Advanced Busterhawk Gley Lancer

For the 2019 aftermarket re-release, see Advanced Busterhawk Gley Lancer (Columbus Circle). For the other aftermarket re-release, see Advanced Busterhawk Gley Lancer (Retro-Bit).

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Advanced Busterhawk Gley Lancer
System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Virtual Console
Publisher: Masaya
Developer: NCS M2
Genre: Shooting
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1992-07-17 ¥8,300 (8,549)8,300e T-25123 KR 199x GM8050JT JP ▼ 2008-02-26 600pts600 US ▼ 2008-07-21 900pts900 EU ▼ 2008-05-16 900pts900 AU ▼ 2008-05 900pts900

Advanced Busterhawk Gley Lancer, commonly known as Gleylancer (グレイランサー), is a Sega Mega Drive shoot-'em-up game developed by NCS and published by Masaya. Originally released in Japan in July 1992, it was later ported to the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console in 2008 by developer M2, and received a reprint in June 2019 by publisher Columbus Circle.

The name "Gley Lancer" is a misromanization of "grey lancer".

Story

Lucia

Lucia (ルーシア) is the 16-year-old daughter of a fighter pilot who disappears while fighting a war between humans and aliens in 2025. He was captured by aliens whom he had captured earlier who had the ability to teleport. Lucia hijacks the prototype fighter CSH-01-XA "Gley Lancer" (グレイランサー) to save him.

Gameplay

Mover system select

The game is a side-scrolling shoot-'em-up. The Gley Lancer is a standalone ship that moves in any direction with the D-Pad. It can change its speed with . It shoots straight ahead with , which can be held down for rapid-fire.

Up to two Gunner (ガンナー) sub-ships can be acquired and attached to the main ship. They are invulnerable and fire in any direction with the main ship. Before starting a game, the player is given a choice of how to maneuver Gunners around the ship and aim them:

• Normal: The Gunners face in the same direction that the ship is moving. While is held down, the facing of the Gunners is locked, regardless of how the ship moves.
• Reverse: Like Normal, except that the Gunners face the opposite direction of the ship's movement.
• Search: The Gunners automatically aim at the nearest enemy. Pressing toggles between the Gunners aiming at the same or different targets.
• Multi: Each Gunner is restricted to either the top or bottom 180-degree arc of the ship. Horizontal motion causes the Gunners to swivel in that direction. Although this prevents concentrated fire in any direction except the horizontals, it permits three-way firing. Holding , or only moving vertically, keeps the Gunners aiming in the same directions.
• Multi-R: Like Multi, except the Gunners swivel in the direction opposite to the ship's horizontal motion.
• Shadow: The Gunners imitate every motion of the ship, following a short distance behind. However, they can only fire forward. Holding fixes their positions relative to the ship.
• Roll: The Gunners constantly spin around the ship at 180 degrees from each other. Normally, they shoot away from each other, resulting in a kind of spiral fire pattern. Pressing toggles between this and the Gunners both firing forward.

The player can find special items that change the weapons of both Gunners. The Gley Lancer itself always has the same basic weapon.

The Gley Lancer is destroyed if it takes damage from an enemy. It respawns at a predetermined checkpoint at the cost of a life and without any Gunners. The game ends if the player runs out of lives.

Weapons

	Twin Shot (ツイン)
	Fires a rapid stream of double blue energy pulses.
	Laser (レーザー)
	Fires thin white lasers. Not quite as powerful as Twin Shot, but pierces enemies and inflicts multiple strikes on large enemies.
	5-Way
	Shoots an arc of five purple energy pulses. Although the range is excellent, it suffers from a low fire rate: only one salvo from each Gunner can be on-screen at once.
	Burner (バーナー)
	Shoots moderate-range fireballs that can track along any solid surfaces they strike.
	Spread Bomb (スプレッド)
	Shoots flickering blue bombs. The bombs have low speed and fire rate, but create secondary explosions upon striking an enemy or solid surface.
	Saber (セイバー)
	Generates a continuous, mid-range beam of purple energy.
	Bound Shot (バウンド)
	Fires a stream of rapid green energy pulses that reflect off of solid surfaces.

Items

If the player has only one or no Gunners, collecting a weapon item equips another Gunner.

	Item Container
	Destroy to release an item.
	Twin Shot
	Arms Gunners with the Twin Shot weapon.
	Laser
	Arms Gunners with the Laser weapon.
	5-Way
	Arms Gunners with the 5-Way weapon.
	Burner
	Arms Gunners with the Burner weapon.
	Spread Bomb
	Arms Gunners with the Spread Bomb weapon.
	Saber
	Arms Gunners with the Saber weapon.
	Bound Shot
	Arms Gunners with the Bound Shot weapon.
	1-Up
	Gives the player an extra life.

Stages

	Stage 1
	Stage 2
	Stage 3
	Stage 4
	Stage 5
	Stage 6
	Stage 7
	Stage 8
	Stage 9
	Stage 10
	Stage 11

History

Legacy

In 2006, the game received an English translation by fan translation group M.I.J.E.T.

The game was re-released on Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console in 2008. It was ported by developer M2. The manual of this version includes translation of the Japanese voice and the cutscene text.

The game received a reprint in June 2019 by publisher Columbus Circle.

In 2021, it was released on the Nintendo Switch, Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. This version adds save states and rewind functions as well as the ability to aim the Gunners independently using an analogue stick. It also translates all of the cutscene text into English.

Production credits

• Producer: Toshiro Tsuchida
• Planning: Hikaru Sato
• Program: Yukihiro Higuchi
• Scroll: Eiji Koyama
• Object: Hiroshi Hayashi
• Music / Sound Effects: Cube, Yoshiaki Kubodera, Masanori Hikichi, Isao Mizoguchi, Noriyuki Iwadare
• Creator: Kaichi Satou
• Character Design: Hiroshi Aizawa
• Original Art / Animation: Hitoshi Kamata
• Visual Graphics: Masanori Sakurai, Hiroshi Hayashi
• Business Promotion: Masaki Uchida, Jun Mimura, Yasuaki Yokoe, Kyoko Katagiri
• Sales Promotion: Akio Matsuda, Norihiko Yonesaka, Kazuhiro Matsuda
• P.R.: Takashi Kikuchi, Hideo Iwasaki
• Cooperation: Manabu Takasugi, Tetsuya Ohya, Masayuki Iwamoto, Hideo Suzuki, Takayuki Jingu
• Executive Producer: Yasumasa Shirakura
• Gleylancer Produced by: Nippon Computer Systems Co. Ltd.

Source:

In-game credits

Magazine articles

Main article: Advanced Busterhawk Gley Lancer/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1992-04: "April 1992" (1992-03-07)

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1992-05: "May 1992" (1992-04-08)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 60 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 40 Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 68 Consoles + (FR) 87 Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide (UK) 48 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 55 Game Mania (UK) NTSC-J 89 Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J 60 Joypad (FR) 90 Joystick (FR) NTSC-J 89 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) NTSC-J 89 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) NTSC-J 89 Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J 69 Mega (UK) NTSC-J 72 Mega Fun (DE) NTSC-J 70 MegaTech (UK) NTSC 72 Mean Machines Sega (UK) NTSC-J 48 Sega Power (UK) NTSC-J 82 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-J 88 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-J 85 Sega Force (UK) NTSC-J 79 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 74 Supergame (BR) NTSC-J 85 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 74 Video Games (DE) 80

	74
Based on 25 reviews

Advanced Busterhawk Gley Lancer

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, KR
Cover
Cart

Technical information

Main article: Advanced Busterhawk Gley Lancer/Technical information.

External links

• Sega of Japan Virtual Console pages: Mega Drive
• Nintendo catalogue pages: US, UK, AU
• Sega of Japan Project Egg pages: Mega Drive
• English translation patch by M.I.J.E.T. at Minimalist Jettison
• Advanced Busterhawk Gley Lancer Japanese to English manual translation at www.vgcomplete.com