Customer Reviews

Nights Journey of Dreams

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

It has been well over 11 years since the acclaimed cult classic NiGHTS into Dreams by Sega's Sonic Team debuted on the Saturn. And now after countless rumors, endless petitions, and a series of long waits, its official follow-up has finally arrived but this time on Nintendo's console Wii. Even with its glaring faults it can still manage to rekindle memories of the original and perhaps spark interest in those who have never played NiGHTS before. Two dreaming children, Will and Helen, have been having nightmares that have gotten in the way of their aspirations. They soon come across NiGHTS, a flying jester determined to rid the dream worlds of Wizeman and his henchmen, who wish to turn everyone's dreams into nightmares.

CONTROL
Players are given the option to choose from a few modes of play, either with just the Wii remote, Nunchuk style, Classic style, or with the GameCube controller (which I suggest using first, preferably the Wavebird). Your mission as NiGHTS is to fly through a series of rings and collect blue chips in order to break the capture chamber, which advances you to the bosses. You will also learn special attacks and moves that will aid you in your quests. Regardless of which control scheme you choose, the responsiveness of the controls feel glitchy at times. Controlling NiGHTS can occasionally be awkward and is missing the fluidity found in other Wii titles. Controlling Will or Helen in the platform levels can also be a bit quirky. However, no one should have any trouble adapting to any of the control schemes after a continuous amount of playtime.

GRAPHICS
When you first boot up the game you are treated to very well made full-motion-video opening cutscenes. The CG quality is definitely ranks among the best yet seen on the Wii. The graphics are also impressive in terms of level design. The designers over at Sega are definitely gifted when it comes to realizing dream worlds. Each level is quite creative. However, the framerate hitches on a frequent basis, especially during the real-time cinemas. There is also some considerable choppiness and blandness which becomes all too noticeable. Even though the whole presentation is incredibly colorful and dreamlike, it is all marred by annoying little blemishes. It makes you wonder why Sega's talented engineers could create such imaginative worlds yet not get over the technological obstacles. Still, the overall visual production is something to appreciate.

SOUND
Probably the best aspect of the entire game. The music tracks are fun to listen to. They are catchy and stick in your head most of the time, and they almost perfectly emphasize the gameplay. Fans of the original game will be happy to know that a few familiar tunes and jingles have made a return in Journey of Dreams. A lot of the same trademark sound effects have also come back. A new element added in the game is the use of voice acting. Yes, NiGHTS finally has a voice. It may be blasphemy to those who think the NiGHTS character should have stayed as ambiguous as possible and others may not agree with the voice that was chosen. But overall, the sound is still far away the most impressive part of the game and proves that Sega means business when it comes to quality sound.

CONCLUSION
The A-Life feature returns, allowing gamers to look after Nightopians/Nightmarens in their own personal garden, and a 2-player match where you can battle or race against a friend. Despite these additions, many inconsistencies prevent Journey of Dreams from being a solid title. A lot of components in the game interrupt the action, such as dialogue, cutscenes, bizarre objectives, and even platforming missions, which could turn off gamers who just wanted to enjoy the sheer sensation of flight. It's also fairly short in length. In the end, this is really a three-and-a-half star game (I thought rounding it to four stars looked overgenerous). Though not perfect, it doesn't mean it's not fun. There's more good than bad. It's not the masterpiece I was hoping for but it is still mostly a fun game nonetheless. My best recommendation is to simply play the game in any you can (whether buying, renting, etc.) if you are interested in it. Please do not let my criticisms discourage you from trying it. You may end up liking it more than I did, so just go give it a chance!

I am a 13-year-old girl who has been a Sonic fan for six long years. I loved Sonic every single day. Now all that's changing. When I started playing Nights: Journey of Dreams, I had to admit that Nights is better than Sonic. Please be considerate; this is the very first review I've ever written on Amazon.

Having never played the first Nights (I was only one or two when it came out, anyway), I wanted to find out who Nights is. I wanted it just to try it out. Nights: Journey of Dreams was a Christmas present from my aunt. I was so glad I wanted it just to try it! This is the best game I've ever played!

First, flying Nights is fun and easy (only because I use the GameCube controller). I still haven't tried out the Wii remote yet. Defiantly use the GameCube controller first because the Wii remote can be tricky (according to Owl) due to the "Mindsight". Having different missions on each level is kind of like the game Sonic and the Secret Rings but these missions are a lot easier and more fun.

Okay, now for the voice acting. Nights has a very funny jesterlike voice. It suits well for any jester like Nights. I find myself giggling every time he talks. Why am I calling Nights a "he" instead of a "she," you ask? To tell you the truth, Nights does kinda sound like a female, but it doesn't mean he is female. When I first started playing, I thought that Nights is a girl, too. But I've made a mistake. One time, I was playing as Will (one of the sleeping children). In the cutscene right before the bird-chasing level in Lost Park, Reala (a Nightmaren that looks like Nights) grabs on to Will. Nights tries to save him, and Reala orders Nights to stay put. Nights obeys, muttering a sound of frustration. Then Reala says, "That's a good boy". That really convinced me that I made a mistake. And for those of you who still think that Nights is female, don't worry, you'll eventually get the picture (I know I did). Oh, and Helen (the other sleeping child) is voiced by Victoria Ashby, the daughter of one of my piano teacher's friends. Great job, Victoria! You had a cute girly voice (my mom agrees). My piano teacher even took my game case and had Victoria sign her name in the cover. Now my piano teacher is planning to arrange a time when I can actually meet Victoria in person. How cute! And the rest of the voices, well, all of them did a great job, but you don't have to agree with me.

The soundtrack is beautiful! The music for all the end credits is pretty catchy. My mom is even trying to sing it. SPOILER ALERT!: If you get straight A's in every single mission (including the extra Bellbridge mission that appears after every mission has a C or better) the soundtrack for the first Nights game is unlocked in Will's sound library and the Dream Gate has a snowy appearance. I've already unlocked the soundtrack. Both games did a great job on the music (I still haven't played the first Nights yet). END SPOILER ALERT!

SPOILER ALERT!: In the extra Bellbridge mission, the ending is different, but it's sad, too. After Wizeman, the king of the Nightmarens, is destroyed, Nights dies! Afterwards, I saw Will and Helen wake up and cry! I was really sad. If I have written this review earlier, I would have given this game four instead of five stars. But eventually, I felt better because I wrote a story where Nights survives and reunites with Will and Helen. If you enjoy writing stories and you feel sad about the ending, write a story like mine about Nights. You'll feel a lot better! END SPOILER ALERT!

Sorry this is a long review. I promise I'll stop writing, but if you want to know everything else, read the other reviewers. Anyway, this is a great game. Buy it! You'll surely be stunned (in a positive way)!

Has it really been over a decade since the release of Sega's original Nights? Hard to believe, but yes, and what's even harder to believe is that it took Sega all that time before coming out with a follow up to their cult smash. Anyway, Nights: Journey of Dreams is here for the Wii, and the game is a very fun follow up to the original masterpiece, and despite it's flaws, is a blast to play. If you've played the original Nights, you'll feel right at home here with the flight-based gameplay, wonderful soundtrack, and brilliantly realized level designs that populate the Nights universe. The game's artistic style is by far it's greatest strength, giving Nights an undeniable charm that is hard to top. Where Nights disappoints is with some of the Wii-mote controls, which come off as too cumbersome, but this can be fixed thanks to the fact the game supports the Classic and Gamecube controlers. Where the game also falls is with some of the on-foot platforming elements, which just aren't much fun at all. Not to mention that just like the original game, Nights: Journey of Dreams is too short. It won't take you long to get through the game, and once you do, as before, you'll be begging for more. Despite it's flaws though, Nights: Journey of Dreams is one of the better third-party Wii titles to see the light of day this holiday season. The charm of the presentation makes it worthwhile for children, and the addictive gameplay makes it worth playing for older gamers with fond memories of the original. For those longtime fans of the original Nights, you'll be pleased to see many references and homages to the original game peppered throughout Nights: Journey of Dreams, but the game doesn't do this enough to put off new gamers either. All in all, Nights: Journey of Dreams may not be as memorable or as close to a masterpiece as it's predecessor, but it is a very fun follow up regardless, and worth checking out for gamers of all sorts.

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams is absolutely wonderful game. I can't believe there are people that say it's dumb and not worth picking up!!! Someone even judged it by just looking at it's strategy guide (he even gave the guide a one star rating)and says that it shouldn't even be picked up! Journey of Dreams is a spectacular game with a wonderful soundtrack, great storyline and spectacular gameplay! What ever short commings the game has doesn't distract from the fact that this is a wonderful game and great sequal to the original Saturn game. I'm actually hoping for a third NiGHTS game to follow this one.

Having never played the first NiGHTS on Sega Saturn, I was dying to know what all the hype was about. Right now I'm about 5 hours into NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, and I'm enjoying it a lot.

- The controls take a few minutes to get used to, but after that, everything's fine. I can tell that it's not as fluid as it should be though, but still, the game is more than playable.

- The graphics are gorgeous and full of color throughout most of the game, although there are some uglier moments (which are few and far between from what I've seen).

- MUSIC... the music in this game is amazing. Everything is orchestrated, full and fits each dream world perfectly. My favorite would have to be the music on the results screen although there were a few good jazzier tunes that surprised me.

- The best part of this game (besides the music) would have to be the boss battles (which there are a lot of). I won't spoil anything, but they are pretty creative.

- Voice acting overall is decent, although one of the kids seems like he talks like an American part of the time and British the other part (?).

- Multiplayer is another well-done aspect of the game. You can either Race or Battle your opponent, both locally (split-screen) and online (via Nintendo WFC). Since the controls are so simple to pick up (once explained), anyone can play and stand a chance against an experienced player.

If you have an open mind and are able to overlook a few things, then you'll have a great time with NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams.

My Score: 8/10

-PrarieD0G

Follow Up (1/20/08): Well I have just completed the game (with all 4 endings), and I have to say that it is my favorite Wii game so far. It's just so full of style--a level of its own really. If I could, I would edit my rating to 5 stars. I can't wait for a 3rd sequel (and a re-release of the original would be awesome, too.)

*Pelted with tomatoes over punned title* I'm sorry, but there are a lot of puns I can use with this game. Some things in this game are just flat out ridiculous, but I'll get to that later. I recently got this game for Easter, but I have my facts straight on it by now. I'm new to the NiGHTS series, meaning I've never played one of her (I'll tell you why I think she's a she later) games on Sega Saturn, but that doesn't mean I don't know the character well. How NiGHTS herself is related to Mobius (Sonic the Hedgehog's world) is still a mystery. Is she, perhaps, part of Mobius' dreamworld? Either way, she's made several appearances throughout the Sonic games (I'm refrencing Sonic Adventure DX and Sonic Riders for those who are curious); one of them claiming she's a nightmaren (In Sonic Riders, it says her board is made specifically for a nightmaren). At the same time, she seems to defend Nightopia and be a Nightopian; but with REALA looking a lot like her (and being a Nightmaren), and the fact that the manual says she doesn't have a strong sense of righteousness... I'm confused on who exactly she is, and who she is fighting for. I ramble too much with her mystery; I'll do the cons and pros, in that order for this actual game. Since I've never played a previous NiGHTS game, I will be unable to do comparison. These are the cold hard facts as I see them.

Cons:

1. Repetitious, Tedious, and Awkward gameplay. This knocked my fun rating down to a three. For a game that promotes dreams and flying, both things having to do with freedom, it puts a lot of shackles on you. Missions, that you are graded strictly on, and time limits all inappropriately bog down gameplay. There's a time limit on every level; and if you don't do what you're supposed to do by then, you get a "Nightover" (equivalent to a gameover. I assume your character wakes up). If that wasn't bad enough, other conditions (such as failing to rescue a Nightopian in time) causes the same result. I was really looking forward to an expanse world where you could explore freely; but this is a game that just forces you to go from point A to point B. The repetition is broken up a little by the different missions; but many missions are similar causing you to fly around seemingly endlessly. When you're controling a human (Helen or Will) you can't defeat enemies; you can only stun them with blue chips and run! There are ghost like things (which look suspiciously like Boos from the Mario series) called Awakeners that further frustrate the human end of the gameplay. When the little clock runs out of time, they come after you in a herd (like ten to twenty of them). If three catch you, your character wakes up, and you get a "Nightover" AGAIN! Ugh, I should feel free in this game; but instead I feel like NiGHTS when she's captured by those dumb birds. I'm in a prison cell and I can only escape from my prison temporarily before I'm locked up again; unlike NiGHTS, though, I can't find my keys to escape...

2. Repetitious themes. The first mission of every world (so far it seems) is to rescue NiGHTS, who doesn't even do the slightest thing to defend herself from her captors. Awakeners also appear too much and look a lot like Boos to boot. Owl (who, yes, is an owl) likes to talk your leg off and slow down gameplay. What owl doesn't these days? This Owl also has the terrible tendency to say "well" and "visitor" far too much. It reminded of Blathers from animal crossing. While Owl's information is normally useful, a blubbering owl named Owl is nowhere near an original idea Sonic Team!!! The least they could've done is give the poor bird an appropriate name (although a name like Blathers really isn't THAT much better...). While were at it, look at NiGHTS' personality and compare it to Sonic's. They're exactly the same! Laid back, and likes freedom. Sonic Team, if you must "borrow", don't do it from your own characters! That's not all: the first area you go to is a fountain. The Fountain of Dreams? Sounds a lot like Kirby to me.

3. Weird things... Small things can annoy me. This probably isn't a new issue; but why in the name NiGHTS are all the letters capitalized except "i"? As previously stated, a talkative owl named Owl is far from original. On top of that, if you walk away while he's talking to you (if that's even possible) he STALKS you while finishing his thoughts... That's creepy. The concept behind dualizing is also creepy and reminds me of Dragonball Z's fusion thing (I'm not a fan of DBZ I just hear things). Both human kids have the ability to merge with NiGHTS separately and become one with her; how this helps her temporarily escape her prison, I have no clue. Speaking of which, you have to unlock three cages before NiGHTS escapes from one, and then you always have to battle a boss. Why?! Oh, and for the heck of it: WHAT THE BLAZES IS NiGHTS' GENDER?! I tried reading the manual and it just uses her name in instances where he, she, or it ought to be used. I used to think NiGHTS was a he (well, she never had a voice before now; and videogames usually favor male characters), but, by the sound of her voice, I have to assume she's a she or be a little creeped out. REALA's gender isn't announced either, but his voice seems to be masculine; insinuating that he's a he. If I haven't stressed it enough, the Awakeners bug the heck out of me. Oh yeah, have you heard of the visible forces of your heart (like courage)? There called Ideyas. No, I'm not joking. Everyone apparently has Ideyas. You know what's worse? It's pronounced very close to "Idiot". I laughed.

4. My Dream isn't as good as I though it would be. I'm just confused by it; and it seems like all you do is put things in it to rot or spare the lives of five creatures you like (you'll have to feed everyone else blue chips to keep them alive). Apparently, time passes there while you're playing elsewhere... If that's true, everything I haven't been feeding is probably gone.

5. The bosses are too easy. Once you know what to do, it won't take long to beat them.


Pros:

1. Interesting storylines. Two kids, a girl named Helen and a boy named Will are having trouble in their lives. Helen usually practices playing the violin with her mother. Helen's dream entails playing in front of large audiences one day. Lately, however, she's been more interested in hanging out with her friends. Not allowing herself to feel the guilt of leaving her mother out, she begins to have nightmares at night; eventually finding herself in NiGHTS' world. Will is a great soccer player who was taught by his dad. He and his dad were always together, until his father had to take off in business affairs. Now terribly lonely, Will started having nightmares; and he found himself in NiGHTS' world as well. Both kids made it with the Ideya of courage, but lost all other Ideya to the nightmarens; who cause nightmares and are trying to destroy Nightopia. With Wizeman as supreme evil overlord, and REALA as his loyal servant; can NiGHTS and the kids prevent good dreams and Nightopia from being destroyed forever?

2. Beautiful and various graphics both in and out of cutscenes. It really does look like a dreamworld: the water and ice are clear and sparkly, the woodlands are well textured, and the beaches are pretty.

3. Enchanting music. Sweet tunes emphasize you are in a dreamworld. While possibly the best feature of the game, be warned that much of this music can stick in your head.

4. Colorful characters. No matter how rip-offish and genderless they appear to be, you have to admit at the very least that they have depth. They also have various personalities.

5. The controls aren't bad. You can play in your favorite style; meaning you have a choice of wii remote and nunchuck, wii remote alone, or gamecube controller. If you're just starting out, I wouldn't recommend the wii remote alone. The controls seem complex and difficult at first, but there surprisingly easy to get used to; and you have a tutorial by Owl. Controling the humans alone is also easy once you know what each button does. The characters also move fairly fluently


Conclusion:
Five cons, and five pros. Whether the pros outweigh the cons I'll leave to you. There are two player and Wi-Fi capabilities with this game, but I don't normally use those; so I can't comment on whether or not they're good. Regardless of my vents, please note that I don't think bad of the Sonic Team; nor do I think they they violated any rights. They've made many exceptional games; they were just having a wierd day when they made this one... Overall, I think this game is worth a look at; you can get some potential fun and enjoyment out of it. It's a gamble, however, and you might want to wait for the price to drop around thirty-five bucks, or rent it first; just to make sure it's a game you really want. I, myself, have no regrets asking for it.

I have never played any of the Nights games before, and maybe that's my problem, but I had no idea what was going on in this game. Unlike many Wii games that overdo the tutorials, this one explained how to fly and then left me very confused as to what else I had to do. This took the fun out of the game, as it's not really a strategy/puzzle game as far as I could tell. As other people have mentioned, it's frustrating to have to re-do a level if you fail to beat the boss the first time around. I gave up after a couple attempts at my first "dream" level (so glad I rented it!).

The controls for flying are a little off, but the graphics are excellent. I think giving it 3 stars is a little generous, but other people seem to like it. So I'd rent it before you buy it just to make sure you'll like it before you spend $[...].

Okay, so I got this game a little late. 3 years after its release. I never played the original, but I'm a sonic fan so I thought for $10.93 here on amazon, it was a rare, great oppurtunity. And in the end, I liked this game.

So I guess I should just start out, when I first played this, I was dissapointed. The moment your character drops in the HUB world (Dream Gate), I couldn't believe my eyes. The graphics just looked so... bad. I'm not just saying that, as if I'm some dumb teenager who anything. I'm 19, but seriously, the graphics looked like a primitive dreamcast game. Not even on par with GameCube stuff. I noticed some static around the children's model. I was like, what the heck is up with that. The entire HUB itself looked very bad. The grass textures were stretched out, the colors were dull, the skybox background was barely existant.
This is a very bad first impression. It's a shame because the rest of the levels look great. But I just don't understand why the first area you're dropped into looks like something from over a decade ago.

Now as bad as that first impression is, the ingame cutscenes are the one thing that I cannot stand. Again, I swear I'm not just saying that carelessly. They are choppy, the animation is kind of "dreamcast-ish" era like. But what's really bad is that the character models don't allow for detailed, crisp facial expressions. The two children's facial expressions are pretty much non-existant. All you see in the cutscenes are them talking with their big, scary, blue eyes, with no eyelids. It's very embarrassing. This just makes watching the cutscenes cringe-worthy. And there are a lot of them, so be prepared.

Now as for the gameplay. People always said the Wii motion controls are broken for this game. So when I played, I thought to myself "Eh it can't be that bad." But they were right, they just don't work good. If you're reading this, if you buy this game, from the start just plug in your GameCube controller. Now even with the GC controller, it takes a long while to get comfortable with flight. Believe me, for the first four days, this made me not like the game at all. At first it just doesn't feel fluid. I was cursing the programmers. But trust me, once you figure out how NiGHTS is able to move thru the levels, what works and what doesn't with spin dashing, you'll finally start to have a lot of fun, and the fluidity will shine.

There are five missions per level. There are 7 levels, and the missions are actually fun. I disagree with reviewers who say that only the chase missions are fun. There's a variety of fun missions, like boat riding (which you could actually do tricks on ramps, something that I haven't seen since Sonic Adventure 2), roller coastering, top perspective hunt missions (very fun and challenging), saving nightopian creatures, going thru as many rings as possible from an octopus, and only a few children levels (which everybody seems to complain about, but believe me, they're no big deal, and they don't detract from the experience). Now again, like I said before, I wasn't able to enjoy anything in the game because I wasn't adaped to the controls, just practice and give it at least 4 days.

The boss battles are very hard because figuring out how to beat them is a vast challenge within itself, but sadly they are pretty much the only character models in the game that look amazing.
As for replay value, it's pretty much like any sonic team game, getting A ranks and high scores in all missions, finding hidden things in levels that unlock goodies. Also there's like a Chao Garden world in here. It's not addictive like the one in Sonic Adventure 2, sadly. But it's there. So replay value is pretty good. The music also sounds fantastic. Not annoying, just very fresh, and lovely.

At the end of the first week, I'm able to say I like the game, but with a higher budget, especially for those cutscenes and character models, it could've been much more pleasing to my eyes.

Now don't let the three stars throw you off. This game is creative, cute and not as easy as some might tell you. It's not omg complex but the levels are quite fun. From hunting the octo to saving nights and the boss battles. Will's story was kind of drawn out. How the owl and nights talk to him seems a bit crude and harsh as to how they treat 'Helen'. I say that because they are much kinder to her and a lot sweeter in their speech. The levels start out different aswell. I love sassy and elegant bad guys and Rela(??) fits that to a 'T', he's mean to nights from slamming him into the door and cuffing him and throwing him in jail. He openly mocks will and helen(yet again nicer to helen then will). All and all it is worth the $19.99(got it for $9.99 at a black friday sale). Oh and the Wii remote thing is no problem use the game cube one(duh kinda obvious)

I was skeptical of this game at first, but had heard all of the acclaim around the original game that was released for Sega Saturn many years ago. I wanted to be convinced, though, and after reading about the game in Nintendo Power magazine, I was intrigued.

I bought the game, and the first thing I noticed when starting the game was the great graphics and the music that belongs on a soundtrack album.

Then I started to run around the games' gateway of dreams, getting a handle on the controls, which were incredibly simple to master. I then took to the skies for flight training. They give you the option of either leading with the Wii Remote, by pointing at the screen, or using the Nunchuck's control stick. The control stick is the only way to fly.

Flight in this game is incredible and exhilirating. It's not completely free, as the game lets you move on a 2D plane, kind of like being on tracks. That is a blessing, however, as going through the levels would be pretty difficult if you could go anywhere.

Getting better at flying takes time, so don't get discouraged if you're not that good at it when you first start playing. My first time through some levels, I was running into walls and things that I really shouldn't have been. I kept going, though, and while I'm still not the best, I've been able to blast through some stages without much trouble at all.

Speaking of the levels, they are diverse and fun. Some, you are Nights, and you have different time limits and goals that must be accomplished, and others you are either the boy or the girl, who each have different missions to accomplish. (And finishing the game with both of them gives you a different ending.)

The end bosses are varied as well, with different techniques used to defeat each of them. The very first one I fought was kind of like a big pinball game, where the boss was the pinball and I was throwing him through it. That one was difficult to get used to, as the level switches from a vertical plane to a horizontal one, just for that.

While the game is a little short, that is sort of a blessing, as some of the levels are huge and would take a long time to learn. I constantly go back through old levels, though. I can always get better at the game, and it's really fun to re-play.

Level design is truly inspired, as there are many various level types and game play styles.

It makes me wish they'd either create a sequel, or update the original Sega Saturn game for Wii.