Loved the artstyle, gameplay and music. The controls took some getting used to but afterwards they weren't so bad. The boss fights were definitely the highlight for me, though the bosses in this game have so little health you can make quick work of them once you know what you're doing. Also, the comms button in place of a map is a really cool feature, it adds a lot to the immersion and I haven't seen it done anywhere else. The only thing that brought it down for me was that it's all so short! It would have been nice to have more missions and story because it felt like as soon as things were starting to go somewhere, it just... ended.

I guess it was great to learn the hard way why this game is underrated.

So back in Middle School for me, I was introduced to the game as being among the more elusive and pricy games for the Saturn alongside Panzer Dragoon Saga. So getting a legit copy was never really in my reach. I did however have the pleasure of seeing a complete copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga for sale at a convention, but alas it was over 800 dollars.

When mangling with Saturn emulation off RetroArch here and there I did give the game a shot, and after getting too bewildered, I gave up. The only game I recall ever completing by emulating the Saturn was Mega Man 8.

So flash forward to now. I was ecstatic. I have a modchipped Saturn to play burned games. I was eager to finally give the underrated gem, the overlooked gem a fair shot. Especially for something with such style, and a theme that fits the definition of Jam.
I ended up being left with a product of Sega's time frame.
Wanting the Saturn to die a lonely death.

The main menu alone speaks it all. There's a major gap of something missing. Is there something to unlock? There was. There was a multiplayer mode, a subgame mode, but alas they were removed. Probably to save time. But they didn't have enough of it to make up for the loss.

And the game itself is interesting. You have a tutorial that attempts to teach you. Even if it doesn't teach you it all there is. No mention of the dodging siding mechanic, or the fact putting out green fire gives 5 crystals. That and green fire can also shoot at you.

Then afterwards you have only 4 levels to go through. All of them are lengthy but alas, don't make the game as long as it should be. Sometimes for me playing the levels just makes me linger for more. You feel the lack of refinement, and even the feeling of the developers wanting to polish it some more, but.. Could not.

The first level I'd add admittedly does not make a good showcase of the game as the later ones have a much better handling of the framerate while the first gives the player an awful impression, assuming the whole game is just a big space.

I'd argue the game could've been more polished on the Saturn and heck, would've been a great 1999 release rather than a rushed out the door 1998 one. The Saturn is capable of the 3D. It's just the game in the state that it is, honestly makes it look like a bad example. But when it's not suffering, it can look remarkably incredible.

What I do utterly agree with everyone on however, is that this game absolutely deserves a second chance. It is unfair that Nights, a game that was literally perfect and had no issues on Saturn, was given a touching it up shit remaster treatment, while you got the other Sonic Team Saturn game that's pretty much rotting Anakin Skywalker. I'd describe the camera system in this game to be fighting with a cameraman that happens to be a roaring drunk bear. And another major thing is that despite the Analog Stick offering 360 degree movement, there is no percise movement offered by the stick (walking) WHICH IS A BIG ISSUE TOO IF YOU'VE PLAYED THE PLATFORMING BULLSHIT IN LEVEL 3 AND 4. Doesn't help that Nights and even Sonic World (from Sonic Jam) offered it.

The lack of music isn't too bad in my opinion. As it fits the atmosphere of being a Space Firefighter in a building that's burning down, BUT the bosses go down too bloody easy. They have lively boss themes but just die as quick as Napoleon pleasing his wife if you know what you are doing. The fish one in particular, is literally Proto Chaos 4 from SA1.

And another major issue is definitely the lore BEING ONLY LEARNED IN THE BLOODY MANUAL. For a modern gamer, they aren't gonna understand what the hell is the deal with Tillis or Shou when they talk about certain things, and that's because all of that was in the manual. Atleast with Nights, the basic lore you needed to know was within THE GAME. As it was told visually. With anything regarding what was up with the kids were both cutscenes at that too. The important information that Shou became a Burning Ranger because one sacrificed his life to save him as a child, and that Tillis became an orphan due to a fire taking her parents, was all not mentioned within the game. And even the other rangers have lore too that goes unmentioned in the game. One being that Chris' father was a Burning Ranger, and probably being the very one that saved Shou and died.

In general the game suffered indeed. It has an incredible world. A remarkable concept. Takes the bravest job there is, and gives it a Sega flair. But it suffered. It suffered from being made in a time in the company when rather than keep going, it was to abandon ship and make a wholly new console, despite it's fine library, really a short term answer to what was changing. using CDs, having one stick. Sounds like something against the N64, but was actually against the PS2.

Regardless of it's background, Burning Rangers is a unique game. And due to it's style, it's grace, it's groove. I give it a 4. And it is a replayable arcadey game for sure, despite it's nasty warts. Had it been able to go further and beyond, doing what it wanted to accomplish with its concepts and ideas.. It could have been another exceptional masterpiece from Sonic Team. But alas.. That unfortunately is not what happened.

So please Sega.. Revive Burning Rangers for Christ's sake. They can put out the fire that is your debt.

Just finished this a few minutes ago on real hardware. This has to be one of the most blatantly unfinished games (that could have been good) I've ever seen.

This game some great ideas and moments, high-ish production values given its anime cutscenes, full voice-acting, and multiple vocal songs, but it just doesn't come together into a meaningful experience.

The gameplay is mostly a mess. As cool as the idea of having voice-guided navigation, it's still very easy to get lost due to not having a minimap, and the final level does not have a dedicated button for getting instructions (the game does not tell you this, but in most levels you can press X and Kris will tell you roughly where to go). Additionally, the idea of having jetpacks for platforming is neat and certainly makes it a bit easier in a time when 3D cameras were still wonky, but it's way too loose and imprecise and the camera sucks. This is fun most of the time since a lot of the levels are these open mazes without few enemies (read: fine but nothing special), but whenever the game tries to make you do more precise platforming it quickly becomes a mess. That massive climb section in the middle of the final stage was so horrendous that I decided to listen to the Super Pitfall theme because I was reminded of the AVGN describing how the last thing you want to do is fall down in that game. The muddy graphics with drab color choices do the game no favors either.

Combat kinda stinks too. Most bosses devolve into mindlessly firing off charge shots until you win. During the first boss of the final level, I don't think I moved at all to dodge attacks, I just kept blasting until I somehow won. The final boss is great though. I don't know if the game tells you this, but I found out in the final battle that if you stand still your character will auto-lock onto the nearest enemy. Pretty innovative I suppose since OoT and its Z-Targetting didn't exist yet.

But while the above highlight that Burning Ranger's core game has lots of problems, it really is the unfinishedness of it all that is so infuriating. You have full voice-acting, but it is incredibly wooden, I'd imagine due to a lack of voice direction (can't confirm this but I'm willing to bet ). You have these AWESOME vocal themes, and some pretty solid instrumental tracks, but the gameplay ALMOST NEVER HAS MUSIC. It's quite telling too since the only time outside of a boss fight that there is music is in one segment of the final level which is probably the coolest part of the game. You have this cast of colorful characters that pretend to be interesting, but the reality is that we know very little about them and our ability to directly interact with them is very limited. You have all these people you can rescue and plenty of characters within each level and attempts that twists, but there really isn't much of a plot to be invested in. The final climax comes out of nowhere and feels very unearned, and again, the lack of characterization really hampers the experience. I don't think it's too much to ask since Sega's rival Nintendo managed to make a game with plenty more character interactions several months earlier in Star Fox 64.

And of course, worst of all, the game's length. I don't mind short games, and the levels are rather long, but there's only 4 of them, and the game is over within a few hours due to it being pretty easy outside of the last level. When you consider how much this game is pretending to do on an aesthetic and plot standpoint (on top of there being a scrapped multiplayer mode), I can't help but shake the feeling that this game was very very rushed due to the Saturn's imminent demise

The truly fascinating part about Burning Rangers is that Bulk Slash predates this game by about 6 months, and it achieves much of what Burning Ranger wanted to do but so so so SOOOO much more effectively: Voice navigators with more personality, level design that mixes openness with an arcade feel, vertical movement options (in this case a flying mech instead of a jetpack), a half-decent camera system, much better combat and bosses, actual music...it's insane to me that this never got localized because it could've been a true killer for 1997.

I would digress, but seriously, if you are considering playing Burning Rangers, play Bulk Slash instead.

Much like with Looney Tunes: Sheep Raider, Burning Rangers was something I played back in 2019, yet am only now finishing, although I have even less of an excuse this time around. Longplays and even HowLongToBeat clock this at or under 2 hours, with the game boasting a grand total of 4 levels, meaning procrastination had once again gripped its claws onto my mortal body. Of course, I didn’t spend that little time on it, more was spent via replaying some levels and a little extra speciality cause surprise surprise, this one’s a keeper. Also gonna make a PSA to say you should not play this with the regular Saturn pad, and instead use this esoteric, albeit somewhat ahead of the curve design of a 3D controller. Kronos and Mednafen both support it as well, so no excuses for other emulation nerds!

While Burning Rangers’ fundamentals have nuances to go over, its development process is rife with factoids to share before diving into it properly. Most of these were gathered from a behind the scene section from 2008’s games™ magazine and an old issue of UK’s Official Sega Saturn Magazine, both of which I suggest reading in full since I’m going over the highlights for brevity. Did you know this was directed by Naoto Oshima with lead designer Takao Miyoshi, among other Nights Into Dreams alumni, carefully going over the process to incorporate distinctly beautiful effects for the fire? How about the original conceivement as an online title, before it was decided to be used for Phantasy Star Online? The conception of the firefighting setting came from the desire to craft a game about rescuing instead of killing, the location travels for inspiration included Hong Kong and Universal Studios Hollywood’s Backdraft attraction, formatting the use of the NID engine, the pitches for the title of the game went through a few other steps, the initial idea of motion capture was to be used for the entirety of the animations before being reduced to just the walk cycles, and there’s also a reason as to why there’s usually no music during gameplay: they wanted to entice the tension and thrill of the firefighting experience! Sonic Team housed, and still house, some of the most creative workers in the industry, and this is another example of everyone’s involvement being delivered with much aplomb and energy.

Because of the low stage pool as well as the previously mentioned utilization of sound, BR’s design pathos is akin to arcade experiences, with content forming as how well you’re ranked. Performance is gauged by how many people you’ve rescued, the amount of crystals accumulated during the run, how quickly you dispatched the boss, and how low or high you’ve kept the fire limit on, following the rule of S as the highest, D as the lowest. While there is a story mode, the reason I marked this as “Retired” instead of “Completed” comes from what happens after beating the game once; the four missions are now able to randomize their layout and survivor counts, wherein the possibility for this are seemingly massive, upwards of up to 3125 routes are touted, an extraordinarily bold claim… but let’s shift back to the main meat of the package. As Shou or Tillis, you go through a series of linear hallways putting out fire with a laser blaster, either tapping or holding the button against the small reds, moderate greens/magentas, and potent blues. There’s two buttons you can use to call in your team leader Chris for support on where to go, though with how strict and funneled the linearity is, I didn’t really feel like I had to use this often thankfully, though if you need to be aware this follows the logic of “contingent placement”, so stand still first to get the best read of your surroundings. In terms of maneuvers, you’re equipped with a thruster pack that, with the tap of any direction, will have you backflip, side dodge, or forward dash. All of that can be used in tandem with a (double) jump, giving way for a sick amount of movement options to handle any situation when needed. I believe the sensitivity for the stick could’ve been ironed out however, I dunno if this is an emulation issue or an actual one the 3D Control Pad faced, but any tap of my left Xbone stick, no matter if intentional or not, activated these actions immediately, and while it didn’t majorly affect my platforming or shooting it was annoying regardless. The first three stages have a variable amount of civilians to transport away from danger, 5 crystals is more than enough but having 10+ of them will do that and give you continues in case you game over, and it’s here you realize that the English voice acting is… surprisingly competent? Yea, I couldn’t believe it either! Not all the delivery hits, mind, but even then this is still a fair bit above what was the usual market at the time. Even the camera’s well handled here, left and right triggers having it move 90 degrees at a time and usually not getting stuck on objects to make navigation a chore. Alongside the weight and turning being just right, this quickly settled into becoming one of numerous titles under my Games To Become A Speed Demon belt. Seriously, it’s fun just blasting through each room and corridors ASAP, even if time isn’t a factor to the ranking.

Sega’s internal studios during their time in the console market (and even nowadays, albeit more scarcely) have always had a knack for cutting edge presentation and production values, and due to the fact this was a late Saturn title, BR has this covered in spades. Sure, granted, you can make a drinking game over the amount of times models or particle effects are visually clipped through walls, and the collision on the floor can be rather chaotic due to the edges of any kind causes the character to auto-jump, but everything else is top notch. The use of color is sublime, and helps to accentuate the differences in each level’s setting. The dim hues, the stark lighting, the way the ambiance is used in conjunction with the current predicaments, it’s all wonderfully crafted. I’ve seen people criticize the low use of music during these sections, and I do not get nor agree with this at all. Due to the emphasis on character interactions and slowly having the player familiarize with these areas, I’d say forgoing it and only having them be used for special circumstances was a great call, it’s a fine example of moments being heightened in its impact on the events. I mean, would the music that plays in the vehicle section towards the end be truly the same, if you could hear it everywhere else? What about other instances within the game? I’d say not. Even if you completely disagree with me, know that special passwords allow you to play as other members of the squad in the four missions, complete with music and no audio guide if you’re that picky about it. How do you get these passwords? Why, rescue the Sonic Team staff and check their mail, such as designer Satoshi Okano of course! In fact, you can read mail from a number of the people you helped save during the missions, adding a nice layer of worldbuilding and personality into the mix. It might be light with character stakes and drama, but it’s bursting with charm regardless.

Let’s see, what else… combat’s a thing! Every stage concludes with boss fights, some of their music I linked earlier! Thankfully, though, the team took a page out of Core’s Tomb Raider books, since here not only is it barely a presence into the package, the times when you do fight are wholly simple, just charge up the blaster to the robots enough times and it gets destroyed. Almost all of them have basic and exploitable patterns too, meaning you can just stand a fair distance away and down them painlessly. Seriously, the only trouble here is how poor the soft lock is, since even when standing still shots can tend to miss… which only really becomes a major annoyance against the robot bees in the space station. Those are just, way too small to reliably hit. Boss fights are also very straightforward, not requiring that much acrobatics funnily enough since standing still and maybe jumping are all that's needed to handle them, especially in the case of the Level 4 boss which is taking place on the top of a spaceship and it stands there absentmindedly, for story purposes of course. Not to say there aren’t any involved bosses, but the robotic fish in the aquatic lab/theme park (who gave off some MASSIVE SA1 Chaos 4 vibes, due to both having the same layout and even attack patterns) and the final one aren’t too troublesome either, in fact they ended up being my two favorites due to having the right amount of player effort and challenge that made it much more rewarding to beat under shorter time.

Burning Rangers’ one of the most well known cult hits on the Saturn, and count me among the feverish crew. There’s so much going right that I’m shocked Sega, let alone Sonic Team, hasn’t tried to further embellish, reiterate the formula onto something else, or even have it be rereleased on modern platforms. There’s a few old guards hanging out at the two places, and iirc some of the new blood has dabbled into their newer ideas too, so it’s not like it can’t be done, especially since one Andreas Scholl provided a Unity remake of the first mission as a SAGE2021 entry. On the other, I’d at least like it if Oshima and/or Miysohi contributed in some capacity, and perhaps there simply isn’t much else to do with the IP in their eyes. Not to mention reworks of Sega’s classic stuff tends to have lower budget priorities, and while I wouldn’t say I’m that picky about it since most of them turn out well, it would at least be welcome if it obtained a modest one instead, be it licensed out to another company or in-house. Eh, whatever happens in the future, I’ll be sure to do some video firefight gaming once more.

There’s not much of a game here, I’m sure the sequel is much bett — what’s that you say??

This definitely encourages and rewards mastery like a lot of Sega games of the period, and so maybe a straight playthrough without replaying levels to master them isn’t quite being charitable to the whole “project” of this, but at the same time the core gameplay isn’t nearly as compelling or propulsive as those contemporaneous Sega games that you actually feel like mastering. Interesting and somewhat unpleasant overall, feels a gen too early or late

This game is definitely a mixed bag. On the one hand I like the concept, the gaphics looks amazing for the Saturn, presentation is excellent and the way in which they implemented a system similar to that of Sonic's rings in a third person shooter is more or less well accomplished. Sadly, it suffers from the typical 3D game problems of the 32bit era: Horribly cringy voice acting (except for the woman who guides you throughout the missions), issues with camera angles and strange collision detection. Still, Burning Rangers has a lot of potential and I'm sure if Sonic Team takes the time to overcome all these shortcomings, the sequel should be a great game... oh wait right, I forgot.

Best experiment Sonic Team has made.

Yeah the controls suck, it's short as hell and the limit timer thing is really annoying but goddamn I love this world and some of the ideas they introduce like having where to go be told to you through an immersive comms unit that just adds so much to the core experience and how it handles having the gameplay be all about saving people are just really neat and ideas that I haven't seen in a lot of other games.

I know this will never happen but I hope this game's world and characters are expanded upon way more, with tighter controls and design choices that won't make me want to have to use save states in the final section, I mean it's firefighters in space for gods sake!

I got past the first stage, and I've seen enough. This is where I stop. I like the concept this game has but the way it is on the saturn makes it extremely hard for me to enjoy it, The controls and platforming are super clunky, camera movement sucks and the gameplay is simply pressing B to extinguish some flames, collecting crystals and pressing the navigation button that generates a voice prompt telling you in which direction you need to go to proceed further, I guess sonic team themselves knew the level design was too trippy and the player might need assistance while trying to find their way across the levels. Overall, this was pretty disappointing...

you never kill a single human being in this game, instead you help them get out of the fire and rubble of decaying buildings, search laboratories and spacial stations. your only weapon is used to extinguish the fire and, at your most violent act, exterminate robots. being a burning ranger is, at first, helping people, not harming them in any way! amazing level geometry, sonic team was at its peak level design-wise, with a lot of space to roam around and turn your camera to locate where you go next, while your team leader chris guides you if you are lost, with a single button pressing. the animated cutscenes and overall aesthetics, together with a cute english dub gives it a very "saturday morning" cartoon vibe or a late 90s OVA anime. also the songs here slaps, specially the main theme! great game!

queria poder ver os mapas por fora como naqueles vídeos de dark souls, labiríntico de forma que você precisa depender dos colegas pra entender como é o mapa e onde ir, mas sem interromper o fluxo: fogos precisam ser apagados e pessoas precisam ser salvas, mesmo que sejam as pessoas erradas nos lugares certos.

dos jogos de profissão (death stranding, papers please) é um dos melhores, mas também se afasta tanto da ideia padrão de como uma profissão funciona que deve inspirar quem nunca nem sonhou em salvar um gatinho da árvore. ser um bombeiro no mundo de burning rangers tem todo o apelo de ser um astronauta no nosso: é a vida adulta mais legal possível, a profissão esporte radical.

#FreeYujiNaka

The grand ambition of creating a game where you rescue people instead of killing them is fully realized here. The choice to have zero soundtrack to instead have your commander read you instructions on how to navigate compromised buildings create a very unique vibe. Yuji Naka did nothing wrong. Except when he did his stock scam and treated all his subordinates like shit.

Having a way to play the game again with the commander being replaced by the opening song playing all the time means they knew what they were doing.

Barely functional mess with no minimap on a pitch black map running at single digit FPS, with your only guidance forward being entirely over the voice comms that don't actually know where you are, sending you in circles through this indistinguishable lab that's constantly exploding directly under your feet making the directional sensitive platforming even clunkier than it already is. Controls like people pretend Mega Man Legends does but 2x worse and actually demands more of you in the process.

Add it to the list of BEST SEGA SATURN GAMES because it's technically true LMFAO

At least it looks cool I guess? I dunno, tired of being recommended post-Genesis Sega games to the tune of commercials; "3D GRAPHICS, SO COOL! GENERIC ANIME INTRO! OLDHEAD DEVELOPERS!!" Still wanna give this another shot but can't help but feel if this were a PS1 or N64 title it'd be slammed way harder than it is, Sega always gets a pass because {vaguely alludes to 90s marketing aesthetics}. I"d love to be able to eat my words on replay, truly.

I'm gonna give this one the benefit of the doubt here. This game makes the sega saturn scream in terror as it tries to render a 3D world as detailed as what this game demands, which causes the visuals to suffer a lot. It was definitely overly ambitious and theres a lot of texture warping and polygons jumpin around and its graphically all over the place. Also theres no music in the actual game itself which is a goddamn CRIME considering the fact the games vocal themes and menu music are absolute bangers of our time. HOWEVER, this game has so much charm with what it tries to do and its so ambitious in what it does that I'd still reccomend giving it a shot. You don't see many firefighting games period, so this game has a very interesting concept with just middling execution. If there was ever a remake for the game that fixed the graphical issues and added music to the game, i think this would be a highkey banger. Not worth the billions of dollars for a physical copy tho

Burning Rangers is a game about futuristic firefighters equipped with jetpack boosters and flame-extinguishing lasers. You're joined via a cast of characters with names that would make Hideo Kojima blush (Big Landman). Your goal is to fearlessly dive into burning buildings with the intent to save as many people as possible, and stop the source of the flames.

The first thing you'll probably notice while playing is the performance and the graphics. 3D graphics were never necessarily the Sega Saturn's strong suit, and it shows. The draw distance is fairly poor, pieces of geometry will frequently disappear before they're off-camera, and the game is constantly hovering between 10-20 FPS. However, the game looks really damn good for 1998, especially in motion. The lighting effects are a real strong point here. The obvious example is how flames light up any area around them, but the standard light sources really help build the mechanical/futuristic atmosphere of the game's stages.

The controls are simple to describe, but tricky in practice. You have a jump and double jump at your disposal, and your character will automatically jump when running off the edge of a platform. This is definitely disorienting at first, but it ends up being a helpful concession in keeping the gameplay flowing well (considering the game's framerate). Your laser has no direct lock-on, only a soft lock-on. The camera rotates by 90 degrees each time you hit the corresponding shoulder button. You can still shoot stuff that's offscreen, but it's best to practice keeping what you're firing at in-frame. One of the more notable things to keep your ears open for is the sound of a high-pitched whistle, the signal that something nearby is about to blow. At this point, flicking the analog stick backwards causes you to do a "back loop" out of the way.

Putting out flames and continuing to move forward are integral to success in Burning Rangers. There's a graph in the top-right of the screen at all times showing the building's limit. Every 20%, it hits a new threshold and cannot go below that point again for the rest of the stage. If it hits 100%, that's game over. By putting out fires, you can bring the limit down a bit, and create energy crystals. These work like rings in a Sonic game. They'll get knocked out of you if you take damage, but as long as you have one, you won't die. However, it's good to keep at least 10 of them on your person at all times. If you find any survivors, it costs 10 crystals to transport them to safety. Doing so will give you thank-you letters you can read in between stages, giving them and the locations more personality. (Citizens also provide you with an extra continue, and serve as a checkpoint to return from when you use a continue, but c'mon. I'm a sucker for ingenious world-building like fan mail.)

The gameplay's most glaring flaw is the combat. You'll encounter a small variety of security robots while running around these burning buildings, and if you don't take them out from a distance (or get them in a charge shot-induced stunlock), they can become a real nuisance quickly. The soft lock-on is the biggest culprit of this. It can be hard to hit enemies if they're also in say, a room with billowing flames on either side of them. Every stage is also capped off with a boss fight, each of which varies wildly in difficulty. At the very least, these are made more tolerable due to the camera being locked onto the boss at all times.

Burning Rangers' most notable feature in my eyes is a fully voiced "navigator". There's no minimap. Instead, if you need directions, you can press the designated button to call your navigator, who will give you specific directions on how to proceed. It's actually a surprisingly cool and immersive touch to the gameplay. You'll also hear reports from the other rangers on your communications, sometimes to give ongoing developments on the current situation, and other times it's just for set dressing.

As a full package, Burning Rangers is honestly a pretty rough and jank-filled experience. However, there's something with passion and ambition found right beneath the surface. I'd be hard-pressed to find a game that plays like this, or covers similar subject matter in the current day. It's a true testament to what kind of creative ideas Sonic Team was capable of back then. It keeps me coming back to it, regardless of how short the game may be. The most recognition that the game has gotten since is a superb track in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. There's also a fanmade remake being built from the ground up, which you can check out here. Honestly, I wish this game would return in any capacity in the future, remake or sequel. I just want more, is that so much to ask? You're burning a hole in my heart here, Sega. Oh well, at least the music slaps.

In 1998 the Sega Saturn was, sadly, discontinued in most countries. Trailing both the N64 and PlayStation led to Sega canceling many games planned for the system. Some gems however made it through the cull and got a last moment release, one such title was the sci-fi fire fighting game Burning Rangers.

Burning Rangers is based upon a futuristic fire fighting squad of the same name. The title takes two rookie fire fighter protagonists Sho and Tillis through various missions rescuing trapped people and putting out fires. While the game doesn't exactly sport a big cohesive story there is plenty of dialogue between the characters of the squad keeping the missions engaging.

The game is essentially a 3D platformer that you have to navigate through to rescue everyone and find the cause for the accident in each mission locale. Each Ranger is equipped with a "burner unit" which is essentially a jet pack allowing them to do extended jumps and boosts to reach new areas and help get around obstacles. No fire fighter however would get anywhere without the ability to actually put out fire. Each member of the crew has a water gun of sorts that fires shots and can charge shot for bigger fires putting them out instantly, allowing safe passage through. When a fire is put out crystals are dropped, much like a Sonic game, as long as Sho or Tillis are holding some they won't die (which should come as little surprise as Sonic Team are behind it). Each level is a fairly volatile place with explosions wracking the structures making it harder to get around, the more fires are put out, the safer the structure is so it's in each players best interest to clear as many as possible while progressing. Fires are not all the gun is used for though as plenty of malfunctioning robots as well as huge boss type enemies need to be taken down along the way.

Burning Rangers was a surprisingly innovative title at the time with each mission being different on the next run after finishing the game with different paths to take, other characters to play and new people to save including some members of Sonic Team themselves who would send thank you letters and tips making it feel more rewarding. The game needed this feature though as it's main flaw is that it is a pretty short title. While each of the four missions are quite varied including a burning down building, an underwater base and a space station, the game just wouldn't last very long without that extra re-playability.

Visually Burning Rangers was a good looking title for the time. The character models are surprisingly detailed and each level is surprisingly grand in scale but what really stands out were the games great fire and lighting effects. The fires and explosions look fantastic using some great transparency and particle effects, Burning Rangers was one of the best looking titles on the Saturn. Sound is of equally high quality with some great sound effects of explosions and flames. There is also plenty of voice acting for the time all of which fit the characters perfectly. The music was also good though perhaps a bit 90s type cheesy even supporting it's own Burning Rangers theme tune. (I love it, still have it on my Walkman now in 2022)

In conclusion, Burning Rangers was a great final crescendo to the Sega Saturn. It looked fantastic, sounded brilliantly and was simply a fun title to play. Though hard to get a hold of now and a bit pricey if you still own a Saturn or are thinking of getting one, Burning Rangers should be in your collection.

+ Good looking game for a Saturn title.
+ Ahead of it's time with varied replays.
+ Great level design
+ Sci-fi firefighting.

- Far too short.

When I read Burning Rangers, I wasn't expecting a literal futuristic firefighting game. Which I somewhat appreciate you know? I haven't seen many firefighting games outside of a couple on the NES/SNES. The other ones I checked tend to be lame unity games or just shovelware. If you have any hidden suggestions, i'm down.

Now for a lil write-up about the game: I thought it was pretty fun, there's 4 missions and they all last around 20-30 minutes each, making the game a total of 2 hours long. You basically have to go to X destination and extinguish fires/save people along the way. Then at the end of each stage, you fight a boss, which are whatever, I killed most of them under 30 seconds except for the final boss which takes a bit longer.
The camera can be complete shit in some sections, specially underwater but thankfully you have a nice lady giving you indications at all times in case these things happen or you simply get lost.

Banger soundtrack which is kind of expected coming from Sonic Team and there's a randomizer mode after you finish the game if you end up wanting more.