Lost Gems – NiGHTS into Dreams (SEGA Saturn)

Hello there and welcome to Lost Gems, the series where I cover games that have been lost, abandoned or simply forgotten. This week I will be discussing a title that is near and dear to me, the classic on-rails flight adventure from Sonic Team, developed and published for the SEGA Saturn. This feature will also be the first instalment of a two part special for this month. So let’s take a look at NiGHTS into Dreams, released worldwide in 1996.

Disclaimer: while the game discussed here is no longer officially on sale, there are ways to obtain the game. This can be either through the second hand market, or via unofficial digital roms/rips. I do not condone or promote piracy, so there won’t be any links to roms or rips of the game being covered.

So with the introductions out of the way, let’s get started. I will be discussing the general game experience, then give my personal thoughts on the title. Please Note, I will be referring to NiGHTS as female in this feature, using she and her to refer to them. Officially, NiGHTS is genderless and open to personal interpretation, which is why I use these pronouns as I have always seen them as female.

About the game

In Twin Seeds City, two kids, Claris and Elliot go to sleep after a long day. During their sleep they enter the Night Dimension, which is where the world of dreams Nightopia, borders the world of Nightmare. The Wizeman created the world of Nightmare and wishes to conquer Nightopia, creating Nightmaren with the objective to steal dream energy called Ideya. If Wizeman can steal enough energy, he can invade the waking world and take it over.

As the two kids dream, their dreams are corrupted by the Wizeman, turning them into nightmares and causing them to try and escape. As they try to get away from the nightmares, they find themselves in Nightopia, where one of the residents begs them to help save the dream world. After accepting this request they encounter NiGHTS, a rebellious Nightmaren who has been imprisoned within an Ideya Palace, trapped for defying Wizeman.

Before they can reach NiGHTS, they are attacked by Nightmaren, stealing the Ideya that they possess. However, they still possess the Red Ideya of Courage, which allows them to free NiGHTS and Dualize with them. As they are bonded with NiGHTS, the two kids are able to reclaim their stolen Ideya, battling the Wizeman’s most powerful Nightmaren. If they are able to defeat the most powerful of the Nightmaren, they will be able to take on Wizeman.

NiGHTS into Dreams is a magical on-rails adventure, where the player controls the titular dream being, flying through the dreamscapes of Claris and Elliot. Before the player starts, they will select the dream they want to play, with only one stage for each of the kids available when starting the game. At the start of the selected dream, the selected character will appear with their Ideya surrounding them, which is quickly stolen away.

After this happens, the Red Ideya appears and allows them to merge with NiGHTS inside the Ideya palace. When the player Dualizes with NiGHTS, the player must make their way through four courses called Mares, which are the stages of the dream. Within a Mare, the player must reclaim the stolen Ideya, which is being held in an Ideya Capture that matches the color of the Ideya. To clear the dream, the player must recover all four of the stolen Ideya.

As the player makes their way through the Mare, they will be on-rails flying across the stage in a pseudo 3D style. NiGHTS is able to fly around the stage using 8 way directional movement, freely moving through the course. As she makes her way through, there is a time limit which counts down, giving players 2 minutes with NiGHTS to complete the Mare. As speed is important, NiGHTS has the ability of Drill Dash, which lets her move at high speed.

However, the Drill Dash requires energy to be used, which is pretty limited. To continue to use the Drill Dash, players must fly through the rings that appear throughout the stage. These are spread across the mare, in various configurations where there will be several of them together. By flying through several rings, the player will start a Link Combo which will boost the players score, but the combo will expire if the player doesn’t keep it going.

There will be also be the blue chips, which are needed to take down the Ideya Capture. To free the Ideya from the capture, the player will need to collect 20 of them within the mare. The Blue Chips appear along the course that the player follows, being collected when contact is made with them. They can also be collected by flying in a circle, creating a Paraloop if NiGHTS dream dust trail is crossed uninterrupted, pulling all Blue Chips to her.

When the player has enough Blue Chips, they will be able to take down the Ideya Capture, collecting the orb that is dropped from it. The player doesn’t need to collect all 20 Blue Chips at once, as any that have been collected can be put into the Capture, reducing the number needed. This is because the Blue Chips only respawn when a lap of the Mare has been completed, which occurs when the player passes the Ideya Palace, refreshing the stage.  

Once the Capture is destroyed, bonus time begins with all scores doubled. During this time, the player can complete as many laps of the Mare as possible to get the best score possible. This is where Link Combos are the most important, as they will give the player a massive score boost, as Blue Chips and Stars will increase the Link Combo. This also happens before and after bonus time starts, to give players as high a score possible.

There will also be a special ring that will appear in stages, made of blue and yellow orbs, which will activate Acrobat Time, where a yellow ribbon will follow NiGHTS for 10 seconds as a special jingle plays. During Acrobat Time, by pressing the shoulder buttons, NiGHTS will perform various manoeuvres which will give big score boosts. When the hidden timer expires, the number of unique movements will be shown on screen with prefixes like wonderful attached.

But it is important not to dawdle as NiGHTS can only be active for as long as the timer allows, with the kid splitting from them if the timer expires. When this happens, all of the points earned in the Mare will be lost and all blue chips held will be dropped. If NiGHTS is split from Claris or Elliot, the kid will be chased by an alarm clock which will end the dream if they are caught. If the player can make their way back to the Ideya palace, they will reconnect with NiGHTS.

There will be enemy Nightmaren throughout the different dreams, that will get in the way of NiGHTS and try to attack her. If these hostile forces are able to hit NiGHTS, 5 seconds will be taken away from the timer. The enemy Nightmaren can be defeated in three ways, with the most common being by hitting them with a Paraloop. They can also be taken down with the drill dash, as well as by grabbing them and pressing the dash button to knock them away.

When an Ideya has been returned to the palace, the player will get a rating for the Mare, ranging from A to F. Then the next mare will start, changing the course that the player must follow to get the next Ideya. After all of the Ideya have been returned, NiGHTS will be transported to the boundary between Nightopia and Nightmare. The total score for the stage will show, with a combined rating in the middle of the ratings for the individual Mares.

This is where the final part of the Dream will occur, as NiGHTS must confront a powerful Nightmaren. These bosses are large and dangerous, with a time limit attached to them like the main stages. The objective for each boss varies, with Gillwing having a tail that needs to be destroyed, Puffy who needs to be thrown into a trap and Gulpo, who needs to be hit in their weak point. But be careful, as there will be hazards that will cause NiGHTS to lose time.

After the boss has been defeated, the player will get a score bonus based on the amount of time that it took to defeat the Nightmaren. The score bonus ranges from 1.0 to 2.0, which will increase the total score that was earned during the dream stage. Then the final grade will be given for the dream as a whole, with the goal to get at least a C rank. Once all of the Dreams for Claris or Elliot have been cleared with at least a C, they can battle the Wizeman.

The game is relatively short, only lasting an hour or so for each character, but there is an endless amount of replay value on offer. This is due to the rankings, as the top scores for each Dream will be recorded, letting players retry them to improve their score and rating. Last there is a 2 player VS mode as a bonus, where players battle as NiGHTS and Reala in split screen action, the first person to take away the others three lives will win.

Personal Thoughts

I have been a fan of NiGHTS for almost 30 years, having a deep attachment to the character, the world of Nightopia and the gameplay experience. I remember playing it as a kid, never being able to get past the second dream stages for Claris and Elliot. The egg shaped alarm clock haunted me as I could never escape it, leading to the dream over screen. But as I got older, I got better at it and after a while I was able to get the whole game done.

Over the years, I have played different versions of NiGHTS, starting with the original release on SEGA Saturn, which is where most of my time has been spent. I was also able to play the Japanese exclusive PS2 version for a time, which looked nice, but I defaulted to the original Saturn Style. The same can be said for the HD versions, where I used the original models as they were, which perfectly encapsulated the look of the time.

I have a deep love and appreciation for this game, as it is one of those special titles left me in awe as a kid. The use of color, the magical yet surreal dreamscapes and the feeling of flight is pure magic, which stood out among all of the other early 3D games that existed. For me, the game still looks as good now as it did back then, with the opening FMV videos being a highlight. There is this feeling of pure joy with NiGHTS, which has stayed with me for nearly 30 years.

The music for this game is also something that has stayed with me, with the compositions for each dream fitting the setting perfectly. There is also the mood system, which will alter the music in different ways, giving them a different feel when returning to them after clearing them. I still listen to the soundtrack away from the game, as it is truly a masterpiece of the SEGA Sound team, and I even own the special Vinyl release of the original OST.

There is this beauty and simplicity to NiGHTS as a character, as she isn’t over designed and by virtue of this, she can fit into any scenario with ease. Her appearance in Sonic Adventure with a pinball table made me happy to see. Then there was the Sequel for the Wii (which will be covered in the future), which brought her back in a brand new adventure. We also have her Cameo appearances in the All-Stars series, where I used her exclusively in Sonic Racing Transformed.

And this month as I write this, NiGHTS will be making an appearance in Sonic Racing Crossworlds at some point. This is the first time since 2012 that NiGHTS has been seen in a new game, especially after SEGA pulled the HD versions of NiGHTS into Dreams from all digital storefronts. I am excited to see her in the game, as she was hinted at before the game released, as well as appearing on the box so it was just a matter of time before she was confirmed.

There is a very passionate fanbase for this game, with many calling it one of the greatest games of all time, something I agree with. This has led to some of the special variants of the game being expensive, like the original release that came with a special 3D pad. However, the game alone is very inexpensive, with all three regional versions of the game being relatively affordable. This is great as it makes it very easy to add this game to your collection.

Now I don’t know if SEGA will ever re-release this game in its original form, even though there is an emulator that can be used for consoles. I would like to see NiGHTS get another go around, so people can see the game and be able to appreciate it. My only worry is that they will remake the game entirely, which could lead to them abandoning the original Saturn look. This made the game stand out, as it really pushed the limits of the system to create what they did.

If you have enjoyed this feature, then please stick around and see what else catches your eye. I cover a wide range of games in reviews, get special previews and put out regular features. I have Lost Gems, Retro Revival where I discuss re-releases and the occasional Gaming Oddities piece, where I cover weird and wacky titles. So stay a while and have a look around.