So I just discovered Boogie Wings, and it's become one of my favorite arcade shoot 'em ups ever made (and fun even for people who don't like shmups!)...

Boogie Wings (also known as "The Great Ragtime Show" in Japan) is a 1991 shoot 'em up from Data East that involves flying a World War I biplane in a world filled with airships and ground vehicles. I've played it before, but never past the first stage. And boy, was I wrong not to keep going with it - it's one of the craziest arcade games I've ever encountered, and unlike anything I've ever played. Imagine Gunstar Heroes combined with Metal Slug and U.N. Squadron and you sort of get this game, but it's also so much more.

For starters, you fly a plane equipped with a bomb on a chain. You can swing the chain around and launch the bomb at anything on the screen, and this frees up your chain to have a hook that can be used to capture enemies or other objects and fling them at other enemies. See a tank on the ground? Just pick it up and throw it at that group of planes approaching you! See a soldier who's taking potshots at you? Pick him up and drop him! See a vehicle you might want to drive later? Pick it up and carry it with you!

And that leads to the second point: when your plane gets destroyed, you hop out and start running around on foot, allowing you to pilot a staggering number of vehicles. Cars, tanks, motorcycles, missile launchers, horses, elephants, giraffes, zeppelin gliders... there are so many that the credits sequence lets you drive them all in succession if you'd like. The gameplay's never boring because the shooting isn't restricted to your biplane, and every vehicle has its own unique mechanics. Even running around on your own is a ton of fun.

The stages are non-linear and absolutely bonkers. In one of them, you blast through a museum of natural history and you can destroy the dinosaur displays inside. The end of the stage has you battling a giant Trojan Horse.

One stage involves a theme park where you go up and down roller coaster tracks and have to outrun a spinning Ferris Wheel. Another requires you to fly into an airship and destroy it from the inside out. And yet another involves going to Detroit and either blast through a war machine factory on foot or flying above it and taking out the enemies in the sky.

In the game's most notable stage, it's Christmas and you fly through a city lit up with Christmas lights while a jazzy medly of "Joy to the World / Silent Night" plays. Eventually, you have a showdown with a giant mechanical Santa Claus who opens his bag to blast you with beams.

Beyond all of that, there's a bizarre story involving a time traveler who has raised the army you're battling to prevent World Wars I and II from breaking you. He asks you to join him towards the end, and gives a rather impassioned speech about what will happen if you restore the timeline. You can destroy him if you want, or you can join him and play through the game again. It's wild.

If you've missed this one, it's available legally on Anstream Arcade and also, of course, through a ROM and emulator. I highly recommend it - it's a competent shoot 'em up and run and gun action game, but also the sort of game a person who doesn't love shoot 'em ups can enjoy.