In lieu of an in-game map, Burning Rangers features a voice navigation system which directs players through corridors.

A team of firefighters called Burning Rangers are dispatched to emergency incidents to fight fires and rescue people in danger.

[9][10][11] During the final mission, the Rangers are introduced to Iria Klein, a girl placed in suspended animation and sent into space after contracting an incurable disease.

Burning Rangers is a third-person shooter game in which players complete missions involving extinguishing fires and rescuing civilians.

[13] The primary objective is to transport stranded civilians from burning buildings, by collecting energy crystals dropped from extinguished fires.

[24] Once the game is completed, a random generator mode is unlocked which mixes up the order of corridors,[25] with a potential total of 3,125 unique routes.

The rest of the team consisted of three game planners, six programmers, eighteen designers, and two sound producers, most of whom had worked on Nights into Dreams.

[30] The concept originated with the idea of rescuing people as opposed to killing them, which was an element that producer Yuji Naka felt was too common in contemporary video games.

In a retrospective interview, Ohshima said that many of the things done by firefighters—along with rescuing people—were "the very essence of a Sonic Team game", and that they recognised that a firefighter was a hero with whom people could identify.

"[29] The developers wanted to design a future that was "clean and beautiful", with sustainable energy, but where disasters still could occur, and only heroes could protect people from them.

[32] The team also visited a special firefighting event in Tokyo where they witnessed robots putting out fires, and were surprised to see how it compared to their image of the futuristic setting.

[9][34][35][20] When Sonic Team developed Nights into Dreams, they were new to programming for the Sega Saturn, and when the engine was re-used for Burning Rangers they were able to make it faster and more capable.

The team originally wanted to record the dialog in six languages, but found the volume of work too difficult, reverting to English and Japanese instead.

[36] The Japanese voices were provided by Hikaru Midorikawa (Shou Amabane), Yūko Miyamura (Tillis), Hiroko Kasahara (Chris Parton), Tomokazu Seki (Lead Phoenix), Ryūzaburō Ōtomo (Big Landman), Toshihiko Nakajima, Takehiro Murozono, Yukiko Iwai (additional voices), and Aya Hisakawa (Ilia Klein).

[41] We made a specific point of developing the game's sound—particularly the voice acting—and the audio navigation system in such a way that we could fully convey the sense of being in a 3D space, and of being caught up in a dramatic scenario.

[29] Each of the main developers reflected on what they were proudest of: Naka expressed relief that Sonic Team were able to "get a good overall balance", whereas Miyoshi thought that the voice navigation system was the strongest aspect.

[51] Reviewers praised Burning Rangers' colourful lighting effects, but criticised its collision detection and occasional graphical glitching.

[57][54][13][48][14] Lee Nutter of the British Sega Saturn Magazine enjoyed the detailed characters and described the lighting effects as excellent, although he, along with IGN's Levi Buchanan, noticed that the visuals had minor problems.

[10][45] Ryan MacDonald of GameSpot commented that the Japanese import had a similar look and feel to that game's 3D environment, and that Burning Rangers' polygonal graphics were "some of the best [he had] ever seen".

[10] Mike Weigand of GamePro felt most of the stage designs were "drab",[13][c] and in a retrospective review GMR's Dave Smith thought that it "looks like hell" and had not aged as well as Nights into Dreams, and that its engine could not handle a free-roaming environment without harming its visuals.

[13] The soundtrack and sound effects received praise, though reviewers recognised that the game lacked music to create tension.

[9] Although Williamson, Weigand, and Nutter noted the lack of in-game music, they lauded the vocal tracks, voice samples, and sound clues.

[45] Herranz had difficulty understanding crucial dialogue since the audio was only recorded in English, although she admitted that the voice guidance system was an innovative element.

[18][13][19][14] Nutter noted that the controls were a mix of those featured in Tomb Raider and Nights into Dreams, praising the use of the analogue stick to perform complex manoeuvres.

[26][9] Nutter suggested that accomplished players would have it "clocked" in a couple of days and felt it did not take much effort to complete the four levels,[26] whilst Buchanan said it was "too short for its own good", a problem made worse by its enjoyable gameplay.