The hero pilots his red (or blue if there's a second player) bi-plane by default, which shoots an upgradeable machine gun, can create a damaging lightning force field by tapping the primary button extremely fast (and I'm not exagerating), and also upgrade its speed by collecting power-ups.
But here's when Data East's shooter breaks the mold. The bi-plane's rear is equipped with a skyhook so strong it can hook and carry almost anything that appears onscreen: from tiny enemy soldiers to huge tanks, from small house furniture to the town's lamp posts and statues, from mid-flight enemy aircraft to incoming missiles and airborne bombs; and the list goes on and on. Developers made a point of creating over a hundred different objects (be it an inanimate part of the background or a moving, active sprite) that can be picked up automatically by flying over it with the hook. A secondary button acts as the hook's release, and combining it with a rhythmic circular motion of the joystick means one can swing the attached object off screen or into unsuspecting enemies. Either exploding upon contact or breaking apart to reveal other items or power-ups inside.
You could say the skyhook is Boogie Wings' gimmicky way to set it apart from other shoot'em-ups, and you'll be partly right. What other game let's a player swing dogs, couches, and town people into end-of-level bosses and enemy formations? Yet this entirely original mechanic takes at least a couple of quarters to master. Just a tad harder than learning how to effectively control R-Type's, Last Resort's, or Prehistoric Isle's pod for the first time.
Still, the hook is only half the game's charm. The player's bi-plane can take a couple of hits before bursting into flames, at which point its brave pilot jumps off and continues on foot! He's completely vulnerable and will loose a life if hit by a bullet or squashed by something bigger than him; yet he can jump, shoot in 8 directions, and pick up and throw most of the previously mentioned objects, suddenly turning Boogie Wings into a sidescrolling platformer.
Lastly and more importantly, he also gains the ability to climb onto and control an incredibly large, unprecedented number of not only war vehicles but also animals and other unlikely means of transportation like mopeds and pogo sticks. The variety of these is wide enough to easily dwarf series known to boast multiple vehicles like Gunforce and Metal Slug, instantly boosting Boogie Wings' replay value since it takes at least a couple of playthroughs to use them all.

More sprites than you can handle:
Here's some of the different objects, vehicles, and animals you'll interact with in Boogie Wings. Remember, this is only a fraction of them.
		Transport:
		Tank 1	Tank 2	Tank 3	Car 1	Car 2
		Horse	Missile launcher	Bicycle	Robot jumper	Pogo stick
		Robot	Giraffe	Elephant	Moped
		Pick-up-and-throw objects:

Contrary to the well-known, commonly implemented profit-raising strategies of arcades consisting of ramping up difficulty levels sky high, Data East cuts players a break by making their shooter a lot more user friendly and a tad easier than other shoot'em-ups. In a design decision rarely seen in the genre, none of the player-controlled sprites are affected by collisions with enemies, objects, or scenery. In fact, our hero can actually piggy-back on top of big enemy airships and other huge contraptions and shoot down its many turrets while staying safe off the ground.
Jumping on top of smaller opponents deals damage to them, eventually causing them to explode. Skilled players can exploit this technique and continuously bounce on stage bosses while avoiding their ground attacks, shooting and stomping on their weak points at the same time in an ultimate feat of skill.

Technically, Boogie Wings relies heavily on its miniature-model charm and old-time soundtrack. Each stage is full of life with varied, well-animated civilians and their pets that more often than not seem to continue on with their lives completely oblivious to the destruction carried on around them. Distractions like parades, Christmas celebrations, and football games will often cost you a life if you are not paying attention; all of them recreated with great detail.
Topping off the craziness is a very fitting (yet lyric-wise completely unrelated) soundtrack composed of classic American tunes like "When the Saints Go Marching In" and "We Three Kings of Orient Are", remixed into jazzy or ragtime (therefore the game's Japanese title) versions that aim to add a comedic touch. Think of it as Benny Hill's classic "Yakety Sax" chase-theme effect, but milder.

Like Cho Aniki and Parodious though, Boogie Wings induces welcomed doses of surprise and smiles as you discover each stage and its bosses, best enjoyed with the added interaction and chaos a second player brings. Its crazy-acting civilians, over-the-top transport methods, and innovative hook mechanics convey together and interact with each other to create funny and unique situations that will often cause you to chuckle and lose a life. But don't worry. Despite a few hindering technical flaws like slowdown and screen clutter to the point where you can't see what's what, it's hard to get angry at a couple of unfair deaths when you are having so much fun jumping around from vehicle to vehicle or hurling furniture at enemy planes.
There's also the odd ability to abuse the bi-plane's lightning power with no penalty, which is specially conspicuous since there's a dedicated gauge for it next to other meters that seem to also have no purpose at all.

This title was released in 1992 in Asian, Japanese, and European versions, and has always been a rare find in North and South America. Besides the language differences, the Japanese version lacks the "How to play" instructions during attract mode that the other too possess in glorious "Engrish".
A very low number of PCB boards are known to exist today, and this Data East shooter was never ported to any home consoles or computer system of the time, let alone included in current-gen arcade compilations. After Data East's bankruptcy in 2003, Japanese mobile game developer G-Mode bought Boogie Wings' intellectual rights together with most of the developer's other properties, which still owns to this day.

Some screenshots courtesy of www.vgmuseum.com