Burning Rangers
Encyclopedia
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 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 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 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 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
.
Guitarist Vinnie Moore
performed on the soundtrack, playing rhythm tracks and solos on the song "Angels With Burning Hearts", as well as others.
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".
Sonic Team
is a Japanese computer and video game developer established in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan in 1990, originally known as Sega AM8. The Japan-based division is also known as G.E. Department Global Entertainment. The studio has collaborated with several in-house Japanese studios as well as other American-based...
for the Sega Saturn
Sega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega 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 fire
Fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....
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 password
Password (video games)
In many video games of the 8-bit and, to a lesser extent, 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 to this part in the game...
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
Yuji Naka
, is a video game designer and programmer, best known as the former head of Sonic Team, a group of Sega programmers/designers, where he was the lead programmer of the original Sonic the Hedgehog....
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 sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
. However, the game has been referenced numerous times in many other games made by Sonic Team including Phantasy Star Online
Phantasy Star Online
Phantasy Star Online is an online multiplayer action RPG title, originally released for the Dreamcast in 2000, bundled with a demo of Sonic Adventure 2. Another edition, entitled Phantasy Star Online ver.2, was released for Dreamcast the following year...
and Phantasy Star Universe
Phantasy Star Universe
is an action roleplaying 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 silhouette
Silhouette
A silhouette is the image of a person, an object or scene consisting of the outline and a basically featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black. Although the art form has been popular since the mid-18th century, the term “silhouette” was seldom used until the early decades...
of a Burning Ranger wearing their "Burneer Unit" jet-pack to resemble that of an angel
Angel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
.
Soundtrack
The music for the game was written by Naofumi Hataya and Tomoko Sasaki, the pair responsible for the NiGHTS into Dreams soundtrack. It was the first game to use the ADX audio compression.Guitarist Vinnie Moore
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 was born in New Castle, Delaware...
performed on the soundtrack, playing rhythm tracks and solos on the song "Angels With Burning Hearts", as well as others.
Two of the three vocal songs from Burning Rangers are included and remixed in Sonic Pinball Party
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".
External links
- The Official Burning Rangers page of Sonic Team (in Japanese)
- The Burning Rangers page of The GHZ
- TGWTG's video retrospective on Burning Rangers
- Review at Shin Force