aka The Great Ragtime Show. A unique, highly detailed shooter from Data East.  We consider this shooter to be one of the best unrecognized shooters and there's a reason for this.

 

Boogie Wings was developed during what would be considered the Golden Years of the arcade industry.  Developed in 1992, unless you were too young to hit the arcades or lived in the boonies, you might remember that Capcom had a grip on the market.  It was pure Street Fighter mayhem, from one version to the next, the market was flooded with fighters, while shooters in general took a back seat to the fighting game genre. 

 

For this simple reason, no matter how good the shooter may have been, it just couldn't receive the attention or recognition it deserved.  The good news is, today, it's still considered a great shooter among shmup fans and now, fighting games has to take a back seat to shooters. =P

 

Having a good mix and graphics, gameplay and more importantly, it's theme is...certainly memorable and never boring.  For a shooter this old, it still stacks up well against some of today's shooters, which sports better graphics, but some lack was is important most to us...fun factor.

 

You'll notice the intro. to Boogie Wings is similarly used in intros. for another great shooter, Pro Gear no Arashi by Cave, so this game certainly had influences not only on shmup fans but other developers as well.  

 

In short, Boogie Wings was ahead of it's time as other developers, such as the Metal Slug and Cave team (if not intentionally, at least coincidentally) grabbed some ideas from it.  The theme itself is humorous, yet the game play has enough variety of weapons, ships to keep the game play fresh. 

 

Certainly a worthy shooter by all measures.  A must have for all shmup fans.