This is a difficult review to write. On the one hand, Progear is a pretty nice shooter in its own right, with a relatively unique control system, wonderful presentation and some cool new ideas. On the other, those new ideas don't really work, and it's fairly clear which areas were done by Capcom, and which bits were contributed by Cave.
Progear is a horizontally-scrolling bullet-curtain shooter with an immediately appealing steampunk anime theme reminiscent of Hayou Miyazaki's work (think Laputa). The presentation is top-notch, and there's a pleasing amount of action on-screen at any given time.
Anyway, on to the mechanics and flaws therein - at the beginning of the game, you'll choose a ship (with pilot) and a gunner (which affects how your homing shots work). There are two buttons, for shots and bombs. Pressing the shot button fires a standard shot (no shit, Sherlock) and holding it down rapid-fires smaller shots while the the gunner fires her weapons. The gunner's projectiles target enemies automatically, giving you far less to worry about. The craft's movement slows down to about two thirds of its standard speed when the shot button is held down, but that's seldom a deterrent to keeping it pressed. What does serve as a deterrent comes in an addition to the scoring system. Destroyed enemies leave behind dozens of little icons, which can be picked up for a bonus - or, by releasing the shot button and holding it down again, they can be automatically sucked towards your craft.
On paper, this sounds like a pretty nice, intuitive and pleasingly different control mechanism. In practice, it's where the problems start. By having the peripheral enemies pretty well automatically destroyed by the gunner, Capcom have effectively reduced the game to a practice in avoiding enemy fire, rather than evading and returning.
Nowhere is this flaw more apparent than in the vertically-scrolling level. Yeah, a vertically-scrolling level in a horizontal shooter - sounds delightful, until it becomes clear that your craft can still only fire from left to right, and the gunners are now your main weapon, effectively making the return of fire completely automatic. The vertical level is in itself another example of a good idea, poorly executed.
I've said it before in my review of Hyper Duel, and I'll say it again now - it's very, very hard to find originality in scrolling shooters, so I'm thankful of it when I see it. Capcom should be applauded for trying a new idea, even if it just didn't work - after all, it's very, very rare that Capcom have any new ideas at all.
Hit "Read More" for the final judgement and scores.