Procyon

 
Developer: Deadly Red Cube
Steam Release: Feb 2014
Hours Played: 4.3
Similar To: Drifting Lands / Duke of Alpha Centuri / Jets 'N' Guns Gold / Syder Arcade
Rating: 5/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY
This little known, explosive side-scrolling shooter, set in outer space, is up the alley of anyone who's after a decent shmup on a budget. Procyon is one of those games that shows how well a shoot 'em up can be done with limited production costs. With three attack types (rapid-fire missiles, laser and a charge-up/cool-down lightning attack) you blitz your way through five fairly brief 4-minute stages. With cannon-fodder enemies to start with you'll build up towards tackling a main boss at the end in the form of a mother ship. Enemies attack in fixed configurations and with the same pattern so as often is the case it's about familiarization first, followed by the application to accumulate the biggest score. In this case killing many while not dying, to clock up the multiplier as high as possible is the way to go.  

BALANCE & PACE
The brief tutorial teaches the attacks succinctly but also shows you the shield feature - activated at the press of the trigger if playing with an Xbox controller. This not only protects your ship but adds a spread attack to your usual rapid-fire attack or extra strength to your laser. With three standards of difficulty (Easy, Normal and Hard) the single-player experience comes with three ways to play: (1) On Standard mode, jump into one of five unlocked stages and chip away at the ol' high-score. (2) Attrition mode, which starts you off on five ships while adding a life to your roster per stage, has you starting at Stage 1 and sees how far you can get. (3) Survival mode, for the hardcore masochists, does exactly the same but gives you just one life.    

 

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
For a game created by such a small developer it is amazing how many of the little things Procyon gets right. Other developers of the 2D shoot 'em ups can definitely learn from this. One of the most common complaints about this type of game is crashing into enemies by confusing them with objects or with flying debris from explosions in the background  - not so with Procyon. Art-style and graphics are crisp and crystal clear making accidental collisions nigh-on impossible. Very welcome indeed. Stable and zippy menus with the absence of stutter, load-screens or lag is also evident with solid and swishing menus scoring a resounding slam-dunk here as well. Add satisfying explosions along with a minimal and unobtrusive UI and you get a decent package.   

PROGRESS SYSTEM
Procyon is a score-attack game where trying out different strategies is the order of the day. Progress is all about checking how far up the online leaderboard you are and seeing yourself gradually rise up through the ranks. To access this info you go through the leaderboard option at the main screen and arrive at the high-score chart. From here, you can access your high-score and rank in all the difficulty settings, modes and the five stages for Standard mode. As mentioned,  it's a stable and solid system but does require a little bit of back-tracking when you just want to check your score before diving into your game... but, hey, your high-score is stored and remains at the top of the screen as you play so no real biggie. 
 

CONCLUSION

It's a shame that little games like this don't get the recognition they deserve. For all the Geometry Wars and Bug Princesses of this world you get the sleeping heroes like Procyon and Steel Rain tucked meekly away in the corner. Such is the way of the world, but I'll certainly sound the horn and encourage 2D shooter enthusiasts to take up their joysticks and give this side-scroller a whirl. There is even a practice mode with infinite lives for those who want to test out their strategies. Furthermore, its story is kept mercifully short by the cursory narrator who quickly mumbles his way through it, perhaps giving a quick nod in acknowledging that a story in a 2D shooter is kind of rubbish anyway. Thankfully, the game most definitely isn't.