Frontier Diver: Progenexis is a Sega Saturn styled side-scrolling subsea shoot ‘em up where you control a recon drone that can only attack enemy bullets, not the enemies themselves.
Created for the HPS1 Summer of Shivers game jam by Modus Interactive (creator of The Snow of Basidia and Frontier Diver), Frontier Diver: Progenexis is a Sega Saturn styled shoot ‘em up spin-off of Frontier Diver. In the game you take control of a research drone that’s tasked with getting recon info from Earth after it was abandoned and overrun by monstrous creatures.
As you’re a recon drone you’re not actually able to shoot the creatures, you have to dodge them. However, you can shoot and destroy the projectiles your enemies fire at you. You do get as many lives as you like to complete the game, but you get rated on how many enemy projectiles you destroy and how many lives you use (so it’s best to avoid dying as much as possible!)
Shooting bullets isn’t quite as satisfying as shooting enemies, but it’s a novel concept that does a good job of shaking up the traditional shoot ‘em up gameplay. The retro 32-bit styled aesthetics are excellent and combined with the overall presentation, you could really imagine the game playing on a Sega Saturn. The movement feels great, the audio is excellent, it’s a tough game (if you’re trying to minimize your lives lost anyway) and the final boss fight is pretty epic. See what oddities you discover in the deep blue sea.
Download Frontier Diver: Progenexis Here (Windows, Mac & Linux)