The GHZ Forum

So I decided it was high time to finish up my collection of Sonic Team Saturn games, and went onto eBay to collect the finishing item: <i>Burning Rangers</i>. I wasn't really sure what I was to be expecting here, especially since it's not a title that's remembered anywhere NEAR as fondly as other obscure Sonic Team titles are (except maybe <i>Billy Hatcher</i>, but anyway). Prolly paid too much, but ~$50 complete-in-box is better than the $70-$80 that others are commanding, so it could've been worse...

Anyway, I just felt like stating that it's not half-bad, actually. I mean, the fact that there are only four stages is somewhat concerning, but then, this was back when Sonic Team made relatively few stages in their games, only to cram those few stages with enough reasons to constantly come back and replay them. Either way I've only played the first two levels (as Tillis naturally), so I guess I've barely scratched the game's surface.

So yes, the graphics really kind of suck. Not so much because they're blocky, necessarily, but because there's the occasional flickering, slowdown here and there, and the overall framerate is abysmal. But the game is nevertheless quite playable, so... what isn't quite as excusable is the camera. Diss Sonic Team's latest cameras as much as you want; fact is, they're all still better than <i>Burning Rangers</i>'. I get lost so very much in this game, to the extent that not even constantly pestering Chris is of much help. It's workable, but MAN do I yearn for something better - even the <i>Sonic Adventure</i> camera, despite its wall-clipping issues, was a lot easier to use than this one, which generally rotates 90Â￾° at a time, and sometimes I swear not in the direction I would expect it to...

I haven't really seen too many enemies, yet. The first two bosses, obviously, but other than that, it's mostly fire. There WERE some annoying blue robots that take several fully-charged shots to destroy, including at least one room with THREE of them... what's really annoying is that, should you get hit, you would lose all your crystals (the game's equivalent to "rings"), complete with a lack of sound effect to notify you of such, and should you shoot that fully-charged shot, all those crystals that just went flying are VAPORIZED. This is not an issue with one enemy, but with three, it gets to be extremely cramped, so it does, in fact, become a factor. Either way, combat's not EXTREMELY satisfying but it gets the job done.

Voice-acting is atrocious, of course. Big Landman sounds nothing like he should (wasn't he supposed to be foreign? I'd expected at least a faint African accent to him), and apparently "Lead" is pronounced "Reed" in the future (which wouldn't be an issue if they'd just used "Reed" to begin with). Not to mention, the conversations that you have with the hostages are laughable at best - but, well, par for the course in the late '90s, I guess. The anime cutscenes are nice, though - although they'd be nicer if they were used for more than just post-level cinematics, but perhaps a bit of pre-level plot as well.

There are some nice replay incentives, though; I recall reading on this very site that further replays will give you drastically different paths, and therefore give you access to a wider variety of hostages. Saving all the hostages looks to be one of the biggest incentives, actually, since the game keeps track of each and every hostage you've saved - I doubt there's a bonus for saving ALL of them, but regardless, it's a neat thing.

Anyway, I intend to trek deeper into the game sometime soon. I figure I'm not the only one here who's played it (GG! and Popcorn come to mind, at least), but nevertheless, for those who haven't, I'll prolly report my overall feelings once I've finished the whole shebang.

That being said, I kinda wish they would take another attempt at this series; the level design, from what I've seen, explicitly has no bottomless pits, at least. They could fix the camera (well, okay, at least make it less broken), and probably rework the combat system to be somewhat more modern (lock-on button FTW)... plus, even on, say, the Wii, the game would look a helluva lot better and run a lot smoother than the Saturn game itself does. The series has potential, I think - should they ever bother to return to it.

I actually really like Burning Rangers. I returned to it four or five years ago, and by that stage it really was looking pretty creaky, and, contrary to what people say, thought it held up surprisingly well. I think it's the controls. They're so floatily satisfying.

I always wanted a multiplayer sequel to come out, with randomly-generated levels. One player would be the ranger, and the other would have a map of the place and would give directions to the ranger. Not that the level of co-operation required for this to work could ever be achieved by the Xbox Live user demographic. And not that that it wouldn't suck outrageously if Sonic Team made it now.

The controls really are something pleasant to play around with, I don't think I've played a 3D game that even comes close to that floaty responsiveness. The graphics were never all that good to begin with so I think looking back on BR is easier to do than NiGHTS, because it the problems with the visuals were always so much more apparent.

The thing that really did BR for me I think is when you've done a level a few times and then all of a sudden you get that random shot at a much harder and longer version and you get lost when you really thought you knew what you were doing. That's an experience right there.

All I have to contribute is the fact that I really like the english version of Angels with Burning Hearts because it's borderline nonsensical, at least to somebody who's never played the game. I mean, really, "The cradle's rocking with love" and "passing through the matrix of death and driving you in to cyber-dive".

Don't worry, it's still borderline nonsensical even after having played for a while.

For some reason I like all the english version songs better, with the exception (sort of) of We Are Burning Rangers, because the engrish is FLYING. The lyrics are the same for both version, but the guy's pronunciation is just amazing.

Heh, me too, even the ending song is better in english.

My hopes are almost up, because Virtual-On showed up on the SEGA AGES 2500 SERIES. Problem is, Burning Rangers isn't half as popular in Japan as VO is, so I'm not sure if it'll be released in the series or not.

We could use a new Virual-On either way. I had an intentionally horrible idea of using two Wii remotes to plug into a hub that would come with the game, instead of having to buy the twin-sticks. The two Wii-motes would be used as the twin sticks. Yeah I suck.

But an online mode with Vitual-On would be the best.

They somehow managed to fuck up a Virtual On game on the PS2, which has a controller almost (almost) ideal for the game. I think the series effectively died with Mars (Marz?).

It died with Force, the arcade game Marz is derived from.

OR AT LEAST IT DIED TO ME. :(

I've never played <i>Virtual On</i> so this side-discussion means nothing to me.

Anyway, Stage 4 is confusing - and you can't seem to ask the mysterious voice for further navigation, either. Which I suppose is less of a problem than those random enemies who always seem to sneak up on me and get in a couple of hits, and whom, after shooting a bazillion times, still seem to exist. :\

I seem to remember that even when I hit those guys from far away I would rush past, and avoid getting them at all if I could. The stretch that they live in is pretty short, so if you can get through that little frozen maze area (there's one route that will get you through it very fast) quickly and into the next one they won't follow you.

I think.

I have very fond memories of Burning Rangers. Like others have said, the controls are great. "Floaty" is the right word, I think, and it was perfectly natural to use the jet packs to basically fly through straight hallways.

I can't remember whether I tracked down all the survivors. I know I didn't get all of their mails, but not for lack of trying. It was pretty much the coolest thing ever when I first rescued Ami Shibata.

Anyway, I finished the game (sans getting all survivors, getting S-ranks or any of those completionist things) a few days ago. That fourth stage is surreal as hell. Shame it has (*shudder*) <i>bottomless pits</i>... But at least the game is somewhat more forgiving when it comes to speed, as opposed to another certain franchise inundated with the things, so I only fell into one once (and that was intentionally falling into a pit that I was completely unaware was bottomless to begin with; I dunno, I expected to land in a pool of water like the other pits around it). Besides, the one giant room with the tiny walkways over a giant pit of death looked awesome enough that I can somewhat forgive the concept.

Anyway, I should probably get back to replaying this one. I've played Stage 1 far too many times, but Stages 2 & 3 I've only actually completed once over... Stage 3, in particular, I need to get back to, since I vaguely want to rescue Naka and Ohshima. If Iizuka's in this game, though, then as far as I care, he can snuff it.