Burning Rangers
| Burning Rangers | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Sonic Team |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Director(s) | Naoto Oshima |
| Producer(s) | Yuji Naka |
| Artist(s) | Naoto Oshima Hideaki Moriya Kosei Kitamura |
| Composer(s) | Naofumi Hataya Fumie Kumatani Masaru Setsumaru |
| Platform(s) | Sega Saturn |
| Release date(s) |
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| Genre(s) | Third-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Distribution | CD-ROM |
Burning Rangers (バーニングレンジャー Bāningu Renjā) is a video game developed by Sonic Team for the Sega Saturn. The game was released in Japan in February 1998, North America in May 1998 and Europe in June 1998.
Plot
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 game sees players take control of one of two new recruits, Shou Amabane and Tillis, as they fight through burning buildings and rescue civilians.
Gameplay
Burning Rangers tasks players with completing various missions, most of which involve putting out fires and rescuing civilians, playing as either Shou or Tillis. The player is equipped with a futuristic suit which contains a jetpack that can be used in short bursts to cross large gaps or reach higher areas. During the game, players will come across various fires and sudden explosions that they must put out using their weaponry. Putting out fires earns crystals which are used to teleport civilians to safety, as well as protect the player. If the player is attacked by an explosion or attack, they will drop their crystals, with the game ending if they are hit without any crystals. If the level of fire also reaches too high a level, the game will end. Players can make use of a navigation system to make their way around, and can contact Chris via radio for information about hazards and objectives. After completing the game once, a random level generator is unlocked.
Development
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. Burning Rangers is 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.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed] 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".
Appearances in other games
References to Burning Rangers were included in Phantasy Star Online and Phantasy Star Universe. Two of the three vocal songs in the game appear in Sonic Pinball Party. The fire-spitting flower boss Anemoth makes a cameo appearance as an enemy in the Prison Island level of Shadow the Hedgehog. A race track based on the game features in the racing game Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, featuring songs from the game remixed by Richard Jacques. The Japanese dub of the song "Just Smile" was featured in the final credits of Blinx: The Time Sweeper for Xbox. Burning Rangers made a return in Phantasy Star Online 2 for the 25th Phantasy Star Anniversary event on the Japanese servers, and also the 15th anniversary of Burning Rangers. Players go through a level, extinguishing fires and rescuing civilians while the song Burning Rangers plays as background music.
References
- ^ "Angel Island Interviews - 08 May 1998" An interview with Sonic Team which first appeared in Sega Saturn Magazine
External links
- The Official Burning Rangers page of Sonic Team (in Japanese)
- The Burning Rangers page of The GHZ
- Review at Shin Force