Bosconian

is a 1981 multidirectional shooter video game developed and published by Namco for Japanese and European arcades; it was distributed by Midway Manufacturing in North America. The goal is to earn as many points as possible by destroying enemy missiles and bases using a ship which shoots simultaneously both the front and back.

Bosconian was commercially successful in Japan and received positive critical reception, but did not achieve the global commercial success of other shoot 'em ups from the golden age of arcade video games. It was ported to home computers as ''Bosconian '87 (1987) and spawned two sequels: Blast Off (1989) and Final Blaster (1990). Since its release, Bosconian'' has been regarded by critics as influential in the shoot 'em up genre.