What's the magic of NiGHTS?

With the NiGHTS brand making a return to modern gaming on the Wii, we asked one experienced NiGHTS player of yesteryear why we should even be excited at all. Thankfully, Andrew could explain why without firing up Sega's hype machine (includes comment from Sega PR Manager Jay Bore):

The original NiGHTS was a game anyone could pick up and play - by simply flying right across the screen.

But not everyone understood the magic of NiGHTS. At the most basic level, each course was completed by feeding 20 blue orbs into a chamber, to collect a gem, to take back to the palace. If this was all you ever did, it may have seemed a weird game. Flying around in circles in sometimes disorientating and repetitive levels, ending in at times frustrating boss battles.

The magic of NiGHTS only ever became apparent to the player once they discovered Bonus Time.

Bonus Time begins after you've dropped 20 orbs off at the ideya chamber and collected an ideya gem. If you merely head back to the palace with your gem, you will never score higher than a C grade, as you won't have made the most of your bonus time. During bonus time, all items in the game suddenly become worth more points, with blue orbs turning gold, to reflect this. The time limit of each course may have seemed enough to gather 20 blue orbs with no sweat, but now the clock introduces an added challenge, as players will wish to whip around the level getting as many gold orbs as possible before time's up. However, if you're too greedy collecting points, and fail to make it back to the palace before the clock runs out, then NiGHTS will fall from the sky, you'll loose all your orbs Sonic-coin-spilling style, and be forced to complete the course on foot - whereby it's difficult to get any higher than an F or E grade (conversely, if you start on foot, you can collect the initial 20 blue orbs before you begin to fly the first course - giving you the maximum amount of bonus time when you do take to the air!). If you manage to get the balance right however, and get as many points as possible AND make it back to the palace within the last few seconds of the time limit, then you can finally begin securing those illusive A grades!

NiGHTS was a great game, because as well as the majestic soundtrack and magical dream world settings, the game encouraged you to get high scores, and beat your last grade and/or points. The rewards were multiple endings to the game for both Elliot and Claris, with new FMV sequences and better recorded theme tune music to unlock. It was very rewarding seeing new parts of the character's stories unfold, the more you did, and the higher grades you obtained.

The new game - NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams is more confusing. Sega of America PR Manager Jay Bore has gone on record to claim that Bonus Time will still exist, and you will be encouraged to pursue getting high scores. However this arcade-like objective of the original game is being clouded some what, as Sega claims today's gamers want more variety, and they are introducing key objectives and missions to each dream world. For example - on one course you may be required to follow an Octopus, on another level, you are tasked with saving all the Nightopians. Getting Ideya gems from chambers has also been replaced with getting a key from a Nightmaren (bad guy). A number of the new objectives are being set via voice acted cutscenes. Lets hope this won't disrupt the flow of gameplay.

These extra tasks would be welcomed as points of interest whilst flying through a level collecting points, but if these extra objectives are set missions, new players may take longer to realise how bonus time, and point collecting works, because they've been too busy with the other objectives the game sets.

Another fear of fans is the extra emphasis being placed on the children. Sega have already diluted the Sonic The Hedgehog experience, by introducing extra characters which lack the speedy gameplay of Sonic. Likewise, there is a fear that 3D platforming adventure sections will detract from everyone's wish to enjoy the thrill of fluid flying as NiGHTS.

It's up to Sega to make sure they get the balance right.

Finally, despite NiGHTS: Into Dreams on Saturn having been a wonderful game to play through when it came out, NiGHTS may never have lived on so long in the hearts of gamers, without the quasi-sequel, Christmas NiGHTS. Christmas NiGHTS used the Saturn's clock, to show different seasons in game, and unlock time sensitive features throughout the year, much in the same way we anticipate the weather channel being used in the new Wii version. From playing it on April Fools day so as to unlock Reala, to playing through its spirited Christmas theme in December so as to unlock new virtual presents each day during advent - Christmas NiGHTS always gave you reasons to come back to the game. It also brought us Link Attack Mode, - a really simple 1 course dream world, that saw you able to generate infinite combos - if you were good enough! This mode soon became a stalwart of the high-score sections in magazines of the time, and perhaps best distils the high-score arcade essence of NiGHTS down to its purist no-frills core.

NiGHTS didn't fit the mould and build its very own one, arguably ahead of the times as they were then. That's why you should be excited about it, and (if Andrew is right) this one should be deserving of landing a place in almost any gamer's collection.

(Thanks to NiGHTS Game guru Andrew Mehta for this revealing piece)

What's the magic of NiGHTS?

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