Progear no Arashi
Game title screen
| Developer: | CAVE |
|---|---|
| Music: | Yukinori Kikuchi |
| Program: | Tsuneki Ikeda Satoshi Kouyama Takashi Ishimura |
| Art: | Junya Inoue |
| Release date: | January 17, 2001 |
Progear no Arashi(プロギアの嵐, "Storm of Progear", abbreviated: Progear) is a game developed by CAVE and edited by CAPCOM on CP II System in January 2001. It was the first horizontal shoot them up developed by CAVE.
Contents
Gameplay Overview
Progear is a three-button shooter. Button C is disabled by default but can be enabled in the service menu.
There are five stages in the game, with a second loop beginning at the end of stage five if one of the requirements for the 2nd loop is met. Upon reaching the end of the second loop, the player will fight the True Last Boss.
Controls
- A (Press): Fighter mode Fires the standard shot weapon.
- A (Hold): Gunner mode Fires the ship's "focus" fire, using the gunner options, locking onto the closest enemies until they are destroyed or the A button is realesed
- B: Detonates a Bomb
- C: Auto-fire for the player's standard spread shot.
Characters / Ships
Fighter/Pilot selection
| Ship | Pilot | Aircraft | Speed | Shot | Power | position of hitbox | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pointblank | Far | ||||||
| Fighter Type-A GAMBLER |  |
Normal | Wide Shot | Strong | Weak | 
| |
| Fighter Type-B MILITANT |  |
Fast | Straight Shot | Medium | Medium | 
| |
The hitbox does not change size or position when the player is going up or down (or left or right) unlike some other games (like Dodonpachi).
Gunner selection
| Gunner | Co-pilot | Gunner option | Fire | Speed in gunner mode |
Lock speed | Power |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gunner Type-Alpha |  |
Straight | Slow | Slow | Strong | |
| Gunner Type-Beta |  |
Wide | Fast | Fast | Weak | |
| Gunner Type-Gamma |  |
Homing | Medium | Medium | Strong |
Gunner formation
It is possible to change the formation of your gunner options by using some specific inputs during the gunner selection screen
- Normal: If noone of the inputs conditions for the 3 formations described below are met, it will be normal. In this formation, the gunner options are attached under the aircraft.
- Fixed: By pressing both A and B buttons to select the gunner, the gunner options will be fixed instead of moving around during gunner mode. It's possible to press A and B at the same time, or hold the A button after selcting the pilot then pressing B to select the gunner. Depending of which gunner is selected, the options will be fixed in a different position.
Bomb
The player uses a bomb when he presses the B button. During the bomb effect, the ship is completely invulnerable and a little bit after (90 frames). After firing the bomb, it flies to the right then when it hits an enemy, it moves slowly to the right. The bomb explodes automatically when one of the following conditions is met (the explosion last for 120 frames) : it reaches the right side of the screen the jewel counter has run out
Bombing will consume the jewel counter during its effect. The player will lose 47 every 2 frames and 7 every time a bullet is erased by the bomb. There is an upper limit to how much of the jewel counter the bomb can consume. See the following table for details.
| Stage | Jewels |
|---|---|
| 1st | 2000 |
| 2nd | 4000 |
| 3rd | 6000 |
| 4th | 8000 |
| 5th | 10,000 |
| 2nd loop | 10,000 |
The bullets erased by a bomb become rings and are automatically collected. Immediately after firing the bomb, the value of the ring will be reset to the lowest (small amethyst) but the player can improve that value by firing during the bomb. If the player use this property properly, he can recover the jewel consumption due to the bomb.
Items
 |
Power Up Increases your attack power (max power after the 4th item) |
 |
Max Power Up Instantly grants max power (only appears after losing all lives) |
 |
Bomb Increases your bomb stock by 1 |
 |
Ring Produced when canceling bullet by killing enemies fighter mode (shot) |
 |
Stone/Jewel Produced when canceling bullet by killing enemies gunner mode (option lock) |
 |
1-Up Rewards the player with one extra life |
Extends and 1UP item
With the default settings, the player gets his first score extend at 3 million, then one every 4 million after.
There is a hidden 1UP item during stage 4, the player need to destroy the 2 big tanks in order. First the one at the top then the one at the bottom. But he must not destroy the one at the bottom while the bomb is in effect. On the other hand, if he destroys the one at the top with a bomb and finish the one at the bottom during the 90 frames of invulnerability after the bomb effect, the 1UP will appear.
Rank
There is something similar to a rank system. If the rank is high, the cancels in fighter more will produce rings of better quality. But it has very little impact on the enemies and bullet behaviour
Death
If the player hitbox collides with a bullet or an enemy hitbox, the aircraft will explode, but the blast can cause considerable damage to the enemy. It can be useful during stage sections to clear some enemies if there is not any bomb left. The player can for exemple run into an enemy to deal as much damage as possible.
But this does not always work. For example, on its final form, the 5th boss doesn't take any damage from the explosion.
Loops
If a game features a loop system, elaborate on it in detail here. Otherwise, omit this section.
Scoring
Jeweling
Enemy bullets that are caught in enemies explosion disappear and become scoring items (rings or gems)
If the player cancels bullets while being in Fighter mode (shot), the bullets will turn into rings items. If he cancels a large number of bullets, the value of the ring item will be high (the maximum is diamond ring). The collected ring with the highest value is displayed in the bottom left corner of the screen (bottom right if the player is using Player 2).
If the player cancels bullets while being in Gunner mode (lock), the bullets will turn into jewel items. The type of jewel the player gets corresponds to the type of the ring displayed in the bottom left corner of the screen (Ex: If the player has diamond rings, he will get diamonds). When the player quits Gunner mode, the ring in the bottom left corner is reset to its initial state.
The rings on the screen are automatically collected when the player shifts to Gunner mode. With the same idea, the jewels on the screen are automatically collected when the player shifts to Fighter mode.
The value of Rings and Jewels is shown in the following table:
Jewel counter
The number displayed in the bottom left corner of the screen (bottom right if the player is using Player 2) is the jewel counter. It increases by collecting rings and jewels. It affects the score and the clear/stage bonuses. Each time the player dies, this counter is reduced by 25%.
Bombing will consume the jewel counter during its effect. The player will lose 47 every 2 frames and 7 every time a bullet is erased by the bomb. There is an upper limit on how much of the jewel counter the bomb can consume (1st stage : 2000, 2nd stage : 4000, 3rd stage : 6000, 4th stage : 8000, 5th stage : 10 000, 2nd loop : 10 000).
The end stage bonus is equal to the jewel counter multiplied by 10. If the « x2 mode » is active (see Bomb stacking), this bonus is multiplied by 2.
Bomb stacking
If the player picks up a bomb while he has already a full bomb stock (3 bombs in stock), he activates the « x2 mode ». While the « x2 mode » is active, the points from killing enemies and the stage clear bonus are doubled. There is also an animation of children waving a flag next to the player bomb stock while this bonus is active.
Stacking bombs increases the jewel counter by 10 000 (20 000 if the player is already in « x2 mode »).
Story
In a time when the industrialisation of the world had just begun, various inventions appeared and changed the life of the peaceful kingdom. One of them was a propeller that evolved from pure wind generation by using the created electricity to re-rotate it. It was called "The Professional Gear", or just "Progear". This invention was the key to conquer the great wide open sky. Another discovery made the ancient dream of the immortal body come true. But it was affordable only by some wealthy elderly. They formed a new council called "the Motorouin" and declared the current government as a corruptive and greedy establishment and that they want to correct it by a new educational system, in order to create a new race of man. So they built a military force to realize the first step of their plan, which was the takeover of the kingdom. The government decided to stop the aggression by putting it's own army in motion. It was a dreadful battle with many victims. But it was won by the Motorouin. This battle is mentioned in the books of history as "The Punishment of the Sages". A group of young pilots, actually children whoses families were killed in that war, finally decided to fight back. They secretly developed a new powerful weapon which adults were not able to use. They called it "Gun Flyer" and installed it in all of their planes. The Storm of Progear was about to begin!
Development Team
Cave
- Producer = Kenichi Takano
- Director = Junya Inoue
- Program = Tsuneki Ikeda,Satoshi Kouyama,Takashi Ishimura
- Designers = Akira Wakabayashi,Hiroyuki Tanaka,Fusayuki Watariguchi,Kengo Arai
- Sound producer = Junya Inoue
- Music = Yukinori Kikuchi
- Sound effecter = Ryuichi Yabuki
- Special assist = Tosiaki Tomizawa
- Character voice = Mitsuo Furusawa<,Junya Inoue,Aki Sibata,Midori Katou,Masayo Hirasaka
- Special thanks = Yasushi Imai
- Character & mechanic design = Junya Inoue
Capcom
- Producer = Tatsuya Minami
- Support research & development : Tomoshi Sadamoto
Version Differences
- Include information here about differences in a game between various versions. This includes regional differences, patch updates/bugfixes, and the like.
Trivia
- Cool facts and random tidbits go here!
Video References
Video index for Progear no Arashi
Other
References & Contributors
- Scoring info and formatting work provided by Juju Kenobi
- Scoring info https://w.atwiki.jp/progear/
- Item and characters sprites taken from http://http://www.world-of-arcades.net/Cave/Progear/Characters.htm
- If you are a primary source of information for a game, be sure to link to your Shmup Wiki user account by including a link to your profile, such as: [[User:(You)|(Your Name)]]
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