The plot revolves mainly around two children--Claris and Elliot. Claris is a great singer, however she lacks self confidence to show her talent on the stage. Elliot is great at basketball, but forfeits his esteem when he loses a game to some other kids. They both fall asleep that night feeling like failures. The rest of the story begins when they fall asleep, and travel to the land of dreams--Nightopia. However, not all is well in the dream city, as an evil tyrant Wizeman has ambitions to take over the world. He plans to use human dream energy, called Ideya, to allow him to escape out of the subconscious into the real world! One nightopian, NiGHTS, defects from Wizeman's army and finds Claris and Elliot to beg them to help him. Despite feeling like failures before, they agree. It's now up to Claris and Elliot to collect all the stolen dream energy, and put a stop to Wizeman's evil plans!

The story isn't told much through the game, as there are only a handfull of cutscenes. Most of the backstory you would have to read in the manual. Despite all that, I still think that the story is very good. It's simple enough to understand, but it also leaves it wide open to interpretation for you to figure out. There are a lot of hidden meanings and messages in there if you look hard enough. 9/10

This game was made on the SEGA Saturn system around the time of the Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation. Compared to today's standards, the graphics are hideous. However, back in the day, they were at the top. All the characters are developed nicely--even the enemies. The environments are also nothing to scoff at either. At times you'll be flying through a lush green valley dotted with huge windmills, and another a snow filled mountain complete with a spiraling raiload. NiGHTS himself also has a wide variety of animations, all of which are fluently performed.

Despite being quite outdated, the graphics still hold their own in today's world. For me, it's the very subtle things that make up the background that catch my attention the most. 9/10

The music is the game is perhaps the strongest aspect. All of the tunes are quite upbeat and cheery, and will be stuck in your head for days. Each tune fits in perfectly with the type of environment you're playing in. Another cool point to make is that sometimes the music will change depending on how the Nightopians (little artificial creatures in each level) are feeling. The music can change to 4 similar tunes if the Nightopians are happy, angry, etc. The sound effects are also done very well, and won't make you mute your television.

Overall, I believe that the music is brilliant. It is so strong it will imbed itself in your mind for years to come.10/10

Here's the best part of the game, and where it stands out from the rest. At first, you control one of the two kids on foot. However, once you touch the palace in the middle, you'll merge with NiGHTS and control him. When you're controlling NiGHTS, you move more or less on a set path. However you can manuever up and down on that path. The object is to collect 20 blue spheres, then touch the ideya capture machine to rescue the stolen ideya. You can then bring it back to the palace where you started. After that, you will start the next course around the level. However, you are being timed while doing so. If NiGHTS gets attacked, he loses a few seconds of time. If time runs completely out, then he and the child will separate, making you walk on foot again.

The way NiGHTS can attack is unique too. He basically flies a loop around an enemy, then when he complete his circle he will destroy that enemy. He can also dash forward quickly as long as a button is held down. While dashing NiGHTS moves much faster than normal, however he can not turn as well. It also drains his boost meter, which can be filled up by collecting blue tokens or flying through rings.

The controls in NiGHTS are very easy to learn and get into, but may take some time to master if you want to get that high score. However, for the shear uniqueness of the game, I would rate it 10/10

The bad part about this game is that it is very short. You could probably beat the whole thing within 25 minutes. It wouldn't take you more than an hour to get all perfect rankings either. After you've beaten anything, it goes back to the way we played in the old school--getting that high score. Despite that, NiGHTS is still fun to play over and over again. There's also a semi-sequel to this game called Christmas NiGHTS. It was a demo disk that included one level from the original NiGHTS into Dreams, however if played on certain days (like Christmas) different things might happen. For example, the level will be covered with snow, or it will rain hearts. Christmas NiGHTS is very hard to find, and can get expensive if you want to buy it online through eBay.
If you're the kind of gamer that likes to beat a game and move on, NiGHTS might not be for you. However if you like games that are very quirky and fun, you should give this game a try. I guarentee that you will hang onto it for a long time. 8/10