A Journey For Everyone to Take
This is the history of the Sega icon Nights who joined Ristar, Sparkster, Bug, Clockwork Knight, and the many other icons who fell into obscurity and were never touched again due to the fact that the only platformer who helped Sega sell past a million units was the legendary Sonic the Hedgehog. After many years and faltering popularity for Sonic however, Sega has finally given what many fans of the Saturn original have been asking for: a sequel. Nights: Journey of Dreams is a Wii exclusive that follows the gameplay formula of the previous Nights along with several new gameplay modes. So is this dream worth dreaming after all these years? Time to find out.
The story follows the overall idea of the Saturn game: Two young children, a boy and a girl, both have nightmares about their every day lives and end up in the world of Nightopia, and the story you play depends on the character you pick. The boy, Will, has nightmares about his father not being able to see him due to, what else, work that takes him overseas. The girl, Helen, is a violinist who has begun to spend more time with her friends than practicing with her mother, despite her violin recital being a week away. Both children begin to have regrets about this and have nightmares, and their nightmares are much worse than they can imagine since monsters begin chasing after them. When the children see a bright light in their dreams that leads them away from these monsters though, they reach out to touch it and find themselves in the world of Nightopia. Overall, the story is very well presented and gives a very heartwarming sense that feels very pleasing to see, especially in a generation of gaming filled with dark and mature shooters.
When one takes a look at the graphics, the graphics in the game are only average at best. The cinematic cut scenes are very well done, they look realistic and show that the Wii is far from suffering in the graphics department. However, there aren't enough of these cut scenes to show that the game is anything that is more current gen. The character models are nicely done, but the backgrounds look like something from an early Gamecube game. Despite average graphics, there's not much to worry about since they don't cause problems with the gameplay, and it's more likely you'll be focused on the gameplay and how fast paced it is to even notice.
In the sound department, just like many Sega games in history, the game does a fantastic delivery. The music is absolutely wonderful, it helps convey the charming presentation that the game delivers and fits any situation. Many tunes sound like those from the Harry Potter films, but with everything that made them feel magical and heartwarming. The sound effects are also well done, there are some sound effects that sound like those from the Saturn original, helping give off a retro feel, and they feel fitting for every action that happens. What's more fitting, and this can come to be quite a surprise from a Sega game, is the voice acting that the development team hired. Obviously in order to appeal to the European market, Sega gave the voice-acting cast British accents. Overall, these accents are very fitting and well presented, though they may not appeal to some gamers who demand something more mature. No one needs to worry about Nights though, Nights is often considered to be an androgounous character, and the voice the development team gave Nights sounds like one that could belong to a boy or a girl. Some may not be pleased that Nights' rival, Reala, has been given a voice as well, but his voice is still well presented, and sounds like that of an actor who played the Joker from Batman, which is fitting considering his villainy. Overall, Sega did a fantastic job in the sound department to enhance the top-notch presentation.
The presentation is well done, but has the game play Nights fans come to know and love remained in tact? Overall, judging from game play footage of the Saturn original, the game play is still present in its sequel and even more is added. There are four different ways to control the game, with the wii mote and nun chuck, the wii mote alone, the Gamecube controller, and the classic controller. The most effective ways are wii mote and nun chuck and the Gamecube controller, though the wii mote alone is not recommended. Nights is controlled by flying to the left or right with whatever method of movement used and flying in a circle formed from the twinkle dust from Nights' hands lets Nights do a paraloop to suck in anything that is nearby, which can defeat enemies and suck in blue chips to help increase your Link score. The drill dash allows Nights to fly faster, but can only be used for a certain amount of time before the bar limit depletes, but can be refilled by flying through rings. The Link score is determined by how many rings you fly through, blue chips you pick up, and Nightmareans you defeat, which all help increase your score to help get a higher score and overall, a higher rank. Nights also has the power to transform into different personas that can be found from masks throughout the game by pressing a certain direction on a d-pad, which can allow for more exploration and offer replay value for the stages.
The core game play consists of flying through rings and facing enemies, the Nightmareans, by chasing down a bird riding Nightmarean against the clock, defeating it and taking the key, and bringing it back to a cage. After doing so three times, the boss of the stage appears and Nights must defeat it within a certain amount of time. Examples of the bosses include Donbolan, a giant balloon inflated clown, who Nights must get to the top of a giant pinball-like structure before the time runs out, and Girania, a giant freaky fish, who Nights must touch square in the face to make it dissipate into a million spheres that must be sucked in before they form into the fish again. The boss's are all unique in their own ways and never have a single way of defeating them.
Not only do the boss battles have variety, but the game play itself has variety as well. Some stages include ones where Nights must chase after the creature Octopaw by flying through a certain number of rings and acquire a high enough Link score during the chase, some include stages where the character you control must navigate through a stage in order to find Nights within a time limit. There are also unique stages that offer variety such as moving water bubbles to the center within a time limit to make it larger than a certain size, and where Nights transforms into a boat to help rescue the Nightopians who are in danger of being captured by the Nightmareans. The variety in Journey of Dreams is very high to count, and could take a long while to account for it all.
There are also factors in the game that can keep players coming back for more of Journey of Dreams. One factor is the "My Dream" feature, which works much like the Chao gardens in Sonic Adventure. This allows players to capture, raise, and combine Nightopians in a sandbox environment. The environments are affected by the Wii weather channel and can make special content that cannot usually be found available. If you have Wi-fi connection on your Wii, you're given the chance to race others online like the core game play in the game itself. The races consist of Nights and Reala racing one another to the finish and getting a higher score. When playing, the player's perspective will say that he or she is Nights while the opponent is Reala, and vice versa.
Overall, Nights: Journey of Dreams is a game filled with an amazing deal of variety and fun factor. This makes Nights one of the better games to get on the Wii, especially if you liked the Saturn original. If you haven't played the Saturn original, and you're looking for something that isn't another first person shooter that relies on gritty violence and destruction for fun factor, this game is definitely for you. Nights: Journey of Dreams is one of the best third party support titles available on the Wii right now, and is very well worth checking out.