Boogie Wings

Data East was a small company who made strange but interesting games, one of the many companies that floundered and died like many other lesser publishers during the awkward and violent transition to 3d gaming in the 90s. Boogie Wings is one of their lesser-known games, ranking below such other odd titles like Karnov and Chelnov:atomic runner. However, Boogie Wings is probably Data East's best game, one that did things with freeform gameplay and physics not seen in 3d games until the advent of Grand Theft Auto 3 and the Source Engine.

While Boogie Wings is a linear, sidescrolling shooter, the hook on the bottom of your plane provides the first clue that this isn't any ordinary shmup. With it, you can pick up virtually anything in the debris-cluttered environments, from amusement park rides to dino skeletons and much more. Also, when the plane gets shot down, you see the other innovative part of the game, as you can jack into a large variety of vehicles. Boogie Wings is full of crazy setpieces too, like a out of control Ferris Wheel and my favorite level, an airship with a cargo hold that quicky degenerates into chaos once the gravity starts to vanish and the boxes break open. Boogie Wings is not a horribly long or difficult game, but it still has tons of replay value, as each game is likely to unfold in a different way. Sadly, it doesn't look to be in the upcoming Data East collection for the Wii, but hopefully there will be another volume including it and other neglected games.

Gun Master

Gun Master is a game so obscure it's not even listed on KLOV, which is a shame as it's a fun and unique mashup of Gunstar Heroes and the Mega Man arcade games. Playing as either a male or female gunslinger, you must defeat a whole host of weird bosses in order to defeat the fascist empire which has burned your hometown to the ground. Or, uh, something like that. The bosses all live in small, enclosed stages, and not only have a host of special moves, but also whole armies of henchmen. The controls only use two action buttons, but allow you to guard, punch, throw, shoot, and do all sorts of special moves. It's a bit tricky and awkward at time, but not overly unfair. The graphics are charmingly Treasure-esque, especially considering they come from such a small developer. Nothing to push the technical envelope, but they do the job. Overall, Gunmaster is a shamefully overlooked gem, and makes me curious to expore developer Metro's output in future updates.

Cyber Lip

Cyber Lip is a game from a much less obscure company on a more common platform than many of my choices, but it still vanished in the arcade landscape. The game, a neo-geo contra-alike, was one of the first games on the platform, and thus got drowned out fairly quickly by Street Fighter and Final Fight clones. Cyber-Lip comes off as a less detailed Metal Slug precursor, or a cartoonier Contra. Some minor interest is provided by the surprisingly bleak ending, as well as the occasional branching path. However, Cyber Lip still comes off like a typical secondary launch title, soon to be forgotten as bigger and better games come along.

Diver Boy

Diver Boy is a somewhat obscure arcade title by Electronic Devices, the same Italian developer behind the previously-mentioned Fantasy Land. Unlike that title, though, the art direction isn't scary, and the game is fun rather than frustratingly difficult. In Diver Boy, you play the titular character, who must pick up pearls by, yes, diving through increasingly complex underwater single-screen mazes. Every few levels, you'll fight a boss in your annoyingly large submarine. There are a few powerups, like a 10-second long submarine and a shield which will protect you from one hit, but nothing hugely game-changing. The graphics are charming if low-budget, the game is simple but still entertaining, and overall Diver Boy will provide a fine few minutes of entertainment. While Diver Boy never got an official port, or a fancy 3d remake, it is available to play for free online in a somewhat choppy and shoddy flash port.

Return of Lady Frog

Who is Lady Frog? And what exactly is she returning from? Expect to have neither of these questions answered and many more raised by The Return Of Lady Frog, a d-grade erotic game from the decidedly unsexily named Microhard. After getting through a baffling title screen, featuring a picture of a treefrog, and an even more confusing picture with bright red lips telling you to "kiss your lady", you get to the, uh, meat of the game, which involves a sort of mix of Qix and Bomberman, though you are fighting cheaply animated balloons instead of other bombing men, and are revealing very 90's nudie pictures instead of abstract swathes of color. You play as a poorly animated frog sprite that would not look out of place in 1980, but who seems to jibe with the 90's shareware aesthetic and the digitized photos. Those looking for a cheap thrill are advised to look elsewhere, and those seeking an actual good game are, well, probably already playing qix and bomberman.

Tropical Angel

Before Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball, Irem introduced the first sexy lady sports game with the aptly-titled Tropical Angel. As the titular scantily clad girl, you must survive a rocky waterski slalom course, all from a behind the shoulder 3d perspective. The scaling is somewhat choppy and makes dodging the rocks difficult, and the effects don't even match Pole Position's, but for 1983 it looks pretty good. The game is easy to pick up, the graphics are bright and sunny, and while there isn't much to it, Tropical Angel is still fairly charming.

Speed Freak

Back in the early days of arcades, before polygons hit the scene with 1984's amazing I, Robot, arcade games were manufactured with two different types of displays: raster and vector. Raster displays were made up of the colorful little dots we know as "sprites", whereas vector displays were made up of lines and dots, allowing them to display a form of primitive 3d. Though Star Wars and Tempest are undoubtedly the most famous vector games, coming from Atari, other companies also threw their hat into the vector arena, such as Vectorbeam, who had a short run of vector-only games, starting with 1977's Space War, and including today's game, Speed Freak. Speed Freak is a first person driving game, providing simple but clean and aesthetically pleasing landscapes to drive through.

Like the much later Outrun, the goal is not to win the race by outrunning other cars, but to get as far as you can without running out of time. The controls ain't Gran Turismo, being that you only have a gas pedal, 4 gears, and steering, all working in a fairly arcadey fashion, but they serve their purpose well. The course you drive on is randomly generated, and has both roadblocks and other cars to avoid, as well as bits of background color such as hitchhikers, trees, cows, and birds. Speed Freak is a simple game, but a pleasurable one. The minimalist graphics are actually quite soothing, mimicking a night drive through the desert, and the fact that crashes don't kill you also makes the whole experience more relaxing, though you do get to see a neat explosion, as seen below.