Two Classic Sega Shooters Blast Their Way to Virtual Console

A pair of classic side-scrolling shooters from the Sega Genesis are coming to the Virtual Console this week. We hope you've got a case of Mountain Dew and your twitch reflexes ready, because these games will demand every ounce of retro skill you possess.

Super Fantasy Zone was the final entry in the Fantasy Zone series, which debuted on the original Sega Master System and arcades in 1986. The series was fairly unique for its time, because it gave the player more freedom of movement than normal for a side-scrolling shooter. In Super Fantasy Zone, players must progress through a series of stages, wiping out "Enemy Generators" and level bosses in order to collect gold. Gold can be used in the various shops scattered throughout the stages to purchase weapons and other upgrades. Despite the game's unusual and surreal graphical look, it delivered a strong shmup experience on the Genesis, and now on the Wii.

Gley Lancer (left) and Super Fantasy Zone (right) are now available on the Virtual Console.

The second game, Gley Lancer, was an extremely popular side-scroller that never made it outside of Japan. This game is a more traditional shooter, in the same vein as R-Type. In the year 2025, a war breaks out between humans and a hostile alien race, and 16-year-old Lucia and the rest of the starfighter pilots in the Earth Federation must join the battle. When Lucia's father is kidnapped by the aliens, she decides to take action and hijacks a brand new prototype starfighter, the Gley Lancer, in order to try to save him. In this side-scrolling shooter, step into the cockpit of the Gley Lancer as Lucia, rescue your father and destroy the evil aliens that are bent on destroying the human race.

Despite its somewhat mundane plot, Gley Lancer was innovative for its gameplay mechanics. Players could accumulate up to two independent satellite drones that would surround their main ship, and could be aimed in any direction, adding a new layer of strategy to the action.

Both Gley Lancer and Super Fantasy Zone can be purchased using the Virtual Console for 900 Wii points.