NiGHTS Into Dreams is one of the best games I’ve ever played in my life. I say this having only played it last year, and despite the fact that this might be an impression heavily tainted by the fact that that’s quite a short amount of time to have an even opinion, I can assure that, as a product, this is probably one of the most well-handed, mature, satisfying and engaging experiences that I’ve ever had with a piece of interactive software.
I think I need to explain this in historical terms. NiGHTS was released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn. Being a second wave title for the console in Europe, it received a lot of attention at the moment and has gained a cult following until today, and even though only one sequel and two remakes have spun off from the property, Sega has still used their characters in the form of cameos or as parts of some promotions. The game concept itself came into being by veteran programmers Yuji Naka, Naoto Ōshima and Takashi Iizuka, all of them Sonic Team veterans who had worked together during the development of several first-party Sega titles (including the original Sonic series). Yuji Naka in particular was interested in developing a game where the mechanics would be centered around flying in an open environment, something that could be accomplished thanks to the Saturn’s then new 3D engine. To properly contextualize this mechanic, Ōshima began to develop several concept arts that were centered around some form of angelic being, but eventually became grounded in sleep symbolism and the writings of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. This eventually prompted Iizuka to establish a development team that began to join these ideas into a single, comprehensible text, and in order to do that, he devised a story around two little children that came into contact with a creature during their sleep hours (an androgynous being called Nights) and who helped them to overcome their own fears and insecurities throughout their dreams, fighting against symbolic representations of those negative emotions.
The result is a game whose plot would fit perfectly in a Ghibli or Pixar movie, in my opinion. While the concepts themselves and the artwork and music are more than enough to provide a sense of wonder for the dream worlds that you visit, the way that the flying mechanics of the game encourage to explore these realms works incredibly well, which is quite surprising given the fact that this was one of Sonic Team’s very first 3D games. The goal of the game (collect spheres around the map while pulling off aerobic maneouvers) is creative in the sense that it discards many design conventions of the genre (like having to kill enemies or having levels with fixed routes that you can only traverse once) and prefers to focus on the joy of simply experiencing the map. Add to this the fact that the levels are varied and colorful, the creative boss fights, the dynamic and beautiful music (by composer Tomoko Sasaki), and a story that manages to be simple yet surprisingly mature for its age. Instead of conveying it through cutscenes or dialogue, the game is also one of the first of its kind to tell a coming of age drama almost exclusively through mechanics, which is both subtle and unique in the sense that only gameplay and ludic systems can really tell.
To sum up, I think that NiGHTS Into Dreams would already be a great game thanks to its great graphics, its innovative gameplay and its beautiful presentation and story, but the fact that it manages to do all that at once AND during a time in video games where this kind of product was just non-existent (I’d argue is still hard to find today) makes it one of the best games of all time period.