I'm just glad I didn't wait over a decade for this!
Journey of Dreams follows the dreams of Will and Helen, two children who are suffering from terrible nightmares caused by their emotional issues in real life, such as Will's father never being around for him, and Helen's guilt over not practicing the violin with her mother before the big concert. Through their nightmares, they reach the land of Nightopia, a world which is created via the "Visitor's" dreams. Almost straight away, the main character you have chosen meets Owl, and of course, NiGHTS, the purple harlequin the series is famous for. From there, the two children "dualize" with NiGHTS to save the world of Nightopia from the evil Wizeman and all the bad Nightmarens who are bent on destroying the land of dreams.
I, for one, haven't had much play time with the original Saturn game, but I don't see that as a hindrance, but rather as an advantage, as I am not playing this game with a set of rose tinted specs. Journey of Dreams plays exactly the same for the most part to the original game , with you being tasked in each level with collecting blue orbs and flying through rings in order to get lots of points in the fastest time possible to get the best grade you can. Along with that, there are some other tasks which vary from the rather ingenious, such as flying at the same speed as musical notes pop up, to the absolutely awful, such as many a mission where you have to save the Nightopians by doing a loop around them, which grows incredibly tedious quickly thanks to the vague objectives given at the start of many of the levels. What further sinks the game into greater depths of tedium are the boss battles.
Now, while some of them can be somewhat fun, most of them are dull and based on luck, which can lead to your 10th try randomly working. One part of the game which really sucks all the fun out is the really poor implementation of the Wii controls. While flying in a straight line isn't too bad, trying to do any of the necessary manoeuvres is almost impossible, and you'd be well advised to go for either the Classic controller or the Gamecube controller if you are seriously considering playing the game for more than 15 minutes. Finally, for some God only knows reason, on foot platforming levels were put in, which are the definition of awful thanks to bad controls and uninspired levels and objectives.
Journey of Dreams would have looked decent for a Gamecube game, but on the Wii it is really lacking, in a similar way Red Steel was. Blurry textures, a low polygon count and some of the most garish levels detract from the only area Sonic Team are any good at these days.
Unsurprisingly, the voice acting in Journey of Dreams is pretty atrocious, akin to various other modern Sonic Team games, where every character is a mix between a girl, a boy, and Posh Spice, which all come together to create some of the most grinding dialogue ever, not helped by an awful script and unbearable cut-scenes. The soundtrack is a mix of enjoyable light fluff, to some abhorrent tunes, as is the same withy all Sonic Team productions. This game's truly awful track is most definitely the last track, and is even more gut wrenching than the awful one from Sonic and the Secret Rings
If you really wanted to, you could go back through all the levels, over and over again to attain the highest grade possible, but why you'd want to is beyond me, as once you're done, you'll be glad you'll never have to go through most of the game ever again. Will and Helen's stories take an hour and a half each, culminating in about three hours if you simply race through, which is what will most likely happen, and this great lack of content is just not good enough in this day age. There are a couple of online modes, such as the "My Dream" option, which is like an online Chao garden, and there is online racing, which shows that at least Sega put some thought into this game.
Closing comments: Journey of Dreams is the product of another homogenized series that Sega has thought to bring back, by being sucky. Sure, it's fun in spots, but barely takes advantage of the Wii's capabilities, and can be horribly frustrating at times.