Back in 1996, SEGA's NiGHTS Into Dreams for the Saturn captured the imagination of gamers everywhere despite hardcore fanboy allegiances. It was difficult to ignore its charming art direction, vibrant scenery, and revolutionary control scheme with the brand new joystick controller. Console mishaps aside, SEGA made one of the most influential strides in gaming history with this cult classic. In the eyes of a true SEGA fanboy, the original NiGHTS is perfection on a disc.
Upon the Wii announcement, a rush of conflicting emotions danced around my head: I was ecstatic for a visually updated installment, yet tragically crushed by the tampering of flawless gameplay. Is NiGHTS Journey of Dreams finally the alternative to hooking up our Saturns every Christmas?
NiGHTS again takes place in the lucid worlds of Nightopia. We again follow two children into their whimsical journeys of both their dreams and nightmares. Will and Helen must defeat and overcome their inner demons, while solving problems in their respective back-stories. But while the story is incredibly paper-thin, let alone uninteresting, SEGA found it necessary to delve deep into their problems with horrendously directed cutscenes. These unskippable tragedies only force-feed unwanted information that is more likely to hamper the gaming experience than enhancing it. Fearing the worst, we’re even treated to the obnoxious voice of NiGHTS. This fusion of atrocities only gives you another kick in the nuts as gamers will have to repeat these sequences another time after failing each stage.
When it comes to visuals, NiGHTS Journey of Dreams is a mixed bag. The game retains its beautiful imagery within the atmosphere, but sports some inconsistent terrible eyesores. Fans of the series will be happy to know that the visual art direction has transferred perfectly to the Wii. Everything from the original Saturn game, from the vibrant color palette, the bizarre level designs, to even the wonderfully odd enemies, carries over nicely. It is exactly how we imagined a current generation – maybe last generation is more appropriate – to look. NiGHTS’ movements and interactions with the environment animate well enough to reconstruct the fluidity of flight. Combined with the harmonious tunes – the tunes have been composed by the original composer – the game is a feast for our senses.
While we love the romantically dreamy worlds, it’s often held back by sloppy coding and lazy models. Everything looks great in motion when soaring around as the main character, but when everything comes to a screeching halt as you gain control of Will and Helen, sloppy textures and uninspiring models pop out. The two children just move so awkwardly, you can’t help but question how the hell all of this fits into the same game. Other noticeable programming problems include few instances of slowdown, as well as tediously long load times.
What made NiGHTS Into Dreams a classic, other than its wondrous atmosphere, was its innovative control scheme using the packaged controller, and we can only expect the same sorts of innovation with the Wii. Nintendo’s controller may be the most creative peripheral for current generation systems, but it does no justice for the quirky jester. As majestic and fluid NiGHTS is known to be, the Wii remote by itself thwarts any sort of responsive control from the player. All the actions, such as loops, require uncoordinated and exaggerated motions with the remote. Most of the motion detection is off and won’t respond correctly to the inputted actions, tossing controls into the garbage. Players are more likely to choose to add the nunchuck, use the classic controller, or original Gamecube controller. But even so, the lack of a smooth circular joystick – all of these Nintendo controllers have an 8-way analog joystick – prevents players from the spot on precision.
The gameplay structure remains the same in theory: a horizontal on-rails flying experience, with the goal to collect objects such as blue orbs or keys in order to free NiGHTS from imprisonment. Soaring in the air through rings and obstacles, you can interact with certain objects and enemies that will change the pace of the game. Sometimes, you’ll be swung rapidly through the air, shot down alternate paths, or even transformed into different creatures. It’s certainly the illusory experience for gamers because of its beautifully smooth gameplay structure that keeps gamers at the edge of their seat. Each second is a steep dip in a wild roller coaster ride, as we are blasted through a flurry of situations. Every moment is key in NiGHTS Journey to Dreams as every quick reaction to the environment will help finish the game with a better score. While the game has only a handful of levels to play through, many of the levels are so fun, you’ll surely be playing through certain levels to just to relive its charm or even improve your high score.
Many of the core members of the original Saturn classic were present for the development of NiGHTS Journey to Dreams. Despite capturing a spot-on replication of the classic, they have also resurrected some of the abominations from the first game. The original game featured a very minimalist section with the children, usually perceived by gamers as superfluous content. Obviously it was something that was rather tacked on, it should have been obvious to leave these on-foot child sections out of the sequel. Not only have these sections returned, but also Sonic Team has deemed it worthy to include the on-foot portions into fully designed levels. Controlling these children would even make the most dedicated soccer moms burst into tears. Jumping around platforming sequences and collecting items has never been worse, all while the camera rapidly swings into awkward positions. The children sections are atrocious and deeply hurt the flow of the game. These sections are entirely expendable and make what could have been another precious gem in the series into a mediocre installment.
A decade later, we must still question whether or not it was worth reviving gaming perfection for this installment. Despite having corrupted some of the gameplay features, SEGA’s sequel is a novel attempt in recreating the experience for the current generation. All of the ingredients for the perfect NiGHTS game are present in the game, but a lot of the new additions could have easily been left behind on the cutting board.
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7.7