NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams - hands on

Oct 1, 2007

We'll admit we were more than a little excited when it came to our hands-on with NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. After all, we've only been waiting eleven years forit, since the original came out in 1996. "Do you want to watch the intro sequence?" asked the Sega rep. "Yes, please."

The game revolves around two children - Helen and Will. The CG sequences are very high quality, looking like something out of a Kingdom Hearts game. Will is a football fan, but his dreams are haunted by the departure of his father. Helen is seen playing violin with her mother, although a text message from her friends sees her put down the instrument and run off, to her mother's dismay.

As Helen is looking in the window of a shop, she remembers her mum and starts to feel sorry... but then the image of her mum warps into a Nightmaren - a monster that lives in her dreams. She's in a nightmare. The sudden change is actually quite scary and nowhere near as saccharine-sweet as the initial trailer suggested. Both the children run away from the monsters until a light appears ahead of them, dissolving their pursuers. NiGHTS has arrived to help them. And that's where you come in.

Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.