"The toughest "occupational series" game ever yet!"

There are many reasons why Sega's AM3 is now focusing on occupational-related games. However, in order to focus on the main course (Brave Firefighters: Real Life Heroes), I will not explain the reason why AM3 is only focusing on occupational-related games.

In general, firefighters are the least recognizable heroes regardless of the situation and the scene. However, we have to realize that in times of electrical accidents, energy leakages, arson crimes, and anything that triggers FIRE (it swallows ANYTHING in its path), we have to understand that only these guys have the guts to rescue ourselves from the wrath of an enemy that only seeks to destroy us by burning us to death.

To make sure that firefighters are recognized at last, Sega AM3 came up with a formula that will "refine" LA Machineguns. The task in order to make Firefighters recognizable heroes at last is to refine one of the light gun games in the past and replace the light guns with simulated Fire Hoses found only in the Fire Trucks. So using what they had done in LA Machineguns, AM3 replaced the "Strafe the Androids" theme with a mission to rescue hostages that are trapped inside a building that suffered from an electrical accident which triggered a destructive element.

Brave Firefighters: Real Life Heroes is an interactive Firefighting simulator that FINALLY replaces the light guns with Fire Hoses. You "point" the Firehoses anywhere in the screen and you press the Red Button to "attack" the Blaze that is causing massive harm to the hostages trapped inside a building that suffered an electrical leakage. In addition to the basic "Water Shooting" from a Fire Hose, you also have a "Twist" feature that will sprinkle the water in order to prevent the fire from burning a citizen apart. A strict time limit ensures that you need to extinguish the destructive element as quickly as you can, thus even real-life Firefighters know that speed is the essense of rescuing hostages from a destructive element that destroys property.

To make matters worse, you lose more time if a hostage gets burned, and to add to the challenge, the blazes will have confusing patterns so in order to save the hostages from the blaze quickly, you have to find the best way to extinguish the blazes. However, the amount of blazes can be overwhelming in some points of the game meaning that you may not have too much time once you have destroyed all the blazes in one area.

Brave Firefighters: Real Life Heroes features 3 Naomi-powered stages, each with a confusing pattern of blazes to destroy within a strict time limit, key hostages that you need to rescue, several boss rescue scenes, and a challenge that won't quit. You're pushed to find better ways of extinguishing the blazes from game to game, credit to credit, and card swipe to card swipe and to become the fastest firefighter, you need to find the best and fastest way to beat the blaze.

Graphically, the devilish blazes that you need to "tear apart" is highly detailed, representing the firefighter's key enemy. With such detail centralized to the blazes, you feel like that you are putting your life and the hostages' lives on the line! Although the polygons are just about average, the blaze detail is what give Brave Firefighters my praise.

Brave Firefighters is currently ONLY available in a 50-inch Deluxe with vibrating simulated Fire Hoses, so if you see a Brave Firefighters machine at your local arcade, I recommend that you give it a try (although the challenge is pretty much suicide) not just for fun, but to understand how hard the firefighters have been working for us.

Graphics: 8 out of 10 The polygons may not be as good as the polygons from Crazy Taxi, but the detail of the blazes that you need to destroy from scene to scene really helps this game get high praise for graphics.

Sound: 9 out of 10 While Crazy Taxi was a cabbie simulator based upon the theme of humor, Brave Firefighters is based upon real-life rescue from the oodles and oodles of blazes. I really liked hearing some of the Captain's comments regarding about my progress and at times, I just felt like saying "It's still burning!" when I am too slow clearing the area at times. The Water Extinguishment sound effects are cool.

Challenge: 10 out of 10 THIS IS WHAT THE GAME LIVES FOR!!!! The challenge won't quit and the blazes may have some confusing and overwhelming patterns at some points of the game, forcing you to find the quickest and most efficient way of extinguishing the blazes! One-player is suicide and unlike Crazy Taxi and Emergency Call Ambulance, Brave Firefighters is a 2-player game, which can really help calm down the tension of the game's overwhelming difficulty with teamwork at times.

Overall: 9 out of 10 Finally an Arcade Game that will allow us to understand how hard the Firefighters work for us. It's worth playing even though the game is insanely hard on one-player.

Sega AM3 should be proud of what they did in order to make Firefighters recognizable heroes around the planet.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/06/00, Updated 04/07/02