Screen real estate and player data.

[Drum]

So my game is going to have a lot of data on-screen - score, a life bar (shush), bonuses/medals (ala Rygar), and a mandatory framerate display (gameplay-related). Further, scrolling is multi-directional and enemies come from all sides, frequently. There are also screen-wrapping elements.
The only way I can think to deal with all this is to display the action in a window with all the gauges and numbers in a box.
Q: Is this going to make anybody rage? Can anybody think of another way?
Most shooters are all about having as much screen real estate devoted to the action as possible, and verrrry few outside the C64 do this.
I'm not thinking anything too extreme like The Last Ninja http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExftoivJ_EU, I was thinking more like Thexder II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExftoivJ_EU or Boogie Wings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgSxj_uJrQg
Of course it's nothing compared to what people expect from home versions of verts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfBymn9bEWM but maybe that's not what I should be comparing my game to.

[S20-TBL]

Depends on what you'll need. The U.I. box is a good way to go if you have a lot of things going on and you want to make sure the player can still see all the data he needs; in fact, if you properly optimize your graphical assets, you can simply take up one horizontal bar, as in Lords of Thunder. But there are other methods.

For example, Boogie Wings has two bars, but looking at the HUD you can easily see there's a lot of wasted space used only for decorative flourishes. It's the same with Thexder. The advantage of their decorative HUDs is that the player is indeed made to feel as if he/she were inside the aircraft, but the resulting disadvantage is all the wasted space.

You can actually minimize all the space taken up to a couple of corners, instead of occupying the top and bottom of the screen with a pair of HUD bars (which I personally don't mind, though I prefer more screen area). Think Kingdom Hearts, the GBA Metroids or any Castlevania game starting with Rondo of Blood...except instead of occupying only one corner, you occupy two; for example the top left and bottom right of the screen.

Another trick is to make sure some or all of the UI elements scroll away to the sides or top when they aren't being affected, or at least be semi-transparent. Akai Katana Limited Edition even had the HUD transfer to the bottom when you fly to the top of the screen (though to be fair, this kind of threw me off when I saw it). Alluro's own XFR reduces the alpha blending levels on the score, bombs and chain counter if you happen to fly right into them.

If you want to stick with bars, keep in mind that well-made and optimized bars can also help direct attention to the center of the screen. Rozyrg's ZPF does this; the dark-colored HUD accents the onscreen action even more, and they generally don't get in the way.

EDIT: Try using Fraxy's UI as a base, and improve on it.

[Drum]

Thanks for that, you've given me a lot to chew on. The colour/lightness is an important consideration that I hadn't thought about, and Fraxy is a great resource.
I'm not gonna go as crazy with the frills as Thexder II/Boogie Wings, but I think I might indulge a little in that for a couple of reasons: A) there is quite a lot of data, and if it's all bunched up together it might get a little confusing and B) fortunately I can make filler space useful - the player has a kind of 'hyper mode' they can activate at any time that comes with a pretty heavy cost. It's important to indicate to the player when it is or is not active, and I figured having the frame around the action lighting up would be one good way to do that.
I think I might seperate the absolutely critical things (ie health) to one side of the screen and score and stuff to the other side. Making the HUD editable won't do much good, as the action portion of the screen will always be the same shape regardless for gameplay reasons. Similarly, keeping the info confined to corners is not suitable. Transparencies also aren't much help as they will be going on and off all the time - the edges of the screen will be a busy place and just about every object in the game can be important.