alien / Progear

Among arcade shooters there exists a narrow, fanatically beloved circle of so-called „manic shooters“, and Progear is one of its jewels. This horizontal shooter from the revered studio CAVE was released in 2001 as one of the few titles where the masters of Japanese bullet hell teamed up with the publisher Capcom — and the result remains a byword among connoisseurs of the genre to this day.

Unlike many of CAVE's vertically oriented games, Progear plays out in a horizontal layout and drops the player into a steampunk world of airships and steam engines. At the heart of the gameplay is the interplay between a pilot and a gunner: in addition to your main fire you also control a support unit whose angle and focused shots are the key to a high score. The screen quickly fills with dozens of slowly drifting projectiles, and the whole art lies in weaving between them through a narrow sliver of safety.

It is precisely the scoring system that makes Progear more than just a test of reflexes. Collecting gems, chaining hits and risky play at the very edge of fire range reward bold players with a dizzying score — and the chase for the record is what keeps the community around the game together even now. Visually it is classic CAVE splendor: detailed pixel bosses, a rich palette and spectacular explosions.

Because it was an arcade title with limited distribution, Progear was for a long time hard to obtain outside the original boards. That changed thanks to later official releases within collections and digital re-releases, so today a far wider audience can reach it than back then.

For a newcomer bullet hell can be intimidating at first, but Progear is one of the more approachable gateways into the genre — it is readable, fair and immensely satisfying once you grasp its rhythm.

Why play: An elegant horizontal bullet hell from the masters at CAVE, where the dance between projectiles and the chase for score never stop being fun.