NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams

"Frights - Journey of Dissapointment"

When Nights originally was released with a package that came with a great controller in my opinion, everyone loved the game. They loved the graphics, the game play, everything. Well, everyone except me. I just couldn't get into the game, during that time I was young and I wanted just fighting games. Now that I am a full grown adult and saw that there were a new Nights coming out for the Nintendo Wii, I thought, "hell, how bad can it be?" I soon had my question answered pretty quickly. Remember my reviews are told as if you are in front of me, don't take it personal, it's just my opinion.

Sega to me has always been a great company but they couldn't dish out enough good quality games. With the failures of the new Sonic games, I would of thought Nights would be the game to redeem Sega. To start off, the game just feels dull and boring. You first get a choice between a boy and a girl sleeping. If you are like me you would of chose the girl first, (don't ask why) and then you are off to a dream! Exciting! Well not really. The very first character you meet is a sign of unimaginative and laziness on the developers end. You meet an Owl that is named Owl. He looks just like an Owl. So what happens if there is another Owl in the game? "Oh look an Owl" "Yes I am right here" "No, I meant there is an Owl" I can see a comedy just based on that.

After you meet this Owl, he tells you where you are and explains things to you when you are right away introduced to Nights, the main character of the game. This boy or girl which is greatly debated and to avoid any more debates I will just go with what the game considers Nights, a boy. So Night is now showing off and flying around and next thing you know, he fuses with your character. So finally you get to move around. At first, I thought my controller was broken because the game is in 3D but you can only move from left to right and up and down. When I found that out, I was greatly disappointed. I expected Nights to be able to explore everywhere, but no, each stage is just one big ball that you go around of.

So you are to learn the controls, but unlike other Wii games you first have a choice of three forms to use. No, forms as in controllers not actual forms of Nights. You can use the classic controller, the wii mote itself or the Wii mote with the nunchuk. I chose the Wii mote with the nunchuks because it feels better to me. So the game is basically this, you fly left to right collecting blue orbs that can refill your bar on the bottom of the screen. That bar goes down when you do a special dash. To attack things in the game you need to spin Nights around and he absorbs them, then spins them again and lets them go. You mostly in the game is spinning around. Most annoying part about this is when you are in the boss fights and you need to find their weak spots, so you need to know when to spin. But only full circle spins will be effective so you really need to time it right.

The best part about the game is the bosses, which is why I didn't give this game a even lower score. Each boss you need to think of how to expose their weakness. Doing this feat is challenging and fun but once you find it, its a bit too easy. Another bad thing is that there are too little stages and too little bosses. This Nights feels like a step back than a step forward.

The graphics for this game is another plus to me. It has a relaxing feel good and colorful atmosphere. There are many things happening at once and the details of Nights movements are done pretty well. The sound affects don't sound cheesy either. A lot of people will look at this game and call it kiddy, a game for kids. It really isn't. Most kids won't be able to pass a couple stages because this game is challenging especially if you are going for the best ranks on each stage.

The music I didn't really care for compared to the Saturn version. Maybe if I am not so annoyed at the camera angle and disappointed in the game I would notice it more. I don't remember any of the music being annoying which is a good thing but at the same time I don't have anything really good to say about it.

The multiplayer is just bad. There really isn't much to do except doing what the game forces you do already, just now you can do this with a friend. You also get a garden that you can visit and invite friends to. It changes periodically and it's pretty boring. I think I need to give this part of the game more time.

In closing, this game is a must rent. Only reason I bought it was because I got it for $25 new. The game is enjoyable for a few minutes but this game could of been so much more. It could of been one of my most favorite games on the Wii, but I don't know what the hell the developers and programmers and even the test gamers did to it. I will however give this game even more time because I want to like it and maybe one day I will change my score, hopefully to a higher number. Thanks for reading.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/11/08

Game Release: NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (US, 12/18/07)