"One of the most revolutionary games ever."

Burning Rangers was released for the Sega Saturn in May of 1998. BR was developed by
Sonic Team, the same team that developed NiGHTS, as well as most of the Sonic the
Hedgehog series. In this game, you are a firefighter. BR was distributed by Sega of
America. Your job is to put out fires, navigate through huge levels, and rescue people
along the way. If this sounds tough, don’t fret, there’s a tutorial at the beginning of the
game to guide you through it all. Your performance is graded at the end of each of the
game’s four missions. Now then, without further ado, let’s get onto the review.

Graphics- 8/10- The graphics are, for the most part, amazing. The game opens up with an
excellent anime-esque opening that sets the mood for the game. The same anime style is
used in the game’s cutscenes. The levels in this game are HUMUNGOUS, they are some
of the largest levles I’ve ever played in. The fires and also HUGE, the fires look very
realistic. The same can be said for the levels themselves. Despite the immense size, not to
mention the frantic nature of the game, the game never slows down. Many different
lighting effects are used throughout the game to help enhance the game’s mood; for
example, in the first level, the power goes out, leaving you in the dark, with the exception
of your rather small flashlight, which is your only light source other than the flames. This
gives you, the player, a glimpse into the severity of the situation, you can’t see very far,
people’s lives are at stake, you must hurry to find the power switch, or else innocent
people could die. This is just a sample of what the game’s lighting effects do for the mood
of the game. The only major qualm with the graphics is the game’s camera. It’s sorta
shaky, given the frantic pace of the game, I expected some camera problems, but the
camera is simply too shaky. Thankfully, you can remedy the problem via the shoulder
buttons, but the problem shouldn’t have been there to begin with.

Pros- Huge levels. Realistic looking levels and characters. Fires look realistic. The
lighting effects add to the game’s mood.
Cons- The game’s camera gets in the way a bit too much.

Sound- 10/10- Sound is the most important aspect of the game, it even says so on the title
screen This game uses sound like no other, you see, the game has you go through the
levles while you are talking to your supervisor. You can call her if you need help via the Z
and X buttons, when you call her, she will tell you where to go. During boss battles, she
will tell you what you need to do to beat the boss. During the regular stages, she will tell
you when you need to be cautious. Sonic Team did an amazing job with this aspect of the
game. There are other aspects of the game when sound is critically important; there are
instances where you will hear a beep, this will tell you to jump back to avoid an incoming
fire. If you don’t YOU WILL DIE. The in-game music is excellent, it’s very catchy and
has a Japanese, almost J-Pop-esque tempo to it. The sound effects are excellent, granted,
995 of the sound effects are fire, but it sounds realistic.

Pros- Groundbreaking use of voice navigation in the game. Excellent music. Realistic
sound effects.
Cons- None.

Gameplay- 10/10- Most of the gameplay focuses on you putting out fires. But some of it
involves platform jumping. There is an excellent tutorial at the beginning of the game that
gets you acquainted with every aspect of the game, from fire fighting, to the rescuing of
people. There are two types of fires in this game, weak fires, indicated by their orange
color; and strong fires, indicated by their green color. Each type of fire requires a different
method to put it out. To put out weak fires, just sprays it once with your laser (a laser is
used to put out fires instead of water.) To put out strong fires, charge up your laser blast,
then aim. You will have to jump many, many chasms in this game. You will usually just
jump over small gaps, but you will need to manually jump over larger gaps. You will be
doing all of these things, AT ONCE, so be prepared. The game is very exciting, the
frantic nature of the game will keep you on your toes.

Pros- Frantic gameplay.
Cons- None.

Control- 10/10- The B button is used to put out fires; press it once to put out weak fires,
and charge it to put out strong ones. The A and C buttons are used to jump. While the X
and Z buttons are used to call your supervisor for help. The game makes better use out of
the Saturn’s control pad than any game ever. The control is very responsive, yet it is
never TOO responsive that it can cause problems.

Pros- Responsive control. Makes better use of the Saturn pad than most other games.
Cons- None.

Presentation- 7/10- The presentation is, for the most part, bare-bones. It’s a bit jazzed up,
but not too much. The menus are usually just plain text, with a background.

Challenge- 10/10- Holy moly is this game hard. You will be fighting fires from all sides in
each level. Not to mention that you also have to save people. The challenge is never too
overwhelming though.

Replay Value- 10/10- While the game only have four leveLs, they are all huge. You will
want to play through the game many times just to learn the layout of the levels. You’ll
play it after that to improve your grade in the game.

Overall- 10/10- The game has some of the Saturn’s best graphics, the best use of sound
ever in a video game, and fluid controls. What more could you ask for? BUY THIS
GAME.

Other Stuff- The game offers you the chance to read E-mails sent to you by the people that you save during the levels. You can read them after you finish a level. I like this
feature, it’s a rather innovative novelty.

Fun Fact- This was one of the final five games released on the Saturn in the United States. Not only that, but only 50,000 copies of these games were made.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/20/01, Updated 03/20/01