I have always loved video games. I have not always been fully supported in this. Due to circumstance, I've missed a couple games that I probably shouldn't have. One such game is NiGHTS into Dreams...
At the behest of a friend, I looked into the game. I almost immediately fell in love with it. While it takes some perspective to appreciate it now (as the game itself came out in 1996 at the advent of 3D graphics), its true merits stand out; the controls are fluid, the music is catchy and enjoyable, the gameplay is interesting and inventive, and I have never seen a story that speaks so little, yet says so much. It is an intriguing, lovable game, better than many I have seen.
It speaks of a world of dreams, where two children, in a rare act of lucid dreaming, happen to find themselves, and encounter a playful, androgynous, jester-like creature, with whom they are able to fuse. The creature (the titular NiGHTS, complete with wacky spelling) simply enjoys flying about, and is able to dash forward and create loops called Paraloops, which are able to suck the Nightmaren, creatures that corrode and alter dreams into nightmares, into another dimension entirely. The game is short, consisting of two stories, one for each child, with four levels each, making for a total of eight (although technically it is seven, as the final level is present in each). The play is simplistic enough: fly around three tracks as fast as you can and then beat a boss. I find it so much more simplistic than many modern games, and even games of its own generation, such as the modern Mario, or Halo. The controls are even more simplistic, essentially coming down to two input methods, movement (through the special analog stick on a packed-in controller, as it was among the first games to use the analog stick, or through the traditional d-pad) and dash. The music and backgrounds are enjoyable, making each level less of a race and more of a journey.
The bosses are much like the gameplay, simplistic yet complex, and immensely enjoyable. They are few, but they are great, wacky and challenging, yet still true to form and representative.
The story itself is even more interesting, speaking on the power inside all of us, the power of dreams, the human condition, and the importance of self. Everything in the game is seen as a reflection of characters, each world reflecting what is "in their heart." In this sense, this may be the most singularly character-devoted game in existence.
It was even ahead of its time, introducing new content through its Christmas NiGHTS disc released later, allowing for new tracks, secret characters, examination of data in the main game that would otherwise be inaccesible, and even time-based events, such as changes to the game's "skin" on Christmas day and New Year's, and even the ability to play as the rival Reala on April Fool's Day.
Yet, for all its merit, why is it not heard of? If you ask any gamer, nine times out of ten, they will probably have never heard of it. The game obviously has merit; reviews rarely placed it below an 8 out of 10, and many have only increased the score with age in retrospective interviews. For one thing, it was on the Sega Saturn, one of the biggest blunders that led to Sega's downfall in the console market, the mistake that the Dreamcast was unable to rectify. Even now, availability is rare, as its rumored release onto Gametap has yet to see fruit, and its only remake was a Japanese-only disc for the PS2.
One of the biggest detriments may have been its sequel, NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. While enjoyable, it is most definitely inferior to the original, offering less precise control (something for which the original game was loved for) and greater complexity, as well as unsatisfying loading times (though far superior to its Xbox 360 cousin Sonic the Hedgehog), an annoying inability to skip over cutscenes, an occasional tendency to send the player back to the beginning of the event, rather than the level, and the strange choice to place the game in Britain, altering the characters accordingly. For all its faults, though, it is worthy of the title of sequel (although maybe not successor) of the original NiGHTS. As I like to put it, it is to NiGHTS as what Sonic Adventure was to Sonic (fitting, as they were both developed by Sonic Team); more emphasis on story, an exploration of new gameplay styles, while still attempting to maintain the original feel and core of the series, although Journey admittedly fails in comparison to Adventure in this respect. Still, it is enjoyable, with good bosses, intruiging landscapes, an updating of the original soundtrack (including many of the same sound effects in better quality), and even some limited online interaction, including a two player battle that is a worthy successor to that of the original's and even the spiritual successor Sonic's now-defunct Chao Garden. Still, for all its merits, the flaws become quite apparent in comparison to the series previous installment, and I often find myself wishing that I was playing the '96 console, rather than the '06 one.
Still, I can't help but feel that the real barrier to this gem of a series is its content, what it is: if we look at history, we can see that a tendency to shy away from what is inherently "nice" is apparent; Sonic was winning out over Mario due to his rebel attitude, and Halo and Counterstrike are still among the most popular games ever. Brawl, though enjoyable, is essentially just mindless bashing of each other (although I do commend HAL Labs on the Subspace Emissary, as it was enjoyable, though not quite perfect). Essentially, it hasn't gained notoriety because it is not assertive, not dark enough, not loud enough, not violent enough. It gets written off as "kiddy" and "childish," yet I defy anyone who claims it as such to complete the game with A-ranks throughout on their first run through the game. Too many of these games are disregarded. Truly, it is a shame.
