Progear - Take the "pro" part of the title seriously.

Ever play a "bullet hell" game? It's you're typical shoot-em-up turned all the way to 11. Known in Japan as a "Daimaku" game (literally "Bullet Curtain")the entire screen is, more often than not, filled with bullets and your job is to dodge every single ONE of them. These games aren't meant for your casual Call of Duty player, ohhhhh no. <b>Progear</b> is the big leagues.  It will separate the men from the boys.  And you'll love it.

The crew sacrificed their lives to get you flying.  You'll join them soon enough.

Published in 2001 by Capcom, Progear was actually developed by CAVE. Never heard of CAVE? Well, they are really well known in Japan for bullet hell games, it's their forte. True to the developers reputation this game does NOT let up. From the second you insert your credits to the second you manage to defeat a boss, you're under attack at ALL TIMES. You only get a few second breather between stages but then you're back in the action again. With such a rapid pace for a game, clearing it in half an hour is no stretch. Plot basically encompasses a group of nobles finding the secret to immortality, with their new found powers they decide to start a new world order and take over the country, a group of kids from an attacked village attempt to battle these tyrants with their newly developed "Progear" plane.

This is one of the game's easier moments.

You choose from one of two male pilots, and then you choose a 1 female gunner out of 3 available. How you perform in each stage affects your relationship with the gunner, it's measure in "Active" (How often you use gunner mode), "Safe" (how well you STAY ALIVE), and finally "Lovely" (average of "Active" and "Safe" scores). You're ultimate relationship at the end will determine which ending you get, which may or may not end in a romantic end for the pilot and gunner! But good luck getting that girl to like you, because she hates SCRUBS WHO DIE!

And you will die. A lot. Especially if you never played a game like this one before, and you know what? I don't even think this is considered one of the HARD games. It's actually kind of easy compared to Cave's other shooters. But for total casuals this game is all sorts of evil. It's not my favorite shoot-em-up, but I like it's style and it's Shmup gameplay is top-notch as usual for Cave. If you think you're man enough for this game, then all I have to say to you is: "Good Luck", if you can't handle this then don't even bother trying something like Touhou or DoDonPachi, you're done.