| cAPSLOCK said: I missed the boat on the first NiGHTS game and the whole concept seems a bit confusing, any old Saturn owners willing to give us the sales pitch on the new one? Like, what made the old one so special, because I always hear about the people who love the game but I never really go into detail as to why. All I sort of know about it is that it was "a very special game on a doomed system." |
Lucky for you, I wrote an essay to answer this question for people ages ago :D
"Why NiGHTS is fun"
I am rather new to the NiGHTS scene compared to most. I only got it a few years ago, and it took me awhile to actually understand what so great about the game. Now that I have though, the game has quickly become my second favorite game of all time.
What made the original NiGHTS great? Lots of things. First and foremost was the game play. This isn't so much an action title, as it is a unique score attack title. If you strictly adhere to the objective of the game: find 20 chips and destroy all 4 ideya captures, your in for a rather boring game, because there is far more to NiGHTS then just the objective: the speed and skill required to get the best scores in the game. Flying through rings, collecting blue chips, and grabbing stars all contribute to your score. Grabbing them in a row in a certain amount of time gets you "links". With every ring, chip, and star, your link grows and you get more points for each item collected.
In order to score large links, you have to be very fast and agile around the course, making optimum use of the game's nimble control. You are going to have to destroy enemies quickly so they don't mess up your score and knock time off the clock you are racing against.
Speed isn't just for the links either. You are timed throughout the course as NiGHTS, forcing you to figure out the best way to quickly grabs large amounts of items without running out of time before hand. Running out of time turns NiGHTS back into a kid, and you loose all your points and blue chips when you transform and fall. You had to make your way back to NiGHTS' location before Wizeman's clock got you, otherwise it's "Night Over".
The boss battles are pretty fun to fight, forcing you to be very nimble with NiGHTS in the more difficult battles. It's a lot of fun throwing, paralooping, or otherwise pummeling your foe. The boss battles also contribute greatly to the score attack game play as well, as you need to figure out just how to defeat them as quickly as possible, something that isn't easy no matter how easy the boss is.
This all equals a great sense of speed and urgency as you play. It has much more in common with racing games then it does with any action title.
The environments where very dream like and fantastical, and each level had a unique and distinctive look and feel, with their own gimmicks and mechanics for you to play around with whenever you aren't trying to beat your old score. Soft Museum, which has a floor made completely out of cushion-y material, is my personal favorite. The game had a great art style to boot.
The game had a great musical score that complimented the beautiful and creative dream like enviroments. The music in any given level changed with the mood of the Nightopians, which was effected by how NiGHTS treated them, and how infested a level is with Nightmarens.
The game had an A-Life system, forerunner to chao, in which the players actions in the game directly effected the behavior and feelings of the Nightopians. Skilled players have been able to create "Super Pians" creatures that have the other Nightopians in the level build them a huge palace.
The CGI cutscenes where cool, and conveyed a story of two children learning how to be brave and face their fears, without being to overbearing or preachy (as these stories often are). The ending was beautiful.
NiGHTS is a classic if there ever was one, released on the wrong console at the wrong time. Theres a reason Shigeru Miyamoto said that NiGHTS was the only game he'd wish he made. If this game can at least match up to the classic, it'll be a worthy buy for Wii owners. Even the original, holds up EXTREMELY well, because of how unique it is. I only played it a few years ago, and it felt just as fun as some of the best games of this generation, which is far more then I can say about Crash or Mario 64, both of which I can't even play anymore, because of how outdated they feel. NiGHTS was the first game to prove that videos games are an art form. Everything in the game's art and design has meaning behind it, whether it be about the backstory of the characters or references to Carl Jung's work on a "unified subconscious", which was one of the main inspirations behind the game's theme.
And, well, thats why I find the original fun. It's the kind of game that is a heck of a lot more fun to play then it is to watch, unless you already know whats going on. :D Whether JoD will be able to add to the formula without diluting it, is something the jury is still out on, and likely will continue to be until next year, when the game finally hits store shelveds.
