Burning Rangers

"I wish Sonic Team had more time with this one."

Burning Rangers for the Sega Saturn is a unique 3D platform game where the gamer takes on the role of a futuristic firefighter. It is also a mixed bag. I struggle between wanting to praise it and to criticize it. One thing for sure is that I cut this game some slack because it is made by Sonic Team. Truthfully I should expect more from this talented team; rather, than forgiving it for a messy job.

Graphics -- 7/10
Sonic Team tried hard to make this a pretty game and I wonder if they had more time if they could fix some of the graphical glitching. Frame rate sometimes suffers, there are lots of polygon warping and flickering, popup occurs and the draw-in distance is not always great. If the gamer wants to see 3D graphics in its infancy, before they were perfected on the current generation system, then look no further than BR. For some reason, none of the polygons look consistently solid and when they are, they are of the ugly low-res variety. With all that said, Sonic Team programmed in excellent light sourcing, transparencies, and beautiful fire effects (composed of sprites). Based of the NiGHTS engine, BR indirectly proves that NiGHTS was not a fully 3D game. Sonic Team tried and they deserve the score because of their efforts. Cutscenes are done anime style and of acceptable quality.

Sound/Music -- 10/10
Although there is no music during the actual gameplay, the voice navigation system is crucial to the BR experience. With a touch of a button the gamer can contact the ship's navigator for help navigating around the humongous levels. Her voice comes out clearly and usually offers sound advice -- not always though! The music that does play is ok. I like the j-pop'ish end tune.

Gameplay -- 8/10
The controls are very loose in this game and Sonic Team attempted to alleviate that with automatic jumps. Too bad nothing can be done during the aggravating water levels. The firefighters also have a multitude of moves including double jumps, back jumps, etc. The game can be described as a faster paced Tomb Raider combined with MegaMan and Sonic. Like TR, the gamer explores 4 large levels solving puzzles like finding keys and opening doors. While doing so the gamer must fight fires with either their normal blast attack or a charged blast attack. Very few enemies appear in the game, but there are fires everywhere. If the level reaches a critical point, then everything explodes around you. The Sonic aspect of this game is the crystal collecting for points. The crystals operate like Sonic's rings as they also fulfill the function of the firefighter's vitality. Furthermore the gamer needs 10 crystals before he can transport victims to safety. BR's supposed saving grace is its unlimted gameplay. Unfortunately it is not implemented as well as in NiGHTS. Sonic Team expects gamers to run around finding all the victims and play the levels repeatedly, which opens up new areas. Yeah right! I think I saved a bunch of victims including Yuji Naka himself! (Sonic team members appear throughout the game)

Last thoughts --
I wanted to like this game real badly; in part because back in 98 I selected this game and Shining Force III over Panzer Dragoon Saga. I only had a 100 bucks! Retrospectively, I wish I chose PDS. Anyway BR is a fun game as long as the gamer does not expect a dreamy experience along the lines of NiGHTS. Load times are acceptable and there is a fun mini shooting game. However, I have a hard time figuring out what is coming at me in this mode. There was also a 2P versus mode that was cut out of the final release of this game. There still even a blank area where that mode option would have fit in perfectly. I wonder how that would have turned out. This game receives my partial recommendation.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/10/05