Nights Into Dreams... Review

 Now I have another reason to hate Balan Wonderworld, it ripped this off poorly

A rare non-sonic entry from Sonic Team. Nights Into Dreams is a Saturn classic and noteworthy footnote in the history of 3d and analog stick gaming, especially where Sega is concerned. Sadly, I know little to nothing about the Saturn except it was a failure outside Japan. So I'm just judging the remaster on it's own merits in 2023.

You play as one of two children, dreaming of Nights... Uh, look I'll level with you. I have no idea what the grander story was, it was probably in the manual. They dream nightmares, Nights helps them dream good dreams and beat the big bad. They have confidence in themselves to do nice things in real life. The biggest takeaway for me is that Nights is a non-binary/genderfluid icon and I will die on that hill. Also the general aesthetic and visual flair for the levels is quite charming, putting the most into what is relatively little technical power. Even if that lends the game an almost incomprehensible look if you don't look up how the game actually works before you play.

Said gameplay is almost obnoxiously barebones. You fly around a loop collecting orbs, going through rings, and generally doing 3-5 different activities that earn you points. You can chain these activities for more points, and you're encouraged to loop as things respawn each time you pass the finish line. There's technically a goal of using 20 orbs you can collect to open a thing to get a thing, and you can't win the round without that. But generally you do that in 1-2 loops and spend the rest of the time point farming. Given you both can't get the true ending with C ranks in every level, and the game is almost painfully simplistic and boring if you just play for that goal.

But for what it is, it's actually pretty fun. Doing simple loops and optimizing your path to repeatedly get a high score each lap is very satisfying. With a few single lap challenges in the later game that can catch you off guard. Boss fights vary from creative to frustrating, as failing on them means restarting the stage from scratch. But put on some nice music (or enjoy the fun beats the game itself has to offer) and you're in for a fun couple hours seeing what Sonic Team were able to do for the first time in a 3D realm.

I don't think I could recommend the game to anyone seeking high quality, user friendliness or, well, any common game design decisions that makes things engaging or super exciting. But it's a charming little romp and fun look into one of the Saturn's biggest names. Easily beatable in one evening, barring too many poorly timed boss fight game overs.

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