which are clear hommages to other Shmups. If the were truly inexperienced with the genre they would have dropped the ball long before they got there. However, I do believe the game was just heavily tested and designed with multiplayer in mind.
I have to say I totally agree that word map meta-structure is incredible. Would love to see this in more Shmups.
Excellent thoughts! On the world map point I do think more shmups would benefit from having modes like this in addition to arcade modes.
I think it helps to look at Jamestown as 4 Tate play fields stacked side by side, so it's really meant to be played with that many ships.
i literally cant believe you dont like cuphead
I like the visuals a lot, but the actual gameplay, not so much
I would venture a guess that you played it on switch with a stick? My only complaint with cuphead is that the items and weapons are a little underwhelming, but the boss fights are pretty dope and obviously the animations. I like cuphead as much as contra if not more I think. By the way are we going to get your Elden Ring opinion?
Yeah I don't get this either ha
Thanks for the review Mark, very cool to have a point of view from someone with your background on Jamestown. Also interesting stuff about Shmup game design!
Thanks so much! This was actually a really fun game to talk about, since it has some interesting strengths and flaws.
yeah really interesting to have a breakdown of different mechanics. thanks
The problem is that CAVE set the bar too high and now it is hard to find anything that makes us that happy.
That is very true ha
Some of the graphics really are beautiful, approaching Metal Slug levels!
I would say another big problem with the core gameplay is the bullet patterns, specifically the constant speed of enemy projectiles. If they had much more flexibility, being able to speed up, slow down and change direction if would be much more familiar and challenging, it just seems too simplistic to me.
What s fun is that there is a level near the end that is a metal slug level ha :-D
@@TheElectricUnderground Whaaaat! Guess I'm interested in playing again 🤗 keep up the good work BTW 👍
LOVE ALL THINGS SHMUP AND ELECTRIC UNDERGROUND. LOVE FROM GERMANY.
Thanks so much my dude!
The format on how you review this game was really nice
thank you my dude!
I like this game a lot (the art and music really appeal to me) but I think you're dead on in your criticism and guess that the developers weren't all that familiar with the shmup genre. If they ever made a sequel, they could knock it out of the park with some outside consulting from someone like yourself. 👍🏻
I m really glad to hear that! I tried my best to give the game a fair shake without sugar coating its flaws. I do think the dev team has a lot of talent and potential and it would be really cool to see them make a sequel with a bit more understanding of some of the genre basics and such :-)
Haha, I mean, we grew up playing Japanese arcade shmups in the 1980's and 90's, but I think it's more that we weren't part of the hardcore shmup "scene". The points on bullet sealing (we called it point-blank protection) and disabling shots from the bottom 3rd of the screen are well taken. Both of those features do exist but they were implemented per-enemy. In retrospect it would have been wiser to implement it universally. Oh well, there's always next game! :)
@@westquote lol I came here to say this. :) Hi all, lead Jamestown artist here (westquote was the lead programmer, and we co-designed it with our colleague Hallie) -- I think the review is thoughtful and fair, and I appreciate you taking the time to make a video! I was watching those enemies fire from the dead zone at the bottom of the screen like "WTF WE DIDN'T ALLOW THAT" but am now remembering that we made a few exceptions. Folly of youth!
@@mikeambrogiprimo8927 Great to hear from the devs!! I'll definitely be buying this game now on Switch to play with the kids and get them into the genre, well done.. It would be nice if there was more material around shmup game design elements that Mark mentions alot in his videos and in interviews with other devs, negative comments on euroshmup etc are annoying but good to understand those design differences, i love euroshmups as i grew up with the AMiga (Xenon 2, Battle Squadron are great), are their such resources out there in video or book form?
@@westquote so are you making Jamestown 2?
Great, in-depth and honest review. Honestly it made me more interested in Jamestown than I was before- warts and all it looks really interesting and seems like I'll get a lot of fun out of it, but now I also know what stuff might be frustrating ahead of time!
Thanks my dude! Yeah I do think the game can be a lot of fun when played causally and sort of on and off ha. The part where it will drive you crazy is if you get more in depth with it, at least single player ha
@@TheElectricUnderground yeah it sounds like it's worth a clear and maybe some coop with friends but deeper play might get frustrating
I've probabily spent more time listening to the soundtrack on youtube than playing the actual game. The presentation of Jamesetown is really insane.
Ha that's great, I'm the same way with guilty gear xx, as cool as that game is I tend to listen to the ost a lot more.
I just wanna weigh in on not recommending it for solo, because well... how could I possibly not do so for my favorite game in the genre.
First of all, yes. The poor ship balance is this game's greatest flaw as you simply have not enough coverage in solo, making higher difficulties near impossible to play with them. If somebody else hadn't recommended me to play the Treason ship after I was about to give up on the game due to the slow movement of the ships I used, I'd have dumped the game for sure. And I wouldn't be surprised if that happened to a lot of other players. Beam has good dps but is very slow while using the laser.
I was surprised at first that the Treason ship wasn't quite to your liking but from what I saw during the review, it seems like you never fully charged the homing missiles. Homing missiles are 50% stronger if you charge all 4. Basically, charging 4 is worth twice the amount of damage as charging 3. The base speed of the ship is also 50% faster which helps a lot with coverage and dodging. But yeah, Treason ship is the absolute best in the game.
While the devs may have not done their best job to make the game a solid solo experience, playing on the higher difficulties with Treason is the most fun I've had in this entire genre so far.
There is no bullet sealing but most enemies do stop firing below a certain height on the screen. But there are a few exceptions like the statue you pointed out at 15:13. Side note regarding that statue: If you move to the right of the screen, it won't fire as it's outside of the screen. This works on other enemies as well.
I can't argue with you not liking the soundtrack. If you don't like it, you don't like it. But I will say that hearing Phobos's music in a Judgement Super Gauntlet run is adding quite a lot to the stress for how incredibly intense it is, on top of the stage itself being quite difficult.
I thought the review was good but I was disappointed you didn't talk much about the Vaunt mechanic as it's essential for scoring and survival. In Vaunt, damage is increased by 50% and score is doubled. Plus, you get an exponential bonus when it runs out based on how long you maintained it by collecting more items during the vaunt. Or you can cancel the vaunt to gain invulnerability but that'll half the bonus you get. You can fully vaunt through someof the stages (bosses excluded) with that which can get quite technical and interesting as you have to defeat enemies in certain ways to get more items out of them. It's a simple but fun system.
Great stuff! I didn't really go into the vaunt stuff as I did want to focus on the overall level design and such, but it is a cool mechanic. I think the game relies too much on the mechanic for damage output, so yeah I could have discussed that point a bit when I talked about the games damage issues.
At least somebody gets it! This "review" reeks shallow to me. Kudos for your comment. I picked the sword ship and had a blast with it! Beat it solo with some struggle but zero frustration as it was always on me to do great with no ВS situations. I'd describe Jamestown+ as the most honest bullethell there is and its risk-reward system is on its own level with Vaunt mechanic and perfect timing/consecutive kills.
I love this game. I played it initially on Steam, I have it on ps4 and switch. I enjoy it alone but in times I've had 3 others with me, it's a blast. Great for a game night, and being the one that keeps everything going while everyone dies is funny and you feel like a bad ass lol
The ghost ship has always been my jam!
I always thought this was just built as a fun 2-4 player SHMUP and wasn't to be played alone really.
Kind of like Castle Crashers. And in that regard, the game is pretty sweet.
Also, I don't think the guy who made this made wound up making any other games but I could be wrong.
I was literally thinking about you vs this game. Wild. GG
Ha that s funny, it s fun when stuff lines up like that
@@TheElectricUnderground , it occurred because as I was on UA-cam on my phone i was also looking at my steam library and yeah jamestown is there. Good review my guy, thanks!
I do agree with the "bullet sealing" and "enemies shooting from bottom of the screen" critique, and that one can feel a bit pee shooty. However, I did manage to find "my" ship, which was the Treason ship, that I felt made the game come alive, because it's the only ship in the game that moves somewhat quickly, which makes the game much more fun for me. I do enjoy Jamestown+ a lot, top 20 territory for me, but if it wasn't for that Treason ship, damn, it maybe wouldn't even be in my top 50!
Yeah it sounds like the treason ship is the way to go, there was a whole discussion about this on the discord after my review ha. I thought the ship was pretty cool and it's somewhat faster then the beam ship at least XD
I've had this on PS4 and PC and my opinion of it has always been that it's a Shmup by committee by people who've watched videos of Shmups, but aren't actually players. Totally agree that there is a lot of choice when it comes to ship selection, but most of them are pointless novelties in 1 player mode.
Yeah absolutely, that s a great way to put it ha
Euro shmup is exactly what I was thinking, nice graphics but weird gameplay. I've been playing a Euro shmup on Genesis recently called Battle Squadron, which has some good points but also suffers from three of these exact problems, lack of speed and offensive power, no cut-off point for enemy fire and no bullet ceiling for grounded enemies. That was made in 1989 though, so it's slightly more forgivable.
Yeah in the case of Jamestown, I honestly think they were just unaware of these concepts, rather then not being willing to put in the effort in the design. I think it's kinda a shame that they didn't have more experienced testers at their disposal to help point them in the right direction.
ha battle squadron was my first ever shmup as a kid. that title music is awesome
With respect and love... I think you're a little too harsh here.
Gameplay is classic "whack a mole" style here: put some shit on one side of the screen, make you shoot at it, put some shit on the other side of the screen, make you go over there and shoot at it. It's a classic like four chord pop songs or cheeseburgers or eight worlds in Mario. That's how Gradius did it, that's how Dad did it etc. The choice to do a vertical scroller that plays in Yoko is in service of that (because all the dodging is going to be slipping to the left or right), and for another important reason I'll get to in two paragraphs.
The gameplay hook is the "Vaunt" system which rewards aggressive play by trading kills for spells of invulnerability that can be leveraged into even more aggressive positioning. The game is teaching the players through the mechanics that they can't hang at the back and be afraid of the patterns-- which is not news to you or me but IS a revolution in how a new player will think about the genre. You can't play the game for more than an hour and not have the light bulb go off "Oh-- this game is about controlling space."
We need games like Jamestown if this genre is going to grow again-- we need games that get the kids in the pool and keep them there with the belief that they can learn to swim. It supports multiplayer. It looks great (at least in OG form, I don't like the PLUS revision) it has a cool setting that feels authentic, it works in moments of real emotion (the discovery of the Roanoke colony is shocking and I can't think of another moment like that in a shmup besides the final stage of R-TYPE DELTA), it does not require optimized equipment for adequate precision and it looks great without turning your lap top or television on its side which no newbie to the genre is going to do.
Out of curiosity what don't you like about the "+' plus edition of Jamestown ?
I'm a lover of the original as well (first ever shmup for me), I (I mean we) attempted a lot (lots) of Divine "Gauntlet"' runs alongside my little brother (and failed a lot at the last stage, the boss multi stage is insane), but since we LOVE Jamestown so much (as one other commenter said, when you're the only one left alive is one of the most EPICcly satisfying and tense moments of gaming I lived!) I figured our gift for making it (if we ever do, but we will!) was indulging myself to buy and 'upgrade' to the "+" edition on steam. So now I'd be curious on where the new edition fails to the original.
Also any rec of another smup if I liked and went hardcore on Jamestown ? cuz I do not know where to go but I want moar of that newfond gaming flow :)
I'm bit sad the dev of J didn't released another thing i was looking for it^^
"Is it good?" Oh snap this man coming for a beloved Ameri-shmup. Looking forward to watching this later. Personally, I always thought it was just meh and felt weird.
Also, as a side note I just wanna say I really appreciate your channel and how in depth it is. I know because you go so deep into this niche genre you don't really get the following you deserve, but for what it's worth I always enjoy your content a ton.
Hey my dude I really appreciate the awesome comment, it means a lot :-) Yeah it's a shame how niche the genre is, hopefully I can claw my way slowly into a wider conversation outside the niche ha.
I love this game, probably top ten shmup for me. I'm not an expert player so this has a nice difficulty level and has a nice way of training you by forcing you to reply stages at the next difficulty level.
The customisable ship is a great addition. The Soundtrack is a banger.
Yeah I think it s approach to the stage story mode and unlocks is clever
It's a bummer that the soundtrack bounced off of you. I absolutely adore its cinematic scope, and I think it really takes advantage of the constant scroll speed to really match the score with the peaks and valleys of the level itself. I'm also curious if you were aware that you could end vaunt early to get a second shield in case you really need to get out of a pinch. It's something that they don't talk about in the tutorial but can be rather important in the hardest difficulties.
The soundtrack has some highlights in it for sure, but I found it to be a bit uneven if that makes sense. The later stages had some real character to them music wise, but the early stages have more a generic epic string sort of feel to them.
The way I always thought of it was the soundtrack is very well executed, if not terribly distinct, but not a good match for a game that plays off of nerves and reflexes. Jamestown always had an odd quality where I couldn't say why exactly it doesn't keep me in it for very long. I think the dulcet soundtrack plays a part.
That's interesting that not everyone liked the soundtrack, for me it was one of the things about this game that hit me.
@@TheBiscuitthief1ditto
Jamestown was hella rough last time I tried it. I put it on a harder difficulty and the enemies HP increased! It was obvious they wanted you to have multiple players for hard difficulties for this reason alone. Anyway, the increased HP meant you could hardly kill enemies and had to try to dodge them leaving the screen. Just an all-round janky experience. Nice presentation but really missed the mark for me in gameplay.
Agreed 💯
Doing a good twista impression on the patreon shout outs...hire the micro machines guy asap
Ha she wants it faster!!
There's no lag on the ps4 version - in case you decide to revisit it someday.
You pretty much echoed a lot of the sentiments I shared when we covered this on the podcast a while back. One thing I didn't pick up on, which I'm glad you highlighted, is the lack of bullet sealing. It does make some sections unnecessarily difficult. And yes, the ship balance is very uneven. But I'm with you in that, I'd like to see the devs take another shot at the genre, because I think with some fine tuning, they could really turn out something worthwhile.
Yeah that bullet sealing oversight is brutal ha. I agree that it s clear the team has talent, just need a bit more information and experience
I love this game. I picked it up b/c it was mentioned in a document of beginner shmup challenges. But I hate Croatoa. I cant beat this damn level. I know I'm green when it comes to shmups but this level hands my ass to me every time and I refuse to dial the "story mode" in. I've unlocked the majority so far and I refuse to throw in the towel for this fricking, awesome designed, temple.
Is that the Metal Slug 3 stage ha? I forget the stage names but yes the last two stages are a massive jump in difficulty, but not in the most fun way. That being said the metal slug 3 stage does look cool ha.
No BS. The shirt is sick af. I need one bruh.
Hell yeah!! gonna have a vid about it next week!
Question! You talk about Jamestown getting a high grade for good game design but not necessarily for good shmup design. If you have existing videos talking about good shmup design, do you happen to have a playlist or conveniently named videos to that effect?
Oh yeah the shmup topic vids! ua-cam.com/play/PLMDuVHl1iOH8uZc3DJo0VB6j5i3APfIPL.html
I’m surprised you mention Raizing because it was Psikyo with Gunbird that did the background story during the game in 1993
Oh yeah psikyo has those elements too, sorcerer striker just has a ton of really fun elements like this
Im definitely getting this payday i do have a question what's your thoughts on Ghost Blade HD?
"Jamestown"? Isn't that where they drank the Kool-Aid?
Ha close that s Jonestown
My second video of yours plus the second game I stopped before I bought because of your channel. So please what’s a must own on the Switch?
Here you go :-) ua-cam.com/video/P-U0YOIJ_f8/v-deo.html
That shirt tho 🔥🔥
Hell yeah!
Yeah what kind of a mangs would buy this shirt !! I know who !!
Review Pop'n TwinBee for the SNES, please. It's similar to this. :d
Heh, about to play this. I'm concerned after your take. lol
I played through it. I can confirm your takes and validate my concerns. It's all right but flawed in many ways. Eh, one and done.
you are judging the aspect ratio like any other smhup but you have to understand that It has It purpose and it's multiplayer. More space for more players. The gunner Is the best for single player but i wouldn't rate or judge the game taking the single player aspect as the focus point because it's made for multi and there it shines and goes pretty High with few competitors. Sure, in single a lot Is thrown away and that's to keep in mind simply
Yep I talk about that in the review which is why I recommend the game for multiplayer but not so much for single player
Treason is the best for single player. Gunner is decent too.
This game was one of the first shmups I played "for real". I loved it at the time. But the last time I played it, it felt weird. This aspect ratio feels kind of wrong. The horizontal movement is too slow, while the screen is too wide.
I still like it, though.
I feel that bullet patterns do their job but are are uninspired. The different Controls input are Also great even when they don t work as we want (mmmm....ouse). I like that some stages have tunnels. I always felt that this game is made by people that grew playing euroshootemup and recently Started to play touhou games. Anyway the game is good, just not for the hardcore gamer. If you Compare this game with others that try to appeal to the casual market(sinne mora , jetn guns,etc) you Will find a gem.also some missions chalkenges are quite original and hardcore shootem Ups could learn something.
Oh that is an interesting idea about mouse control. I honestly do think it would make the game work better since you'd be able to zip around the screen faster ha.
I did not know Jamestown has a port for the Switch, sweet!
Yeah I think it s fairly recent?
Atm I'm playing Skyforce Anniversary, Caladrius Blaze and Gundemonium. And I'm probably gonna get the newest Cotton game when it releases for PC. What shmups do you recommend? Top 3 ?
Anyone know what sales were like for this title? I'm curious since it generally got high reviews from most critics and players. Certainly it has valid critiques, but my theory is the presentation (art, music, etc.) is what generated so much interest. There might be diminishing returns, but I feel like spending the time/money on these aspects is worth the effort for indie games.
Oh hey, you had every single criticism of the game I had lol.
Nice!!! :-)
Will you review andros dunos 2?
The patrons have the power ha, I never know what they will nominate and select ha. So it's possible.
i feel like a schmup with a lot of the bones of this game but actually more faithful to the genre could be a really perfect game
I didn't click with this game but then again I never tried multilayer.Then again I got scared off buying a predominantly multilayer focused game (with soloplay available)ever since I got FF crystal chronicles on the NGC way back.Granrted it was more complicated to set up multilayer t but the dependence on multilayer for best play took away its value somewha and its fun t to me As usual a great, balanced review
Thanks so much my dude!! Yes if you getting it for solo play it s not a recommend on my part
I think I've probably started a series of runs for Jamestown more than any other game. I say "series" in the sense that I radomnly sit down and play a bit, getting to the point where I think I will 1cc it in the next few runs. And then inevitably quit and repeat the process at some later time. I'm not even sure what keeps me coming back... maybe just the fact I haven't 1cc'd it. Though that would hardly feel an achievement at this point. It's just a weird game because it has a lot going for it but misses that certain something.
It is an interesting game in that regard! Basically it has a really well done surface that keeps bringing you back but then the core issues keep turning you off after you play for a bit ha
Sounds like a great game to play 4 player with my kids to introduce them to the series of games.
WHAT ?? Home for 5 MINUTES and asap live at TEU . That what Works end Must Look like
Jamestown is a game that was definitely designed to play with friends, but sadly I don't have any. :'(
I'm right there with you my dude, I can't get my friends to play a shmup either
The ships firing at bottom screen doesnt seem correct for the era style this was going for. Pretty much confirmed some of my assumptions, thanks for the transparency on this.
No problem!
Oh yeah I’m gonna have to have one of those shirts…
Awesome!! Making a vid about it this week!
This was my first shmup really like ten years ago, and it never landed with me but you put to words the reasons why. Thanks!
I m happy to hear that! This one was an interesting game to try and describe what s going on
A great game! Awesome music and graphics. A bit hard but cool!
yeah those last two stages can get nasty!
How good is this game really because honest review I was going to preorder it🎮🕹😀👍🏾
It s ehhh, not really that good in my opinion but some players really like it
Z-WARP review coming,m
I was like, why did i buy this again, watched this video… “OH YEAH!”
Can confirm the Switch version is laggy as hell. Almost as bad as the Psikyo ports.
Yeah I'll have to get around to lag testing it soon, I think I am going to do a video that is just a ton of input lag tests ha.
One of the game's stages on here looks like metal slug 3🎮🕹😀👍🏾
What really I don't like is that the later levels of the Gauntlet mode are locked behind higher difficulties. Unless you play on Legendary, you can't have the full Gauntlet, and Legendary is simply too hard for me to complete the Gauntlet on. Why did they do such a silly thing?
Do u believe a vertical scrolling SHMUP could be intentionally designed with a widescreen format that takes advantage of it to do something satisfying or at least interesting?
Thanx for this. I always hated the game and now i know why.
No problem, happy to put some words to what is going on with the game ha
Oh yeah where do I buy your t-shirts again cuz I need a 2X🎮🕹😀👍🏾
this game is amazing, one of the better shmups
Glad you enjoyed it :-)
I really like this game but to be played with friends. I feel you tested the game in single player only. And in my opinion is not very good in that way. One of the MAIN gameplay elements that you didn't mentioned is that you can revive your friend when dies. Also the game has challenges that are very fun. I feel that the vertizontal screen works really well in multi. I think that's why they choose this proportion. If you play with 1 friend you feel like 2 vertical shmups side by side. each player can cover a screen section. But this doesn't work very well in single player. I think the only way to enjoy this game is playing it at least with 1 friend. I think it's core gameplay was designed this way. You should have done the review playing it with someone.
yes hang tight for the end of the review where I basically say that the game's single player content is meh but I def recommend it for multiplayer ha. There's no doubt that is the area where the game shines.
@@TheElectricUnderground yes sure. Anyway is not the best shmups ever. But is really fun with friends. As you can revive teammates, is good for newer players. You can keep their back safe so they don't feel frustrated. I think that's why is popular. Because you can play in team. I agree single player is boring and very meh.
I buy a lot of shmups on steam, even meh ports just to own them and have cheevos to chase.
Jamestown+ is the only one I have ever refunded.
It leans so heavily on the first level but degrades quickly.
The spritework is flash game tier from then on out and with each successive level the visuals and enemies get worse.
Never had such a revulsion to a shmups presentation or design.
Yeah the quality of the stages is definitely uneaven
Are you guys shipping the shirt to Europe?
I am!
I feel like vertizontal shmups are always a bit awkwards. It is frustrating that you have a lot of horizontal freedom, when in vertical scroll, what you really want is vertical freedom and don't want to wander too far on the sides.
Even the great vertizontal shmups like Gigawing or Mars Matrix are made harder solely because of their landscape format. There is a reason those japanese shmups were not followed by sequels or new games after those experimental years (1995-2000). Vertizontal shmups is a genra filled with euroshmups.
I got the same feeling when playing the recent Shinorubi.
This format has yet to find a shmup that convince me it's not a poor compromise.
I agree on vertizontal, they do seem pretty awkward in how they handle the space
All of the criticisms you made seem to be based on your preferred style, but you treat them as flaws even going to the extent of referring to these design decisions as unpolished.
Nothing you brought up is in itself a flaw, and your reasons for disliking them could easily be countered by someone that may be more familiar with its mechanics and how to exploit them.
Move too slow? This is only a problem if there are instances that it's impossible to get out of (if the developer wants you to get out of it). Too much horizontal space? This is only a problem if it creates an unintended exploit. Tank sealing? It's an interesting concept, but could easily be interpreted as babying the player. Enemies don't shoot behind you? Again: Babying the player. You could summarize all of these criticisms as: They dont have the set of features I expect every Shmup to have and the game is worse for it. You need to explain why these features are a detriment to the experience, or accept that you have a strong bias that you're misconstruing as inferior design elements.
When Patreons start to troll...
What this video needs is you saying shmup a few more times
I find Cuphead impossible.
I find it beautiful to look at, but annoying to play
I will never understand wide verts.
Me neither, I ll accept 4:3 virts, but 16:9 is pretty crazy ha
I only trust Japanese developers with shmups much like fighting games. Japanese people experienced arcade culture. The west only experienced internet e-sport cafes and trolling in CoD.
Yeah things have begun to shift but Jamestown def has a euroshmup feel at times
Yawn t-shirts yawn
:-)
I didn't like it.
Yeah I don't really recommend it for 1 player, shame because the graphics are really cool
@@TheElectricUnderground Yeah they're very pretty, which is what drew me in.