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NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams - A Review of Sorts...

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NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams - A Review of Sorts... Empty NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams - A Review of Sorts...

Post by Andy of the Sheikah Sun Sep 06, 2009 2:04 am

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams tells one of the most important stories in gaming history. This story however, is not the horribly acted, poorly animated yarn about a fairyland that children visit to cure their inner problems. It is, in fact, a commentary on the fall of one of the industries best developers. In a market now dominated by western shooters and RPGs, the Japanese giants of yesteryear, Sonic Team, are dearly missed.

The year was 1996 and Sonic Team were at the top of their game. In the mere 5 years since their inception they had created gaming’s second biggest franchise, a cultural icon, 4 block buster games and succeeded in being the only developer to threaten the almighty Nintendo. Their newest effort, NiGHTS: into Dreams, had just been released. The game was a clear illustration of the team’s strengths: superb level design, great controls, innovative gameplay quirks, catchy music and charming visuals – a conglomeration of it spiritual predecessors, refined and polished until it felt new again. Unfortunately for Sonic Team, a little thing called Mario 64 happened a few weeks beforehand and changed the way everybody thought about video games. NiGHTS was fantastic but even on the day of its release it felt decades old.

It is now 2009 and life for Sonic Team has been nothing short of disastrous. Their head-honcho Yuji Naka has since left to create quirky casual games, the developer has split in two and allegedly rejoined and they have run their namesake mascot into the dirt. If they have managed anything, it’s to prove time and time again that they still can’t keep up with the times, Journey of Dreams being another testament to this.

At its core, NiGHTS is the same beautifully simple game as it was 13 years ago. In the original, your objective was to fly around circular 2D courses, collecting enough blue orbs to crack open a cage. The progression in Journey of Dreams is very similar, except now you’re chasing a bird with a key to open the cage. It may only be a minor alteration to the formula but this small change mixes things up quite a bit. A big part of the enjoyment of NiGHTS is racking up combos by flying through the rings dotted about the level in quick succession. In the NiGHTS of old, I always found myself concentrating solely on grabbing the orbs meaning I often flew off course and broke my combos. In Journey however, I was able to spend more time aiming for the rings as long as I was headed in the general direction of the bird. This gameplay difference definitely offers a change of pace and adds a freshness that warrants a revisit to the world of Nightopia.

Or at least it would were it not bookended by needless shit. Journey is yet another victim of the Sonic Team disease. Unable to stick to one central concept and expand upon it, SEGA’s primary developer have carried out their usual tradition of padding out the game with lots of little, half-baked gameplay ideas in an attempt to hide the fact their main game isn’t big enough to earn a £40 price tag. Look no further than Sonic Unleashed if you want proof. The most obvious examples of this “padding” are the new platforming levels in which you don’t actually play as NiGHTS at all but as the kids who feature only in the cut scenes and hub world. In all fairness, you did occasionally play as the kids in the original, but only as punishment for running out of time as NiGHTS. This time you’re punished for playing.

Unfortunately, the filler content also extends to the game’s presentation. The in-game cutscenes are nothing short of awful with horrible voice acting complemented by equally lacklustre writing. They look bad as well which is a real shame as the engine does have its moments graphically. There’s also the wholly pointless hub world which serves as nothing more than an extended menu screen.

When it comes down to it, reviewing NiGHTS is more or less redundant. Reviewing Sonic Unleashed would be similarly so. All one would really need to do is point out who the game is developed by and the majority of gamers already know what to expect: portions of fun, ultimately trapped inside a game which isn’t worth their time.

But here’s the rub.

When I finished NiGHTS, I wasn’t left with the disappointment and dismay I’ve come to expect from Sonic Team games. Instead I felt strangely optimistic, felt that maybe the developer isn’t as doomed as I feared it might be. Unlike the Sonic Adventure games, Journey of the Dreams still has all the bits that made the original a classic and in some cases has improved upon them. This serves as evidence of the teams progression since the Dreamcast days. It is now clear that they are capable of taking a step forward, albeit with the usual in the other direction. In the case of NiGHTS, they’ve got the “good bits” – all they have to do now is flesh them out. To make things easier, today’s games don’t have to be the “epic” experiences they were once required to. Gamers have come to accept simpler and shorter games via XBLA, PSN etc, a fit which seems perfect for the NiGHTS series. As long as Sonic Team are prepared to put some hard thought into their plans for the future, I have no doubt that we could be in for a chance of seeing a return to form.
Andy of the Sheikah
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Post by Stan229 Sun Sep 06, 2009 11:53 am

Nice review and I also recommend this game!
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