PEL review: NiGHTS JoD

Larry: *Wakes up in a courtyard. Gets up and looks around* W-where AM I? Nick?! Edgy?! Anyone?!

*An owl wearing a tailcoat, waistcoat and glasses flies down next to Larry*

Owl: Greetings visitor.

Larry: Oh my God! A talking owl!

Owl: How rude! Although I suppose it’s only natural for visitors to be a little frightened by me.

Larry: Ey?

Owl: This is ‘The Realm of Dreams’.

Larry: The realm of what?

Owl: ‘The Realm of Dreams’. What visitors consider to be just dreams is actually our reality.

Larry: O… kay… so this is all basically a dream then?

Owl: I suppose you could say that. You see…

*A purple jester with no nose flies in front of Larry*

NiGHTS: Oh you’re too boring you old bird! Hi there! My name is NiGHTS. What’s yours?

Larry: O.o What the heck is up with this place?!

NiGHTS: Haha! We have a funny one this time. Do you want to Dualize with me?

Larry: Do I WHAT?!

NiGHTS: Do you want to Dualize with me?

Larry: Er… is that like doing “it” or something? Because I’m sure you’re a very nice… whatever you are NiGHTS, but I don’t do that with strangers…

NiGHTS: DUALIZE! *flies towards Larry*

Larry: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

*A cold bucket of water is suddenly thrown over Larry’s face. He wakes up to see Phoenix and Edgeworth standing over him*

Edgeworth: I told you that would shut him up.

Phoenix: Are you okay Larry? You sounded like you were having a nightmare.

Larry: I… I… w-was that all a dream?

Phoenix: Like I said, it sounded more like a nightmare.

Larry: Oh it was Nick! There was this scary jester person with no nose and I couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl and…

Edgeworth: That’s amazing Larry, but we’ve got a review to do.

Larry: Er… r-right! So what kind of review is it today Nick?

Phoenix: Well people liked the Brawl review so much that the boss says we should do another game review.

Larry: Awesome. What game will we be reviewing?

Edgeworth: NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams *holds up game box*

Larry: *seeing game box* AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! That’s… that’s… it’s… it’s…

Edgeworth: Be stupid on your own time Larry!

Larry: B-b-but that’s…

NiGHTS: *Appearing behind Larry* Hi!

Larry: *Little girl scream*

Phoenix: W-what are you doing here?

NiGHTS: I’m here to help you review my game.

Larry: B-b-but how… when… why…

Edgeworth: Well the more help the quicker we can get this done.

Phoenix: Let’s get started with…

NiGHTS: Wait! Don’t you want to do a bit of back-story first?

Phoenix: Back-story?

NiGHTS: Yes, after all this is my second game and there’s an eleven year gap between the two games. Some people might not know this.

Edgeworth: That’s trivial. It doesn’t matter.

Phoenix: There are tons of videos and articles all over the internet explaining it anyway.

NiGHTS: Hmmmm… that’s true, but come on! When you review my game you HAVE to talk about it!

Phoenix: *sigh* Fine… you take this Edgeworth…

Edgeworth: Alright… “NiGHTS into Dreams” was the first NiGHTS game ever made. It came out for the Sega Saturn in 1996. The game was a smash hit due to it’s simple, easy, unique and fun gameplay and sold many copies in it’s time. Sadly no sequel was ever made, even though it was so popular. The reasons for no sequel are unknown to us at this point, we think it may be because the Sega Saturn’s life wasn’t that long, or something to do with Sega becoming obsessed with 3D Sonic games.

Phoenix: Could somebody please clear this up for us? Please post it in the comments section.

Edgeworth: Well anyway, there was such a high demand for a sequel over the years that finally eleven years later Sega made a new NiGHTS game for the Nintendo Wii; the game we’re going to review today. Happy now?

NiGHTS: Very much. Thank you.

Phoenix: It’s fair to note that we’ve never played the original NiGHTS game, so we can’t do a comparison between the two.

NiGHTS: You’re seriously missing out there!

Edgeworth: Can we please just stop wasting time and get onto review the game?

Phoenix: Gladly. Where to start? Story? Graphics? Gameplay? Music? Voice Acting?

Edgeworth: Don’t we always start with story?

Phoenix: Well this time there’s an actual story to discuss; two in fact.

Edgeworth: Indeed there is. You play as two twelve-year-old children, each with their own individual story. Who should we start with Wright?

Phoenix: I don’t know… Larry why don’t you decide?

Larry *looking at NiGHTS* I-i-it-it-i-i-it’s…

Phoenix: Er… NiGHTS, why don’t you decide?

NiGHTS: Well I don’t really mind either way. But let’s do Will’s first, his story features more playing as me.

Phoenix: That’s more of a gameplay thing, but okay. Let’s go over Will Taylor’s story. Will’s a soccer player who’s been ceaselessly trained by his father.

Edgeworth: And I thought soccer-moms were bad…

Phoenix: He doesn’t have many friends as a result of this and finds it hard to trust people. His father’s recently been transferred due to work, without warning. Sadly Will couldn’t go with him. He’s now begun to have nightmares because of this.

NiGHTS: Now Helen.

Phoenix: Helen Cartwright is a talented violin player, with a dream of one day playing in front of a big audience. She has practised every day for years with her mother, but as she’s gotten older she’s lost interest in it and has become more interested in hanging out with her friends. She now feels regret because of this and now has nightmares because of it.

Edgeworth: In both stories the children end up in a mysterious world called ‘The Realm of Dreams’ every time they fall asleep.

Larry: AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!! *faints*

Edgeworth: What’s his problem?

Phoenix: I don’t know…

NiGHTS: Don’t look at me.

Edgeworth: It doesn’t matter right now. This review will run better without him anyway. *ahem* Anyway when they enter this world they meet a talking owl named… Owl, and also…

NiGHTS: Yours truly!

Edgeworth: Indeed.

NiGHTS: I have to help them recover their lost Ideya, to purify their dream worlds and get rid of the evil Nightmarens.

Phoenix: “Ideya” is basically just the kids’ personalities put into a glowing spherical form. The evil “Wiseman” is stealing people’s Ideya in order to create nightmares.

Edgeworth: However Will and Helen have managed to keep their red Ideya, representing courage, meaning they can move about the Realm of Dreams.

NiGHTS: And these Ideya form special worlds known as ‘Nightopia’ unique to each person.

Phoenix: Okay, this sounds complicated and confusing but believe me it makes sense once you play the game.

Edgeworth: Indeed, however it still comes off as a very child-like fantasy story.

Phoenix: Well what do you expect? This is a game aimed towards children.

Edgeworth: I suppose.

NiGHTS: It’s a great story! I’ll give it a ten!

Phoenix: Well it works for the audience it’s aimed towards so I guess it’s appropriate, but there are a lot of plot-holes and a lot of stuff isn’t explained. Then again it isn’t a very deep plot so it doesn’t matter. So I’d only give it a seven myself.

Edgeworth: As would I.

NiGHTS: Well I guess some people are just tasteless.

Phoenix: Now gameplay. As Edgeworth mentioned earlier it’s…

NiGHTS: It’s absolutely AWESOME!

Phoenix: *ahem* It’s simple, easy, unique and fun.

Edgeworth: Indeed, and there’s a great variety to the levels.

Phoenix: Well for the most part there is. When you enter a world…

NiGHTS: Nightopia!

Phoenix: *sigh* Nightopia, you will have to rescue NiGHTS from a cage by means of… er… what’s it called?

NiGHTS: Dualizing.

Phoenix: Right that.

NiGHTS: Basically I can fuse together with visitors and together we can fly through the sky.

Edgeworth: You can fly anyway, what’s the point?

NiGHTS: Well I need visitors to Dualize with me so I can break out of those cages.

Edgeworth: You get captured an AWFUL lot…

NiGHTS: Heh, I guess I get careless…

Phoenix: Anyway. As I say each time you enter a w-

NiGHTS: *ahem*

Phoenix: NIGHTOPIA! You have to free NiGHTS from a cage by Dualizing with him.

NiGHTS: While playing as me you get to fly around collecting blue spheres and flying through rings. You basically have to chase these birds that carry a key to my cage so that I can destroy it.

Edgeworth: But what’s the point in that if you’ve already broken out?

Phoenix: It’s a kid’s game Edgeworth.

NiGHTS: You can use my Drill Dash ability to go faster and charge into enemies. However there’s a limited amount of time for using it. However you can fill up its gauge by flying through rings. By moving me in a complete circle you can use my Paraloop ability which allows you to suck in enemies, blue spheres (or blue chips as they’ve been named) and other things.

Phoenix: Each level has a great variety to what you can do.

Edgeworth: Didn’t I just say that?

Phoenix: It changes in each w… Nightopia. This ranges from flying through a certain amount of rings, saving Nightopians (creatures that live in Nightopia), making a bigger bubble then Owl and many more.

Edgeworth: However the first mission will always be the same: Free NiGHTS from a cage.

NiGHTS: It’s not MY fault that I get captured all the time.

Phoenix: Y-yes it is actually… Anyway, there are also some levels where you play as Will or Helen (there are a lot more of these in Helen’s story), where you’ll have to go through a maze. They’re slower then NiGHTS and can’t fly so therefore can’t Drill Dash, however they can throw your hard-earned blue “chips” at enemies.

Edgeworth: At the end of the first mission, and for your final mission in each Nightopia you’ll have to fight a boss battle. Most of these are very easy and straight forward once you know what to do.

Phoenix: With the exception of the second boss in Will’s story!

Edgeworth: Oh yes! That was nearly IMPOSSIBLE!

NiGHTS: It wasn’t THAT hard!

Edgeworth: If two grown men with well developed minds like Wright and I can’t figure it out, how is a child supposed to?

NiGHTS: You two are just n00bs…

Phoenix: Well that’s the only thing that the gameplay loses points for. Overall I’d give it an eight out of ten.

Edgeworth: I would take off more points then that!

Phoenix: Just for one boss?

Edgeworth: NO game should have a boss THIS hard!

Phoenix: Why do you care so much? I thought you were a civilized, self-respecting prosecutor…

NiGHTS: Graphics! They get a ten from me because I look so cool!

Phoenix: What are you talking about? The graphics are where the game loses major points!

NiGHTS: What do you mean?

Phoenix: Well the graphics in the opening and ending cutscenes are fantastic, however the in-game graphics are… well…

Edgeworth: Not up to par with what the Wii’s capable of.

Phoenix: Yeah…

NiGHTS: Hmph… Nit-pickers…

Phoenix: However this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

NiGHTS: Oh?

Phoenix: Well it seems this time Sega focused more on gameplay then graphics, unlike in some of their other games…

NiGHTS: *coff* Sonic 2006 *coff*

Edgeworth: Well despite that I will still give the graphics a five out of ten. It’s good that they focused more on gameplay, but they could have taken more advantage of the Wii’s graphic capabilities.

Phoenix: I think I’ll have to agree.

NiGHTS: Fine fine…

Phoenix: Now music.

NiGHTS: *plays invisible flute*

Edgeworth: Well I liked the music in this game, it wasn’t too hard on the ears and it suited the levels and bosses quite well.

Phoenix: Indeed. It wouldn’t be my first choice for a soundtrack to buy, but I defiantly would like it.

Edgeworth: It’s one of the few video games soundtracks that even I would buy.

Phoenix: Ten?

Edgeworth: Why not?

NiGHTS: Finally!

Edgeworth: Voice acting.

NiGHTS: The voice acting brilliant! We all have sexy accents and-

Phoenix: Well for the most part the voice acting’s good. Every character has a British accent. Sega’s apparent reason for doing this is because they wanted it to appeal to the European market.

Edgeworth: But that makes no sense!

Phoenix: Why’s that?

Edgeworth: Well for one thing most people don’t care that much about voice acting, they care more about gameplay. Also, England isn’t properly considered part of Europe… or at least they don’t think themselves to be…

Phoenix: “They”? Aren’t you British Edgeworth?

Edgeworth: Let’s not get into this now Wright. Also, most of the countries in Europe that will get this game don’t speak English as their first language anyway.

Phoenix: Well their reasoning aside I think this was a very good move. The voices suit the characters for the most part; the only one I have a problem with is Helen’s.

Edgeworth: I conquer. Her voice actor is in desperate need of acting lessons.

NiGHTS: What about my voice?

Phoenix: Yours is good NiGHTS, but… well… erm… ah…

NiGHTS: What?

Phoenix: Well are you… er… umm…

NiGHTS: Am I what?

Edgeworth: Are you male or female NiGHTS?

NiGHTS: W-well I’m… er… urm…

Phoenix: Even NiGHTS doesn’t know what it is…

Edgeworth: Well for this I’ll give it a seven out of ten.

Larry: *coming to* Uuuuuuhhhhh… what happened?

Phoenix: Good to have you back with us.

Edgeworth: But you missed most of the review.

Larry: I did?

Phoenix: Here, you can do the sum-up for us.

Larry: Er… okay, sure.
- Story: 7
Pro: Appropriate for the game and audience.
Con: A lot of plot-holes and unexplained things.

- Gameplay: 8
Pro: Simple, unique and fun.
Con: The same thing every first mission. The second boss in Will’s story is incredibly annoying.

- Graphics: 5
Pro: The opening and ending cutscenes are incredible.
Con: In-game graphics are no where near close to what the Wii is capable of.

- Music: 10
Pro: An amazing soundtrack.
Con: None.

- Voice acting: 7
Pro: Sexy accents. Voices suit the characters very well.
Con: Helen’s voice actor can’t act. NiGHTS’ voice makes it hard to tell its gender.

- Overall score: 7
A must have game for the Wii. Use a Gamecube controller rather then the others. DO NOT by any means use a Wii controller on its own! It’s VERY hard to control that way.

NiGHTS: Hey! You didn’t mention the “My Dream” mode or multi-player mode!

Edgeworth: Well in all honesty we haven’t played the game in multi-player yet.

Phoenix: And ‘My Dream’ mode is basically the Chao Garden from Sonic Adventure, only with Nightopians, and you can go online and look at other people’s.

NiGHTS: Well I guess I’ll be off now. Come on Larry!

Larry: Wait! What?!

*NiGHTS flies at Larry and grabs his hand. A bright lights shines out after which only NiGHTS remains. NiGHTS flies off into the distance.*

Phoenix: Why did he… she… it take Larry?

Edgeworth: Do we really care?

Phoenix: I guess not...