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BURNING RANGERS —by Eugene Moon
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Sonic Team, the development group that brought us SONIC THE HEDGEHOG and NIGHTS, invites Saturn owners to become members of a futuristic fire-fighting team in its latest game. Featuring an enhanced version of the NIGHTS game engine, BURNING RANGERS redefines the limits of the Saturn's graphics hardware. The game manages to include Gouraud and light-source shading, as well as transparency and underwater warping effects, without resorting to an extremely blocky resolution. After an animated FMV introduction,
the player takes control of their
character in the Burning Rangers' training area. The game
begins with a tutorial that walks the player through basic
maneuvers and teaches several techniques while the other
members of the team are being introduced. At the end of the
training session play proceeds directly to the game's first
level.Gameplay consists of exploring BURNING RANGERS'
four levels, collecting red crystals which both protect the
player's character from harm and are employed in teleporting
the fire victims to safety. The player's primary objective
should be to rescue as many people as he can find, but it is
not wise to take too long since the fires grow worse as time
progresses. There are also several hazards that will be
encountered, including fires that burst suddenly from walls,
security robots that attack the player, and chemical tanks
that explode when the player gets too close. The player will
normally get an aural warning, whether it be a whooshing sound
of a fire or an alert from the team leader who is monitoring
the player's progress.BURNING RANGERS makes good use of sound to create a rich atmosphere for the
player to enjoy. Instead of the music typically found in a
game of this genre, the player hears the ambient noise of
fires burning. There is quite a bit of voice (supplied by
several prominent voice actors and actresses) in this game as
other members of the team make radio calls while the player
explores the level. It is even possible to call the team
leader for directions when the player gets lost. The music in
BURNING RANGERS is used primarily for the
boss monster encounters at the end of each level.There is a lot of Japanese in BURNING RANGERS.
All the radio traffic and animated FMV cut-scenes use Japanese,
as do the mid-level cut-scenes which use the game engine. It
is possible to blunder your way through the game with
absolutely no Japanese knowledge, but this trial and error
process may get tedious after a while.Luckily, it seems that Sonic Team created BURNING RANGERS to appeal to a
wide audience by simplifying the gameplay. The fact that your
character cannot die so long as you are carrying red crystals
and the fact that the game starts with a tutorial support this
conclusion. Also, though some of them can be somewhat tricky,
most of the jumps players must make aren't particularly
difficult, and there is an auto-jump feature which causes the
player's character to jump automatically when they are run off
a ledge. Finally, the boss characters are even a little
easier to defeat than the ones in NIGHTS.The lowered challenge factor and the presence of only four levels make it
fairly easy to beat BURNING RANGERS in
several hours the initial time through. Sonic Team addresses
the lack of levels by making portions of each inaccessible
until the game is played again. The locations of the hostages
also changes somewhat. There are also several nooks and
crannies the player may overlook the first time they play.
While it would've been nice to have a few more original levels
to play on, this does help extend the play time one can get
from the game. It also helps if the player takes advantage of
the Saturn's internal (or cartridge-based) backup memory to
play, at most, only a couple of levels at a time.
Unfortunately, any extra continues gained during the game are
lost when the player quits out.Overall, BURNING RANGERS delivers quite a package.
It comes in a deluxe CD
jewel case that holds the game CD, an instruction manual, and
a CD single that contains three tracks of music from the game.
The game CD has no tracks which are playable on a standard CD
player, but does have a sound test that lets you listen to the
game music. It is worth noting that the choices available in
the sound test increase as the player progresses further
through the game. BURNING RANGERS may
lack some of the longevity of NIGHTS (or
even SONIC THE HEDGEHOG), and the
graphics engine does have difficulty displaying portions of
the game smoothly. But like a lot of Sega games,
BURNING RANGERS is a lot of fun and a
valuable addition to the Saturn library.
 Rating: **** out of 4 |
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