TheSega Saturnis well known for being a commercial failure, but the console and games maintain a cult following to this day. The technically impressiveBurning Rangersis one such game with its unique and tense firefighting gameplay, and a recent writeup reveals it would have been far ahead of its time if a large amount of content was not cut.
Burning Rangersis aSega Saturngame developed by Sonic Team, and it is set in the far future where fires are still a common threat in major cities. Initially released in 1998 toward the end of the Saturn’s lifespan, the game follows the eponymous Burning Rangers, a group of firefighters dedicated to extinguishing burning buildings and rescuing anyone trapped inside.
RELATED:Sega Saturn Games That Deserve Remakes
The Hidden Palace, a community organization dedicated to the preservation of video game development history, released a writeup on an alpha version ofBurning Rangerstoday that shows the game’s original ambition. As it turns out, the title’s early builds featured a two-player co-operative mode, very uncommon in 3D games on the system. Perhaps most ahead of its time, though, would be the networking mode; another early build of the title was planned to include a local networked multiplayer mode with two connected Sega Saturn systems running the game in parallel. This would have been an unprecedented feature for consoles at the time, and closelymirrors how Xbox System Link workedin the next generation.
Only the first level of theBurning Rangersprototype is playable from start to finish, but it provides an interesting look into the early development of the game. Instead of loading the smaller segments that the final version uses to save RAM, the game loads half of the level at a time into RAM, necessitating simplification of game assets to make it run properly. WithBurning Rangersbeing one of thelongest Sega Saturn games, it makes sense that this resource-saving approach would have to be used.
Interestingly, many of the developers ofBurning Rangerswent on to work on thePhantasy Star Onlineseries, bringing, to at least some extent, the removed networking features ofBurning Rangersfull circle. Despite the prestige of the developers at Sonic Team,Burning Rangershas never seen a re-release or been remade, besides being referenced inSonic And All-Stars Racing Transformed. The game’s release itself is something of a miracle, as it launched less than a year before Sega’s next console, the Dreamcast, launched.
Knowing that manySega Saturn games were cancelledeven before the system’s final year,Burning Rangersis a strange yet iconic game for the Sega Saturn. Its premise of playing as firefighters is not often explored in gaming, and its impressive technical achievements made for a worthy sendoff for the Saturn. Looking back at what could have been, though, it is strange that Sonic Team has never revisited the series besides in passing reference.
