Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony is a neo-classical top-down shooter for up to 4 players, set on 17th-century British Colonial Mars. It features all the intensity, depth, and lovingly handcrafted pixels of a classic arcade shooter, with a modern twist: deeply-integrated cooperative gameplay. Unlike most top-down shooters, which give multiple players a shared pool of lives or continues, Jamestown does something different. So long as any player survives, the team can be brought back from death. By giving every player the power to rescue their team from the jaws of destruction, Jamestown creates an exhilarating cooperative experience where everyone’s contribution truly matters. Win or lose, your team will do it together.
This game is almost perfect... Even though it is quite short, the story is an awesome spin on the real legend of Jamestown, the graphics are an absolutely gorgeous throwback to old-school arcade scrolling shooters, the music is fantastic, the ships & weapons are great...
The replay value is also good, because I find myself compelled to try and beat the game on higher and higher difficulty levels all the time. Then there's also the Gauntlet Mode, in which you attempt to play through the entire game with only 2 credits to spare. This you can also do on various difficulty levels (I've not beaten it on Legendary yet, but I'm getting there...).
I've had this game for more than a year now, I think, and I still play it on a regular basis.
Definitely worth its pricetag.
My only gripe is not so much with the game itself, but with its add-on. I'm a Linux gamer, so I love companies who bring out games of this quality for Linux. However, the equally phenomenal-looking DLC (Gunpowder, Treason & Plot), seems to only be available for PC & Mac, not Linux... I could be mistaken, but that's how it appears to me on Steam & the official site (not listed on Desura at all, from what I can tell). I really, really want to play the DLC & I'm struggling to understand how the game is available on Linux, but the DLC (which seems to mostly be new ships & maps), is not...