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Top 5: Christmastime in Gaming
Ahh, Christmastime. Every year, we look forward to cherished traditions such as fighting traffic, stressing out over finding gifts, and even the occasional Black Friday trampling. Yet one would be surprised to learn that December 25th has a history which shares very little with frivolous lawsuits and Bill O'Reilly frothing at the mouth. Indeed, aside from its litigatious and hostile depiction on the news, Christmas is largely an excuse to shower our loved ones with food, presents, and joy. It's also an easy inspiration for a stressed columnist trying to finish his Christmas shopping to create a Top 5 list. As such examples of religious-based holidays are rare in gaming, this list will not be Nintendo-specific. For those who celebrate the date, I wish you a Merry Christmas. For those who don't, I wish you well just the same. NEXT >> #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } The Top 5 is a weekly feature that provides us with a forum to share our opinions on various aspects of the video game culture, and provides you with a forum to tell us how wrong we are. To further voice your opinions, submit a vote in the Wii Fanboy Poll, and take part in the daily discussions of Wii Warm Up.
NiGHTS: Journey of a cheap game
If you're buying a GameCube controller at Amazon, why not buy a cheap Wii game to go with it?NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams is now marked down to $20.09 at the online retailer, which is a hard-to-resist price for an unused copy of Sega's game. Although it didn't get the best reviews, twenty dollars isn't a lot to ask when it comes to reliving a beloved franchise.Does anyone who owns NiGHTS want to make a recommendation for or against it?[Via CAG]
NiGHTS and Wii have a future together
People seem to be pretty divided so far on NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. The critics tended to score it in the safe seventies, while some of our own commenters had similarly mixed feelings about the title. One thing looks pretty certain, however: if Journey of Dreams director Takashi Iizuka has his way, any future follow-ups to the follow-up will be soaring gracefully to the Wii.Speaking to German site G-Wie-Gorilla, Iizuka described the console as "a good choice" for the game, before promising that future games in the series would appear on Nintendo's platform. Naturally, that still doesn't quash our supreme disappointment over the PlayStation 2 getting the original NiGHTS into Dreams, but we could certainly cope with a sequel to Journey of Dreams that resolves some of the niggles.[Via Go Nintendo]
Metareview: NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (Wii)
Remember how everyone was excited about the idea of a new NiGHTS game just a half year ago? Well, let's go back to that happy place for one second before reality crashes down around us. NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams ended up as we feared following our hands-on at Tokyo Games Show. From reading various reviews there's a lot of pity inflation in the scores stemming from reviewer's happy childhood memories. The great return of a beloved franchise NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams is not, but maybe another sequel will get it right -- you know, if people actually buy this third-party Wii title. Games Radar (80/100): "NiGHTS really soars when it's in the air, maintaining the essence of the original game. Some of the crappier additions send it into a bit of a nose dive, but overall the game rights itself with its bold originality and a unique charm that's unlike anything else out there." 1UP (70/100): "For serious NiGHTS fans, Journey offers a bittersweet reunion that reminds us of what was so singularly special about Sega's airborne dreamweaver. Unfortunately, attempting to evolve the formula creates a host of new problems and issues that ultimately diminish the game's overall appeal. That said, this still represents one of the finest original third-party games available for Wii, and younger players will find a lot to love in this gameplay-rich adventure." IGN (65/100): "So after waiting over a decade for a new NiGHTS experience, what's the final verdict? Personally, we'd rather have seen this one stay a nostalgic piece of gaming history, as Journey of Dreams isn't exactly the spectacular homecoming we were hoping for as huge fans of the original Saturn classic. The control is too stiff, odd design choices will have players repeating full levels rather than incorporating a simple checkpoint system which would have saved both progress and sanity alike, and there's a huge amount of emphasis put on non-NiGHTS gameplay, having players control the human children in very unrewarding sections, and incorporating sloppy alternate gameplay rather than just focusing on what made the original so captivating in the first place."
Wii Warm Up: SAAAAAAAAAAY-GA!
Any gamer would need a heart of blackened teak to not have a soft spot for Sega, and there's arguably no better home for a dyed-in-the-wool Sega fan than the Wii. Over the coming weeks and months, Nintendo's little white box will be hosting a number of updated classic Sega properties, including NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, Samba De Amigo, and House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return.But our appetite for all things Sega is not yet sated! While we've already asked you which Saturn games you'd like to see on the Virtual Console, which Sega titles in general do you want to see reinvented on the Wii? A motion-sensitive Panzer Dragoon, the return of Ulala, and a Burning Rangers sequel top our list.
Sega: No plans to release NiGHTS PS2 outside of Japan
Those hoping that the PS2 port of the Sega Saturn classic NiGHTS would be released outside of Japan may be out of luck. Takashi Iizuka -- producer, director, and lead game designer on the Wii-sclusive NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams -- recently spoke with Sega Nerds about all things NiGHTS.When asked about the PS2 enhanced port of the original NiGHTS Into Dreams, Iizuka commented that at present, the title is only scheduled for release in Japan, and that there are no plans to bring the title to other regions, or, for that matter, to the Nintendo Wii.Iizuka also commented that the PS2 port was the direct result of a high demand for the game in Japan. Given that, it's still possible that solid sales of the NiGHTS sequel might inspire releases of the original in more regions. Let's keep the hope alive.
Watch NiGHTS transform into a fish, rocket in new trailer
NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams has to be one of the most curious Wii titles in development at the moment. First off, it doesn't always rely on motion controls (Huh?) and though it often looks pretty, sometimes it looks like a nightmare. Sometimes, as in this trailer, the music is gorgeous, and sometimes it sounds like something from Raffi's reject pile. We just don't get it. This new trailer from MTV Multiplayer doesn't make things any less confusing. Apparently, NiGHTS is now transforming into a fish, snake dragon thing and a rocket (which seems a trifle redundant to us). A few months ago we would have been surprised, but it makes an odd sort of sense now. Which is either frightening or comforting. We've lost the ability to tell the difference.
Buy NiGHTS, play online, make a garden
1UP recently had a chance to delve a little deeper into NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, in particular the game's multiplayer and "My Dream" modes.Reportedly, the former is to consist of two gametypes, one of which -- imaginatively titled "Race Mode" -- will be fully playable online. This will see two players competing in an out-and-out race to the finish line, one as the eponymous NiGHTS, and the other as his her its arch-enemy, Reala.Passing through yellow or green rings contributes to a meter that can in turn be used for "dash boosts," while spike rings have the opposite effect. Encouragingly, it sounds like a fairly "pure" interpretation of the original Saturn game, if our withered, dried-up memories serve correctly."Battle Mode" is the second multiplayer variant, an offline game for two players. Here, each player has to avoid the "Mareballoon," essentially a large orange time bomb that NiGHTS and Reala can chuck between one another. If you're the one holding the Mareballoon by the time its clock has ticked down to zero, then your opponent clinches a point, with the first to three winning.Swoop effortlessly past the break for more.%Gallery-4673%
TGS hands-on: NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams
After clamoring for a NiGHTS: Into Dreams sequel for years and clinging to creator Yuji Naka's legs even as he propelled himself through the doors of his own studio, many fans of the acrobatic airborne harlequin were delighted to see their dreams come true in the form of a new Wii title. Journey of Dreams had found the perfect platform, where boundless motion controls would exquisitely express the freedom of flight. Right?Bizarrely, tellingly and somewhat amusingly, the Tokyo Game Show demo of NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams makes no use of motion controls whatsoever. The analog stick on the nunchuck controls movement, the A-button speeds you up and.... well, that's pretty much it. While several control schemes are likely to be in the works for the completed game, the lack of Wii-specific abilities seems to worsen the lack of differentiation between NiGHTS and its sequel.%Gallery-7638%
NiGHTS trailer and gameplay video warm our bitter hearts
We said we wouldn't get hung up on graphics if the gameplay was good. And, well, after watching these two videos of NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, we are feeling a sensation we haven't felt in a long time: real Sega love. You could put a copy of Sonic Shuffle in front of us and we'd totally play it. Our minds aren't changed about the textures, but we find it very hard to care right now. What you see in the video is authentic NiGHTS. Sega hasn't changed it into a minigame collection or a training game or even a 3D platformer. They didn't give him a gun and a car. This is a real sequel to the Saturn game in 2.5D, just like God intended. Ignore the Disney-esque narration and flourishes in the trailer. They are irrelevant. For some reason, these videos aren't embedded at Gamespot's NiGHTS page, despite using the Gamespot player. You can, however, download a high-resolution version of the gameplay video there. They are embedded after the break. Please watch them and improve your day! [Via NeoGAF; embedded Gamespot videos found at GoNintendo]
More like NiGHTS: Journey of Dreamcasts
Okay, before we start talking about these new NiGHTS screenshots, we'll preface ourselves. We are huge Sega fanboys from way back. We played hours of Penguin Land. We were excited about the bundled Altered Beast in the first Genesis boxes. NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams is right up at the top of our "most wanted" list, no matter what. We don't really care about graphics if the gameplay is good. We love Sega, and we aren't graphics snobs.But we have to say that these new screens of NiGHTS don't look that hot. Specifically, the textures are horribly blurry. This is pretty disappointing. NiGHTS should be a visual feast. It doesn't help that Jeux France's images are in double the Wii's native resolution. They look better in a more Wii-like 640x360 resolution, as they appear in our gallery, but even so, those textures are pretty dire. We know the Wii can do better than this, and we know that Sega can do better than this.%Gallery-4673%
NiGHTS: Magazine Scan of Dreams
A new scan of NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams has appeared, thanks to NeoGAF's tireless neo2046. It mostly contains too-small images of NiGHTS flying around, which-- thankfully-- look great. There's some kind of ... peacock creature, maybe?The page highlights NiGHTS' new human counterpart, Helen Cartwright, a young violinist. We assume that, like the previous game's children, she experiences performance anxiety and seeks solace in her dreams. Whatever the motivation, she frees NiGHTS so we can start playing the real game. And for that we must thank the frilly-jacketed, fictional child. The full page is after the break!
