I am not a fan of the bullet hell genre. I AM a fan of Jamestown. Unlike when playing other bullet hell shmups, I never felt like Jamestown was difficult for the sake of difficulty or taunting my failure to finish a level in some ultra-niche genre. Instead, the Vaunt mechanism, the level design, and the overall tone of the game always seemed to suggest, "You can do it! Try again!" The risk/reward design philosophy behind Vaunt is simple yet brilliant, allowing players to focus on survival or gaining points or a balance between. Perhaps most importantly, the game just /feels/ good to play. Few modern games are this much fun. And don't let the lack of online co-op dissuade you; the single-player experience is fantastic, replay value is great, and the game truly shines when you get one, two, or three friends to play with you on the same screen. There's nothing quite like the rush of victory when you and two buddies narrowly clear a level on Divine difficulty after the third or fourth try.

Part dungeon crawler (with randomly generated dungeons!), part item shop simulation, Recettear is packed with great gameplay, charm, and humor. You don't have to be a RPG veteran to enjoy the humor, though; it's easy to pick up and play!

When this game went on sale during a Steam sale last year, I bought it but didn't expect much. I was pleasantly surprised: The controls were tight, the online multiplayer was a blast, and the graphics look fantastic even on older computers. This is definitely one of the "hidden gems" of Steam.