Hello friends. Dan Ryan here, you… there. Thank you so much for checking in and if you like what you see please comment and share. A little while ago Kris and I decided to take a concept from his movie podcast here, combine it with a thing we had been doing for a bit, the summer series, and create a new recurring segment for the SAG Pod, the Alphabet Souper Series. In said series we take turns picking a retro game to play over the course of a month in alphabetical order. (get it… souper series, like alphabet soup and a super version of the summer series… we’re quite clever) And while it has been quite fun, I felt like it would be a good idea to mix in some writing to go along with it, hence this post. 

Every time the calendar hits the end of November I start to look for holiday themed games to play solo, with family and friends, whatever. And the pickings are slim to say the least. Christmas has more than enough movies, televisions specials, and albums, more than any other holiday by far. But games… not so much. Sure, there are more Christmas themed games than other holidays but what’s actually there is well, pretty bad overall. Things like The Legend of Santa, Elf Bowling, and The Elf on the Shelf: Christmas Heroes are the glut of releases. And if you haven’t played them don’t worry, you aren’t missing anything. They are as bad as you are imagining them to be. And while there are a few games that one might consider very good, Daze Into Christmas, Christmas Lemmings, the one that stands out the most is, in my opinion, Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams. Christmas NiGHTS into dreams... was a free release for the Saturn that transformed the first level of the regular game into a winter wonderland complete with wonderful music. It is a demo for NiGHTS, SEGA’s big holiday release in 1996, but so much more than that. It takes some ideas that were left on the cutting room floor and implements them beautifully, IE themed levels based on the time of year. 

Outside of December the demo reverts to standard NiGHTS graphics and on April 1st you can play as Reala, Nights’ opposite. There are also a ton of bonus modes and content and even an unlockable Sonic the Hedgehog that’ll run around stages clearly designed for flying. (it’s weird…) If you’d like to hear a more complete discussion, read not just me, feel free to check out the pod where Kris and I played through this game as part of our Alphabet Souper Series. And hey, it’s the holiday season and since we’re all feeling generous, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if you subscribed to our show and maybe told a friend. Okay, enough self promotion, submitted for your approval this is Retro Review: Christmas NiGHTS into dreams… As with all reviews here on the blog I will be using the wholly original, not copied at all from any defunct gaming magazine, SAG Pod ranking system, which is explained below.

Before we kick off with the review proper a bit of context is needed on this one. NiGHTS into dreams… was supposed to be a big deal for SEGA and the Saturn. Originally released in July of 1996, NiGHTS into dreams... was the follow up title from the team behind the rather niche, under the radar Sonic series. (I kid… I kid…) The team was inspired both by the idea of flight, as a control mechanism and as a feeling of freedom not really done well in gaming to that point, and by the works of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. (talk about podcast for another podcast…) During development the team switched to 3-D polygonal models over their preferred 2-D sprites but limited movement to an almost rail-like system to ease players into the overall flow of the game. In fact, control was such a concern that an entirely new gamepad, the Saturn 3-D controller, was developed which included an analog stick. This pad was sold alongside copies of NiGHTS as well as a standalone piece. As an aside, if you’re looking for a random bit of trivia, the first non-development team member to play a game using the then prototype gamepad was Steven Spielberg, yes that one, leading the team to lovingly refer to the pad as the Spielberg. The basic crux of the game is that you take control of Nights, a being created by Wizeman, the villain of the piece, who has rebelled against their creator and his evil plans. As Nights you must fly around various dreams, stages, to gather blue chips that will unlock the cages containing the Ideya, just go with it, and lead to a boss fight. A farkakte story to be sure BUT, when you think of this game in terms of a time attack, arcade style flightformer, see what I did there?, it begins to make more sense and really works. It just didn’t work for nearly enough people. NiGHTS was later released for the PS2 in Japan in 2008 and in 2012 an HD port released for Windows, PS3, and 360. And while the game did sell well, it was not the “hit” SEGA wanted it or needed it to be. The franchise has received one sequel, NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, for the Wii in 2007. It is prominently featured on cult classic lists all over the internet. It is loved by its fans and frankly, deserves another shot. Christmas NiGHTS into dreams… is proof that there is a lot of life in this concept.    

Graphics: 3.5 (the HD release is obviously better, this is focused on the Saturn version) Christmas Nights into dreams... is, for the time, a good looking game that suffers from some hiccups. What is there is really quite nice with the winter scene dressing being bright and colorful. It’s pretty in the way those early games could be but does feature glitches, pop-ins, limited draw distance, etc. If you’ve played a polygonal game from this era, you know exactly what you are going to see. Still, technical limitations aside, it is a game that nails that Christmas vibe.

Sound: 4 Kris talked me into upping my original score here and he is right, the soundtrack is wonderful. My only real reason for knocking it a point is that you will hear it a lot since the game requires multiple playthroughs to unlock all of the content. There are 7 songs total with one of those being the title track and one of those being an acapella version of the main theme Dreams, Dreams… (there is also a bonus karaoke version…) In total there is just over 15 minutes of new music here and while good, it does get old.

Control: 3.5 Christmas NiGHTS into dreams… has the same control as NiGHTS proper, for better and worse. While the Saturn 3D controller is definitely the way to play this, you are still limited as to what you can do. It works, and it makes sense for the overall feel of the game, but it could have been better. At the very least it could have been expanded to give the tiniest bit more freedom.

Fun Factor: 4 All that said, this is still my favorite Christmas game. There is a deep sense of joy and love on display in Christmas NiGHTS into dreams… that was welcome at the time of its release and I’d argue, needed now. In a world that seems to want to drain every cent from its customers, SEGA did the exact opposite, releasing a demo that could stand alone and provided value in and of itself. It is certainly in line with the holiday spirit and honestly something I wish we saw a lot more of. I can think of a massive list of games that would benefit from this sort of makeover around the holidays. This game remains an absolute joy to play through each and every year and is intuitive enough that the entire family can have fun.

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 Now if you like what you read about Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams..., might I suggest grabbing an ODE from the site. It’ll make playing your games a whole heck of a lot easier and dare I say, (dare… dare…) better. Plus, we can even install it for you! But I want to know what you think. Join the Stone Age Gamer discord, or you can find me on Bluesky to let me know your thoughts. In the immortal words of Billy Joel, “Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes; I'm afraid it's time for goodbye again.” See you soon.