While we've been vocally (or textually) thrilled about a sequel to the sublime NiGHTS into Dreams coming to the Wii, our enthusiasm has always been kept in check by the possibility of Sega ruining it. They have a couple of different avenues to do so: they could turn it into a minigame collection for non-gamers, which must be quite a temptation for Wii developers, they could go the "edgy" route, or they could just be Sega and churn out a terrible game.
We're happy to report that, according to an NGamer interview with Sega Studio USA's Takashi Iizuka, at least the classic gameplay will be intact. Iizuka said that he decided to keep the game concept the same out of consideration for those of us for whom it's been a long eleven-year wait. Not only is the gameplay basically the same, but the composer for the original game is back.
Of course, all of this is very encouraging, but it doesn't eliminate the possibility of Sega pulling a Sonic 360 and releasing a game that is disappointing in surprising new ways. We hate that we have to add the "don't forget, this is Sega" disclaimer, but we do, especially with Sonic Team.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-23-2007 @ 7:17PM
Mr Khan said...
Yes, but Sonic 2006 was purpoted to be a revolution, this is purpoted to be the exact same thing, same director, same music, different graphics
They can afford to make basically the same game with Secret Rings' level graphics, because it has been 11 years...
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4-24-2007 @ 4:43AM
Shane said...
You know what's funny?
In deriding Sega, JC Fletcher links to all posts tagged 'Sega' on the site - and you have to scroll down very far indeed to find anything negative there. That's how I like my irony.
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4-24-2007 @ 7:55AM
DrunkenKender said...
I'm pretty optimistic about this one - because it's NIGHTS. I've already reserved a copy. :P
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4-24-2007 @ 10:14AM
Jonathan Tran said...
Although I am glad to see a remake, I think unless the game is either a close port or something similar it will disapoint. The story, graphics (at the time) music, controls were all almost flawless in NiGHTS. They better release the original on VC so if this one sucks at least people will know how it should have been.
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4-24-2007 @ 10:41AM
JC Fletcher said...
Shane: it's a fair point, and an interesting exercise. Let's see what the last few posts were about:
1. NiGHTS
2. Old games (Old Sega=golden)
3. NiGHTS
4. Samba de Amigo (another old Sega franchise that has yet to be ruined by New Sega)
5. Negative post! But also NiGHTS.
I can't make EVERY Sega post about how terrible they are, you know? I still remember liking Sega. And we've had NiGHTS to talk about, which is so far unassailable. But you know as well as I do that there's plenty to talk about there. Like the Sonic series, or PSU, or Virtua Quest, or (probably) Alien Syndrome.
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4-24-2007 @ 11:18AM
Shane said...
JC: Thanks for taking the time to respond to my comment. Sorry if I came off as unneccessarily sarcastic ;)
I'm still a huge Sega fan, though for the last year I've been wondering how much of that is nostalgia and how much of that is because I still respect the quality of their output.
Either way, nobody screamed louder than me on message boards about the successive fiascos of Shadow and Sonic 360, and I'm still offended at having to pay a fee to use the non-massive 'MMO' PSU online when I can play the significantly more massive Test Drive Unlimited for nothing (XBL subscription notwithstanding).
But on the other hand, it's not all bad news. Yakuza was fantastic, so was Sonic Rush. Virtua Tennis 3 was well received, and Sega Rally Revo is shaping up to be a winner. Sonic and the Secret Rings was absolutely not perfect, but it was respectable and a few dozen steps in the 'right' direction for the franchise. There's also Virtua Fighter 5 - a franchise which has been way ahead of its own game for the last 15 years.
But yeah, I agree with you that Alien Syndrome is a catastrophe waiting to happen...
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