My Review of NiGHTS into Dreams for ClassicVGM

[Baloo]

Hey, This is a review I did for Classic Video Game Magazine on NiGHTS into Dreams, and I wanted to share it all with you to see what you guys thought of it and to spark some conversation on the game itself. Tell me what you think, and thanks for reading!

Also, since I wrote this for ClassicVGM magazine, it's only fair to give them a plug . Check out ClassicVGM.com to find out how you can get your own copy of the magazine, PDF or hardcopy. It's a truly great magazine with some great info and reviews in there, and it's got that old school feel with old advertisements and whatnot. Check it out! You won't be disappointed.

NiGHTS into Dreams… Review – Christian Matozzo

Ahhh, the Saturn. Such an underrated console with so much wasted potential. It’s life was short and ill-fated from the beginning. Among the things that killed the Saturn was that Sonic didn’t even get an original game on it. But that didn’t keep Sonic Team from coming out with some fantastic games, one of them being one of my all-time favorite games, NiGHTS into Dreams.

NiGHTS into Dreams is a game whose premise is a bit hard to explain. It’s a unique platformer in which you play as a boy named Elliot and a girl named Claris who are going through a tough time in their lives, and when they sleep they end up finding themselves in Lucid dreams in the world of dreams. In this world they meet NiGHTS, a flying jester who’s been imprisoned by the evil Wizeman, a wizard trying to take over the human world through the dream world. The children must defeat Wizeman and his cronies through NiGHTS, and along the way learn a lesson or two about life. The story is very unique and although it’s seemingly shallow, it still satisfies the gamer through its creativeness.

The gameplay is also very unique. You play as both Elliot or Claris, and NiGHTS. As Elliot or Claris you explore 7 different dream levels (3 for Elliot and 3 for Claris, plus one final level.) where you must “dualize” (merge) with NiGHTS in a Gazebo and take to the skies! You fly around in four different loops around the dream world, collecting blue balls to free orbs called Ideyas imprisoned in floating cages. You have a time limit of 120 seconds on each lap to try to collect 20 blue balls, destroy the cage, while flying through loops, attacking enemies, and collecting stars and gold balls (the blue balls turn gold after you destroy the Ideya Capture) for extra points. The more points you rack up, the better grade you get for the lap. But, if you don’t enter the gazebo before time runs out, NiGHTS will disappear back into the gazebo and you’ll fall, losing most of your points and blue balls and in the process receive a lower grade. Also, while you are Elliot or Claris, a clock will trying to come after you that “wakes you up” and ends the level if you get covered by it's beam.

I must note that while flying as NiGHTS you have two special moves critical to the gameplay: One is a charge where NiGHTS charges through the air like a bullet, going faster and faster. But while charging you have very limited movement in only one direction. Your charge power is dictated by a bar that decreases when you are charging and increases each time you fly through a loop. When you charge into an enemy they turn into a bouncy ball that bounces all around the screen (and sometimes into Nightopians for special effects!). The other move is what’s called a paraloop. When NiGHTS flies in a circular motion, he creates a sort of black-hole like thing that collects all nearby objects and sends enemies and Nightopians (We’ll talk about them later) into another dimension, effectively getting rid of them. These two moves are critical to the gameplay and will help you get through each loop faster.
After all four loops are completed for the dream your score is tallied up and your overall grade is given, averaged from each of the four loops. You will then be sent to a boss fight where you’ll fight one of Wizeman’s “Nightmaren”, a monster henchman created by Wizeman. Each boss also has a 120-second time limit and must be beaten in a unique manner. Every time you get hit by the boss, you lose 5 seconds off of the clock. Lose all of your time and it is “Night Over” for NiGHTS. One thing of note here is that the faster you beat the boss, the higher the multiplier you’ll get, the highest being a 2.0 Multiplier to your score.

There is also a sort of pre-cursor to the Chao in NiGHTS into Dreams called Nightopians. Nightopians are little creatures that hatch from eggs and simply fly and live around the dream. They have different moods and although you can’t interact with them directly like you can with the Chao, how you do in each level affects their moods, which in turn affects the music of each level in the game. The music is broken up into parts, and each part of the song depends on what mood each Nightopian is in. For example, hatch lots of eggs and do very well in each level makes the Nightopians happy. But if you paraloop the Nightopians while flying in each Dream, they will become angry. This brings a whole new layer of depth to the gameplay of NiGHTS into Dreams.

The gameplay is fantastic. It’s simple, yet addicting, and played in an arcade-style manner. The controls are great and very easy to learn, but hard to master. The hit detection is mostly solid, but there may be a time or two during boss fights where it might get iffy, but it’s pretty uncommon in the game. The levels in the game may seem few, but the game is designed to keep you coming back for more each time. Each level is richly designed with much to explore so you won’t get bored. And the Nightopians add to the fun and replay value of the game with their different actions. Also, In order to reach the final level of the game you must get a C average or better on every stage. There’s really few, if any flaws in the gameplay.

The graphics are extremely impressive for the time, and blend 2D and 3D in a lush environment of forests and oceans with snow and sun. The backgrounds and characters are done in 2D, while the objects and Nightopians are done in 3D. And each level is detailed excellently. The flying in the game is done at a set 2D angle and the game still looks really amazing. A game like this really shouldn’t be able to be done on Saturn, but it somehow is.

The sound is also a very high point, featuring a large orchestrated soundtrack that combines peaceful tunes that will make you feel very relaxed and calm while flying with Nights, and tunes that will get you pumped up when the boss comes around. The sounds are quirky and unique, fitting the overall unique style of NiGHTS into Dreams. And combined with the fact that the Nightopians allow for the in-game music to be well-expanded on in the game makes for an overall great soundtrack.

Overall, NiGHTS into Dreams is an absolute classic game for the Saturn that merits buying a Saturn for. I consider this game to be a fine work of art. This game will be played for years to come, and it’s a shame that such a fine game was overlooked for more conventional platformers such as Super Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot when it was released, both games that haven’t stood the test of time nearly as well as NiGHTS into Dreams has. If you haven’t played this game, you need to play it now.

Graphics: 10 - Extremely impressive for the time, they pushes the Saturn's hardware to the limit.

Music: 10 - An orchestrated Soundtrack complements the premise of the game beautifully and is very memorable.

Gameplay: 10 - A unique platforming experience filled with tons of replay value that keeps you coming back for more.

Overall: 10 - Sonic Team's finest hour, in Sega's darkest night.

[Knuckle Duster]

GameFAQs worthy.

[Phantar]

I wouldn't go out with "all tens", especially not in the gameplay section... NiGHTS was/is a great game, but at its core it's more a rail shooter than a platformer.

[Joe Redifer]

Actually, Nights' soundtrack is mostly done internally via the Saturn's sound hardware the same way music on the Genesis is done (it's not recorded). Some of the CD tracks are orchestrated, but usually only the boss fights. Personally, I like the Saturn chiptunes more than the orchestral stuff. And I HATE the song!

[j_factor]

Actually, Nights' soundtrack is mostly done internally via the Saturn's sound hardware the same way music on the Genesis is done (it's not recorded). Some of the CD tracks are orchestrated, but usually only the boss fights. Personally, I like the Saturn chiptunes more than the orchestral stuff. And I HATE the song!

Yeah, the music is done with the Saturn's audio hardware, via a special sound engine. It had to be done that way in order to have the Nightopian-affected, dynamically changing music. It's also something that couldn't have been done on Playstation or N64.

[Baloo]

Yeah, the music is done with the Saturn's audio hardware, via a special sound engine. It had to be done that way in order to have the Nightopian-affected, dynamically changing music. It's also something that couldn't have been done on Playstation or N64.

Wow, I never knew that. Then the Saturn's internal soundchip is rather impressive I must say.

[Da_Shocker]

Wow, I never knew that. Then the Saturn's internal soundchip is rather impressive I must say.

Oh yeah it was uses in the Model 3 board if i'm right. The only flaw was that it could'nt play compressed samples.

[Joe Redifer]

Yeah and it didn't have enough RAM to store many large samples, but technically it is an awesome chip. Nights didn't use many samples, though, it just generated music.

j_factor, why couldn't the N64 or Playstation do something similar? Not enough channels? Weren't the N64's sound channels all software generated like the 32X?

[j_factor]

j_factor, why couldn't the N64 or Playstation do something similar? Not enough channels? Weren't the N64's sound channels all software generated like the 32X?

Due to N64's lack of actual audio hardware to generate the sounds, I can't imagine any alternative method that wouldn't take up way too much cartridge space. One possible way for it to do something similar would be to have individual aspects of the music stored as samples, and programming an eJay-like system that works automatically. Remember that NiGHTS came out near the N64 launch, when the only cartridges were 8MB in size. I don't think the audio program alone could be squeezed down to that size, nevermind having enough room for an actual game.

Playstation could do the audio by itself, but as part of a game like NiGHTS, I don't think it has enough RAM.

[Da_Shocker]

What about the N64 much hyped up "interactive music"

[PimpUigi]

Wow, I never knew that. Then the Saturn's internal soundchip is rather impressive I must say.

We're doomed as doomed could be you know!

[cj iwakura]

Don't forget the awesome sequel/expansion, Christmas NiGHTS, which was all but released for free(and I still own!).


I enjoyed the vocal theme song.

[Baloo]

Don't forget the awesome sequel/expansion, Christmas NiGHTS, which was all but released for free(and I still own!).


I enjoyed the vocal theme song.

Yeah, I own that too, but that game has so much depth, it could have a review of it's own really.

Both are fantastic games. I also like the "Dreams, Dreams" song.