Sega Saturn shiro! (J's Drum & Bass remix) PV

I'm absolutely thrilled to bring you this particular piece, that was a present from J to me on the occasion of my fortieth birthday. I'd hassled and harangued the poor guy with the concept, until he could bear no more, and this piece of musical brilliance was the end result! It's never been experienced with video before, so this is an extra special gift to us all for the feast of Saturnalia!!!

Segata Sanshiro (J's drum & bass remix)
Uploaded by Random_J

I urge you to go over to RandomJBlog right now, because there is also remix of Daytona USA - The King Of Speed and also a remix of Sarah Bryant's Theme from VF1, neither of which I could reproduce here!

I'd just like to say a huge thanks to J for all of his many contributions to the 'Yard since it's creation which have included banners, art-work, reviews and music... Here's the great man himself to tell you how the Segata Sanshio Drum & Bass Remix came into being...


"A couple of years ago I did a Drum & bass remix of "Segata Sanshiro"'s theme song" because I was asked to by a disciple of Segata-san. It was great fun to do and was done in complete jest and fun. I figured it should get a music video, so here goes!

Long live Segata Sanshiro. The world truly was not ready for his mighty quiff , Chuck Norris style beatdowns and his dedication to Sega hardware."

Game review: Burning Rangers (by J)

Sonic team's swan song for the Sega Saturn was like something straight out of the 1980's. It takes everything you loved about children's' anime such as Voltron and Ulysses: a funky sing-a-long theme song, a futuristic setting, a couple of mecha's and a team of heroes in tight spandex, short jackets, white gloves, headbands and dodgy haircuts. This is the world of the Burning rangers. It's almost as though Sega saw you coming.

The Burning rangers are a team of futuristic fire fighters. Players take control of one of two new recruits into the squad: Shou or Tillis. The game is made up of a handful of missions which have you navigating through labyrinths of fire filled buildings: to put out fires, stop explosions and rescue any helpless civilians you happen to come across. As you play through the missions you will come across crystals. Crystals are a form of currency that is needed to teleport civilians to safety. If you do not have enough crystals, then a civilian will have to be left to make like Cajun style chicken. Crystals are acquired by putting out fires, but crystals can be shattered if hit with a charged shot from your water pistol. So whilst a charged shot is guaranteed to extinguish a large fire, it could potentially nip all chances of acquiring crystals in the bud. As you move around fires and explosions can go off at anytime. Players are warned of these hazards beforehand via a whistling sound. When you hear it, it doesn't mean it's time to snap yo' fangaz and crank that like Soulja boy: it means you need to move fast! By tapping a button your Burning ranger will perform a dodge maneuver which will clear them out of harms way. In earlier missions the whistle will sound quite some time before an explosion, but in later missions the time between the whistle and the explosion become shorter and in some cases are instantaneous. Getting hit by an explosion not only means losing a chunk of your health, but also all of your crystals. No crystals means not being able to save civilians, which in some cases isn't such a bad thing. Some of them sit on the floor in the middle of large rooms moving their heads from side to side like Stevie Wonder, expecting to be saved.

Unfortunately you're not always able to choose who you save, as wandering into an area with a civilian in clear view will immediately trigger a cut scene and have you teleport them. Some civilians aren't in such obvious locations however and the real challenge once you finish the game the first time round is going back and saving them all. They're at least kind enough to send you a letter for rescuing them which is quite thoughtful of them.



The audio in Burning rangers is fantastic. During missions there is no music and this works to the games' advantage as it creates a feeling of and being alone. All you can hear is the crackling of fires, explosions going off in the distance and the sound of debris and constructions falling around you. Having any music play throughout the duration of stages would take away from the atmosphere. You also have your navigator (the sexy, but cold and disinterested Chris) constantly speaking to you during missions which gives a real sense of being as part of a unit and also helps break up the silence. At the tap of a button your navigator will tell you exactly where to go. This is a pretty snazzy feature, as not once do you hear the CD spin in the Saturn like crazy trying to load the speech.

Burning rangers features bosses, all of which are crap. The Burning rangers are essentially glorified firemen with jetpacks, so why they have to fight bosses I have no clue. The bosses are unnecessary and do not work well into the plot (another thing this game didn't need). The final boss is some space alien looking thing that you fight on what looks like the set from Justin Timberlake's "Rock your body" video. It is not a rite of passage that every third person action adventure needs bosses. This game could've done without them. All of the bosses aside from the final one is some form of bland looking mecha. The only interesting thing about the bosses is that one of them resembles Pikachu and you can shoot him in the face.



Thankfully the design of the bosses wasn't extended to the main cast, as they're all a well designed bunch. Bright, colourful, camped up to the eye balls, but downright cool. The finger pointing Shou, the cute as a button Tillis, the sexy Chris, the smooth lady killer (but could also be gay) Leed and the big black Mr. T inspired Landman. Unfortunately, the supporting cast do not play much of a role in the game. They're in the intro and in the ending, but they don't do much in between. You'll sometimes come across some of them during missions. But when you do they're either just stood doing nothing, or they'll say a couple of words and then run off and leave you. It's a shame because the supporting cast are just as cool as the leads.

The graphics in this game are surprinsgly good for the Saturn. A console which was pretty capable, but ridiculously hard to get anything decent out of. Sega actually managed to pull some nifty graphics out of their big black box and as a result Burning rangers looks pretty spiffy. Especially in comparison to some the ghetto looking games that came before. (Only the Sega Saturn could fail to pull off an arcade perfect version of Virtua Fighter 1: which was pretty much cubes and a JPEG image for a stage background). The graphics in Burning rangers aren't perfect. There is some slow down and some clipping issues - but it's definitely one of the first (and unfortunately last) games on the Saturn that actually rivaled a PlayStation game in the graphics department. Burning rangers made the Saturn look incredibly capable and even now it still looks a bit of alright.



Burning rangers was a game that had everything going for it. But unfortunately it was released at the wrong time. By the time Burning rangers came around, the Saturn was already head shot out of the market. As much as I loved Burning rangers, I couldn't help but think it really did need a bit more to it and that it needed a more powerful console. When the Dreamcast came along and I saw what it was capable of, my first thought was that Sega should've released Burning rangers for it instead. They would've been able to do alot more with the Dreamcast's extra graphical power, controller and VMU unit. We could've had fully destructible environments, bigger explosions, analogue control, water blasting using the triggers and the VMU acting as a detector for finding nearby civilians. A missed opportunity for sure.

If you own a Sega Saturn and you foolishly do not own this game, then you need to take it upon yourself to hunt it down. It's a must own. Hopefully Sega will resurrect this series and introduce it to the masses who missed out on it the first time round. A re-release on the Wii shop, Xbox live marketplace or PlayStation network would be greatly welcomed.

Burning rangers is flawed game that is far from perfect, but one that was incredibly fun to play, original, full of promise, cool ideas and most importantly, still holds up to this very day. A Sega Saturn classic and one of Sonic team's best efforts.

RATING: 7 / 10

The good
+ One of the Saturn's best looking games
+ Easily accessible game play
+ Memorable characters

The bad
- It can be completed in one short sitting
- Terribly designed and unecessary bosses
- Not a great deal of replay value
- Not enough interaction or inclusion of the kick arse cast

1 arcade, a couple of 32 bit consoles and a best friend (by J)

A random encounter in an arcade and comments over my ability to remember a cheat to unlock Gold war machine in Marvel VS Capcom lead to the embarking of a friendship, with a fellow gamer who would go on to be a best friend. It started off with flippant comments like "You're well good at this game!" and "Ah, that air combo was SICK bruv!" to talking about which consoles we owned and our favourite games.

After bumping into one another in the arcades atfer school several times and exchanging names, we started to hang out. I found out he had a Sega Saturn and he found out I had a PlayStation. Due to my Father having not bought one for me for Christmas, I used to live out my dreams of owning a Saturn vicariously through him. And due to him not owning a PlayStation, he used to live out his dreams of owning a PlayStation through me. It sounds like we were using each other, and I guess in a way we were. But we became so close and had such a mutual love of gaming that in the end it all just boiled down to the fact that between the 2 of us we had a really cool collection of games and consoles to play.

My friend still mentions to me the days where we used to meet up during half terms and summer holidays and try to best our scores on Virtua cop 2, plough through Guardian heroes and murder the VS mode in Fighting vipers with Hyper mode turned on. I always laugh at him and joke "You're STILL going on about those days!?" when he mentions them, because it's like a part of his brain is stuck in the past. But I remember the moments vividly myself. He went on to tell me on one occassion that it meant shit loads to him that I used to kick it with him and just play games and have a laugh - because he was going through a really tough time around the period he met me. So I guess that's why he holds the memories of us back in those days so dear, and because of that I do too.

I think this is one of the reasons I've always had a thing for the Saturn. Because it'll always represent a moment when I acquired a new best friend. A friend who I'm still close with now.

Cool Gaming Intro: Last Bronx (by J)

A short intro, but a sweet one. This was way more than I expected from Sega at the time, and a step up from the badly rendered intro's that Fighting vipers and Fighters megamix got.

And how about that theme song?! It stinks of early 90's swing, along with the ever so slightly musk of cheese. But you gotta love it. I used to bounce to it back in 1997 and I still do now. Everytime I hear the song it makes me wanna put on a body warmer, some baggy jeans and do the running man until my carpet wears out.

Last Bronx Review by J

Before Soul Calibur came Last Bronx. A weapons based beat 'em up from the very same folk who brought us Fighting vipers, Virtua Fighter and were responsible for the graphics board that ran the titties-'em-up game Dead or alive. Unlike these games, Last Bronx didn't get to see a sequel. But it was nice whilst it lasted, and at least gave us a taste of beat 'em ups which featured beating down suckers with weapons. Last Bronx enjoyed a Saturn conversion that even Sega's beloved Virtua Fighter games hadn't been treated to until the release of Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution. Last Bronx featured a full on anime intro (complete with your obligatory J-Rock sing-a-long theme), a story mode, extra options. And for the Japanese release: a second disc complete with a full on tutorial mode, complete with blackboards explaining the in's and outs of the fighting system and explainations from the characters themselves.

As with Fighting vipers, Last Bronx wasn't seen as a staple in the Sega library as Virtua Fighter was, but got characters whom were well designed, memorable and an all-round cooler bunch than the Virtua Fighter crew. Virtua Fighter had a brain-dead blonde bitch, a ninja in blue pyjamas and a white man in a red jumpsuit and plimsoles. Last Bronx had a cheerleader in a mini skirt, a punk in leather trousers who wields nunchucks and a blonde haired man in dungarees with a giant hammer.



As with many of Sega's games at the time, the arcade version ran on their Model 2 arcade board. The Saturn hardware was not capable of running a Model 2 game without some graphical downgrades and Last Bronx sufferred because of this. The fully 3D and animated backdrops were replaced with JPEG's, which didn't scroll or anything, and the characters were not as detailed as those in the arcade version. Despite the downgrades Last Bronx was still a decent looking game. The characters didn't look as detailed as they did in the arcade version, but had their animations intact and the game ran smoothly. It certainly looked better than Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers.

Last Bronx was a great arcade game and was a welcomed Saturn release because it was one of the first arcade-to-home conversions Sega did that featured a great deal of extra content over the arcade release: something that every arcade game released on Saturn up to this point had failed to receive. The main problem with Last Bronx is that the fighting system featured little depth. Battles were pretty much a case of juggle, ground attack, juggle, ground attack, juggle, K.O. Characters had very limited move sets and the game featured few characters, so there was little to master.

Last Bronx was an alright game, but featured many shortcomings and would later pale in comparison to Namco's Soul series. The Saturn version is commended for featuring smooth graphics and home exclusive extra's. But the lack of depth, a VS mode which get stale real quick and a lack of unlockables prevent it from being a long term title worth hunting for.

RATING: 4 / 10
The good
+ Solid graphics
+ Cool audio
+ A nice bit of home exclusive content

The bad
- Lack of depth
- Not enough options
- Short term appeal

Supposed signs of approval

My Dad decided to rent a Sega Saturn from Blockbuster. I think we were due to rent a PlayStation, but there were none in stock to rent, so we went for a Saturn instead: along with a copy of Virtua Fighter 1 and Sega rally. I don't think neither of us were expecting the Saturn to have the effect on us that it did. We'd sit up until all hours of the morning playing Sega rally: trying to best our times and tackle the horrid Lakeside track, only to fail miserably. Wake up early in the morning and rounds on Virtua Fighter 1: in awe at how cool the game looked. Stupid I know. Considering the characters looked like they were built from lego and the backgrounds were mere JPEG's of the kind you can set as wallpapers in Windows.

It was a turning point for my Dad and I, because he never approved of my gaming. Yet when we rented the Saturn, none of that seemed to matter. It was from this moment I decided I wanted a Sega Saturn for Christmas. Too bad I didn't get one. Guess I spoke too soon about turning points.

I stewed over not having a Saturn for years, as many of the games I loved at the time were releasing for it. I used to hit an arcade after school every day and spend all of my pocket money going rounds on Fighting Vipers, X-Men: Children of the atom, Last Bronx and occassionally Virtua Fighter 2 - games that all released on the Saturn. Sure, some of the ports were ghetto ports. But they at the very least played the same.

I always held resentment towards my Dad for not getting me a Sega Saturn. I felt like he was denying me something I really wanted purely because of how he felt about me gaming. It backfired anyway, because the PlayStation he got me instead got played to death and had me plunge further into the depths of gaming; despite buying me the PlayStation with no games and no money to go buy one. Ha!

As much as an arsehole my Dad was in regards to my gaming back then, I'll forever remember that weekend he rented the Sega Saturn. We grew so close over the course of those 2 days and we had fun. It was a glimpse that the father who approved of my gaming was in there somewhere and that he wasn't so bad after all. It was ironic, because he rocked at Sega rally and could work Akira in Virtua Fighter like no one's business.

J Speaks... We All Listen!

The next few articles, printed in customary maroon (the colour of quotation here at the SJY) will be published under my name, but are in fact authored by the one and only J (who most recently got a mention here...)

Despite his tender years, J is an authority on all things gaming, and very knowledgeable about Japanese pop culture too... He's been a long time fan of the Saturn, and regularly, (if not often,) gives it the props it deserves over at his most excellent blog: the minimalist-ly titled, RandomJBlog!

So if you've never been there make sure you do, right now! That's an order! You'll find some excellent commentary on contemporary gaming, music, his recent trip to Japan and the quirky stuff life throws at you from time to time, all written about with a wicked sense of humour!

J, we at the Saturn Junkyard salute you!