NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams

"NiGHTS, I Rather Be Sleeping Than Living This Dream..."

Contrary to popular opinion, I never did find the original Nights to be as awesome as everybody else made it out to be. That's why when Sega announced a sequel and most people were going gaga over it, I wasn't too bother about the game. Even now after playing the game for awhile, I still don't really find it my cup of tea.

If you have no idea what Night plays like, just imagine a 2D flight simulator where you're going from left to right (and other directions sometimes) on a scripted path. Your vertical movement (and occasionally horizontal as well) is up to you but other than that, you're on rails. While flying, you can do all sort of twirls, loop de loops and other tricks you usually see in air shows, complete with the pomp and flash. You'll also need to collect orbs and free Nights, which are the purple thingies you control, by getting them out of the cages. Pretty much all the level go like that, with the exception of the bosses.

The animation in Night are silky smooth, but that does nothing to hide the fact that there's nothing much to do in the game. Flying around is fun, but doing the same thing over and over again gets old fast. The developers tried to spice thing up by allowing you to change into different forms but bu and large, you're pretty much still doing the same thing... just in a different shape.

There are also some sections where you're on-foot, running around as the two children. The same problem that plagues the original Nights' on-foot section return, namely that these section are cumbersome and just not fun. The control for the on-foot areas feel sloppy compared to the precision the flight-based ones give you, and the camera can be a pain as well.

On the other hand, as with the original the crazy and wildly inventive boss fights do liven up the game. It's rare for me to actually look forward to fighting with a boss, but in Nights I'm actually anticipating the encounters. Hell, I wish there were more of them! Despite having to fight each of the bosses twice, the interesting ways to combat them makes every meeting a different affair. If only the other parts of the game appealed to me as much...

Keeping It Under Control
Here's something of an anomaly: Nights supports all control schemes on the Wii. Be it with the Wii-mote and Nunchuck, the Wii-mote alone or using the Gamecube or Classic controllers, you're covered in all bases. If nothing else, Nights wins major points for giving you the option to play how you want instead of how the developers want you to play. Needless to say, it's a refreshing change from having to pander to the motion-control schema for the Wii.

Whatever method you choose to use, all of them handle superbly well. Using the Wii-mote isn't too advisable, however. While it does an admirable job, the need to constantly push a button to move, as you direct your movements via a cursor, is annoying. And despite what you may think, the cursor control isn't as precise as an analog one. As such, the optimal way to play Nights is ironically not on a Wii-specific controller, but on the GC pad or the Classic controller.

As with the original, the weird and wonderful world of Nights is brought to life amazingly well. The graphics, combined with the incredible soundtrack, are like the perfect one-two combo. The frame rate stutters sometimes, especially when you're speeding around, and the hit detection can be iffy.

If you're a fan of the original, Journey will be like visiting long lost friend. On the other hand, if you played the first and thought it was nothing special, then Journey will do nothing to change your mind. It has its moments, but for the most part, Nights can make one narcoleptic.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/19/08

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