26 Years Later, Sega Classic Burning Rangers Gets A Two-Player Mode

Burning Rangers is one of those titles that isn't as well known as it should be with casual gamers but has become something of a classic for diehard Sega fans.

Developed by Sonic Team for the Sega Saturn in 1998, it was a dazzling showcase of what the console was capable of, and supported the Saturn's 3D analogue controller to amazing effect.

One of the features that was mooted for the game but didn't make it into the final version was a two-player co-op mode. 26 years after the game released, this has now been restored thanks to the efforts of @memory_fallen.

There are some things to note about this patch. The second player can't choose which character they want to be, as the character selection is limited by the textures loaded in for each mission.

For example, in Mission 1, the second player is always Lead, whereas in other missions they will take the place of either Shou or Tillis, dependant on which character player one has selected.

The second player can put out fires and attack enemies, but they can't rescue people or collect crystals. There's no split-screen view, either, so if the second player drifts off-camera, they have to teleport back to player one's location with the A button.

"There were spots where I had to modify the game code to prevent crashes with two players, e.g. when you encounter other Rangers during cut scenes," says @memory_fallen. "I also had to change the game to skip the Training level, which doesn't work at all with two players."

You can grab the patch here and read about how it was created here.