From mechanized Hitler robots to undersea scientific societies, video games have long enjoyed chronicling the tales that history books thought best to omit. Jamestown continues this tradition as it follows the adventures of the 17th century explorer, Raleigh, a fugitive of the English crown who fled to the New World to discover what happened to the lost colony of Roanoke and clear his name. Except by “New World,” we mean the floating islands of Mars, and by “discover” we really mean hop in his tiny spaceship and annihilate the combined forces of the Spanish Conquistadors and the tentacled aliens.

The premise is unapologetically absurd, but beneath the goofy narrative, Final Form Games has crafted an homage to 90s shooters that would look perfect in a dusky arcade wedged between Raiden and Giga Wing cabinets. That’s not to say it’s a banal adventure (did you read the part about the Spanish-Martian alliance?), but the colorful, gorgeously-drawn sprites and frenetic action channels everything that was so satisfying about 90s gaming. It might not stray too far from that familiar vertically-scrolling path, but the Vaunt system, its stellar multiplayer and the various unlockables help it feel fresh. The hodgepodge sci-fi-history narrative captures the Firefly feel of old mixed with new, and it plays the story so seriously, not once acknowledging how outlandish the premise is as it unfolds through pixelated cutscenes.

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