Back to bed, fans

Back in 2019, we reported on how Sega had trademarked a mysterious new title in its dormant NiGHTS franchise: "NiGHTS Dream Wheel." Two years later �and of little surprise to anybody �it turns out that the mystery release is, in fact, a slot machine.

NiGHTS Dream Wheel, which slot fans can find located at the San Manuel Casino in California, is one of those funky, modern, digital roulette affairs, and allows players to gamble tokens while experiencing a cutesy NiGHTS aesthetic. I doubt very much that this is what fans were hoping for, given that 2021 sees the NiGHTS franchise celebrate its 25th anniversary. You'll probably be better served digging out your Sega S?aturn and your "3D Control Pad."

Originally debuting in 1996, NiGHTS Into Dreams told a tale of two children who, accompanied by the titular "Nightmaren," embark upon a journey to save the realm of Nightopia from being destroyed, thus crushing the concept of dreaming from all reality. If the "kids and weird being" setting sounds familiar, it should be noted that NiGHTS' producer was Sega luminary Yuji Naka, who was also recently responsible for the similarly themed Balan Wonderworld.

NiGHTS into Dreams launched exclusively on the Sega Saturn to rave reviews. It would be followed up with a Nintendo Wii sequel, NiGHTS: Journey into Dreams, in the winter of 2007.

//twitter.com/SanManuelCasino/status/140??8??172903657525249?s=20

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You and me, we could be, together foreveeeeer...

Sega Games Japan has filed a mysterious trademark for "Nights Dream Wheel", which is leaving some fans with hushed hopes that the weird world of NiGHTS might be prepping for a comeback.

The NiGHTS franchise came into being way back in 1996 with Sonic Team's groundbreaking Sega Saturn release NiGHTS Into Dreams, best remembered for its lavish fantasy world, fancy analogue controller and ultra-saccharine theme song. The titular character would return in Nintendo Wii sequel NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, and has also made numerous cameo appearances? in various Sega properties.

Of cours?e, this is all pie-in-the-sky at the moment. The trademark may not be referring to this specific NiGHTS at all. Even if so, it's no guarantee that a new title is on the way. Still, Sega are clearly attached the mysterious lead, so I wouldn't be surprised if NiGHTS made a comeback, ready to cartwheel through our slumber-time once again.

Sega trademarks "Nights Dream Wheel" in Japan [Gematsu / Pierceword]

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It's beginning to look a lot like Inaba

Quite shamefully, I only saw Die Hard for the first time two years ago, in December and in a packed movie theatre. It was only then that I could fully appreciate the classic argument that rages about the film. No, not whether Hans Gruber is actually a bit tasty (RIP Alan Rickman), but whether Die Hard is a Christmas film or not. 

The argument is really just an example of how the seasons and religious holidays intera??ct with both films and computer games. If we happen to play something during our Christmas break, or it happens to be on in the background while we're opening our presents, then of course we begin to associate it with Santa and his reindeer. In my case, there are quite a few games that I will always look at as Christmas games, whether it's due to their atmosphere, certain levels or simply when I first played them. So, cut yourself a slice of stollen and pour a glass of mulled wine, and let's get festive.

To find out about the (largely not very good) Die Hard games for various systems, I'd recommend watching this video and this video.

1. SSX 3 ?(PlayStation 2/GameCube/Xbox/Game Bo??y Advance/Gizmondo, EA Canada, 2003)

I'm not fortunate enough to have lived in any place where there is powdered snow on the ground throughout the whole of December. My hometown occasionally gets a bit of snow in January, but I've seen perhaps...one white Christmas there? Where I currently live, it just rains all the time, and when I lived in the south of Germany, the snow was sludgy and my bones hurt because of how cold it was. Anyway, time for less typical British talk about the weather and more talk about games. A game that revolves around snow typifies Christmas for me, and SSX 3 is precisely that game.

SSX 3 and its predecessor, SSX Tricky, weren't just games that allowed me to enjoy frosty surrounds with the radiator cranked up and a mug of tea; they are special to me because they were the first games I was genuinely any good at. As a child – and this is something that STILL comes back to haunt me  – I didn't own a wide variety of games, and played overwhelmingly during the school holidays. This meant that I was quite weak compared to my cohort, who would play a range of classics for hours after school and every weekend. So I carried this millstone around my neck of being "terrible at games". But I did play the SSX games for hours in a row during these ho?lidays, if trophies had been a thing back in 2003, I definitely would have got Platinum in both of them.

But why is SSX 3 on this list instead of Tricky? Well, I think I played Tricky a lot during the summer holidays, so it got that tag attached to it instead. I also remember a level that involved snowboarding through arid canyons in Tricky, so it felt less tied to winter. It might have even been because SSX 3 felt more sedate and peaceful, as Christmas should be, while Moby Jones had definitely downed one too many Red Bulls in Tricky.

2. Pokémon Crystal (Game Boy Color, Game Freak, 2001)

As a child, Christmas time was always Pokémon time. Until I got Pokémon Yellow and Pokémon Pinball for Christmas 2000, I was the insufferable kid on the playground who would beg to borrow other people's handhelds. While those two games should, by rights, be Christmas games in my head, I actually played them to death the following summer instead. As a result, they will always remind me of a carefree summer holiday full of Mini Milk ice lollies, potato smiley faces and re-runs of the worst docu-soap ever made, Airline. 

But its older brother, Pokémon Crystal, strongly reminds me of the jolly fat man. I think by then I knew just how great playing through the whole of a Pokémon game would be, so I was hyped about getting it and spent a lot of chestnut-roasting time tied to my Game Boy. For reference, my Game Boy Color was always plugged into the wall at home so I wouldn't bankrupt my mother burning through millions of AA batteries (she got wise to rechargeable batteries by the time both me and my sister got Nintendo Wii). Of course, I soon realised Crystal was pretty much the same game as Pokémon Silver, which I'd already gotten for a previous Christm?as, but hey, I was a d??????????????????????????umb nine-year-old, and hey, it wasn't my hard-earned salary I was squandering. I was the WORST child.

3. Persona 4 Golden (PlayStation Vita, Atlus, 2012)

This is a fairly recent Christmas association for me, in part because I spent all of last Christmas – aside from the 25th, of course – playing it from start to finish. The PS TV is the perfect "portable home console", if such a thing can even be said to exist, so in a genius/idiot move, I brought it back to England with me. And I quickly resumed being The Worst Child Ever™ by telling my sister "No, you can't 'have a go' while I'm in the middle of the Kusumi-no-Okami boss battle, please go back to Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games".

It's also very Christmassy to me because I had already played the original Persona 4 release, so my goal was to experience everything new to the Vita version. This meant going on the ski-trip, as well as going for the True ending. Of course, all modern Persona games have integrated seasons, so there is always a Christmas section, but going away with the lads to faff about on wooden planks felt like a genuine Yuletide celebration. Admittedly, a Yuletide celebration w?ith fighting and bloodshed (and GOOD GRIEF I hated going through that dungeon with limited SP – by far my least favourite in any of the games that I've played so far), but a cosy celebration nonetheless.

A special recommendation

OK, so by this point, your blood is probably boiling from the amount of CLEARLY non-Christmas games that I have haphazardly associated with the holidays. So, how about I recommend something ??that is genuinely tied to Xmas?

NiGHTS Into Dreams is the perfect game to play once the advent calendars and elves on shelves come out, even if you don't buy the Christmas-themed sampler disc. I had the pleasure of playing it on the Saturn at an exhibition a few months ago, and all the acrobatic, fast-paced gameplay is a great distraction from figuring out what to put under the tree for Great Aunt Flo (another set of knitting needles, perhaps?). What's more, you don't have to splash out on an unloved-thus-now-quite-rare-and-expensive console from yesteryear to experience the game: it's available on Steam, including the Christmas Nig??hts additional material, for less than the cost of a giant Toble??rone. 

***

As we've seen, what counts as "festive" is very subjective and often has a lot to do with childhood memories. I have a lot of fond recollections of Decembers growing up, and a lot of this is all thanks to video games. This Christmas, I'll be following in the footsteps of Die Hard somewhat by finishing Metal Gear Solid 2 HD &??ndash; because, really, getting the hostages out of Big Shell feels like John McClane freeing his wife from Nakatomi Plaza. That, and because "Christmas spirit?" is absolutely what you make of it.

Oh, and Die Hard is DEFINITELY a Christmas film.

Which games do you associate with Christmas? Are there any games that you play every December? Let me know in the comments down below!

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Says it's learned its lesson

Close your eyes and ??let me take you back to a starry night in 2007. Wait, sorry, open your eyes, this isn't an audio recording. It was mid-December. I was back home visiting my parents for the holidays. Sitting by myself in the back of their car as we drove around looking at Christmas lights, my eyes were firmly planted on my copy of EGM. For those of you w??ho don't know what EGM is, it was a gaming magazine. For those of you who don't know what a gaming magazine is, it's a periodical you had to pay for in order to learn about upcoming video games in the days before you could get it all online for free.

Anyway, I was sitting back there, doing my best to ignore the cacophony that is country Christmas music, repeatedly reading a single review in that month's issue. It was for the Wii exclusive Nights: Journey of Dreams from Sega. I had never played the original, but it was one of those titles that always seemed to end up on "Best of" lists and people always spoke of with a smile on their face. This review, with its three-person team, was a positive one, giving the game an average of 7.2/10. The gist of it was they enjoyed the game and that was good enough for me. I dreamt of Nights, my eyes glistened ev??ery time I saw a screenshot, and I couldn't wai?t until the day it would be mine.

I purchased it day one, shoved it into my Wii and gave up on it three hours later. It was ju??st awful.

"What happened to Sega?" I asked myself as a traded Nights into GameStop for $4. "Wasn't this the company that made Virtua Fighter, Crazy Taxi, Shenmue, and Space Channel 5?" For the longest time, I couldn't figure out why Sega would tarnish its name with such rubbish products. Yesterday, I got my a??nswer.

"We were a little bit opportunistic, signing a lot of titles and doing things that were not necessarily very good," Sega of Europe's Jurgen Post said in an intervie?w with MCV UK. "There was a time when you could sell a lot of products, for example on the Wii, but that time has gone. Today if you want to survive, you need to focus on quality."

In other words, money. Wh??y spend years developing a high-quality title when you can quickly re??lease a cheap, forgettable game that can make you gobs of cash?

It's hard to be mad at Sega for taking that route because that was par for the course during those years. Every studio was putting out garbage because everybody and their grandmother was buying a Wii. I believe the term "shovelware" became a staple of every comment thread during this era. Capcom released Spyborgs, Konami thought people wanted Castlevania Judgement, EA kept pushing out those goddamn MySims games and Nintendo made Wii Play.

These companies also developed and published quality titles in that time and Sega was no different, even if its memorable releases were few and far in between. People who like Sonic games tell me that Sonic Colors is quite good, murdering my way through the Sega-published MadWorld was quite pleasurable and The House of the Dead: Overkill remains my favorite light-gun shooter ever.

But most of its games were bad, and I have to hand it to Mr. Post. It takes a lot to admit when you're wrong, when you've made mistakes, and when you decided to take the easy way out. And I can't think of another gaming company that has done more to rebuild its image than Sega. After playing it fast and loose with Sonic for so long, it announced six years ago it was delisting all of Sonic's critically low scoring games to "increase the value of the brand." In 2012, it cut back to just three franchises: Sonic, Total War, and Football Manager.

Today, Sega is starting to look like its former self. Total War: Warhammer is the fastest-selling game in the franchise, we're finally getting another Valkyria game, Yakuza titles are still slowly trickling our way, Football Manager is something non-Americans probably enjoy and Sonic... well, Sonic still needs help. At least his Twitter account is amazing. 

Moving forward,? Post says Sega is very interested in VR, betting big in China, and "exploring opportunities in regards to film," saying many of its IPs lend themselves? quite well to the format. Unfortunately, it seems there still aren't any plans to localize Pole's Big Adventure.

European Boss Jurgen Post on Sega's Return [MCVUK]

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YES! Sega has announced an HD remake of the Sega Saturn classic NiGHTS into dreams... for Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC this fall. The game was originally released on the Sega Saturn 16 years ago? today, and now it returns with HD graphics, a 16:9 aspect ration, le??aderboards and trophies/achievements. There's also an optional Saturn mode that leaves the original graphics intact. 

I'm so excited! Ch?eck out the new scre?enshots in our gallery. It looks so nice in HD.

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We all have our holiday traditions; whether it be caroling, building snowman, or watching It's a Wonderful Life. Mine... that's easy. It's playing Sega's ultimate ode to the winter season, Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams...

Come join the holiday fun today on Mash Tactics, starting at 4 p.m. PST, as we take you through the nauseating, 1996 Sega Saturn Christmas classic. It will be a fun filled trip down memory lane, where hopefully everybody will join in the yuletide celebration. Who knows there may even be some of the infamous maltnog too.

Mash Tactics airs Monday through Friday at 4 p.m. PST. Watch Jon Carnage and myself, Wesley Ruscher, let loose with off-the-wall humor and discuss the issues of the day in the live chat on Destructoid's Twitch.tv channel. Also, there are videogames being played. Join us for y??our chance to win prizes, talk to industry guests, and witness all of the  glorious ?? antics.

Watch this space for the livestream embed st?arting at 4 p.m. PST!

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As a loyal Sega kid I still have a place in my heart for NiGHTS. The Seg??a Saturn game had such an impact on me. And the music! I still love the music. I play the game's vocal song, "Dreams, Dreams," on the piano almost every day.

If you're like me and really dig the music of NiGHTS, you should definitely check out OverClocked Remix and their newest remix project, NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming. T?his, OC Remix's 26th arrangement album, was created to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the game. ??OverClocked ReMixer Stevo Bortz, a.k.a. Level 99, gathered 32 musicians to create the 25 tracks (and two bonus karaoke pieces) of this project.

Visit lucid.ocremix.org to hear the love that Bortz and his team put into the collection. There's some very good stuff in here. Oh, and it's absolutely free. As a bonus, be sure to check out the fan-created artwork that is supposed to accompany each?? song. What a great idea!

As a fellow OC Remi?xer I wish I could have contributed to this project. But I'm sure they didn't need a cheesy pop cover of "Dreams, Dreams" anyway.

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Ron Gilbert won't be sticking around the Hothead offices long enough to see his latest game, the supposed "Monkey Island meets Diablo" action-RPG Deathspank, to certification. Gilbert announced on his blog that he has "left" Hothead. "I wanted to let all the Premium Gold Level Grumpy Gamer subscribers know that I left Hothead," he said, bef?ore adding that his goal was to make a Nobel prize-winning title.

Gilbert didn't comment on why he left Hothead, or if he has another project in the works, but the creator does have plans to be a part of the marketing for Deathspank, w??hich is still due for release at some point in 2010 for the Xbox 360, PS3 and?? [REDACTED].

'Monkey Island' creat??or wraps 'Deathspank" work and leaves Hothead [MTV Multiplayer]

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Music4Games continues their list of stellar interviews with the people behind great game music with this new interview with the composers of NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams.

They talk with Tomoko Sasaki and Naofumi Hataya about the Wii title's musical score, and touch on how the quality of it has been upgraded from the original NiGHTS titl??e for the Sega Saturn. Luckily, you don't have to take their word on it, as Music4Games has a couple of samples from the score availble within the inte??rview.

Composer Hataya gives a message to fans of the NiGHTS serie?s:

"To the fans of the previous series, thank you for waiting for such a long time. During the composition, I have been playing the game objectively as a representative of the NiGHTS-loving fans. This is a great game I can truly recommend regardless of whether you’re familiar with the previo??us version or not."

Head over to Music4Games to read the full interview. 

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The King of Games (Japanese) has details on new shirts featuring designs from the upcoming Wii game NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, and t?he best part is that they glow in the dark!

The NiGHTS "Flight" t-shirt comes in white or black, and will go on sale on December 13th for 4,200 yen (about $38). The Web page has a Flash d?emo of each shirt, and a click changes the image from day mode to night mode, enabling you to see the glow-in-the-dark action. Pretty nifty, huh?

??We did notice a fair case of "japanglish"?? on the shirt:

SWEET DREAMS, NIGHTMARES, and MY DREAM. All For "Exhilaration one feels" that flies over the sky... An adventure filled with co?urage, hope and inspiration for the whole family to enjoy.

I don't get it, but ?it seems kind of nice. I??'d wear one.

Hit the jump for m?ore pictures of these shirts. 

You've got to love th?e Master System-looking "The Sega T-shirt System" graphic in the corner of these pictures. 

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It's days like this that make me wonder why I even hope for such coolness to hit the shores of The Land of the Free. It seems that the remake of NiGHTS into Dreams for the PS2 that I mentioned last week has been shot down for the US for the time being. Takashi Iizuka, game designer for the series, spoke about ?the tit?le recently:

"There are currently no plans for the PS2 version to be released outside of Japan, and no plans for a Wii version either. It is being released in Japan, due to the high demand for the game. So there are no plans for a worldwide release... so far."

Well....fine then. I can understand something like my beloved Taiko Drum Master not coming to the US (and it did anyway, sadly producing only lackluster sales) but with the remake of NiGHTS coming to the Wii, it seems like an obvious moneymaker to rerelease the beloved original. Somehow I think this news could change i??n future, but for now the answer is no. I kind of feel like throwing a tantrum.

[Via PS3 Center - Thanks Jonathan!]

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When I finally had a chance to play NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams at this year's Tokyo Game Show, I noticed that the control scheme (using the Wii Remote and Nunchuck) wasn't as easily accessible as its predecessor's. I noted that the degree of movement seems more constrained, and NiGHTS seems to be a bit less capable than before. Too bad Sega didn't let me demo it with a Gamecube controller, as the game's developers pr?efer it o?ver the Wii Remote.

Sonic Team USA's boss Takashi Iizuka told Games Radar:

"Personally I prefer using the Wii-remote on its own - you just fly. You feel ?like you're flying, moving mo?re smoothly just with the sensation and freedom of it. But the team use the Gamecube controller because it's so similar to the feel of the original 3D controller. The analogue stick is shorter and more like the Saturn pad."

Iizuka also mentioned in the interview that there were no plans for a PS3 or Xbox 360 version of NiGHTS, but would like to make a NiGHTS 3 some day.

Lastly, a virtual high five goes to Games Radar for asking about a possible Burning Rangers sequel. When asked, Iizuka said, "It's not my title, so I can't comment. But I hear there is a lot of demand for a sequel, to bring out Burning Rangers on Wii so... we'll see."??

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Famitsu has just posted the news that Sega has announced NiGHTS: Into Dreams is getting a PS2 re-release. The Saturn classic will undergo some light graphic improvements and may add a few more new features before its release in Japan (set for February 21st, 2008). Should you be able to read Japanese, I've attached the pics of the Famitsu pages for your scrutiny.

All I can say is, if this doesn't come to the US, I may go to Sega and attempt to kill some people. NiGHTS is one of my favorite games of all time, and even though I'm looking forward to Journey of Dreams for the Wii, the idea of being able to play the original again on my PS2 is a hell o??f a holiday gift. I'll be watching this one like a fat dog waiting at the food bowl.

[Via Jeux-France, Thanks Bryon!]

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Normally I wouldn't throw a commonly misappropriated term like 'kawaii' into the title, but after looking at the above piece of pre-order swag for the upcoming NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, can you think of another term that quite captures its appeal? Short of giving everyone tiny puppies wearing glasses or hiring five year old girls with speech impediments to hand out hand-drawn pictures of their families, Sega couldn't possibly be doing a better job of making all the Japanese fans sw?ell up with hearts in their eye??s and squeals in their throats.

[Domo arigato Siliconera] 

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Moments ago, as I lie asleep in my bed, I got a weird tingling sensation in the back of my head. Having felt this sensation before, I knew it meant one of two things: first, that my wife just went into labor and my daughter was finally being born or second, Sega has finally dropped a release date for NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. Unfortunately, as I rolled over, I noticed my still extremely preggo wife sleeping soundly, so I rushed to the computer to find the following tidbit courtesy of Siliconera:

All you NiGHTS fans mark December 18 on your calendar. The long awaited sequel to NiGHTS arrives in North Amer??ica then, only a mere five days after Japan gets it.

They go on to state that Europe is being screwed yet again, and in the worst case of neglect since the US took half a millennia to put a stop to Hitler's shenanigans, the PAL territories won't be seeing NiGHTS until 2008.&nb??sp; If it makes you foreigners feel better though, we envy your universal healthcare and Kylie ??Minogue. 

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You could hear it everywhere around Tokyo Game Show; people were talking about Sega's NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. "Did you see NiGHTS? What did you think of NiGHTS?" Attendees were all talking about how the Sega Saturn game about flying through your dreams made its transition to the Nintendo Wii. Even on the first two business-only days, lines at the NiGHTS demo stations were long, and it seemed like everyone we spoke with had something to say about it. We had a chance to play through an entire level and boss battle, and much like the others, we have a few things to say about NiGHTS.

Sega's initial go around with NiGHTS brought their first analog controller to market, and many have wondered how the control scheme woul?d make the transition to Wii. We were surprised to see that not much has changed. The Wii Nunchuck's analog stick controls movement much like the Saturn ?analog controller did, and the Wii Remote's "A" button covers "dash". The only real change we noticed was that the aerial acrobatics that were mapped to the Saturn's L and R trigger buttons are now assigned to Wii Remote movements. Much like the first game, trial and error with Wii Remote movements produced varied in-flight tricks, and the pairing of gestures to tricks worked surprisingly well.

Hit the jump to read more on NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. 

That being said, the control lacks the tightness and fluidity that the first NiGHTS had, and many other gaming press and industry members we spoke with agreed. While the Saturn NiGHTS control was almost instantly accessible, the Wii NiGHTS seemed to have a bit of a learning curve, and it seems like it has something to do with the analog control. The degree of movement seems more constrained, and NiGHTS seems to be a bit less capable than before. After some time with the game, the control begins to set in, but the Wii version lacks that ease that made movement seem like flight. Tha??t's a real shame, seeing as how the game is about flying.

After selecting a character, one of two siblings?? are dropped into the dream world, where they will eventually transform into NiGHTS and take flight. The gameplay has changed very little since the original version. Players guide NiGHTS over obstacles, around enemies, and through series of rings, all the while collecting enough orbs to progress to the next stage. Other than a few new tricks, the basic premise is still the same, and players will find themselves flying through circular courses to meet stage requirements, eventually moving onto a boss battle.

After moving through three courses that were very similar to the original NiGHTS' first level, I encountere??d a floating balloon-like boss that was also very similar to one of the original game's bosses. And again, like the levels leading up to it, the strategy to defeat this boss was very similar to the first game. I flew around to throw the floating boss into walls, eventually taking her down.

While the levels and? enemies were very similar to those of the first game, everything looks better in the Wii version. We were relieved, as some of the game footage we've come across didn't seem like much of an improvement. We're glad to say that the levels are full and lush, and have much more visual depth than the original -- this is a great looking Wii game.

From what we saw, this Wii version of NiGHTS seems like an upgrade, though that's not necessarily a bad thing. The later levels we saw (but did not play through) did seem a bit more advanced and challenging, but for us to play through levels and a boss so similar to the first game was a bit underwhelming. The good thing is that we've been asking for a new NiGHTS, and Sega delivered. We're hoping that more time spent with NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams will reveal somethi??ng a bit deeper and challenging.

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In a press released that shuffled its way towards us this morning, Sega has announced that the upcoming Wii sequel, NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams ?will feature a two-player mode and net??work support.

While we already know about one of the game's duel modes, the release is devoid of any further information that we might need to know. Things like what ?two-player modes will be included, or how many Friend Codes we'll need to simply access the multiplayer menu, for instance.

To distract us from the lack of information, Sega has also revealed that the Artificial Life (A-Life) feature in NiGHTS is making a return on the Nintendo Wii. Originally appearing in the Sega Saturn title, NiGHTS Into Dreams, A-Life lets player??s capture, raise, and combine Nightopians from the world of Nightopia. It's kind of like Sonic's Chao Garden, only with a pretty cool evolving soundtrack that changed depending on the mood of the Nightopians. Pretty music is pretty.

NiGHTS: Jouney to Dreams is scheduled for a Fall 2007 release.

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It's been a while since we last saw anything of the Wii's NiGHTS: Journey Of Dreams, and it's safe to say that back then things were certainly less than arousing in the visuals department. Well thanks to the omnipresent Famitsu it's time to check in again, as a couple of new scans have wound their way over here, after a brief fuel stop at JeuxFrance.

After the last set of shots turned out to be slightly less attractive than an amorous sumo with a body odour fetish, these new ones brought with them a huge stinking black cloud of trepidation, but the truth is, they don't act?ually look too bad. Some of the textures are still a little flat, and a few places could do with sanding down some sharp angles, but overall, things look noticeably better than they did in  May. There's still a way to go until the winter release, so cross everything feasi??ble body part that Sega uses that time to keep on thrashing this one with the pretty-stick. 

[Thanks Dan] 

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While things have been a bit on the quiet side since the game finally became official, it seems work on the Wii sequel to NiGHTS is coming along fairly nicely.

Gamespot have had a preview of Sega's sequel to the Saturn classic, and while it seems nothing was playable, early word sounds pretty positive. It sounds at the moment as if the ne?w outing sticks fairly closely to the format of its prequel (not that there's a thing wrong with that), but is upgraded and enhanced not only by Wii remote control, but also some rather interesting spins on the boss battle formula ...

Hit the jump for the details.  

The boss shown in the presentation took the form of a giant anthropomorphic bouncing ball, and had to be herded along a course to a final goal rather than fought in the traditional sense. This more abstract approach to boss encounters is apparently one of Sega's ma?in goals for the game, and if this kind of creative thinking is being pushed throughout the who??le experience, things bode well for the end product.

Sega also announced that the game is to draw parallels with Jungian dream theory, and while we can currently on??ly boggle over how they're going to integrate an influential psychological theorum into ?video game design, it's definitely another sign that they're not taking their most pined-after sequel lightly. 

Graphically though, while the game's looks have improved over what we last saw, particularly in terms of the main character model, backgrounds and environments still look a little sparse and flat, and a fair few jaggies remain loitering around the place. Here's hoping Sega give it a thorough polish before the Winter release.

Check out the gallery. 

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Siliconera brings word from Famitsu that the sequel to the cult-classic NiGHTS Into Dreams, is now officially coming this winter (courtesy of Sonic Team sans Yuji Naka), at least in the Land of the Rising Sun. Thankfully Sega is nice about not screwing over us round-eyes, so it's a pretty safe bet that we'll be seeing the now-officially-titled NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams spinning up ???in America's Wiis around the same time.

The original game was released for the tragically doomed Sega Saturn, and, as such, joins the ranks of artistically sound, yet tremendously over-beloved due to a sense of elitism caused by scarcity, media; such as Dali's Un Chien Andalou, the cover art for The Scorpions' Virgin Killer, and the Tom Sizemore sex tape.

(Editor's Note: Double points to anyone who can name what those three works of art have in common. -- Nex) 

[UPDATE: It turns out that the scene in Un Chien Andalou where Rudolf Schenker sodomizes a prostitute with a saw blade was just a fever dream brought? on by a combination of Laudanum and Malaria. Sorry for the confusion.] 

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