The game that made me realize why I barely play new games

[Jrecee]

Nights for Wii. Dear god. Ok so I have a saturn, and I love the original Nights (even if I suck at it). So I picked up the new one for $10 on clearance, I figured $10 for a few new Nights levels seemed worth it.

So I start the game and am introduced to a CG cut scene. Looks nice but I don't give a shit so I skipped it. Then I get to the game, I'm some kid in a garden. I start walking forward thinking, ok Nights must be up ahead! Nope. There's a fucking owl. And it starts talking to me. I attempt every button combination that I can think of but nothing ends the horror. He just keeps talking. I'm somewhat patient for a bit, then Nights comes down. NIGHTS! It's him! Thank god! Now I'm going to combine/merge/mutate with him and fly around right? Nope, Nights starts talking. In some creepy gay peterpan half-english accented voice. At this point I decide I can't endure the horror of having this voice in my head when I want to play the old Nights so I leave the room to let him ramble while I check my e-mail. I come back and the level has started apparently. And it looks familiar! Rings, blue chips, etc. Ok so It's not all bad! So I'm playing with the gamecube controller, which apparently only has 4 directions on the analog stick because Nights is moving stiffer than he does with the 8 directional d-pad on my saturn. I sort of get the controls down enough to fly through 50% of the rings I'm supposed to and I'm just getting into the level when. . . mr. owl comes back. Another freaking cutscene. He's telling me how to push the A button or something. I get through another 5 seconds and he comes back again to tell me the controller contains a B button. I can't seem to play for more than 10 seconds without him interupting the level to tell me something like, "Hey! Did you know you can move by pushing the stick that moves every character in every game ever made?"

At this point I turned it off and decided it was $10 poorly spent and that I'd never look at it again. Seriously, can games include some sort of checkbox at startup that says "I am not a moron, just let me play the game"? We figured this stuff out by reading manuals or pushing buttons until we won back in 1996.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Nights for wii pushed the series from an MC Escher (sp?) cult style, to a generic disney cutesy mainstream style, including a please don't sue us for misinformation tutorial. I rented it when it came out, and literally ripped the disc out of my Wii, slammed it in the case, and took it back to Hollywood Video within the hour I rented it.

In case anybody ever played through it, Does it get better?

[ArwingCmdr]

I really enjoyed it, honestly. I mean, it has it's bad moments. The cheesy cut scenes and the lame levels that make you suffer through platforming as one of the kids, just to name the two that stick out for me. Aside from that stuff though, It is an update on one of my all time favorite Saturn games. I loved every NiGHTs level and replayed the game a few times after my first run-through.

I will agree with the topic in one way: It seems as though nothing new can hold a torch to its retro counterpart. I mean, I may be alone on this, but I feel like this generation of consoles is by far the WORST generation in history.

[brickiemart]

There was a game rumor which stated that Nights Wii was originally a 360 title, but it got pushed onto the Wii due to the Wii’s popularity and the dev. team only had a year to make it. Makes sense, it does feel phoned in; remember how it starts with nice graphics, but when the actual game starts the characters all of a sudden look choppier? I agree adding dialogue was dumb, Nights' voice didn't bother me like the Owl’s, but she was more enigmatic when she never spoke. That worked for the game better in my opinion. Overall, Nights didn't turn me off to new games as much as it did to Sega franchise games.

[the7k]

I was quick livid with a good friend of mine when he questioned my desire to get NiGHTS on the Saturn - she said "NiGHTS on the Wii is just as good."

Granted, I wasn't livid then - I was curious, so I watched her play it. Not nearly the same. It felt so... generic. It felt too... modern Sonic Team.

As for this gen being the worst, I don't think we can really call judgment on that until this gen is over. So far, though, this gen doesn't have any system that can really be compared to the CD-I, so I think we're good. Also, even the biggest disappointments of this gen (Mirror's Edge) are usually only disappointments because the bar has been set so high. While we've had some rotten games (Lair and Bomberman:Act Zero come to mind), keep in mind that back then we had Revolution X and Shaq Fu.

[Briomoto]

Yeah, it's very unfortunate that over a decade's worth of fan loyalty and anticipation ended with such a mediocre game. I didn't think JoD was outright awful but I think "watered-down" is an appropriate term. It took the basic gameplay elements of the original and diluted it with so much unnecessary stuff that, even if it was still a fun game (as I do believe), it lost all of the charm that made the original great. As a result, JoD didn't feel like a sequel or update as it became just another platform game.

[HellHammer]

As others have said, Wii NiGHTS is pretty good actually. Obviously it's got it's flaws, but it's still got a little bit of that original NiGHTS charm. Give it another shot, I'd say. Once you get past most of the early 'hand-holding' parts of the game, it's really enjoyable.

[deathclaw]

Nights for Wii. Dear god. Ok so I have a saturn, and I love the original Nights (even if I suck at it). So I picked up the new one for $10 on clearance, I figured $10 for a few new Nights levels seemed worth it.

So I start the game and am introduced to a CG cut scene. Looks nice but I don't give a shit so I skipped it. Then I get to the game, I'm some kid in a garden. I start walking forward thinking, ok Nights must be up ahead! Nope. There's a fucking owl. And it starts talking to me. I attempt every button combination that I can think of but nothing ends the horror. He just keeps talking. I'm somewhat patient for a bit, then Nights comes down. NIGHTS! It's him! Thank god! Now I'm going to combine/merge/mutate with him and fly around right? Nope, Nights starts talking. In some creepy gay peterpan half-english accented voice. At this point I decide I can't endure the horror of having this voice in my head when I want to play the old Nights so I leave the room to let him ramble while I check my e-mail. I come back and the level has started apparently. And it looks familiar! Rings, blue chips, etc. Ok so It's not all bad! So I'm playing with the gamecube controller, which apparently only has 4 directions on the analog stick because Nights is moving stiffer than he does with the 8 directional d-pad on my saturn. I sort of get the controls down enough to fly through 50% of the rings I'm supposed to and I'm just getting into the level when. . . mr. owl comes back. Another freaking cutscene. He's telling me how to push the A button or something. I get through another 5 seconds and he comes back again to tell me the controller contains a B button. I can't seem to play for more than 10 seconds without him interupting the level to tell me something like, "Hey! Did you know you can move by pushing the stick that moves every character in every game ever made?"

At this point I turned it off and decided it was $10 poorly spent and that I'd never look at it again. Seriously, can games include some sort of checkbox at startup that says "I am not a moron, just let me play the game"? We figured this stuff out by reading manuals or pushing buttons until we won back in 1996.

man, just because there are crappy games you do not have to judge them all just because of this..try games like Super Mario Galaxy and you're gonna be pleased... And this gen has brought many awesome things even for retro gamers - for instance it's actually cheaper to buy used Xbox 360 and buy Ikaruga and Rez on it than buy these games on Dreamcast...and it has better graphics /well, it was already great/ and online multiplayer! Nothing compares to playing online multiplayer with my best friends living miles away!

and to think things like "new games are worse than old, they don't have soul, they're no fun" ...it's a bunch of bull...I even rembember reading these things in Nintendo Power Magazine when the N64 came out, so even these "good old games" on PSX, N64 and Saturn had been once "crappy-new-games-bring-me-the-old-ones"

So yes, there are bad games - and there have always been...But there are good games as well - and there will always be.

[lotekindustries]

Hehe, I actually worked on NiGHTS Wii.
Alot of the complaints I'm hearing are issues we brought up to the Devs.
I felt kind of bad tearing their game apart since they were across the office from us.
I kept hearing "we are designing this for "core" NiGHTS fans." We were all like.......really?
Sonic Team USA has since gone back to Japan and I hope they are working on games they want to make.

[the7k]

Interesting. I heard one of the problems with NiGHTS Wii's development was that Sega placed to many restrictions on it - basically completely destroyed any opportunity they could have for creativity. I'd be interested to hear more of your take on the situation.

It'd be good if Sega would let Sonic Team do... anything not Sonic. Many of the best games on the Saturn and Dreamcast were Sonic Team games, and yet they had nothing to do with Sonic and his neon-colored woodland friends. Burning Rangers, Die Hard Arcade, Puyo Pop Fever, Phantasy Star Online, ChuChu Rocket... I'd really love to see these games happen again.