Burning Rangers is a video game developed by
Sonic Teamis a Japanese computer and video game developer established in Ota, Tokyo, Japan in 1990, originally known as Sega AM8. The Japan-based division is also known as G.E. Department Global Entertainment...
for the
Sega SaturnThe is a 32-bit video game console that was first released on November 22 1994 in Japan, May 11 1995 in North America, and July 8 1995 in Europe...
. The player takes on the role of a new recruit to the futuristic firefighting organization of the title, and must explore locations where various emergencies have taken place, extinguishing fires and rescuing survivors.
The game is set in a futuristic society in which
fireFire is the rapid oxidation of a combustible material releasing heat, light, and various reaction products such as carbon dioxide and water. If hot enough, the gases may become ionized to produce plasma. Depending on the substances alight, and any impurities outside, the color of the flame and the...
is one of the few major hazards remaining.
Burning Rangers is a video game developed by
Sonic Teamis a Japanese computer and video game developer established in Ota, Tokyo, Japan in 1990, originally known as Sega AM8. The Japan-based division is also known as G.E. Department Global Entertainment...
for the
Sega SaturnThe is a 32-bit video game console that was first released on November 22 1994 in Japan, May 11 1995 in North America, and July 8 1995 in Europe...
. The player takes on the role of a new recruit to the futuristic firefighting organization of the title, and must explore locations where various emergencies have taken place, extinguishing fires and rescuing survivors.
The game is set in a futuristic society in which
fireFire is the rapid oxidation of a combustible material releasing heat, light, and various reaction products such as carbon dioxide and water. If hot enough, the gases may become ionized to produce plasma. Depending on the substances alight, and any impurities outside, the color of the flame and the...
is one of the few major hazards remaining. The Burning Rangers are an elite group of firefighters who have been formed to help cope with such emergencies. The core members of the team are Chris Parton, Big Landman and Reed Phoenix; as well as two new recruits, Shou Amabane and a woman called Tillis. The latter two are the only characters playable initially, although the others may be unlocked through the use of a
passwordIn many video games of the 8 and 16-bit eras, after a level was beaten and/or when all continues were used, the game would display a password, that when entered in the game would allow the player to return back to this part in the game. This way, nothing needed to be written on the cartridge, as...
feature. Other major characters within the game include Iria Klein and Neal Belmondo, and there are many cameo appearances from Sonic Team staff including
Yuji Naka, is a video game designer, programmer, the former head of Sonic Team, a group of Sega programmers/designers, the lead programmer of the original Sonic the Hedgehog and the head of Prope....
and Naoto Ōshima.
The game is notable for its random level generation system, which is unlocked after completing the game once. This makes the game ideal for replayability. To help the player find their way around these unfamiliar stages, a navigation system was included - at any time, the player may radio back to Chris, who will provide helpful information about nearby hazards and objectives. In a technical sense,
Burning Rangers is also notable as one of the few Saturn games to have transparency effects (the fire effects). The Saturn did have hardware support for transparency, but it was limited to 2D objects and was overly CPU intensive. Given the complex multi-cpu architecture of the console, true transparency was rarely used in commercial games, Burning Rangers being one of the few that used it.
Released in early 1998 to mixed reviews and a dwindling number of Saturn owners, to date the title has not received a
sequelA sequel is a work in literature, film, or other media that chronologically portrays events following those of a previous work.In many cases, the sequel continues elements of the original story, often with the same characters and settings. A sequel can lead to a series, in which key elements appear...
. However, the game has been referenced numerous times in many other games made by Sonic Team including
Phantasy Star OnlinePhantasy Star Online is an online RPG title, originally released for Dreamcast in 2000, bundled with a demo of Sonic Adventure 2. Another edition, entitled Phantasy Star Online ver.2, was released for the Dreamcast the following year...
and
Phantasy Star Universeis an action role-playing game by Sega's Sonic Team for the PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360. In Japan, it was released for the PC and PlayStation 2 on August 31, 2006, with the Xbox 360 version releasing on December 12, 2006. Its North American release was on October 24, 2006, available in all...
.
The game's characters were designed by Hiroyuki Ochi. Sonic Team have stated in interviews that they intended the
silhouetteA silhouette is a view of an object or scene consisting of the outline and a featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black...
of a Burning Ranger wearing their "Burneer Unit" jet-pack to resemble that of an
angelAngels are spiritual beings found in many religious traditions. They are broadly viewed as messengers of God, sent to do God's tasks. Traditions vary as to the precise nature and role of these messages and tasks...
.
Trivia
- The voice cast of the Japanese version is comprised entirely of big name seiyuu - pop stars who are usually adept at both singing and acting.
- The game was possibly influenced by the popular Super Sentai
The is the name given to the long running Japanese superhero team genre of shows produced by Toei Company Ltd., Toei Agency and Bandai, and aired by TV Asahi...
genre.
- One of the downloadable quests in Sonic Team's Phantasy Star Online
Phantasy Star Online is an online RPG title, originally released for Dreamcast in 2000, bundled with a demo of Sonic Adventure 2. Another edition, entitled Phantasy Star Online ver.2, was released for the Dreamcast the following year...
is called "Central Dome Fire Swirl", a Burning Rangers-themed mission in which the Rangers' Chris Parton asks the player to extinguish fires and rescue victims. The background music to this mission is the Japanese language version of the Burning Rangers song "Angels With Burning Hearts". http://www.theghz.com/pso/ver2/ver2.html The song also appears as one of 6 CD's a player could buy from collecting photon drops, as well as featured in another online quest "Gallon's Treachery".
- Two of the three vocal songs from Burning Rangers are included and remixed in Sonic Pinball Party
Sonic Pinball Party is a video game released for Game Boy Advance in 2003. It is a celebration of sorts for Sonic Team featuring many references to its previous games, mostly Sonic.-Story:...
, listed as: "(Angels with) Burning Hearts" and "We Are Burning Rangers".
- It was the first game to use the ADX audio compression, an impressive feat for the Saturn considering the necessary processing power to decode it.
- The Phantasy Star Universe
is an action role-playing game by Sega's Sonic Team for the PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360. In Japan, it was released for the PC and PlayStation 2 on August 31, 2006, with the Xbox 360 version releasing on December 12, 2006. Its North American release was on October 24, 2006, available in all...
events "Operation Firebreak" and "Winter Event" make use of the song Angels with Burning Hearts. For Firebreak, the song was used for the two missions on the planet Parum that were added two weeks into the event on PS2 and PC (while the mission was available on the 360 version, the song was not, therefore using the standard Firebreak mission background music). The song made a return during the "Winter Event," which rolled the best parts of prior missions into one. The Firebreak map was available as a "rare map" during the second week of the event (this time, Xbox 360 players were not left out).
- Guitarist "Vinnie Moore
Vinnie Moore is a guitarist and a member of the English hard rock band UFO. Along with Yngwie Malmsteen, Tony MacAlpine, and others, Moore is known as one of the most influential guitarists to emerge out of the shredder boom in the mid 1980s.-Biography:Moore began his professional career at age of...
" performed on the soundtrack, playing rhythm tracks and solos on the song "Angels With Burning Hearts", as well as others.
- The music for the game was written by Naofumi Hataya and Tomoko Sasaki, the pair responsible for the NiGHTS into Dreams soundtrack.
- The game's manual refers to Phoenix as "Lead Phoenix", but ingame he is always referred to as "Reed"; this descrepancy is probably due to a translation error in the documentation, as the Japanese "L" is pronounced the same as "R".
External links