Admit it, Sega hasn't exactly been in the best of shape lately. It seems as if though they hardly ever release any new titles and when they do, they're mostly so small that they don't even show up on the radar. I never had the pleasure of owning a Sega Saturn as its popularity was wiped out by the sheer number of games coming to Sony's PlayStation. I suppose you could say it was also a foreshadowing of things to come ala PS2 and Dreamcast, Sega's last and undoubtedly greatest system since the Genesis, albeit short-lived. However, I also have to be thankful towards Sony at this time, because they have recently given me the opportunity to fully enjoy one of the Saturn's and Sega's greatest games: NiGHTS into Dreams, originally released for the Sega Saturn back in 1996. The game's recent remake was released for the PS2 on February 21st. I'll be completely honest, I wasn't expecting all that much, just some game I'd probably pick up and play for about an hour and tell my fellow gamers and colleagues about how beautiful it was for being so dated. Boy, was I completely wrong. NiGHTS into Dreams literally had me tearing up at how incredibly fun and polished it was. This game immediately became in instant classic after only about 2 minutes of playtime. Its so hard for me to put it down that I have it running on my PS2 next to me as I type this. Surprisingly, it looks great on my plasma running at 480p and in 16:9 widescreen, which the remake was upgraded to handle. It even includes the original Sega Saturn versions of NiGHTS and Christmas NiGHTS for the old fans. Unfortunately if you want to get your NiGHTS fix in America, you're gonna either have to run out and get its inferior sequel NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams or import the PS2 remake from Japan, as their are currently no plans to release it in the States. That is a stupid move on Sega and Sony's part. But, I have faith that they'll change their minds considering that Sony plans to keep the PS2 around for a couple more years and with a few new titles to continue support. Let's just hope that this instant classic is on the list for the non-importers to finally enjoy. If you have a Japanese PS2 or the software capable of running Japanese PS2 games on your system, then I highly, I mean highly suggest that you import the NiGHTS into Dreams remake. Don't go on Mininova and download it; show this game some support by legitimately and legally purchasing it. Maybe if Sega sees how popular the remake is to importers in America, then they'll plan a US release. I haven't included a video of this game because honestly, no video does this game true justice, its something that you have to play and experience for yourselves.
1 comment:
I never did get to play the original Nights. I wish I had, but at the time I only owned a Super Nintendo, with no desire to buy a Playstation or Saturn. As I was reading through this post, I was becoming quite excited, thinking that I could go and easily purchase this remake. Then my head exploded and shattered into tiny pieces as I realized this was just another dumb import, which I will not be able to get my hands on. I also refuse to play the sequel that was released for Wii. After about five minutes of watching my brother play it, I concluded that it was "less-than-stellar"... Oh, and the main character is a complete and utter fruit basket. By that, I mean that he probably hangs out with Tingle from the Zelda series. Give me fat, Italian plumbers or anthropomorphic blue hedgehogs over this dancing fairy-boy anyday...
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