Mario’s leaving voicemails.

Let me start off by saying that I’m not a long-time NiGHTS fan. In fact, I just got into it this past summer–so I’m still catching up on all the terms and plotlines. However, I do feel that I’m familiar enough to dedicate a post to it. That said, I’d like to discuss my fascination with the new NiGHTS installment, NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (JoD), along with my impressions of the original (of [inter]course).

Let’s put it this way: I’ve grown fonder of purple since my introduction to the franchise. Back in the day (about 4-5 years ago), I stumbled upon an article titled “the best videogames of all time” … or something to that effect. Of course, the list given was chock-full of expected titles (read: Ocarina of Time). However, amongst the list of undeniably dignified Miyamoto-related games, one title struck me as completely foreign.

“NiGHTS? They spelled it incorrectly. What IS this and why haven’t I ever heard of it?”

I was just like everybody else: I had no idea what NiGHTS was. Needless to say, I grew to love the game. However, there are still tons of people who were just like me in terms of being unfamiliar with the cult classic that is NiGHTS Into Dreams (NiD). Why? Well, it was a Sega Saturn title. I could stop there without any confusion, but I’ll elaborate. Sega’s never had any luck in terms of console warfare. The peak of their success was clearly past its prime after the Sega Genesis era. It was all downhill from there. Nintendo was kicking ass as always, and Sega had to deal with it. No amount of disparaging advertisements could help change this fact. The Saturn just couldn’t compete with Nintendo’s N64. There was simply more support and excitement for Nintendo’s system. And although I believe that Sega consoles have always been too advanced for their time, nobody acknowledged them for what they really had to offer. But I’m running off on a different tangent. Back to Saturn: As a result of the Saturn’s popularity contest loss, the games that were released for it never really took off. And it’s really unfortunate–a lot of Saturn games had great potential, but the torrential downpour of Nintendo titles left them in the dust. Thus, the masterpiece that is NiD was never really given the praise it deserved. But with the up and coming release of JoD, NiGHTS might have a second chance to be recognized.

Check out 1up.com’s NiGHTS coverage for more

While I have yet to complete the original NiGHTS Into Dreams, I can honestly say that I’m dying to play its sequel. Because the original was more addictive than a slot machine that dispenses crack and porn as payoff, I’m more than excited for the release of a second installment. I spent weeks playing and replaying the first few mares before even continuing with the rest of the game. It’s so enjoyable that I’m able to play through Splash Garden 50+ times without getting bored or desiring to move on with the rest of the game. The premise of the game is just awe-inspiring. The freedom of flight coupled with platforming elements makes it a truly incredible and unique experience. And the storyline actually has some bulk to it. Very briefly–humans’ dreams are played out in two areas of the “dreamworld.” In Nightopia (the better of the two dimensions), a dreamers’ personalities take the form of colored spheres called “Ideya.” Wizeman the Wicked, ruler of the Nightmare dimension, sets out to steal this dream energy to take over Nightopia, and subsequently, the real world. He does so by creating evil beings appropriately called ‘Nightmaren.’ Amongst the Nightmaren is NiGHTS, who breaks away from Wizeman’s scheme in order to restore peace to Nightopia. While Wizeman is the main adversary, Reala (another Nightmaren) seems to be the more likable of the two. And I’m glad to note that Reala will be a playable character in JoD, but only via multiplayer.

One aspect of NiD that I’ve never bothered to become familiar with is the A-Life (artificial life) system. Apparently, A-Life was a precursor to the Chao Garden feature of more recent Sonic games. But throughout the game, fairy-like beings called ‘Nightopians’ fly/walk around each level waiting to be captured. And from what I’ve read (and experienced via Sonic games), you can mold these captured Nightopians to your liking. The core personalities seem to be good and evil with the exception of ‘mepians’–the resultant of a Nightopian/Nightmaren enemy merge. A-Life is slated to appear in the highly anticipated JoD.

Overall, the NiGHTS franchise seems to have a lot going for itself, but its lack of [deserved] prevalence deters its chance of catching on with the majority. But who knows; Journey of Dreams might be one of the most successful games to grace the Wii. Stranger things have happened, so I doubt JoD will come anywhere near failure. If Journey of Dreams is anything like its predecessor, the franchise might finally get the attention it deserves.

We’ll just have to wait and see.

The highly controversial Manhunt 2 was recently hacked revealing its true, uncut form.

Let me give you some background as to what has been going on with this game. Manhunt 2 is noted to be the most controversial video game in the history of the industry. Why? Well, the aim of the game is to kill. While this is nothing new, Manhunt 2 goes above and beyond to focus on the game’s violence factor. While still in production, the ESRB gave the title an Adults Only (AO) rating, rendering it useless as Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony do not publish AO games on their systems. Rockstar was forced to rework the game until it was given a Mature (M) rating. Of course the game then became 100x more interesting. It’s considerably rare to ever come across an AO rated game — needless to say, fans wanted the uncensored version. And they got it. Much like Grand Theft Auto’s Hot Coffee incident, modifications were made to the game’s image itself to disable the censors. While this only holds true for the PSP version [as of right now], it’s still a very significant event.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Rockstar knew this was going to happen. I’d put money on it. After pushing to allow the game to be published as an ‘art form’ and failing to do so, why wouldn’t Rockstar make it easily alterable? The hype that the game racked up was unbelievable — all because it had originally received an AO rating. The executions within the game were the prime reason the ESRB deemed it unacceptable. They were just too real. One could see without much effort that Rockstar made Manhunt 2 so violent solely for shock value. You can see for yourself via this video if you don’t believe me. Before watching, however, I must warn you: this is not for the faint of heart. Although it’s not the worst thing in the world, it’s still pretty brutal. Watch the video [here].

While watching the above video, I couldn’t help but think to myself how someone could agree to develop such a game. Rockstar’s staff must be pretty messed up. While I’m all for freedom of the press, Manhunt 2 is just plain unruly. It’s one thing to add violence to a game, but to make it the main source of entertainment — that’s just damn impractical. Jim Sterling from Destructoid put it best:

It’s dreary, it’s drab and it’s far too real. It’s downright creepy.

While some may find violent videogames to be tons o’ fun (I, personally, do not), Manhunt 2 just goes beyond what is considered acceptable in regard to the overall industry.