If you’re a fan of shmups, especially horizontal shmups, you’ve probably heard of Thunder Force III. For that matter, you’ve probably played Lightening Force, R-Type, Gradius, and a host of other classic horizontal, side scrolling shoot-em-ups. However, if you’re not an importer from way back, there are a host of Japanese shmups that never saw the light of day in the West or at best saw limited releases.
One of those shooters was Gleylancer, also known as Advanced Busterhawk Gleylancer, a Sega Mega Drive horizontal shmup created by Masaya, the company also responsible for creating the Langrisser strategy series recently remastered for Nintendo Switch (our review of Langrisser I & II) and Vixen 357, a mech strategy game mostly known only to hardcore strategy enthusiasts. Gleylancer is a product of its age, a horizontal shmup with parallax scrolling backgrounds, anime-inspired cut scenes, and a grueling difficulty level. In the West, the game was eventually released on the Wii Virtual Console over a decade ago to little fanfare. However, for shmup fans, the love never went away and in 2019, Columbus Circle reprinted the original Mega Drive game in Japan and even managed to get new art from the original artist for the cover. Aside from that small release however, Gleylancer has languished in relative obscurity for almost 30 years.
Fortunately, Ratalaika Games has recently managed to gain the license for Gleylancer and have released a Switch version of the game at the bargain basement price of $7. The immediate concern is of course how good the port is, but fear not! It turns out Gleylancer on the Switch is a pretty solid affair with a good amount of replay value, excellent options, and tight controls! In Gleylancer, you follow Lucia, the daughter of a space fleet commander. You steal an experimental fighter and set off to save your dad from the clutches of a powerful alien armada. While the plot is fairly thin, it’s still enjoyable and the devs have updated the English from previous releases. The cinemas are largely good for their age and the overall design feels much akin to a lost episode of Robotech or the like. But let’s be honest. You’re not here for the storyline. You’re here because you want a new shmup!
Gleylancer provides a modified traditional shmup experience. When starting the game, you choose the firing pattern your options will take and they stay in that formation for the entirety of the game. There are seven weapon formation options and some are definitely more challenging to use than others! Additionally, there are seven different weapons in the game, providing a variety of firing possibilities ranging from laser swords to reflecting bullets and more. Collecting a different powerup changes the glowing outline of your ship as well, giving a visual indicator which weapon you have, even though the shots themselves are quite distinctive. Finally, unlike some other shmups, you can also adjust the speed of your ship to whichever preference you desire. There are four speed settings ranging from slow to blistering fast, and some levels will definitely require you to shift on the fly! There are 10 stages in the game and a fairly challenging final boss battle, but getting that far will require both skill and dedication. Level design is solid as well, presenting a wide variety of space, planetary, and even omni-directional approaches that keep players engaged throughout the game.
The true appeal of Gleylancer however is its difficulty. This is a game that leaves very little room for error and in the original game, only the most elite players could progress without spamming continues. Even continuing, making it an entire stage and surviving the boss is a challenge and knowledge of the levels, bullet patterns, and abilities of your ship are integral to success! When you add in the complex parallax scrolling, background details in levels, the small size of most enemy bullets, the large hitbox for your ship and the fact that touching any background structure or enemy instantly destroys you, Gleylancer is surprisingly difficult! It’s no small wonder that the game got mixed reviews in its original release, even though it’s an absolutely gorgeous game with quite a few unique features.
Don’t let all that turn you off however! Ratalaika has pulled out all the stops on Gleylancer, an admirable feat on a game this reasonably priced! In addition to including the entire original Japanese game, they have thoughtfully remastered the whole game with modern players and casual gamers in mind, creating a Modern mode which contains save states, a rewind feature, analog control, and multiple video options including a stretch function. With the rewind feature, you can practice complex fights or areas strewn with enemies, improving your game to the point that the original Japanese version becomes much more approachable, or if you prefer, simply rewind yourself out of deaths and slink through the whole game to victory! Mange to beat the game and a hard mode unlocks as well, offering even more replay challenge. What’s more, Cheater mode unlocks upon completion of the game, allowing for invincibility, autofire with no button presses, a stage select, and even missiles that are not present in the original game outside of debug mode. It’s an absolute plethora of options that allow for every skill level of gamer to enjoy all that Gleylancer has to offer!
In addition to all of the new modes, saves, options, and updated English, Gleylancer also boasts full HD graphics, cleaning up the original Mega Drive game and making all the detail from the vintage pixel art pop like never before. The cinemas are surprisingly crisp, the dialogue fonts are clear and easy to read, and the entire package just looks great! On top of that, the original soundtrack is preserved and still hits like it did when the game first came out, with solid chiptunes that’ll have your tapping along with the beat while you blast through waves of alien attackers!
With 3 modes, 10 levels, a ton of options, and a whole new coat of paint, it’s impossible not to recommend Gleylancer to anyone who even remotely enjoys shmups. This is a truly fantastic game with some excellent level designs. If there are any real negatives to be had it’s that some of the boss fights are rather short and uninspired even if the sprites are excellent. But the meat of the game is level design here and there are enough decent boss fights that you’ll more than make up for that shortcoming with the amount of time you simply spend ogling at the environments alone! There is absolutely no question that Gleylancer is worth your time and money and Ratalaika has knocked it out of the park with this modern update to a classic that few gamers are even familiar with! And Ratalaika, if you’re reading this, now’s the time to look at Eliminate Down!
This review was based on a digital copy of Gleylancer provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and was absolutely excellent in both. Gleylancer is also available for Playstation 4 and Xbox One. All screenshots are of actual gameplay.
