I have a tough time believing that people love Sonic games for the gameplay. Most of your time playing a Sonic game is spent watching scenery go by. It's beautiful scenery and the loops and various devices that throw you around are kind of cool, but there's not a whole lot to do except occasionally make a jump or stop in time to avoid an enemy. And on those rare occasions when you do run into an enemy the enemies are bland and uninteresting.

The only thing Sonic really has going for it is the insanely elaborate level designs. But the problem is that no matter where you go in the level it's more or less the same: loops, slides, rails, and devices that shoot you up in the air. 

I disagree with your argument -- for one thing, first you claim it's just high-speed eye candy, and then you say it's got brilliant level design.  (I'll agree that it's got minimal focus on enemies -- they're more obstacles than anything else.)  But I also think that Sonic has yet to translate the 2D games people love into 3D games people love. 

NiGHTS, on the other hand, is mostly an odd sort of "2D stuff going on in a 3D world" from what little I've played of it; I don't know whether the new NiGHTS will be significantly different at that level, or how gamers will take to that style of gameplay.  Obviously NiGHTS fans will go for it, but the gaming public at large is a real unknown in this case. 

The game knocked SM64 off the top of the charts in the Japan, so that is amazing considering the Saturns sales.

Aye, looking much better. Can't wait to hear some hands-on impressions on this one.

I haven't played the original NiGHTS so if anyone wants to explain to me why it's so good I might even rent it!

Really looking forward to this game. This and (besides the big 3) Zack & Wiki.

Also: reminds me (graphics-wise) a bit Kameo. 

the 2nd screenshot looks lush...

I never did get into this game. I bought it on my dreamcast and played it some but I never really got into it and moved on rather quickly. I sure hope it sells well because Sega needs a few hits but it's definitely a pass for me. Think a 9 YO girl would enjoy the game? Maybe my daughter will enjoy it...

I'm going to go ahead and play devil's advocate here - I don't think these graphics are technically that much better than the previous ones. They just have a nice sky in the background instead of a huge stone ceiling. The lighting is improved a bit too, I'll give it that.

I'm not really complaining though, I thought the original shots looked fine.

I doubt you ever played this game. It's a Sega Saturn game, not a Dreamcast game, and the Dreamcast is not backwards compatible to the Saturn. I don't know what game you are thinking of, but it's not this. For those who haven't ever seen the original game play, this is what the gameplay looks like:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=KKvLdIylY40

BenKenobi88:  Make sure you guys don't leave spaces after links...it screws it up.