K-project

I've just bought a Gamecube pad for it on a recommendation from another forum, and I have to say I do think it improves the game a bit. But what a sad day though. I thought the whole idea of bringing NiGHTS back was to take advantage of the new controls? Once you've beaten the game, it's much nicer to play it as you like. You don't have to put up with the naff cutscenes and awful characterisations, and you can just dive into any level as you see fit - which is much more fitting the NiGHTS ethos - and hammer your scores. The new proper NiGHTS levels are often quite lovely. What a shame Sonic Team didn't just polish up the good stuff, instead of wasting time and effort sticking crap in. But nevertheless I can say now that I am enjoying the game very much. It still feels like a sequel that should have come out on the Saturn, but yes there's fun to be had. I reckon the scores so far have been mostly accurate - about 6 out of 10 is fair.

Ooh yeah. This is going to be very good indeed I reckon. Cannot wait!

Sorry I totally disagree with this. The Wii remote has simply not been used to any great advantage in this game at all. I'm having to go out and buy a GC pad to get the best from this game, because the remote implementation is so poor. Even the nunchuck+remote setup is useless, since it's near-impossible to pull of stunts consistently and comfortably. At least the Tomb Raider team implemented the Wii controls to some useful and intelligent level. In NiGHTS, the promise was there, but Sonic Team have totally botched it. Sad but true.

And sadly, I have to agree with them. I can't believe they've done this, I really can't. I'd rather they just hadn't bothered. If this is what Sega intend to do to all their classics, then take my name off the Shenmue III petition list please.

Tomb Raider has turned out excellent on Wii I have to say. Really well done, and nicely implemented controls. On the other hand, while I utterly adored the original NiGHTS on Saturn, I'm left a bit upset by the Wii sequel. Rushed and rough, with only snippets of what made the first game great, and mired in awful cutscenes with naff scripting and voice acting. Try before you buy if you can. On Wii that isn't so easy though is it?

Yup, I agree with a lot of what you say Lens. I've been playing a bit more of it, and one things for sure; it can be very addictive. I reckon the true NiGHTS flying sections are spot on for the most part, but as you say some missions let the side down because its either often unclear what you're supposed to do, or there's just no point to the level. I really didn't care for the "vacuum up the Nightopians" level for instance, or the river rescue. Can we go back to the proper flying please? But the roller coaster level was great fun, and I'm really enjoying the new abilities - dolphin, rocket etc. Lovely. But even though I was prepared for it, the rawness and lack of polish, and the too-bad-to-be-even-funny cutscenes nearly killed the game for me. By sticking in a load of pointless exposition, they've taken the soul out of the game. There's no doubt about that for me. The wonderful fairy tale quality of the original is reduced, and it's replaced by some awful Sonic Heroes acting and posing. I've said it before, less is more. Sonic Team honestly haven't got a clue in this regard have they? And I agree about the controls too. What happened? It should have been the perfect marriage - Wii motion sensing and NiGHTS bouncy flying abilities. But again Sonic Team cop out of it. I use the Remote and Nunchuck option, which seems the best, but when I want to do the stunts I have to awkwardly tilt the remote left and right whilst flying, and I tell you - tilting the remote right after it being tilted left is far too difficult in a fast paced game like this. Plus it doesn't always work because you have to tilt the remote completely over to the extreme. There's 3 buttons all doing the same thing with this option - boosting. Wouldn't it at least have been better to put the left stunt on Z on the nunchuck, and the right stunt on B on the remote? Or better yet, have a proper look at how the Wii works and come up with something altogether better than either of these compromises? And that's it really. It's a compromise. They've clearly resurrected old DC/PS2 code and abandoned ideas, quickly spruced it all up, banged it out on the Wii and crossed their fingers. I'm sticking with it because when it's good it does have some lovely new ideas to offer that are worth your patience. But it does make you wonder how Sonic Team have just completely failed to see what made the game so special in the first place. Sorry again for these long posts.

Mine's turned up today too. Have to say, first impressions are almost catastrophic. I was a massive fan of the original, so I am of course really unhappy about the amount of unskippable cutscenes and poor voice acting that abound so early on. It takes a good 20 mins to get into the game when you first start it up, and it's very disconcerting. NiGHTS has always been a very "less is more" kinda game. The original game's storytelling was done really by it's amazing soundtrack. It didn't (and doesn't) need a bunch load of naff voices, or a bloody owl explaining the game either. The more he tried to explain it, the more complicated he made it sound, and the scriptwriting is a joke. "Welcome to the World of Dreams" he says, but then warns "Don't let that name fool you, it's not really a world". But he's obviously been on the piss, because he then says "Try to think of it as a world...". WTF?? It's no more or less complicated than the original, and the exposition wasn't needed then, so why now? It's just naff, and would put anyone but the most devoted NiGHTS fan off. Which is key to knowing whether you'll like this or not.... In 12 years they've done nothing, let me just emphasise this - NOTHING - to improve the awkward on foot sections. Even worse, they've put more emphasis on them in this game. In the original, they were mild distractions, used only when your clock had run out so you had to run back to NiGHTS cage. Here, there are clumsy platforming "adventures" to be endured. This is Sonic Team? So, marry all this with what are clearly to me sub-PS2-not-even-Dreamcast quality graphics on close ups and cutscenes, and I was very close to sending it back. Close up it really looks as though development on this game started in the early PS2 era, was forgotten, then resurrected for the Wii. But luckily, the flying sections - the main thrust of the NiGHTS experience, are done really well, even though again they've not added much new. There's a lot of fun to be had from replaying bits you've already done to boost up your scores. And of course, that's what matters in NiGHTS really. The new masks are nicely done, and when you're in the air the graphics can be really beautiful. The real success is the soundtrack. Absolutely fantastic, easily comparable to the original, and sometimes it even surpasses it. I'm very early on in the game really, and it's warming up a bit after a couple of hours play. But on balance so far I think the 5's and 6's out of 10 you've seen are mostly very fair. I can't imagine what people playing this as their first NiGHTS game must be thinking after us fans of the old game were hyping it up. I'm amazed Sonic Team didn't add some polish, but hopefully the game is going to shine through. Sorry for the long "review" type post. I'm a bit passionate about NiGHTS!

If NiGHTS can make a comeback after 11 years, then I'm sure Shenmue III will turn up eventually. I still believe it will happen. The bit that does me though, is why don't Sega release some sort of box set with the first 2 games in it, just to keep the series alive a bit? I'd buy any console that could boast both these titles in a set, as I sold my DC some time ago. Shenmue 1 and 2 would be great on the Wii....

Yeah. It sounds a bit like the Master League but with a different name. Where's the cheapest place I can pre-order this? Anyone done it yet?

Really? Oh right. I wouldn't know since I don't have access to a 360, but it's always presumed (with reason obviously) that 360 games look better than their Wii counterparts. On that score I thought it was worth mentioning that to me the Wii version looks lovely. Both me and the missus were big fans of the original, and this certainly elicited a couple of ooh's and aah's on the graphics front.

Turned up today, and the missus let me have an hour on it before I get it for my birthday. Played through to the T-Rex bit, and so far really impressed. It's very nice graphically I reckon - I can't imagine there's much between the Wii and the 360 versions (HD aside), as it's quite nice and detailed. There are a couple of moments when the frame rate dips, but it's nothing game killing, and I hear the other versions suffer with the same problem. But I like how they've incorporated the Wii controls. They take a bit of getting used to, but you will get used to them as really they aren't complicated, and they're certainly not a compromise. And +100 kudos points for the torch! Such a simple but effective idea. So just a couple of weeks to go before I get a proper play of it without being rushed. It's a sod really, as I've got this now and NiGHTS is on it's way to me, and my Wii is about to be sent in to Nintendo to be fixed up with a drive issue. So I'm hoping I get it back before the end of the month.

No Master League??!! Is that true? What will us single player saddos do? I still reckon this will be great though.

Oh yes! I've actually still got my full collection of N64 Mag, right up to it turning into NGC, all in great condition. I've also still got my prized, bound, full collection of Super Play magazines too, including the one-off special Gold issue! I was a huge fan of that mag. Still got the video somewhere too. I really ought to eBay them. I wonder if they're worth anything....?

You know what? I have to agree with this. I've only recently got this game, and as a fairly long term Zelda fan (started with A Link to the Past on SNES and have played them all since) I kinda expected it to not be that good. Much like the Mario games, I expected the series best days were behind it now, especially after the disappointing Wind Waker. I think it's fair to say that Mario really surprised me with Galaxy, and so has Zelda with Twilight Princess. I got TP for Christmas, and in spite of being heavily into Galaxy at the time, it managed to relegate the game while I explored Hyrule once again. What an amazing game. How come there's such cynicism around it? It has absolutely blown me away, and what with this and Mario Galaxy, I'm playing games just like I used to do years ago - for hours on end. What have I been playing in the years in between?

Cripes, that is bad news. I'm getting this for my birthday off the missus, and I'm really looking forward to it. I absolutely loved the original game (we both did), and I like what they've done with this update. They seem to have stayed really true to the atmosphere of the original. Along with Shenmue and the Mario and Zelda games, it's one of those few games that we both seem to enjoy. So yeah, should be good!

No, I know you never said anything about having a PS2. I was just trying to make a point about the suitability of your preferred pad option on Wii. I think if I preferred to use a regular pad rather than try the new setup, then I would just buy a PS2 again and play PES on that. You see what I'm trying to say, yeah? I wasn't being funny or anything.

Not being rude, but why would you want to play PES with the classic controller? You'd be much better off getting the PS2 version in if you want to play with a regular pad. It's pad is much more suited to PES than the chunky classic one. Myself, I'm up for a new approach to how footie games are controlled, so I'm looking forward to the implementation of the Wii remote. It's the reason I bought a Wii in the first place - the promise of a new way of controlling games. I think I mentioned earlier how laborious it can be on FIFA using a button to cycle clumsily through players nearest the ball. At the very least the PES video shows they have removed that outdated problem. EDIT: Just to let you know that Play.com have this down for the 28th of March. I dunno how accurate that will turn out to be, but I suspect it won't be too far off. I'll be a bit disappointed really if it's true, but hopefully the quality of the title will make up for it.

If it's anything like the Saturn original, then I say it's completely unfair to compare it on any level to Mario. It's not really an adventure in any sense. You fly around, perform stunts and better your scores. There was a brief period when the original came out where it was referred to as a "Score Attack" game. That's a phrase I've not heard for years, but it's accurate I reckon. The original NiGHTS suffered greatly in 1996 from comparisons with Mario64. It's a completely different experience altogether, and very unique. Anyone who hasn't played the Saturn game really ought to try before you buy I feel. It's a bit like Shenmue in that respect - you either love it or hate it. I love it personally.

If it is coming to Europe I hope we don't have to wait too long. February 21st would have been great, but I can imagine a Spring release for this, which would be disappointing. Don't make us wait Konami!

Terrible thought - what if it doesn't even get a European release at all? After all, Winning Eleven 6FE never made it to these shores, despite it being (to all intents and purposes) a slightly improved version of the game that was to be PES2 here. Could this be possible?

Oh I see. I'll be disappointed too if they don't allow for simple manual passing as you say. I still don't think they'll mess this up, but as you say we'll see. What's the chance of this 21st Feb date being a worldwide release date, do you think?

Curious. What gave you that impression Dazzy? I can't see Konami limiting options like this for the player....

OK, I've become addicted to watching this new video ceaselessly! I think this looks absolutely fantastic, and I simply cannot wait for it. I think this new method of controlling football play is long overdue, and I'm glad it's the Wii that can finally offer the opportunity for developers to take a good look at things. I reckon this will raise the bar for gameplay in football games, I really do. As soon as this is available to pre-order, I'm on it!

If I'd paid attention at the end of the video, I would have seen that the Japanese release looks like 21st February. D'oh! But - does anyone know if this is likely to be the same for the rest of the world? Also, I never even noticed the new name. It's a bit naff, but hey I'll take it!

Holy Cow that looks good! When is it out? I love the idea of fresh new controls. Football gaming has needed a new look a things quite seriously for some time. There's been a few times recently when I've been playing FIFA08 and complained aloud that there should be a better way to select a player you want to attack the ball. Clumsily cycling through players close to the ball is an outdated solution to me, particularly when you have such a multi-faceted control system that the Wii offers. I wasn't too sure about this when I first saw it, what with all the lines and things. But I reckon like some of you have said that once you get good at it you'll be able to remove the lines. I'm definitely going to be getting this. Finally a PES game for a Nintendo console! (And yes I'm aware of Winning Eleven 6 for GC)