From Nightmares to Dreams

by Jacob Crites

Fun factor: Average

Worth to: Buy

‘NiGHTS’ often swoops from soaring heights to awkward lows, but its unique, charming gameplay and stellar soundtrack make it an updated classic well worth playing.

I think I’ve figured out Sonic Team’s game plan. No really, I’ve figured it out. What they do is they make a really good game -- something with classic gameplay elements, some unique, new stuff thrown in there, all very polished and impressive looking -- then, they do everything in their power to make said game as mediocre as possible. They keep all the stuff from the great game, but they bury it in a heap of mediocre junk. Gimmicks -- gotta have a gimmick. Preferably one that adds nothing to the experience, or ideally, subtracts from it. Bad voice acting: now, this is key. It’s tricky, too, because it can’t just be bad; it has to be really bad. Grating. Just offensively terrible. Then wrap it all in a convoluted, unnecessary story with lengthy, overproduced cutscenes that can’t be skipped.



Works like a charm, too. It’s worked for such classics as Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic: Unleashed, and Sonic and the Black Knight -- the flagship titles of mediocrity. And it almost worked for NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, too. But Sega screwed up: they accidentally added a little thing called charm. Not only that, but they added one of the most incredible soundtracks in gaming history, some wonderfully whimsical and inventive levels, and some of the most unique gameplay on the console. Yes, despite Sega’s attempts to destroy it, they accidentally made a pretty great game.


Plays like a Dream (most of the time)


I’m cynical, if you couldn’t tell, because I simply don’t understand why Sega -- more specifically Sonic Team -- insists on taking fantastic games and ruining them. Look at Sonic: Unleashed. The daytime levels in that game? Outstanding. 3D Sonic at its absolute best. Why didn’t they make a whole game with just the amazing daytime levels? Because they had to add in some worthless WhereHog gimmick to distract from the experience, apparently. NiGHTS suffers from the same syndrome, but thankfully the result is something that’s still well worth playing.

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams is a reboot of the cult-classic game NiGHTS: Into Dreams for the Sega Saturn. I was only a young lad when the game came out, so I didn’t play it, nor to this day, but it’s the foundation for this Wii effort here. What’s different this time around is the structure; you follow the story of a young child. You choose either Will or Helen who’s been transported to the strange world of Nightopia -- the place one goes during a dream, apparently.

You team up with NiGHTS, the gender-confused purpleish creature you see on the box art (and the main character of the game, obviously) as you try to save Nightopia from some generic villain named Wizeman and his henchman, Reala. The story is silly, but charming in a child-like, cliché sort of way. But the story is neither here nor there, because it’s really the gameplay that makes the game shine.



It’s a bit difficult trying to explain what NiGHTS “is”, because the core gameplay is really unlike anything you’ve ever played before. You control NiGHTS (whose name is getting increasingly annoying to type) as he/she/it flies through beautiful, lush environments; controlling it (we’ll just call NiGHTS an “it” for continuity’s sake) slickly with the control stick along a mostly 2.5D plane. Simply controlling NiGHTS through these wonderfully designed fantasy worlds is enough to recommend a purchase, but as it turns out there’s actually a game here, and it’s a darn fun one at that.

Spread throughout the levels are hundreds of rings which you can fly through, and flying through several rings within a second nets you some combo points. So the key here is to try to rack up as many combo points as possible, while preferably looking stylish at the same time. Most of the flight-based levels have a goal aside from simply getting points, of course -- usually you’ll be chasing a giant bird-type creature who is holding a key. Catch up to it and get the key, and you can unlock the next section of the level and move on. It may sound simplistic and easy, but NiGHTS offers a pretty good challenge, and you’ll likely want to replay the flight levels again and again to try to beat your high score (or just to fly around and enjoy the scenery)

Now the irritating, distracting and questionable parts

If Sonic Team would have focused solely on the brilliant levels where you’re controlling NiGHTS, the game would have been a classic, without question. But, as you’ll recall, this is Sonic Team, and apparently they want to try to bury all the savory goodness with mediocre crap. And so they did. The game has quite a few generic platforming levels in which you control one of the two children. There’s nothing overtly bad about these platforming sections, but there isn’t anything praiseworthy about them either. Although they advance the plot in a few areas, the plot itself isn’t really necessary to begin with. These platforming levels really serve no other purpose than to bring down the overall experience of the game.



The boss battles are also a mixed bag. On one hand they’re almost always conceptually interesting and clever in their design, but on the other hand they’re also wildly out of place and don’t always work as well as they should. Bosses appear at the end of the first and last levels in any given world, but they pop up randomly without any explanation and never have anything to do with whatever level you’re in. Even more frustrating, the game never gives you a very good idea of what you have to do to beat them. Sure, you can go to the pause menu and get a little hint, but you shouldn’t have to do this.

NiGHTS contains quite a bit of voice-acting, though I’m hesitant to call it that. I think “unqualified people reading poorly written lines in the most irritating way possible” would be a better way to put it. It wouldn’t have been such an issue if there was an option to turn the voices off and put subtitles on, but there isn’t. So you’ll have sit there in agony while these cutscenes play, wondering how on earth these people got hired as voice actors.

Beautifully flawed

Visually, the game is stunning from an artistic standpoint, but sometimes underwhelming in terms of sheer pixels and textures. The flight levels are always visually and aesthetically impressive affairs, but it’s clear that the overworld and platforming levels got a little less attention. Certain areas just need a little more polish, a problem that could have been fixed with a bit more time in development. It’s surprising that this is the case, given that Sega is known for pushing the Wii to its limits as far as presentation is concerned.



I have nothing but praise about the soundtrack, however, which is quite simply one of the best I’ve ever heard in a videogame. Every tune in the game is a grand one, and always perfectly suits the environment that you’re in. Aside from the opening title theme, it’s not orchestrated, which is a shame, but it’s hard to complain when the result is this superb. It’s a darn shame this game didn’t sell better because more people really need to hear the wonderful work that went into its soundtrack.

Summary

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams is far from perfect. Sonic Team has once again unnecessarily thrown quite a few mediocre elements into the game that prevent it from being wholly recommendable.

But still, there’s something undeniably magnetic about NiGHTS’ experience. Perhaps it’s the wonderfully compelling and unique flight-based levels that serve as the backbone of the game. Perhaps it’s the impressive art direction and brilliant level design (in the flight levels, that is), or maybe it’s the masterful soundtrack. But most likely, it’s because despite all of its problems, Sonic Team did one thing absolutely right that they can’t seem to get down with Sonic: NiGHTS has a heart. Forget the guns and violence, forget the HD graphics, forget the “hardcore” for just a minute; NiGHTS is a reminder that a little bit of charm and lighthearted fun can go a long way. And for that, it gets my utmost respect.