Gley Lancer

About Gley Lancer

Gley Lancer (1992) is NCS's Japan-only Mega Drive shoot 'em up in which a young woman steals a starfighter to rescue her missing admiral father, notable for satellite gunners whose formation the player chooses.

Gley Lancer in Depth

Lucia Cabrock's father, Earth Federation Navy admiral Ken, has disappeared in a war between humanity and an alien race that can teleport. On hearing the news, Lucia and her friend Teim steal the Gley Lancer starfighter to save him. The player flies it through nine stages over constantly scrolling backgrounds full of enemies and obstacles, with the scenery stopping only when a boss is reached.

The key mechanic is a pair of satellite options called Gunners, activated by shooting silver and blue pods to collect weapons. Both Gunners always carry the same weapon, and each new power-up replaces it for both. At the start, the player picks one of seven formations for the Movers the Gunners are mounted on, determining how they position and aim, and during play the ship cycles through four speeds in a 1-2-3-4-3-2 order, with the starting speed set in the options. Hardcore Gaming 101's Kurt Kalata felt that the ability to aim its weapons opened new doors for shooters, making every other game seem "so strict".

Making Gley Lancer

NCS Corporation, founded by Masaya Fujita in 1980 and known under its Masaya brand for Assault Suits, Langrisser and Cho Aniki, developed Gley Lancer, with Hikaru Satō as planner, Yukihiro Higuchi as main programmer and Hiroshi Aizawa drawing the characters. Masaya published it for the Mega Drive in Japan on 17 July 1992, and Samsung released it in South Korea. Reception was mixed, mostly from import reviews: critics praised its presentation, story introduction and cut-scenes, while views on its sprites, sound and length differed, and MegaTech recommended Thunder Force IV instead. It reached the Wii Virtual Console worldwide in 2008, which brought mostly positive reviews, though Eurogamer found little to set it apart. Kalata ranked it alongside Thunder Force IV and MUSHA among the Mega Drive's best shooters. Columbus Circle reissued the cartridge in 2019 and 2022, and Ratalaika Games' 2021 port with save states and stick aiming received generally favourable reviews.