Progear No
Arashi (Storm of Progear) is CAVE's first horizontal scrolling
shooter. The game takes place in a romantic fantasy of that era
in history, when technological discoveries had just begun.
At the beginning of the game, the player chooses the plane he
wants to fly: The Gambler or The Militant. The main difference
between them is their speed and their shooting directions: Gambler
shoots very wide and is slower, while the other one prefers more
the straight shots but is faster in speed.
On the next screen you select your prefered type of gun flyer
assistant, a pair of shooting satellites that will follow you
throughout the game. Three different models are available. They
differ in formation, bullet shapes and behavior.
In the game, continuous tapping the [A] button fires the main
weapon. This playing style is called "Fighting" mode.
Holding the same button makes the gun flyers lock on enemies and
shoot them down. This mode is called "Gunner" mode.
Like in many other games of this kind, you can upgrade the power
of your weapons by collecting power-up items. Catching bomber
items refills the stock of your smart bomb which can be released
by pressing button [B]. In Progear it is a very powerful cannon
that "drills" itself into the enemies.
If you destroy enemies in the right moment, they release rings
and jewels which is important for scoring and for the power of
your smart bomb. Nice idea: You don't have to collect the items
manually. You can just change the weapon mode to "suck"
them all in. See "Items & Scores" for details.
Like the other CAVE games, Progear consists of five massive stages.
Tons of enemies, all drawn in that romantic "Jules Verne"
style or whatever you want to call it. Although I think that the
graphics look a little rougher than in Esprade or Guwange, there
is still enough beauty and details to make Progear another outstanding
masterpiece from CAVE. The soundtrack, written by Masahiro Kusunoki
is good, but not so spectacular like earlier CAVE compositions.
Kusunoki work goes from easy synthesizer-pop up to driving beats
with orchestral and guitar tunes who fit the gameplay very well.
Progear No Arashi is a very favored and rather expensive CAVE
title. Although distributed through a major company like CAPCOM,
it is less common than Esprade or Do Donpachi. Nevertheless it
is a very good game, I can highly recommend to all fans of modern
shooting games.
- [the sheep] in 2004
