So in 2018 I went about the task of trying to play Every Single Game Ever Made for the Sega Genesis. It took me a long time, but I finally finished last year. And while I already knew a lot of games, it was a good way to find out some games that just… blindsided me. This is one of those games.

title screen

Advanced Busterhawk Gleylancer, or just Gleylancer, is shmup for the Mega Drive (Or Genesis if you’re me) made in 1992 by NCS, a very well-experienced team you probably have never heard of. If you’ve heard of ANYTHING they’ve made, it’s Langrisser, its probably their most well known series. It’s quite good. This game is nothing like that.

I never cared for Shmups much before I did my Genesis Quest. Kinda just thought they were okay, maybe a little boring, but the Genesis has a LOT of amazing shmups, some of which I will absolutely talk about another time. For today, let’s discuss Gleylancer. What sets it apart? Well… not much actually. Does it have any gimmicks? Nah. Is it the best OST of all time? No, but it sure is good. Good graphics? Well yes, quite good, especially with the paralax in motion. But it’s not Ristar, the best game graphically on the Genesis. So what makes this so special? To me, Advanced Busterhawk Gleylancer is my platonic ideal for a sidescrolling shmup. It’s the basis for what every sidescrolling shmup should be, the formula to copy from.

animu

The story is simple but fun and engaging with some nice anime cutscenes. You are Lucia (ルーシア), who’s dad is a pilot fighting in a war against aliens in the far off year of 2025. Gosh I can’t wait to fight aliens in three years. Basically he becomes a prisoner of war, and even though the war is now over, they won’t give him back. She steals and experimental ship, the Gley Lancer, and goes on a one woman rampage to get her back. It’s badass as hell. More games with badass women in mech spaceships, please.

level 1

It’s a traditional sidescrolling shmup, with no real gimmicks, but a lot of customizability. At the start you have like, over 7 ways to choose your options to attack, things like changing their direction by your movement, them doing rolls, and homing, which is my favorite because I don’t have to use my brainmeats much. And then you just mow through a veritable onslaught of badguys. The only other mechanic is that you can change your ships speed for specific movements. It’s very simple, but like I said, platonic ideal.

a later level

Remember when I said earlier that I felt like shmups were kinda just boring? That’s because I grew up with things like 1942 on the NES. A game where it’s a ship that moves left and right as waves of the same enemies come at you, over and over, as the screen scrolls up with no differences to the terrain that matter. This game is not that. Platonic ideal! Levels are varied, you do have levels with no terrain just going right, but the enemy patterns and types are all varied and different. You also have levels that have twists and turns in the directions you move, and of course the bosses are all varied too! And many levels have unique gimmicks. I LOVE the level that’s just The Turbo Tunnel.

level 4 boss

All in all, it’s just a really fun time, and I highly recommend it. Now around this time is usually when I go “if you wanna get this game you can go ahead and cry because its a thousand dollars”, but this is possibly the ONLY obscure game I’ll cover that is not like that, at all!!! This game never got released outside of Japan at the time, but it sure has since then! First on the Wii, but most recently it’s been ported to the Switch, PS4/5, Xbone I guess if you actually have one of those. I’m sayin’ it’s available for only seven bucks, if you’re into that. And of course it’s easily emulatable. The new version is translated tho which is sick.

I feel like this is gonna be one of those harder sells, and honestly every time I play it I go “wait on my Genesis Quest sheet I gave this a 10/10? Is it really that good?” then I play it and yes, it is that good. It’s just the perfect version of what it is. And I think it deserves to be celebrated for that.