Jonathan Blow (of Braid fame) said of Jets'n'Guns, "This game puts forth a level of 'America, Fuck Yeah!' excess that has not been seen since Total Carnage." Patrick Dugan calls it "the riff ripping explosionary wargasm shmup fans have been waiting for."
With quotes like that, we hardly need to say more. There are a lot of shmups around (the term is a contraction of "shoot-em-up"), but it's rare to fire one up and think "holy crap." Jets'n'Guns is a side-scrolling space shooter with loud, excellent music from alt-rock band Machinae Supremacy, nice graphics, and a huge number of upgrades for your ship, including fifty-something weapon types. It's not for the faint of heart, though; even if you crank the difficulty down, it's a tough game to beat.
The Gold version is double the length of the original version, with 21 new levels, 17 new weapons, 7 new customizable ships, and 70 new enemies. I'd call it "excellent thumb candy," except of course it's a computer and not a console game, so thumbs, you know, not so much.
Video review at IMG
Inside Mac Games once published a very loud, delightfully immature and quite entertaining video review of the game. You can find it here.
Good for non-Shmup fans too
I'm *not* a Shmup fan... but Jets-n-Guns hooked me hard and fast. There are a few very difficult levels, but non-shmup weenies like me can use cheats to make them winnable when the frustration factor gets too high, and continue enjoying the wargasm. :)
I love this game
It's a fantastic game and one I'd recommend to anyone, genre fan or no.