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!
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!