Criminally Overlooked Games #16: Boogie Wings

Title: Boogie Wings / The Great Ragtime Show Released: 1992 Players: 1-2 Platforms: Arcade Company: Data East Genre: Insanity When you read the title "Boogie Wings", what do you think of? Platformer? Rhythym game? Shooter? Air Racing? Duck Hunt? WRONG. Seriously no, that's not even close. Well mostly. But that's ok, it's not your fault. How could you ever guess it was a Shoot em' up Platformer with hyper interactive levels? Is that even a genre? After this game it should have been. Boogie wings borrows from many, many other successful games while managing to stay charmingly unique. Fly your plane, shoot some lightning, toss tanks around with your winch, commandeer a Giraffe, foot it and throw dogs at Anti-Aircraft Guns. The world is your oyster. Incorporating a system where your shots get more powerful as you tap the button faster, the ability to grab nearly anything with your winch, diverse co-op player interactive strategies, a varied number of entirely unique things to ride, a diverse assortment of extremely unpredictable things to shoot and amazingly intricate level details ensure that even through multiple playthroughs you won't get the same game twice. The game saw wide release, but curiously only found fame among the more hardcore circles of gamers. It was never ported. But enough of my incoherent babbling, take a look for yourself. The eagle eyed among you may spot references to numerous other Data East games, including but not limited to Trio the Punch, Heavy Barrel, Joe and Mac, Break Thru and any number of others. Game was played on "Asian extreme mode" (otherwise known as normal) Thanks again to my stalwart Player 2 gaming companion, the ever courageous Mowtendoo.