Burning Force

About Burning Force

Burning Force (1989) is Namco's Space Harrier-style shooter in which space cadet Hiromi Tengenji rides the airbike Sign Duck through six worlds in her final training for the Space Force.

Burning Force in Depth

Hiromi Tengenji, a space cadet training to join the Space Force, must battle high-tech enemies across six worlds of four areas each on a futuristic airbike named Sign Duck as her final test. Like Sega's Space Harrier, it keeps a fixed camera behind the player, but it removes vertical movement: in the first two areas of each world the airbike moves left and right, brakes and accelerates, firing bullets and missiles at enemies.

The third area of every world is a boss fight, for which the airbike turns into a flying ship that can move in all directions, and the fourth is a bonus stage in which the player collects as many numbered spheres as possible for points. The Genesis version received mostly mediocre reviews, RAZE opining that "Space Harrier is too old a formula to be successful nowadays", but Hardcore Gaming 101's Kurt Kalata later called it "among the better" Space Harrier clones for its more powerful hardware and its own spin on the formula, and Next Generation placed the Genesis version 93rd in its Top 100 Games of All Time for its level design, unrepeated enemies and stunning bosses.

Making Burning Force

Namco developed and published it for arcades in Japan in November 1989, and a Genesis port was released worldwide a year later, though it sold modestly.