NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams

The return of Sonic the Hedgehog’s purple cousin NiGHTS to the gaming landscape has been cause of a surprising amount of celebration. 1996’s NiGHTS into Dreams, the only game to previously bear the airborne jester’s name, was a magical, dreamlike experience praised by critics and players alike but that did little to save the Sega Saturn’s western fortunes. Twelve years later and the sequel arrives for Nintendo’s Wii, a bright, primary coloured extravaganza of loop-de-loop flying, gem-collecting and boss toppling.

Newcomers might well be put off by the frankly dreadful cutscenes that introduce and then punctuate the game. They explain in with awkward animation and terrible voice acting that you are to play as one of a pair of children from the distinctly London-like city Bellbridge, who have been sucked into the dream-world Nightopia. By ‘dualising’ with NiGHTS your character is able to fly and explore the world in a quest to bring down the evildoer Wizeman the Wicked. No more the silent enigma of last century, NiGHTS now talks far too much throughout the game’s overabundant narrative interludes. These help to flesh out the story but their poor execution and production hurts the game rather than helps it.

Thankfully the main game fares a lot better. The androgynous NiGHTS flies along a predetermined 2-dimensional path (able to turn back on him/herself at any time), gliding through hoops in the air, collecting blue orbs, wrestling keys from enemies, and, at the end of each level, exposing and capitalising on the weakness of a boss character. Each stage is timed and your performance graded at the end of it based on how quickly you made it to the conclusion and how much you managed to collect on the way there.

The game allows players to customise the control system withj the option to plug in the nunchuck for analogue control, use a GameCube controller or simply use the default point-reticule to direct character system. Indeed, everybody should find a method to suit their tastes and character control is pleasingly smooth and precise whichever route you take. Levels have a surprising amount of variety to them despite never straying too far from the established rhythm. The introduction of masks that turn NiGHTS variously into a rocket, dolphin and dragon do add variety to proceedings but the game design options these innovations open up feel underused and ill-explored.

An excellent multiplayer mode rounds off a game of mixed competence that will certainly please the original’s many fans. There’s a lot here to love and the unique visuals combined with a soaring soundtrack and the delightful feeling of free, swooping momentum will be enough to win over most. But niggles are noticeable throughout the experience and, ultimately, it’s these shortfalls that hold the game back from being the true classic it so easily could have been.

3 out of 5