Sonic Team Head Leaves Door Open for New Nights, Burning Rangers Games

So you’re saying there’s a chance?

That might be Saturn fans’ reaction after Sonic Team creative officer Takashi Iizuka told Video Games Chronicle that entries in the team’s legacy titles like Nights into Dreams and Burning Rangers may be possible.

The interview published Friday evening was primarily about the recently announced Sonic Superstars, a 2D platformer featuring 3D graphics and four-player co-op that’s set for this fall. But his answer to the final question proved tantalizing:

With Samba de Amigo and 2D Sonic making a return, what are the chances of Sonic Team’s other franchises coming back to life, such as Nights: Into Dreams or Burning Rangers?

I can’t say yes to anything right now. These days I’m the creative officer for Sonic the Hedgehog, so I’m totally focused on that side of the business. So I can’t really speak for anyone else, but Sonic Team in Japan has been ramping up and hiring lots of people recently – they have more people than ever. So there may be some future where you’ll be hearing about these kinds of titles.

— Takashi Iizuka

That of course is not a direct confirmation that Nights or Burning Rangers games are being planned. It’s barely even a wishy-washy one. But Iizuka had the opportunity to shoot down interviewer Andy Robinson’s suggestion and chose not to.

Robinson makes a good point, too — Sonic Team seems to be looking to its past for new titles lately. Not only is it overseeing a new 2D Sonic but it’s also developing the first new Samba de Amigo game in 15 years, Party Central, which is expected to release in August.

Sega also released a sequel to Sonic Team’s ChuChu Rocket in 2019 that was exclusive to Apple Arcade until it was delisted in September 2022.

So it’s not out of the question that Sonic Team may revisit other neglected franchises in its back catalog, like Nights into Dreams and Burning Rangers, especially with Sega on a hiring spree.

There have been two full games in the Nights into Dreams franchise — the 1996 Saturn original and the 2007 Wii sequel subtitled Journey of Dreams, plus the Christmas Nights demo disc for the Saturn.

Only one Burning Rangers game has ever been made: the 1998 original on the Saturn.

Both Nights and Burning Rangers have been referenced in later games, though, like a downloadable NiGHTS costume in 2017’s Sonic Forces and a Burning Rangers-inspired quest that came to the Global version of Phantasy Star Online 2 in 2021.