For what is essentially a demo, they really jam packed it with a whole lot to a point it could be considered it's own little game.

100% it and unlocking everything was a blast. And it was great to finally check out the famous Sonic the Hedgehog into Dreams, his debut in a 3d space. Strange it's not in the remaster or the rereleases for it. It's his first time ever in complete 3d.

And I will say, makes for a great exercise before getting into the main game since oh boy does the game have quite the unique gameplay. Especially as it hasn't been rereleased as often as the OG Sonic games. Must admit, made me adapt and properly hold the analogue stick correctly. Using the mid of my thumb rather than the top like any other stick. It's a comfy controller for sure.

And definitely a game that proves the Saturn is indeed capable of handling quite the gorgeous games.

Even if it's a demo, still worth the play regardless. It is as jam packed as a main game.

Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams is a promotional version of Nights released with various magazines. It features a single level with slight alterations for the characters Elliot and Claris. Most of the game is played as NiGHTS, who can fly around flying through rings and collecting spheres. The object is to collect these spheres and take them to a large Metroid-looking enemy. Do this multiple times and you’ll fight a boss.

If you run out of time, you’ll turn back into the child character and have to run and jump to collect the orbs, following an arrow. If you complete the stages, you’ll be given rewards (which require a pairs-matching minigame to unlock). One of these is a Sonic version of the game.

In this, Sonic controls much like the children. So there’s no flying around, but as Sonic’s jump is higher, he can access more orbs. The game is pretty much following an arrow, but you can explore a lot more in this mode. As this came out before Sonic Jam, this is actually the first time that Sonic was playable in a 3D platform environment.

NiGHTS also appears in quite a lot of Sonic games, either as background elements or costumes. There’s a full NiGHTS themes level in Sonic Lost World

probably the best demo of a game I've played, you basically get an exclusive stage that (while just a redesigned Spring Valley) gives you a taste of what NiGHTS Into Dreams has to offer while giving you some content that isn't in the original, like Sonic the Hedgehog into Dreams or and a Music Player, cool thing is if you play this out of the winter season it turns into "NiGHTS: Limited Edition" and is from what I remember almost identical to the retail version of NiGHTS, you also get other cool modes like New Year's NiGHTS when you play it from January 1st to the 15th, or Reala's April Fools on, well April Fools day, really the entire demo is just super neat, wish more demos did this kind of thing,

I mean this is definitely a giveaway demo for NiGHTS into Dreams, as there's basically only two levels to be played, both of which being in the same snowy dream valley. Despite that, it actually works in this games favor. Christmas NiGHTS is a very seasonal game, with the Sega Saturn's RTC clock dictating various events and bonuses depending on what day of the year you play the game on. It's certainly charming, and there's also a bunch of little other bonuses such as presents you can open to view concept art, sing karaoke, check your save file for the main NiGHTS game to see A-Life progress, all sorts of things like that. All of it comes together to make a wonderful little demo disc that I could see myself playing every year from here on out.

'Twas the NiGHTS before Christmas, when all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even a needlemouse.

You know it's a bit fucked up, I've owned a Saturn with a hard drive in it for about two years now and never once thought to boot up this dream that I have missed for so long. I have seen NiGHTS elsewhere in other Sega games so many times, but have never once thought to take flight with them. Perhaps it was a bit too convenient to play what is effectively a demo disc on this timely lead up to the holidays. What wasn't convenient of course was my lack of a 3D controller, but I was not going to let that stop me from taking my trip with NiGHTS!

I lied actually, I set the date to April 1st so I could play as Reala. Tee hee.

This really was just airplane mode Sonic The Hedgehog wasn't it? It was pretty damn exhilarating and I could totally see the satisfaction from mastering this and getting good ranks. Despite the sore thumb from using my pad and originally dizzying myself a bit from getting used to NiGHTS/Reala's zoomin', I had a lot of fun here. I really feel like I'm missing out on something, because I adore the vibes and of course the low-poly is just candy to my eyes. Needless to say I never got all the presents, because unfortunately my Saturn's on board memory is a bit full, and I wasn't about to reenact my childhood of leaving consoles on overnight to retain unlocks. It seems a tad annoying to care about such things anyways, we shouldn't worry about receiving, it's all about giving.

I will need to check out the full game eventually, I used to think the Playstation was the best at doing demo discs, but now I really wish I was in that timeline where Christmas Spyro was a thing and he went around in a Santa hat toasting gnorcs in a snow-filled Artisans home.

NiGHTS is the kind of beautiful androgynous superbeing I strive to be.

Something I really liked about Sega during their Saturn and Dreamcast eras was how they celebrated Christmas (and other holidays) in some of their games. A couple well known examples of this were Phantasy Star Online and Sonic Adventure's Christmas events, which were accessible through the Dreamcast's online services. However, the most well-known case is perhaps Christmas NiGHTS Into Dreams, which released on a standalone sampler disc in '97.

Christmas NiGHTS tells its own little story about Elliot and Claris trying to find a star to place atop Twin Seeds Tower, which is dressed up like a Christmas tree. Also, this story is a dream and doesn't actually happen. Nothing matters, there is no point to waking up and existence is pain. While it is barely a story at all, I think the cutscenes are very well drawn and the more contained nature of it lends itself well to actually having a voiced narration, contrary to my unhinged tirade about voiced characters in Journey of Dreams.

You're only given two levels to play, which are dressed up for the holiday. Wreaths in place of rings, Christmas bells to collect for Links, and NiGHTS all in their red and white outfit. It's cute, and the Jingle Bells theme that plays is a great touch too. You can also unlock extras through a match two minigame, and some of these "presents" are actually pretty nice. They include trade show videos promoting NiGHTS into Dreams, a closer look at character models and promotional images, and even a short bonus mode where you can play as Sonic the Hedgehog. Unfortunately, this also highlights the weakest part of Christmas NiGHTS: the fact that you have to grind two levels over and over again if you want all the presents. It gets dull pretty fast. The game does use a clock feature that unlocks additional seasonal bonuses and modes depending on when you play it, like playing as Raela on April 1st, or a New Years theme which is added between January 1st and 15th, which helps pad out the amount of content you get even if it means screwing with the Saturn's clock or trying to remember to play NiGHTS at set times throughout the year.

However, it's still NiGHTS into Dreams, and all my complaints about that game stick here, too. Be that as it may, I still keep coming back to it every year. I suppose it's just because it oozes so much holiday charm. Its short length can be a detriment in some ways, but it also makes it a very easy game to commit to on Christmas Eve, so it has that going for it too.

Not half bad for what was meant to be a promotional item and not much else. Not only does it serve as a good sampler for the full NiGHTS into Dreams experience, but it serves as an even better supplement to the full game. You can unlock a massive gallery of promotional artwork, a karaoke mode for the song "Dreams, Dreams", a Nightopian viewer that gives you a closer look at the game's A-Life system, freaking Sonic the Hedgehog into Dreams, and more. The only complaint I have is that the matching minigame you play to unlock these "presents" contains a bit of a dick move. If you flip a Reala card, regardless of how many card flips you have left, you're booted out of the minigame and have to go another round on this demo disc's measly two stages for another chance. Thankfully, none of the card positions ever change, including the Reala ones, so you can just make notes of where everything is for your next try.

They could have made this demo just one stage and then "Thanks for playing!" screen like every game out there, but it has tons of unlockables that really incentivizes you to replay the levels to unlock everything, the better the player is, the more chances to get more presents there are, it's pretty much a full fledged game on its own. It's clear that NiGHTS was made with so much love and passion by the creators despite whatever stupid company deadlines or internal competition there was and this can be seen here in this demo.

The only thing I dislike is the Reala card (Joker card) that instantly makes you lose, pretty frustrating to get A-Rank and lots of chances to flip the cards and just unfairly get kicked out. I get it's supposed to be just funny casual party like you would have with your family in Christmas, but this punishment curve is just too unfair for a videogame were you should also consider players wanting to play seriously.
Another small but really annoying thing is the music on the menus always starting over when changing screens, this gets really obnoxious specially when you want to see all the NiGHTS museum arts, every time you change present you'll hear the beginning of the same song over and over.

I really gotta say, for what was essentially just a Christmas-themed Nights into Dreams demo this really oozes a lot of charm.

I decided to play through this (at least the HD version unlockable in the 2012 remaster lol) for probably obvious reasons and fundamentally, like I mentioned, it's basically just a demo of Nights featuring the first level of the actual game, Spring Valley (Claris' variation in particular), and on that note you would think there wouldn't be a lot to talk about, but on the same token it does feel like they went a few steps ahead of just creating a short Nights demo. For one thing, the game is obviously themed around Christmas, with the aforementioned level taking place during a winter sunset with the rings replaced with wreaths, the Ideya Palaces having Christmas trees and Nights themselves donning a red outfit, with a Nights version of "Jingle Bells" playing, among other changes to the presentation.

But on top of all that, it even contains it's own story separate from the main game, which being a short demo game is pretty basic on it's own (basically just being about Claris and Elliot trying to retrieve a 'Christmas star' in order to return Christmas spirit), but it does have some nice illustrations and a voiceover to go with it, which I think is pretty neat.

But the most interesting thing this game does is that it also offers different themes for the level depending on the date and time (or just what the Saturn internal clock is turned to), particularly for other holidays. The 'Christmas' Nights mode itself with the aforementioned theming mostly just comes around during December, but there's also modes available for New Year's, Valentine's Day, and Winter in general, but the most interesting is April Fools when you can play as Reala. Even the Christmas theme itself changes somewhat depending on if you're playing on Christmas Eve - where you can spot Santa in the background. I can't confirm whether or not they kept these for the HD version as I didn't really find, but it's still rather neat that they included these.

The Saturn version of this also includes some neat unlockables as well - including what's technically Sonic's first 'full' 3D appearance. Unfortunately this apparently isn't available in the HD version.

At the end of the day, this is still just a demo version of Nights into Dreams, but what they did with the presentation is just so full of charm that it's still worth talking about.

Happy Holidays!

Played during the Backloggd’s Game of the Week (Dec. 20 – Dec. 26, 2022).

Neither the US nor Sonic the Hedgehog have ever held any attraction over me, to the point where I must confess to my bewilderment at the community's elation upon the release of Sonic Frontiers (2022). Perhaps it's all part of a zeitgeist I never quite got into. As such, SEGA's mythology doesn't really manage to entice me, and NiGHTS into Dreams (1996) unfortunately stumbles into this pitfall. Don't misunderstand me: I enthusiastically acknowledge the qualities of the title. Returning to an arcade approach when the 3D platformer craze was in full swing, the title blended a colourful aesthetic with a gameplay that emphasised the fast-paced frenzy fans have long enjoyed in Sonic games. Getting rid of the ground to focus on aerial movements works well and gives the title an effervescent quality, one that is commonly found in Formula 1 racing.

Nonetheless, no nostalgia really connects me to the game, unlike many people, who may remember hours of their childhood playing it, especially around Christmas, when SEGA titles took on new colours to celebrate the winter festivities. NiGHTS into Dreams is one such game, donning its white and red coat for the period, swapping rings for bells, hoops for holly wreaths. To justify its holiday version, the game contextualises the short adventure by the hunt for the Christmas star, which is to adorn the big tree of Twin Seeds. The gameplay is identical to the original game, but it is only possible to explore Spring Valley, before fighting Gillwing.

As welcome as the game is in the Christmas season, the game trades its unique aesthetic for a fairly formulaic representation of wintertime. The music is also limited to rather uninspired renditions of Jingle Bells. A lovely acapella version of 'Dreams Dreams' is included, however, whose warm accents can only charm when the cold wind blows outside. Besides, the magic of Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams undoubtedly lies in the nostalgia it is able to invoke, inviting the forgotten images of childhood carols, a solace in today's times. This version easily represents an important period of life for so many people, while preserving many artworks and other game modes (the most interesting one being perhaps 'Sonic the Hedgehog into Dreams'), unlocked by collecting presents. This is remarkable enough and very meaningful.