CLASSIC GAMING
NiGHTS into DREAMS
Developer:  Sonic Team
Publisher:  SEGA
Genre:  Platformer
Year:  1996
System:  Sega Saturn


"The stuff that dreams are made of" is a quote that is more reserved for movies and literature and art, but never videogames, so young an industry that always has been regarded as childish instead of just being imaginative.  Some games show wondrous ideas that in all honesty could not become movie scripts, for the interactivity is one of the founding bases of the experience.  This game is an example.

Story - NiGHTS into DREAMS tells about the worlds of Nightopia and Nightmaren, where dreams and nightmares are weaved unto the minds of unsuspecting mortals.  In Nightopia lie several glowing spheres known as Ideya, representing noble qualities of humanity such as hope, wisdom and so forth.  The king of Nightmaren, Wizeman, plans to steal them in order to conquer Nightopia and after that, the real world.  To do this, he created several beings, the Nightmaren to find and steal the Ideya from each section of Nightopia.  One Nightmaren, an acrobatic jester called NiGHTS, rebelled against Wizeman and is punished by being imprisoned in a shrine in the middle of Nightopia.


In the real world within the city of Twin Seeds, two teenagers, Claris Sinclair and Elliot Edwards, begin to have strange nightmares.  But these two are special for possessing the red ideya sphere of courage, the one Ideya that Wizeman cannot obtain.  In their struggles to escape their nightmares, they enter Nightopia, free NiGHTS and ally with him to defeat Wizeman and the Nightmaren.

Gameplay - When you begin the game, you must first choose between Elliot or Claris, who both have three separate levels, or Dreams.  Once within the level they witness the nightmaren stealing the Ideya spheres and placing them within floating prisons.  The two must head to NiGHTS prison, relase him and then playing as NiGHTS fly throughout the level to collect enough blue chips to overload the prisons and release the Ideya.  The level itself is split into four "Mares" or sections, each one longer and trickier than the last.  Enemies also run rampant and try to damage you, but NiGHTS does not have a health bar.
Instead, you have a time limit of 120 seconds, or two minutes.  If time runs out, the dream ends and it's game over.  You must avoid enemies hitting you (which deduct time) and complete the levels fast enough.  Once they find all the Ideya of the Dream level, they are then taken to the nightmare realm to battle with one of the major Nightmaren within the time limit of 2 minutes, each one requiring their own tactics to be defeated.


It's not as easy as this however.  The final level and battle, against Wizeman, can only be achieved by getting A rank in each of the six Dream levels, a rank that can be achieved by defeating enemies and achieving combos by linking acrobatic maneuvers.  Points are doubled AFTER you release the Ideya of the particular Mare/section of the level.  This makes for either some infuriating or challenging gameplay.  The high score of the level is saved also.

As well as achieving the high score, there was also another activity to do in each level, known as the A-Life system.  Throughout the level there are nightopians, small clothed cherub-like beings, who can be bred with the nightmaren, the enemies of the level, to create hybrids known as Mepians.  The ultimate goal is to create the King Nightopian, who can only be born by two mepians mating together.  In effect, this is a prototype of the Chao system in Sonic Adventure.


Graphics - One of the first fully 3D games of SEGA's creation, it would be expected to look dated by today's standards.  The surprising thing is, even now it still looks quite gorgeous.  Colours are amazingly vibrant with every shade of the rainbow, characters move smoothly without any hindrance.  Despite the overall blocky appearance of the game, the colours cover it up nicely to show a marvellous moving painting of wonder, ideal for a game about dreams and nightmares.  The nightopians and nightmarens however have the slightly odd appearance of 2D.  Whether this was intentional or to save graphics is unclear.  Bosses however look marvellously freakish, like something quite like out of a nightmare, their realms reflecting a shadow version of the level you were in, darker brooding colours and so forth.


Music/Sound - The music is a sweet coupling to this game's story and graphics.  Each piece from the beginning menu to the very end of the game speaks of wistful dreamlike worlds, filled with awe and surreal wonder.  Not only that but the music itself changes ever so subtly when you start playing around with the A-Life system, and depending on how you treat the Nightopians, the music will take on lighter happier tones, or sadder darker tones.  It's not that noticeable but it's there.

NiGHTS became a cult icon of SEGA and in effect one of the most memorable characters the company ever made, becoming so popular by fans enough to have a small part of Sonic Adventure be solely dedicated to the world's favourite Nightmaren, a character who may well be as influential as Sonic in SEGA's fanbase, and hopefully one who will receive a better life and level of respect and dedication than SEGA's overrated now-underdone mascot.

Fun and Innovation - 4
Replayability - 3
Gameplay - 3
Presentation - 4

I personally am very optimistic of it X3