NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams

"A second outing for the bizarre... flying... jester... thing..."

Many people often look back at the nineties and think it was a wonderous time. But then people often look back at the second world war and think it was a wonderous time. It's all to do with retro being popular again - you think you're better than other people if you can say you were around when Neil Armstrong (not Winston Churchill for all our dumb UK kids, and as a Brit I feel ashamed of you) landed on the moon, when the Berlin Wall came down, or when the housing market didn't experience as many bumps as the bed of a honeymooning french couple.

But what was there about the nineties that hasn't been matched since? We've got rid of shellsuit-wearing kids, only for them to come back as chavs and start stealing our car radios, and the American dollar is still so weak that you almost feel sorry for them as you buy your shoes, CDs, iPods, games and practically abuse the country whilst in New York for a few days for no money at all.

But there is NiGHTS. Originally brought out in '96 for Sega's ill-fated I-can-do-2D-brilliantly-but-everyone-wants-3D Saturn, Sega have decided to "re-imagine" (meaning they couldn't think of any games that day and drew the answer out of a hat) the game for the current breed of consoles that you can't help but think, as nice as they are, that they'll be replaced next year by something capable of powering the next mission to Mars, if only for the fact the 360 likes exploding if anyone should attempt to touch it, every PS3 game is inferior and enjoys eating at the hard drive, and everyone loves the Wii for it's sexual innuendo (awaits the flames).

But enough of this small talk, I'm sure you're all waiting with bated, rank cheesey breath to hear what I think of this, NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (heretoafter referred to as "the game"). And, as somebody who really enjoyed the original game and refuses to take seriously the opinions of people who haven't played it, I have to say it's not bad.

Yes, that's right. Not bad. Not brilliant, but there are problems.

Here is where I normally would describe the game itself, but the game is such a mix that I think I'll describe the story first, and let me warn you that if you sit through this tedious twaddle more than once you deserve to have a pineapple inserted into your rectum because there is something medically wrong with you that only a pineapple to the rectum can fix. That said, I'm not a doctor but at least you didn't have to wait a few weeks for me to give you a diagnosis, and prescriptions are everywhere. The story involves two distinctly posh British-sounding kids feeling whiney about their relationships with their parents - Will hates that his dad keeps putting work ahead of him, and Helen worries that she's spending more time with her friends rather than her mum (and yes, this is the only game I've heard the word "mum" used as opposed to "mom", so extra points there). The kids dream, and end up having to team up with the flying jester thing NiGHTS to save Nightopia and learn an important lesson about themselves. The usual Disney crap - in fact it may well have been a rejected script for a pre-school Disney show, such is the childish nature of the game, the sheer cheesiness and the urge you have to kill the voice actors every time anybody but Reala and Wizeman (the only two decently-voiced characters) open their mouths.

So, onto the game itself. There's six main levels (with a seventh final level, and people who've played the original should know what to expect), each with five missions. Nope, this isn't like the original NiGHTS where you load the level, fly around and complete it, this time you've got objectives.

Fortunately, most of the objectives share the same gameplay style - 2D on-rails flight. This is the bread and butter of NiGHTS as the kids "dualize" with the jester of their dreams (which really does sound like something the police should know about) and fly around the nice, pretty 3D environments, following a path which snakes through the level into laps. There are all sorts of bonuses, hoops etc to fly through and pick up, and NiGHTS is as graceful as ever. Flying in the game really is a joy, depending of course on which controller you use. More on that later.

During these sections there are, of course, different objectives. Most of the time you'll be either chasing a bird (to retrieve it's key) or trying to string an excellent combo together, with others including but not limited to catching jewels, playing music or rescuing Nightopians.

And this is, for the most part, a good thing. As I said, flying is great here, as the game restricts where you're going but you still have control over height and where you're going left or right. It simply gives you a path to follow, and the levels are so well designed that it just works.

But then you have the other parts of the game - the dark, seedy recesses which nobody in their right mind would play again and which should have been left out. A number of different parts tacked on that they feel like mini-games, involving NiGHTS having to push bubbles to create one large uber-bubble, a rafting rescue mission and having to clear an area of enemies from a top-down viewpoint. Not to mention abysmal 3D platforming when controlling the kids. Fortunately these don't appear as often as others may say, but when they do it's as if the game has turned from a nice, brilliant Doctor Jekyll to an evil Mr Hyde. Or did I get that the wrong way round? Either way, the game requires psychiatric counselling in order to rid itself of it's no-good other personality, and the only way you'll come back to these bits is if you're a sadist trying to get an A on every single mission.

The bosses thrown into the mix are also an imaginitive bunch, consisting of an evil giant fish that turns into bubbles that you must destroy, a chameleon which hides in the backdrop of it's own level, and a clown which seems set to frighten even those who find clowns quite pleasant, and invite clown friends over for a pie-fight whilst driving around in their clown cars which move all of two feet before spontaneously combusting.

Also thrown in is an area called My Dream. Explorable on foot by the kids, this area is a garden for any creatures, good or bad, that you loop around. Unfortunately I still can't fathom out what this area does apart from provide you with somewhere to look at the creatures for no good reason, or ask a friend over WFC to come along and make emoticons at one another in the worst example of a 3D chatroom going. Races over WFC are available, but I've only come across somebody else to play against a handful of times.

The game controls well enough - if you're using a GameCube pad. From my limited experience, the GameCube pad is undoubtably the best method of control, followed by the remote and nunchuk, simply because they're two different units and don't quite gel. The remote on it's own is damn awful - point at the screen and NiGHTS is supposed to fly there, except that half the time the flying idiot decides to go backwards, scrape a cliff before diving chin-first into the ground below. Should we be worried that a game designed for the Wii and this control method actually controls better using an old pad? I'm not going to let it.

Much has been said about the graphics of this game, or lack of. Personally I don't mind. When controlling the kids on the ground everything looks very PS2-ish, but when taking to the sky it looks quite different and pleasant. Some excellent imagination has gone into the levels themselves, even though six of the seven levels are just rehashes of the original (the only one not making an appearance is Frozen Bell, which is replaced by the neon playground Delight City). The music too is frequently excellent, of a typical dream-like quality. A particular favourite of mine is literally all the music that plays through the Crystal Castle level, as well as the chase music for Lost Park.

But, all in all, what do I think? Like any re-imagining of a series it has it's good points and it's bad points. The good - flying properly is an absolute joy, but that's the only good thing about the game. However, it's such a big good point that, in my opinion, the game deserves a 7. The story is poor, the voice acting mostly horrible, but the game has some great imagination in it's levels. Like any re-imagining, it will divide everyone.

Except JSRF - that kicked arse.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/31/08

Game Release: NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (EU, 01/18/08)