Advanced Busterhawk Gley Lancer

Overview

Advanced Busterhawk Gley Lancer, or Gleylancer, is a side-scrolling shoot 'em up developed and published by Masaya for the Japanese Mega Drive platform. As with many games developed by Masaya, it includes an elaborate introductory cutscene rendered in an anime style. This intro presents the story of the young ace pilot Lucia, who hijacks the titular starfighter to track her missing father who had been captured by alien forces.

In 2008 the game was ported to the Wii Virtual Console in all territories, marking its international debut. In 2019, retro specialists Columbus Circle released a physical reissue of the Japanese Mega Drive version with whole new box art.

Gameplay

Gley Lancer has a versatile options system (the game calls them "Movers") with seven distinct configurations that the player chooses before starting. Up to two Movers can be acquired, and the player chooses their firing and movement behavior from the following selection:

• Normal: The two Movers sit above and below the Gley Lancer, and their attack spread follows the direction the ship is moving (the C-button locks their aim in place).
• Reverse: Same as Normal, except the Movers fire in the opposite direction of the ship's movement instead (as above, C-button locks their aim in place).
• Search: The Movers automatically seek out targets, though not necessarily whichever's closest or presents the most danger (C-button changes targets).
• Multi: The Movers' attack spread is dispersed to above and below the Gley Lancer depending on which way it is moving, increasing the amount of coverage but making it harder to concentrate fire (C-button locks their aim in place).
• Multi-R: Same as Multi, but in reverse.
• Shadow: The Movers directly follow the Gley Lancer's path, similar to how options work in Gradius. This also means they can only fire forward. (Holding the C-button locks the Movers' position relative to the Gley Lancer: e.g. if the ship moves up, they will move underneath to follow its path, and holding the C-button keeps them locked in those underneath positions.)
• Roll: Movers constantly rotate around the Gley Lancer firing in all directions. (The C-button locks them so they only fire forward.)

In addition, the player can adjust the speed of the Gley Lancer at any time between four different settings. The player can also collect power-ups which changes the fire type of both the Gley Lancer and Movers.