Gleylancer

Whatever the mode, there’s no doubt Gleylancer’s a brilliant 16-bit shmup. The game’s fantastic use of parallax scrolling adds not only speed but excitement to its varied eleven stages; taking you down through icy depths, weaving between small gaps in tight tunnels, slowly looping around a gigantic battleship, or hurtling through an asteroid field. The ways your Movers — the floating gun turrets that follow your ship — can behave are so different from one another they have a direct impact on how you tackle everything from “popcorn” enemies to end of level bosses, and the newfound flexibility o...

A great retro style shoot ‘em up with beautiful visuals and a large selection of weapons and a bunch of replayability. I just wish the game was longer as it felt like it was over in no time!

At its budget price ($6.99 at the time of writing), this game is an absolute no-brainer for shmup fans. I would argue that it’s a great option for genre newcomers as well, with its relatively easy opening levels before the difficulty really ramps up. As I continue my exploration of retro shmups, I’m glad this one fell into my hands.

Sega Genesis sure had a ton of excellent shoot 'em ups and Gley Lancer is one of them so let's fly back to 1992 and check it out.

And so the core gameplay of Gley Lancer likely isn't going to be the thing that motivates anyone to complete a 900 Wii Point purchase of the title, as there are plenty of other, more well-known 16-bit shooters already on offer in the Shop (and at lesser prices). Make the nine dollar commitment, then, if you're a fan of those other shooters but you just need something new to play, if you find the concept of the game's Gunner movement or speed adjustments interesting, or if you just can't get enough of screaming, wild, off-the-wall anime girls. Goodness knows that Gley Lancer's Lucia is ...