Games of the Abstract: Boogie Wings (1992)

 

Developer: Data East

Publisher: Data East

One or Two Players

Arcade

 

Data East is becoming a developer/publisher I am growing fonder of, though sadly a game like Boogie Wings is among the list of M.A.M.E. arcade titles that are not financially available to purchase and appreciate. Only M.A.M.E. itself has preserved this, a way to preserve and play arcade games that, whilst bordering on a grey area, exists for this issue that a lot of arcade history is not preserved or readily available commercially to appreciate. Boogie Wings never got a console port over the decades, and it is tragically the kind of machine likely to be lost, more so as this is a little gem bringing some playful and very creative touches to the horizontal scrolling shooter. This would be a game I happily paid money to its rights owner to own and play official, as it stands out as a game bringing so much personality to the table. Beyond the desire there to preserve all video games, this one can be argued to be superior to scrolling shooters which are more readily available.

A period pulp pastiche, your dashing male hero has to take on a mad scientist and his technologically advanced army in a bi-plane, but this takes a very idiosyncratic position with the game type including the fact there is run n gun elements to the proceedings. Set in the early 20th century in North America, the aesthetic from a Japanese game is bang on the money, including a fight effectively on Coney Island, as you and the hero have the choice after the first level, barring the final stage, of choosing which of the five stages you do first and subsequently. That is not really idiosyncratic to this game, a touch other arcade games of multiple genres have welcomed, but for a horizontal shooter, immediately once you get into the air, you notice your trusted (and replenishable) red bi-plane has quirks, or both of them if two player is activated and a blue bi-plane is there as backup. One such detail is the fact that you cannot shoot automatically in an endless stream, but that it eventually stops the bullets and needs to the pressed for short bursts, contrasted by the ability to increase a gauge and set off an electric attack, screen filling, if with caution in use. Even more idiosyncratic is the hook swinging off the back, which has its own physics as you move. Each level (or life) has a bomb attached to this hook which, as with any object, can be dropped with a button or you can just swing the hook into an enemy. Far more interest comes when the hook, sans bomb, can pick up enemy vehicles, enemies in general, more bombs or certain environmental objects to either swing or drop at the other opponents. Other planes, snowmen, bystanders who can survive drops without harm, even a dinosaur skull or two are among the items you can smack into others with the hook swings.

If you are shot down, you still have the chance to continue, left as the lead himself (unless still in the air and thus with a flying bicycle) running around shooting people, even able to make Mario jealous as even jumping on a tank has a jumping squash ability as dangerous as picking up giant bombs and objects instantly, throwing them at people. He is however vulnerable to one shot though, which is why thankfully you have a wide array of vehicles you can pilot if stuck in this state. Tanks, robots, pogo sticks, even elephants in what feels like a proto-Metal Slug vehicle selection in even how the firing mechanics, which is directional to your movement, feels absolutely a predecessor to that legendary SNK franchise. Boogie Wings, once you get past the first level, opens up to become more memorable once you reach the five selectable levels, among are some of the best of this genre and others in how they stand out. Aesthetically, the game is incredible, with even bystanders in the background, from people to dogs minding their own business, adding humour and flavor to the proceedings among the chaos, whilst the levels themselves have their own creativity.

Kong Island is a representation of Coney Island where, from the middle of a street parade to an amusement park, you are fighting around a loose and rolling Ferris wheel, and then dealing with a memorable boss of a Frankenstein robot with ghouls and chuckable coffins. One level is a museum, where the dinosaur skulls come in, a fun level where destroying history eventually leading to a literal Trojan Horse as a boss with flamethrower capacity. Even a more innocuous level, in a Detroit motorcar plant, has its own personality, including an obstacle course of multiple routes in and out such a factory. This level potentially has a licensing issue for the game all these years too: named “Detroit Rock City”, it is clearly named by a member of the Data East team or few who are fans of KISS, the cult rock band, and the score for this level even pastiches that song’s riff in the opening bars before it goes into its own rhythm, multiple times in the level.

There are two levels by themselves which count among two of the best levels you could ever encounter too. One of them involves having to be on foot, storming a flying cargo plane, which is an incredible extended set piece in terms of gameplay and the technological creativity to pull off, including the set piece involving turbulence which forces one to float-and-gun mid air between floating cargo crates, piloting a floating robot or even an elephant in the chaos is you pull yourself towards one. The other is just a great Christmas level, beautiful looking as a seasonal level, grappling Christmas banners and street ornaments, cutting through tall buildings and underground, even avoiding one building collapsing downwards into the caverns, before you encounter as a boss a giant evil Santa robot.

Even with the final level, more an obstacle course through clockwork you have to shoot through, this presents a fun twist needing spoiler warning…you can listen to the villain's justification for his plans for creating a robot army, and you can choose to either fight him, which means fighting a H.G. Welles’ like Time Machine with him and his lackeys, or decide to side with him, which replays a previous level or two before you become friends. That is a fun touch to a game oozing with style. It’s sense of humour even comes in with a reference to a character named Santos from Date East’s Trio the Punch (1990),  represented by a statue you find multiple times and, yes, can hook and swing at enemies, which is hilarious in that Trio the Punch is probably, behind the unreleased Tattoo Assassins (1994) from their pinball division, the strangest game they ever released and clearly one even back here they found pride in, the closest to a stream of consciousness and full blown surrealism as a scrolling beat-em-up. Sadly the obscurity of Boogie Wings, trapped in a phantom zone like countless arcade games from this era, is horrible, but the legacy of M.A.M.E. and word of mouth made Boogie Wings stand out. If any amateur review can help get more interest in Boogie Wings, I will be glad to publish this as this is a game that deserves preservation as a gem from this era and format.

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Addendum (01-01-2022): There is an official release for Boogie Wings in the West, but unfortunately, it is an expensive format and with the game still unavailable on home consoles or computers officially. AtGames, a North American company founded in 2001, have been releasing full arcade cabinets or mini arcade consoles that include games from a variety of different licensors, one of which is Data East with Boogie Wings among the titles included. An example, the AtGames Legends Gamer Mini Arcade Console, is linked to for an example of one of these, but these are (like the Arcade1Up cabinets) an expensive luxury, and that is even considering the one I referenced is a cheaper model. AtGames is not a company with the goal of selling these titles separately, and I would not expect this demand from a company who specialise in big luxury entertainment machines you can buy for your home, but a license for the games separately to be created with its own terms for home systems. An actual console release of Boogie Wings, outside these luxury cabinets for hardcore arcade fans or actual arcades, is still not available and something that needs to be changed, but thankfully, this at least means Boogie Wings is not a "lost" title, merely one in dire need of a proper home console release.