Burning Soldier

Burning Soldier is a 1994 rail shooter for the 3DO, developed by Genki and published by Panasonic in North America and Europe, and by Pack-In-Video in Japan. It was Genki’s first project for the 3DO platform. The game was later ported to Microsoft Windows in Japan in 1998 by Itochu Corporation, with only minor changes from the original.

Set in the year 2095, the story follows an Earth Defense Force pilot flying a mecha-style spacecraft called the Strike. Humanity is at war with the Kaisertian alien race, which has invaded the Solar System. The player fights through 18 stages divided into four missions, each ending with a boss. The gameplay is on-rails and viewed from a first-person perspective inside the ship, mixing full-motion video backgrounds with sprite-based enemies. Players aim a reticle to shoot enemies and their projectiles, and can use a charge attack that fires homing shots at all visible foes, though it cannot target projectiles or bosses. If the full-motion video for a boss stage ends before the boss is defeated, the game ends immediately regardless of remaining health. There are no extra lives, but players have unlimited continues, restarting from the current mission’s beginning.

The Kaisertians colonized Earth long ago, but their civilization was wiped out by a flood. In 2095, they return to conquer the Solar System. The player’s first mission is to destroy the Kaisertian flagship Indra, which destroyed a Mars colony. Though successful, Earth falls under Kaisertian control. The player then returns to Earth to attack the Kaisertian operation center in Tokyo, guarded by a capital ship named Guardian. After that, the player moves underground to the Kaisertian main base, where an ambush by a fighter called Bug occurs. The final mission is to destroy the base’s core.

The game was a collaboration between Genki, Pack-In Video, and Panasonic, led by producer Hiroshi Hamagaki (director of *Sword of Vermilion*) and director Manami Kuroda (writer of *Kileak: The DNA Imperative*). Most of the team later worked on later *Shutokou Battle* games and other Genki projects. Yoshinari Sunazuka was the sole programmer. Character designer Manabu Tamura (director of *Super Magnetic Neo*) also created the computer graphics alongside Hamagaki, Takashi Isoko, and Mika Urushiyama.