Burning Rangers

Infobox VG| title = Burning Rangers


developer = Sonic Team
publisher = Sega
designer = Naoto Ōshima
engine =
released = June 1998
genre = Action
modes = Single player
ratings = ESRB: Everyone (E)
ELSPA: 11+
platforms = Sega Saturn
media = CD-ROM
requirements =
input = Control pad, 3D Control Pad

"Burning Rangers" is a video game developed by Sonic Team for the Sega Saturn. 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 fire 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 Partn, Big Landman and Lead Phoenix (also known as Reed); 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 password 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 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 unfamilar 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.Fact|date=February 2007

Released in early 1998 to mixed reviews and a dwindling number of Saturn owners, to date the title has not received a sequel. However, the game has been referenced numerous times in many other games made by Sonic Team including Phantasy Star Online and Phantasy Star Universe.

The game's characters were designed by Hiroyuki Ochi. Sonic Team have stated in interviews that they intended the silhouette of a Burning Ranger wearing their "Burneer Unit" jet-pack to resemble that of an angel.ref|jetpack

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 genre.
*One of the downloadable quests in Sonic Team's "Phantasy Star Online" is called "Central Dome Fire Swirl", a "Burning Rangers"-themed mission in which the Rangers' Chris Partn 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 colecting 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, 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" 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" 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.

References

# [http://sonicworld.sclassic.net/angel_island_interviews/interviews/1998/sonic_1998_may_08.htm "Angel Island Interviews - 08 May 1998"] An interview with Sonic Team which first appeared in "Sega Saturn Magazine"

External links

* [http://burningranger.sega.jp/ The Official Burning Rangers page] of "Sonic Team" (in Japanese)
* [http://www.theghz.com/br/br/br.html The Burning Rangers page] of "The GHZ"
* [http://www.shinforce.com/saturn/reviews/BurningRangers.htm Review on Shin Force]