Nintendo Power (Jan. 2008) gave the game a 9 out of 10, saying “Director Takashi Iizuka and his team have hit one of out the park, delivering a follow-up in every way worthy of its legendary predecessor.” EGM scores (Jan. 2008) were lower at 7, 7.5, and 7 out of 10, but all three editors lauded the lush visuals, symphonic soundtrack, and good voice acting while saying the game plays much better with a Wavebird than Wiimote.

UPDATE: Another one: “While not the Mario-class game that the original was in 1996, Nights: Journey of Dreams’ levels are inspired, entertaining, and the camera tricks are amazing… as a whole, Journey of Dreams is a great adventure that will take you to a world you won’t want to leave,” provided you ditch the Wiimote and tune-out the atrocious dialog.

Uber-nerds only: Be sure to visit Sega’s NiGHTS FTP site which hosts a slew of game-related media including screens, trailers, story art, illustrations, logos, and music — both good and (horribly) bad. It’s all there.

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams arrives on Wii next Tuesday, December 18, just in time for Christmas. Most recent game trailer here: (more…)

FROM GAMES RADAR: “We sat down with the boss of Sonic Team USA, Takashi Iizuka, at the Wii Flat in London yesterday to quiz him on his new game, NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams on Wii - and he revealed an interesting fact about the game’s development. Turns out that of all the four control methods available, the development team all play the game using GameCube controllers.”

NiGHTS is yet another title that has my interests piqued, even though it fails to leverage Wii’s saving grace: motion. Still, I’m anxiously awaiting this one when it drops on Dec. 18 — The perfect kiddie game to play on Christmas morning. Link

SEGA of America, Inc. today announced that NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams for the Wii video game console will ship December 18, 2007 in North America. The title, a sequel to the critically-acclaimed hit NiGHTS, will allow players to take flight, unleash incredible airborne maneuvers, and explore seven magnificent worlds of imagination, dreams and nightmares. SEGA also unveiled plans to reawaken the Artificial Life (A-Life) feature in NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, which gives gamers the freedom to oversee and develop their own sandbox environment enabling them to capture, raise, and even combine the inhabitants from the world of Nightopia, and has confirmed that the game will feature a two-player mode and network support at launch.

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