Solid top-down shooter.
The game itself is what you'd expect from the genre. Even though this isn't exactly a carbon copy of the formula that the Japanese follow unrelentingly since ever, this title can not be underestimated even from the die-hard shmup fan. This packs robust challenge. While still being hardcore enough to scare most gamers around it does exorcise some genre's ghosts as well as some gaming traditions. Most Japanese shooters are straight to the point, some levels, one after the other, deal with it. Jamestown goes beyond, but without taking the hardcoreness away.
It features the courses in sequential fashion, but as different stages. You don't have to play in one go. Again, the challenge is not decreased because you can still do them in one sit, but more importantly, because when you finish the whole game a new mode is unlocked, named Gauntlet. In Gauntlet the player must endure the whole set of phases without breaks, if you lose, you'll have to restart everything. Gauntlet isn't forced down the throat of every gamer that tries Jamestown out, but stands as a bold feat to those who ventured through the entire game and eager for more. Jamestown manages to appeal to both regular gamers, who may or may not have experienced this genre before, as well as more focused enthusiasts. In both cases retaining its hardcore roots. Few games manage that this well.
The player is able to fly 4 different ships, each of them having unique abilities, in 5 different courses. The multiple difficulty settings should help get you hooked before hell on earth comes in. As later stages are achieved less difficulties are available (the easier are the ones scratched). There's DLC available and presents 4 more ships to the roster, if you're interested.
Background to everything lies a weird story set in the XVII century about Englishmen, Spanish hordes and Martians will almost go unnoticed for most gamers. Even though the game's style is not the most suitable for it, the story actually stands out as being pretty imaginative, it's so out of the ordinary that you'll have a hard time "getting it" with all its alternate history setting. At first it seems too crazy, and after a while you realise that it really is too crazy.
The graphical effects are pretty good, but it's a shame that it doesn't handle high resolutions. The game will look weird especially in newer wide-screen monitors and the game's crazy stretches to fit the screen -- one of the stretches is even called exactly that. The music and sound effects are a highlight throughout the entire thing. The sound is one of the best I've ever heard in a video-game. I can see big developers put to shame by this obscure indie title in terms of music. It's that good.
There's an in-game store in which you can buy new ships, modes and difficulties. It's there where you buy the challenge mode stages, something pretty interesting that should keep you busy for a while, it also handles multiplayer up to 4 people and has 5 different sets of challenges. Another sad fact is that it does not handle online multiplayer, playing this with friends over the internet would be a dream come true. Especially this type of game, it's hard to find 3 friends who share a taste for shoot 'em ups, the internet would be the solution.
Playing this on PC is pretty good with the mouse, but you can still play it with the keyboard, and even controllers. It should come in handy with local multiplayer. When playing with other people, even when you die, you get resurrected and get back to the action as long as someone is doing fine, of course. The challenge mode also handles multiplayer, keeping track of the ones beaten with each number of players while doing so.
What you can actually do to attack and defend will depend on the ship you've chosen. Some ships will have a wider range of weaker shots while others will shoot a single massive ball of destruction. One has exploding projectiles, while some other will feature a stronger body. Always interesting to try new approaches, especially in challenge mode. They also feature a momentary shield which, as long as you're shooting something and collecting the dropped medals, will keep your multiplier up and running for huge points. The shielding feature lasts just a little while though.
I certainly can't recommend this to everyone, the punishing difficulty, along with the unaltered gameplay from top-down shooters are not something the average player will quickly catch and enjoy, at least not these days -- maybe in 1990 it would be easier to do it. But a fan of the genre should definitely pick this up. If this genre still baffles you in some way, this should be a good way to start, though you shouldn't feel bad if it simply isn't for you.