Saturn
NiGHTS into Dreams...
| Graphics: Sound: Gameplay: Overall: |
8.22 8.24 8.06 8.16 |
| Votes: | 96 |
| Reviews: | 1 |
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| Reviewer: PhaseGoose | Date: Jun 3, 2024 |
| NiGHTS Into Dreams is a 2D score attack game where you play as the eponymous NiGHTS as you fly around various dream worlds in order to collect items and defeat bosses. The basic premise is that two teens, Elliot and Claris, each have a bad day and struggle with their anxieties. As they fall asleep they have nightmares about prior events of the day, causing them to stumble into a dimension called Nightopia and meet a jester-like being named NiGHTS. NiGHTS rebelled against their creator, an evil being named Wizeman that wants to take over Nightopia and the real world. With NiGHTS' aid, the two teens face off against Wizeman and his minions to save Nightopia and assure themselves as capable people.
Graphics: 10 This game is one of the best looking on the Saturn and one of my favorites of this era of low-poly consoles. While it can be a tad difficult to parse some visuals, it greatly adds to the atmosphere and is dripping with style and color. Each level is vibrant and imaginative, and serves the dream theme very nicely. NiGHTS' animations are still nice to look at and while the CG cutscenes have aged, they are still quite charming and at least somewhat impressive for their time. Sound: 10 The music is sublime, genuinely flawless. I cannot think of a single nitpick. Each track is infectious and even has small variations depending on the mood of these in-game creatures called Nightopians (little cherub-like beings). The best aspect of this game is easily the music. The sound effects are solid too and fit the game well. Gameplay: 10 I won't mince words, NiGHTS can be hard to understand and grapple with for new players. The game makes no effort to hold your hand or explain much of anything. Now with that being said, this game has a deviously addicting and strong gameplay loop with wonderfully precise controls. You fly four laps around each level, with each lap asking you to collect twenty blue orbs (called Blue Chips) and deposit them into this UFO-looking device called an Ideya Capture within a two minute time limit. Once you deposit the chips, you receive the Ideya (a colored sphere representing dream energy) and extra points depending on how quickly you collected the Ideya. Then you must get back to your starting point, the Ideya Palace, and deposit the Ideya to complete a lap. Once you receive the Ideya, points gained from various actions and pickups are doubled, encouraging players to quickly deposit Blue Chips and retrieve Ideya so they can collect as many points as they can within the time limit in order to beef up their overall score, which then awards a grade for that lap much like modern Sonic. After all four laps are completed, a boss is fought. Depending on how quickly the boss is defeated a score multiplier from 1X to 2X is applied to your score from the level, and a final grade is awarded. There are also a couple powerups and stage elements to interact with such as special hoops that when flown through, let you perform tricks to increase your score. Some levels even have unique gimmicks or sections, such as a bobsled riding section, or a top-down flying section. On the note of the aforementioned boss battles, they can be tricky to figure out how to defeat but they are all interestingly designed and are (mostly) enjoyable to fight. It is so fun and addicting to smoothly and quickly fly throughout each level in order to get the Ideya ASAP and then gain as points as possible before time runs out to try to secure the coveted 'A' rank. Overall: 10 Overall, I really adore this game and place it in my top twenty at least. It's my favorite non-Sonic Sega game, and one I will revisit many more times. It's got charming and dazzling visuals, a top-notch soundtrack, addicting and satisfying gameplay, and even a neat little story if you look into the inspirations behind NiGHTS as well as the symbolism behind the game's world and characters. The game has a couple small blemishes, but they don't detract from the overall experience in my opinion. This is one of Sonic Team's best games and an overlooked classic I urge you to play. TLDR; This game is very fun and charming, and I strongly recommend playing it. Also try to get at least a 'C' rank on each level since doing so unlocks the last level for each character, leading to the proper conclusion of the game. |
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