You're riding in a biplane from some unknown era, over some unknown town...
- "It's time for The Great Ragtime Show!"
… and what an amazingly fun time it is.
Boogie Wings (also known as The Great Ragtime Show in its initial release) is a 1992 side-scrolling Horizontal Scrolling Shooter / Run-and-Gun hybrid arcade game made by Data East, and one of their most ridiculously over-the-top - and entertaining - titles to boot.
Set in the Golden Age of Aviation, a Mad Scientist (simply known in-game as the professor) and his private army is attempting to attack various cities in the middle of a World Fair. You are a maverick pilot and aviator, who uncovered the professor's plans, only for his army to attack your hangar. Luckily your prized biplane is nearby, loaded with weapons, and you then take off to pursue the villain.
Expectedly, as a DataEast game in the vein of Trio the Punch... Boogie Wings is as insane as it is fun, delivering a colorful assortment of stage designs, enemy varieties and power-ups for the players. Besides turrets, your biplane also comes equipped with an underbelly grappling hook called the "skyhook" for grabbing onscreen objects and throwing them on enemies; should you lose your plane, you can continue kicking ass on foot and hijack enemy equipment or ride on animals. The stage designs are as creative as the onscreen enemies, with the bosses including a robotic Santa, a weaponized Trojan Horse and an armored time machine.
Boogie Wings contain examples of:
- Ace Pilot: You get to play as an expert aviator who kicks plenty of ass while riding atop a biplane, your default vehicle right at the start of each level.
- Amusement Park: "Konyi Island" is set on one, presumably in New York's Coney Island. In the middle of a street parade, no less! And expectedly, the gigantic Ferris Wheel will suddenly break off and become an Advancing Wall of Doom you need to outrun.
- Animal Mecha: Several enemy planes are designed based on winged animals, including robotic bats and pterodactyls. Also, a robotic Trojan Horse.
- An Asskicking Christmas: "Merry Merry Christmas" is set in Christmas Eve, with plenty of Christmas ornaments and decorations dotted all over the stage while you destroy hordes and hordes of enemies in the foreground. With a cheery 8-bit rendition of "Joy to the World" as background music and a gigantic Robot Santa serving as the boss.
- Bad Santa: "Merry Merry Christmas" ends with a battle against a giant Santa mecha as its boss, who can throw exploding presents from his sack. He's even named "Satan Claus".
- Clown-Car Base: Mobile bunkers on wheels will continuously spawn enemy units, including tanks, trucks, robots and the like (often with a stream of ground infantry) until they're destroyed.
- Collapsing Lair: The game actually opens with one scenario like this, where your hangar gets attacked by the professor's private army and begins crumbling around you. But you outrun the falling debris, hop into your plane, and flies out the structure to take on your attackers.
- Continuity Cameo: The first level has a golden statue of Santos from an earlier DataEast game, Trio the Punch. Which, like everything else, can be grabbed and flung into enemies.
- Cool Airship: "Transporter" have you infiltrating the heavily-guarded airship fortress belonging to the professor (via biplane) and pulling a Battleship Raid once you broke in, with most of the stage being set inside said airship. There are smaller airships serving Giant Mook roles in a few areas, and a couple of mobile, single-person airships you can hijack in the final stage if you happen to be on foot.
- Cool Plane: Your default vehicle at the start of each stage is a heavily-armed, gadget-laden biplane with a grappling hook underneath, which allows you to take on entire armies of enemies. Should you lose the biplane, you're allowed to jettison your ride and continue kicking ass on foot or hijack another vehicle, but if you die while on foot and still have extra lives you then respawn with a new biplane in top condition.
- Dangerously Loaded Cargo: There's a stage where you infiltrate a Cool Airship by blowing a hole through the cargo hold, causing the entire vehicle to depressurize and sending everything—you, enemy mooks, and various cargo including crates and parked vehicles—flung about.
- Die, Chair, Die!: Every single bit of exterior environment, if it can be interacted with, can be destroyed. From street signs to potted plants and amusement park statues - for bnous points, try snatching them with the skyhook and drop them on mooks.
- Drill Tank: The professor's army have several of these, having four drills attached to their fronts which they'll try using on you.
- Epic Flail:
- One of the power-ups you can obtain for your biplane, which turns the skyhook into a spiked ball on a chain.
- The Frankenstein's monster boss from "Konyi Island" uses one larger than automobiles as a ranged attack.
- Fastball Special: A possible attack you can pull off in two-player mode, thanks to Gameplay Ally Immortality. You can grab a friend's vehicle and fling it into enemies, causing damage only on mooks. Or, if the other player is on foot, you can let your partner cling on your skyhook and launch him to a higher area.
- Frankenstein's Monster: A gigantic robotic version of the Frankenstein monster is a boss of "Konyi Island", fought in what was presumably the amusement park's haunted house.
- Free-Fall Fight: Halfway into "Transporter" as you're battling enemy soldiers on foot, the airship suddenly starts losing altitude and began dropping from the sky. Leading to a moment where gravity suddenly ceases, with everything in the stage (yourself included) flung like a ragdoll and you'll need to shoot at enemies while stumbling all over the area.
- Giant Mook: The professor's private army have several massive vehicles that absolutely dwarves your biplane, including bombers, airships, mobile fortresses, and assorted enemies that takes up plenty of space onscreen and requires quite some effort to destroy.
- Grappling-Hook Pistol: Your default plane have one of these, called a "skyhook", allowing you to snatch enemies and throw them upon each other. It even works on lifting tanks larger than your biplane.
- Ground by Gears: The final stage in the professor's hideout have giant cogs that can pulp you instantly, costing you a life if you're caught in it.
- Invulnerable Civilians: There are multiple levels set in the middle of cities with civilains onscreen (for instance, "Konyi Island" having a shootout in the middle of a street parade filled with floats). None of the bystanders can be affected by bullets or missiles, either from you or the enemies.
- Macross Missile Massacre:
- At least two enemy vehicles you can hijack are equipped entirely with missile turrets, capable of firing rockets at rapid pace and spamming the screen with projectiles.
- The robotic Frankenstein's monster can unleash a whole barrage of missiles at you via his Backpack Cannon.
- Madness Mantra: Satan Claus will repeatedly growl "Merry Christmas!" for the entirety of the boss battle until it's destroyed. It even continues its mantra when its head is blown off, until you grab the head via skyhook and fling it into its body.
- Mad Scientist: An unnamed one (that the game simply calls "the Professor") serves as the Big Bad, with his various war machines out there threatening the world's safety, and it's up to you to stop him.
- Money Mauling: You can uncover gigantic bags of cash lying around, and if you happen to be in your biplane with the skyhook active, grab and smash them into mooks. The impact will deal damage on your enemies and spill some coins for you to collect for points.
- Museum Level: "Imperial Science Museum" takes place in one large enough for your biplane to fly in. You can even blow up a stegasaurus skeleton and a stuffed T-Rex, and pick up the T-Rex's head via skyhook and fling it at enemies!
- Night of the Living Mooks: The amusement park-themed "Konyi Island" ends with its last area being the park's haunted house attraction, and somehow there are ghosts and zombies serving as enemies. Which can somehow be destroyed by firearms and missiles.
- Nameless Narrative: None for the main characters. The villain is simply called "the professor", while your pilot protagonist isn't referred by name at any point.
- Powered Armor: Gigantic robot suits are among the arsenal used by the professor's private army. Though there are areas where you can hijack them for yourself.
- Power Up Mount: While on foot, you can hop on animals like horses, giraffes or elephants, and ride on them while kicking ass.
- Shock and Awe: The default biplane have a Smart Bomb that generates an electric shockwave damaging every enemy around it, accessible by tapping the shoot button quickly when the energy gauge in the lower part of the interface is at maximum. It's effective in taking out large numbers of enemies, but using it excessively will lead to overheating to the biplane engines.
- Sink The Life Boats: A rare instance where you, the "hero", gets to pull this off. During aerial dogfight segments most destroyed enemy planes will often have the pilot bailing via parachute, and you're free to shoot them while they're in mid-air. Or, alternatively, snatch them using the skyhook and throw them into another plane.
- Spread Shot: You can obtain a weapons upgrade (either in your biplane or on foot) that turns your fired shots into wide spreads of five.
- Surprise Santa Encounter: No, we don't mean Satan Claus... that's a gigantic Santa Claus mecha made by the professor to fight you. But at the end of the boss battle, the real Santa Claus can be seen flying across the background.
- Throw the Mook at Them: Thanks to your biplane's skyhook, you can lift and drop enemies on one another. Especially useful when it comes to boss battles, which deals far better damage than bullets.
- Time Machine: When you finally confront the professor in the final area, you're in time to witness his latest invention, an armored time-travelling ship which he intends to use and travel to the future to change the world to his liking. You do not allow him to do that, and so the professor takes off with you in pursuit, the Final Boss battle being you trying to destroy the professor's time-traveling craft before it dissappears.
- Two-Faced: Satan Claus initially appears as a jolly, laughing old elf just like in classical depictions, even as it starts launching attacks from his sack of presents. But as the battle goes on his face then sinks in and flips around, to reveal a demonic green face instead.
- Underside Ride: On two-player mode, when one player is on foot and another still have the biplane. We did mention you can cling on the skyhook of a friend's plane and continue kicking ass while being swung around, right?
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Face it, you're going to have a lot of crazy fun with that skyhook when piloting your default plane. Not only could you grab enemy vehicles or the environment and use it to your advantage, but you're also allowed to grab flesh-and-blood mooks, watch them squirm while skewered to your hook (still alive!) and swing them around before dropping them with a splat. Or lift a tank and drop it on a group of terrified, fleeing human enemies, turning the scene into a Mook Horror Show. Your call.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: The unnamed professor appears in person as early as the middle of "Transporter", where you confront him in a section inside the airship. But he bails before you can attack, and you're interrupted by the airship falling apart and needs to escape; you face him again in the final level.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The reason behind the professor's attack, which you found out in the penultimate stage - the professor had made his own Time Machine and travelled to the future, only to witness the aftermath of war (presumably World War II) and realize there isn't hope for humanity in the dark ages to come. He then intends to change the present using technology from the future, leading to the crazy assortments of robots and mechas you encountered throughout the game, and him even offering you a We Can Rule Together option towards the end.
