NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams

Review - Something of a muddled vision, says Paul

Sonic Team USA finally return to the table with a follow up to Nights into Dreams, perhaps the most famous Saturn game. NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams is exclusive to Wii, and sports a range of new control, play options and characters. In previews and advertisements it has long promised to be everything that fans had demanded it should be. However, like other third-party developers, Sonic Team look to be unable to confidently tame Nintendo's home console. More surprising however, is the apparent lack of confidence in the genius of their own concept. A hotch-potch of other derivative game styles are enlisted to shore up the main event of flying in NiGHTS, which itself has only had conservative tweaking.

As a newcomer to the series you may want to look elsewhere for a more authentic comparison to the original release. This not withstanding I was soon into the swing of the famous three dimensional rendering of a two dimensional world. Once you realise you are only really controlling up, down, left and right (rather than dealing with any depth) things start become much more manageable. Although the tutorial stages are somewhat laboured and punctuated by much talking, we managed to stay the distance and make our way through the first door.

Before playing the game I had heard several commentators singing the praises of the Wii visuals of preview builds. With the full release now available, there are some stunning story scenes, but the in game engine struggles to keep the bar this high. If there was a decision to be made between fluidity and impact, the developers have certainly jumped the right way. But it is a shame that we are unable to be wowed by the franchise that made such a retina soaking splash with its original release. If this sounds a little negative let us be clear, there is nothing here that detracts from the flow and energy of the flying stages. The sweeping camera moves and familiar anti-clockwise trajectory are more than enough to get those NiGHTS juices flowing. And we are sure that all but the most ardent of pixel junkie will relish the experience on offer.

The game as a whole seems to be unsure of how confident it is with its history. In cut scenes and story telling it wears its link to the Saturn game confidently on its sleeve, taking great pleasure introducing a fantasy universe that always has one more unusually named facet to introduce. Before playing for even half an hour you will be familiar with the world of Nightopia and the various names of the Nightmaren creatures that populate it. But this surety is set against the odd need to seemingly bolster such rich gameplay mechanics material with other more derivative gameplay elements such as the childrens' platforming stages where you are bereft of the enigmatic NiGHTS. One can't help but feel that they could have delivered so much more by maturing and innovating around the solid experience of the first game rather than by expanding their range. It was after all because of the success on the Saturn that the Wii game now exists and is allowed to tread alongside one of the most hallowed titles in the gaming annuls of old.

This is probably most true in the control mechanics that are delivered. When the fan-boys stretched out at night and dreamt of that magic combination of NiGHTS and the Wii, it was the Wii controls about which their fantasies focused. The fluid action of the Saturn game seems a perfect fit for the lunging swooping analogue input required by the magical Wiimote. The game however doesn't take advantage of the Wii's gesture controls. The closest you come to this is through the Wiimote-pointing mechanic, where you point around the screen with the controller to specify your direction. Once you have ruled out this rather haphazard and laggy control option, you have two choices left; either Nunchuck or (if you have one) Classic Controller. Either of these simply duplicates the Saturn controls. Perhaps the control expectations were unreasonably high, and Sonic Team has made a sensible decision to ignore the gesturing of the Wiimote. But once you have dreamt of flying your Wiimote around your lounge, nothing quite hits the mark.

What we do have however are a couple of good solid workable control schemes. Something that is reflected in the game itself, which no-one can argue is not good, solid and highly playable. However, as the game's name reminds us, we had such high hopes for this release. In fact, playing the game itself is something of a case study in what high expectations we have for the Wii itself. Here again we find a third-party suffering next to the high bar set by Nintendo with the likes of Wii Sports - a game that no doubt had a much larger budget and longer gestation. At least in NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams we have a passable distraction until the day comes when we find out what exactly the Wii is capable of.

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