NiGHTS into Dreams...

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NiGHTS Into Dreams...
Developer(s)	Sonic Team
Publisher(s)	Sega
Designer(s)	Yuji Naka, Naoto Oshima, Takashi Iizuka
Release date(s)	July 5, 1996 August 31, 1996 October 7, 1996
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: K-A (Kids to Adults) ELSPA: 3+ USK: 3
Platform(s)	Sega Saturn
Media	1 x CD-ROM
Input	3D Control Pad

NiGHTS into Dreams..., commonly referred to as NiGHTS or NiD, is a video game released by Sega in 1996 for the Sega Saturn video game system. The game's story follows two children entering a dream world in order to prevent the real world being taken over. They are aided by the eponymous being, NiGHTS, an androgynous flying acrobat.

NiGHTS was developed by Sonic Team, with Yuji Naka as producer and lead programmer, and Naoto Oshima as director and designer of the titular character. The developers' intention was to make the sensation of flight the central gameplay element,^[1] achieved through 3D graphics and a combination of both 2D and 3D gameplay.

[edit] Story

Every night, all human dreams are played out in Nightopia and Nightmare, the two parts of the dream world. In Nightopia, distinct aspects of personalities are represented by glowing coloured spheres known as "Ideya". However, the evil ruler of Nightmare, Wizeman the Wicked, is stealing this dream energy from sleeping visitors, in order to gather power to take control of Nightopia and eventually the real world. To achieve this, he creates numerous beings called "Nightmaren", including two acrobatic jester-like beings called NiGHTS and Reala. However, NiGHTS rebels against Wizeman's plans, and is punished by being imprisoned inside a shrine in the centre of Nightopia.

One night, a boy and girl from the city of Twin Seeds arrive in Nightopia, each possessing the rare red Ideya of courage, the only type Wizeman cannot steal. They use it to release NiGHTS, and begin to battle Wizeman in order to restore peace to Nightopia.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Claris Sinclair

Elliot Edwards & Claris Sinclair.

Age: 14 (United States) / 15 (Japan)

A talented singer, Claris' ambition is to perform on stage. She auditions for a part in the events commemorating the centenary of the city of Twin Seeds. However, upon standing in front of the judges, she is overcome by stage fright and does not perform well.

Claris loses all hope of getting the role, and when she falls asleep that night, the evil spirits of Nightmare seize upon that fear, placing Claris in a nightmare version of the audition. Fleeing from the stage, she suddenly finds herself in a lush dreamy valley, with someone calling to her for help.

[edit] Elliot Edwards

Age: 14 (United States) / 15 (Japan)

Elliot is a budding basketball player, enjoying a game with his friends one day. A group of older high school students arrive and challenge them to a game, causing Elliot to suffer a humiliating defeat on the court. That night, a nightmare replays the events, and Elliot runs blindly into the world of Nightopia, where he discovers the imprisoned NiGHTS.

[edit] NiGHTS

NiGHTS.

NiGHTS is a Nightmaren created by Wizeman to steal Red Ideya. NiGHTS is androgynous, a conscious design decision by Sonic Team,^[2] and wears a purple jester style hat and outfit, with a diamond on the chest.

In the story, NiGHTS turns on Wizeman and is sealed in the Ideya Palace until Elliot or Claris merge with it. NiGHTS can fly gracefully, executing acrobatic twists and turns, can speed through the air while spinning rapidly (Drill Dashing). If NiGHTS comes into contact with the stars that trail from his hands, a "Paraloop" is formed in the shape of the enclosed trail, causing an implosion which sucks in any items or Dream inhabitants in or near the region.

[edit] Gameplay

Screenshot of NiGHTS in the Soft Museum level. The player has retrieved the Ideya from its capture and has since acquired 99 further blue chips, has three seconds remaining as NiGHTS, has linked together 329 actions, and has a score for this Mare of 90110.

NiD's level select screen, showing all eight Dreams

NiGHTS into Dreams is split into seven levels or "Dreams", each divided further into four "Mares" and a boss battle. The levels are distributed equally between the two child characters; three are unique to Claris, three to Elliot, and each play through an identical final seventh level, "Twin Seeds". Players may progress through each character's levels one by one, but can revisit previously completed stages. Initially, only the Spring Valley and Splash Garden are available for play; further levels are unlocked once a "C" grade is obtained in the previous dream. A "C" grade in all the selected child's levels must be gained to unlock the relevant Twin Seeds dream for that character.

At the start of each level, Wizeman's minions steal all the character's Ideya except the rare red type representing courage. The other Ideya colours in the game are yellow for hope, green for wisdom, blue for intelligence and white for purity. The goal of each of the four "Mares" in each level is to recover the stolen Ideya by collecting 20 blue chips and delivering them to the Ideya capture, which will overload and release the orb it holds. It is possible to complete some of the levels' goals by wandering around the landscape of Nightopia as Claris or Elliot (pursued by an egg-shaped alarm clock which will end the level if it catches the player), but the majority of the gameplay centres on NiGHTS' flying sequences, triggered by walking into the Ideya palace near the start of each level and merging with the imprisoned acrobat.

In the NiGHTS sections, the player flies around a particular linear route through the Mare. The gameplay as NiGHTS is not completely 3D: players can only fly in the 2D plane of the screen, with their actual motion through the level determined by the automatic camera angle at that point in the Mare. The player has only a limited period available before NiGHTS falls to the ground and turns back into Claris or Elliot, and each collision with an enemy subtracts five seconds from the time remaining.

Various acrobatic manoeuvres can be performed, including the "Paraloop", whereby which flying around in a complete circle causes any items within the loop to be attracted towards NiGHTS. The game features a combo system whereby actions such as collecting items and flying through rings are worth more points when performed in quick succession than they are individually.

After completing the four Mares, the player is transported to Nightmare to confront one of Wizeman's Nightmaren. The player has two minutes to defeat the boss, with the time taken contributing to the player's total score for that Dream.

[edit] A-Life

Nightopian

Aside from the immediate game mission, the game also contains an artificial life ("A-Life") system, a precursor to the Chao featured in Sonic Team's later Sonic Adventure titles. The system involves entities called Nightopians (dream-dwellers, sometimes referred to as "pians"). The game keeps track of the moods of the Nightopians (harming them will displease them, for example), and the game features an evolving music engine, allowing tempo, pitch, and melody to alter depending on the state of Nightopians within the level. It is also possible to merge Nightopians with the small Nightmaren enemies, creating a hybrid being called a Mepian.

[edit] Controller

The optional analog controller that came packaged with NiGHTS into Dreams.... (US/EU version shown; the Japanese pad was white.)

NiGHTS was introduced alongside an optional game controller, included with most copies of the game. This gamepad featured an analog stick, among the first on any games console control pad (launching around the same time as the Nintendo 64, which featured an analog stick on its standard control peripheral). The stick, D-pad and shoulder triggers were located in an arrangement similar to that of Sega's later Dreamcast controller.[3]

[edit] Christmas NiGHTS

Christmas NiGHTS

Christmas NiGHTS was a two level stand-alone expansion pack of NiGHTS that was released in December 1996. In Japan, it was part of a Christmas Saturn bundle. It was elsewhere given away with the purchase of select Saturn games such as Daytona USA Championship Circuit Edition, and was bundled in with issues of Sega Saturn Magazine and Next Generation Magazine. The CD-ROMs given away on the front cover of Sega Saturn Magazine were missing the card slip case in which to keep the disc, and were instead supplied with a transparent plastic one. The game was also available for rent at Blockbuster Video locations in America. In the UK, Christmas NiGHTS was not included with the official Sega Saturn Magazine until December 1997.

The Christmas NiGHTS disc contained a playable demo of the game's Spring Valley level - the Claris level from the original game, and a completely new version for Elliot with the same visual themes, but a different layout of items. The game also used the Saturn's internal clock to change elements of the game according to the date, adjusting it for Christmas and New Year periods with different graphics and music.

When the internal clock reached December 1, the normally lush greenery of the environment would be completely covered in white snow. The general motif of the level's design would also adopt a Christmas theme, with item boxes becoming Christmas presents, Nightopians dressing in Santa's elf costumes, the Ideya captures becoming Christmas trees, and so on. There were several other unlockable extras, allowing the player to experiment with the game's music mixer or its A-Life system, time attack one of the game's Mares, or even to play the demo stage as Sega's mascot Sonic the Hedgehog. In the "Sonic the Hedgehog: Into Dreams" game, Sonic assumed both the children's and NiGHTS' roles and only travelled the stage on foot. In addition to this, Sonic faced a "bouncy ball" version of Doctor Robotnik, a reskinned Puffy, the music being a slightly remixed version of "Final Fever", the final boss battle music from Sonic CD (Japanese Version).

Also, if Christmas NiGHTS was played on April Fool's Day (April 1), players could play as NiGHTS' evil counterpart, Reala.

[edit] Reaction

At the time of its release, NiGHTS into Dreams was the top-selling game for the Saturn, but failed to find the mass commercial appeal of Super Mario 64 or Crash Bandicoot, both of which were launched around the same time. Most reviews in dedicated Saturn magazines praised the game, but those of some multi-platform websites and magazines were more critical.

NiGHTS has appeared in several "greatest games" lists. In a January 2000 poll of readers of Computer and Video Games magazine, it appeared in 15th place in a list of the "100 greatest games" (directly behind Super Mario 64). Edge gave it a score of 8/10 in their original 1996 review of the game,^[3] and in their October 2003 issue the magazine's staff placed NiGHTS in their list of the ten greatest platform games. EGM, in their "The Greatest 200 Videogames of Their Time" list, ranked the game 160th. 1UP ranked the Game 3rd in its "Top Ten Cult Classics".^[4]

[edit] Popularity and future

Demand for a sequel to NiGHTS Into Dreams has been strong for many years. A game with the working title "Air NiGHTS" was intended to use a tilt sensor in the Saturn analog pad, and development later moved to the Sega Dreamcast for a time, but eventually the project was discontinued.^[5] However, it has been suggested that the motion-sensing technology for Air NiGHTS might have been similar to that of Sonic Team's Samba De Amigo, and it may even have been an extremely early version of that game.

In the December 2000 issue of the British Official Dreamcast Magazine, Yuji Naka explained:

In an interview in the November 2003 edition of Edge, he was asked whether he would like to develop another NiGHTS game:

In April 2006 the Japanese game magazine Famitsu published a rumour saying that a game creator who recently went independent is creating a game featuring a flying clown for the Wii console. Many people were led to believe that the developer is Yuji Naka and the game will be a NiGHTS sequel. According to IGN the rumour story goes on to hint that this has something to do with a recent conversation the writers had with someone who created a famous bearded character. Naka has stated that the Wii is the "perfect console" for a NiGHTS sequel, if such a game was ever developed.^[6] Rumours regarding a Wii version continued to appear during 2006.^[7]

[edit] March 2007 Confirmation

Swedish Magazine Cover

In March 2007, Sega.com ran a poll titled "Which SEGA game/character would you like to see return?" featuring NiGHTS as one of the options (along with Streets of Rage, Samba de Amigo, Virtua Cop and Flicky).^[8] At its end, NiGHTS had 9842 votes, 55% of the total.^{[citation needed]}

Around the same time as the poll, Official Nintendo Magazine stated that an upcoming game for the Wii would be revealed in its May 2007 issue. It printed the words "a classic game makes a long overdue return" underneath an image of a constellation which accurately follows the outline of the NiGHTS logo.[4][5] This caused further speculation on the future of the franchise^[9] and, due to the issue's proximity to April Fools' Day, the validity of the report.^[10] Official Nintendo Magazine stated that the teaser is valid, but also made clear they never stated it was a NiGHTS sequel.^[11]

Also in March 2007, the administrator of the fansite NiGHTSintoDreams.com claimed that she had been aware of the development of a sequel for some time. Her claims, however, can not be substantiated.^[12]

Sega has not made any official announcement of a new NiGHTS game, and many media outlets remain skeptical about the reliability of these reports. Yuji Naka, the producer of the original game, has claimed that he has no intentions to revisit any of his previous Sega properties.^[13]

On the cover of the April issue of Swedish magazine GameReactor, a mildly redesigned NiGHTS is shown, along with the text "SEGA's dreamdemon returns."^[14] The cover has since been replaced with an outline of NiGHTS [6], with GameReactor commenting that Sega had contacted them about it. The original cover has however spread onto the internet[7]. GameReactor does not yet specify the platform for which the alleged NiGHTS-game is supposed to release. Since the Official Nintendo Magazine, a UK magazine, will be running their NiGHTS issue in April 2007, it is likely to be a Wii title.

[edit] Further appearances

Although there has been no full sequel to NiGHTS, a handheld electronic game was released by Tiger Electronics,^[15] and several Sega console titles such as Sega SuperStars and Sonic Adventure feature minigames themed around the character. Further small references to the game have been made in numerous other games by the company, including Shenmue, Burning Rangers and ChuChu Rocket!.

[edit] Comics

Cover of the first issue of the NiGHTS into Dreams... comic series.

Archie Comics adapted the game into a three-issue comic book miniseries. A second three-issue miniseries was later published. The series expanded upon some in-game concepts, such as how NiGHTS rebelled against Wizeman and how he got the red crystal on his chest, and also gave names and origins to several other characters, such as the blonde highschooler in Elliot's basketball game.

[edit] See Also

• NiGHTS into Dreams... Cameos
• Yuji Naka
• Sonic Team
• Naoto Oshima

[edit] References

1. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20050326165059/homepage.ntlworld.com/big_smile/web+site/sts/interviews/1997/sonic_1997_unknown.htm
2. ^ http://www.nightsintodreams.com/NiD/violet/whatisnid/images/knowyourstuffcitizen.jpg
3. ^ [1]
4. ^ TOP 10 CULT CLASSICS. 1UP (June 22, 2005).
5. ^ ^{a b} Lomas, Ed. "Sonic Team Player", Official Dreamcast Magazine [UK] issue 14 (December 2000), pp. 35.
6. ^ Anoop Gantayat (2006-04-20). "Nights Set For Revolution?". IGN. Retrieved on 2007-03-07.
7. ^ Micah Seff (2007-01-04). "NiGHTS Sequel Wii-bound?". IGN. Retrieved on 2007-03-07.
8. ^ Whiting, Mark (2007-03-07). "Vote on Which Sega Franchise to Resurrect". 1UP.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-23.
9. ^ Kevin Cassidy (March 16, 2007). Official Nintendo Magazine claims world exclusive Wii game in next issue - UPDATE (might be NiGHTS!). Go Nintendo.
10. ^ Alexander Sliwinski (2007-03-17). "Rumorang: NiGHTS returning on the Wii -- Part 2". Joystiq.
11. ^ Alexander Sliwinski (March 19, 2007). ONM says 'world exclusive' not April Fools prank. Joystiq.
12. ^ Triplett, Lynne (2007-03-22). NiGHTS into Dreams.com site news (22nd March 2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-23.
13. ^ Gavin Ogden (2007-03-22). "No new NiGHTS from Yuji Naka". Computer and Video Games.
14. ^ Gamereactor #46 preview. GameReactor (March 23, 2007).
15. ^ Electronic Handheld Museum: NiGHTS Into Dreams handheld

[edit] External links

• NiGHTS score attack site
• NiGHTSintoDreams.com A NiGHTS fansite containing official media as well as fanfiction, fan art, and other non-official material.
• NiGHTS into Dreams at The Green Hill Zone
• Christmas NiGHTS at The Green Hill Zone
• 'ONM' states their preview is not a joke