As Sega’s knockabout racer draws ever closer to release there’s still a vast amount we don’t know. Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue was a real surprise for long time fans and Sega are being extremely coy about revealing other playable characters.
One particuarly high profile character we’ve heard nothing about thus far is Sonic Team’s other game character NiGHTS. The devil-may-care jester featured prominently in the run up to the release of the last gathering of Sega characters; Superstar Tennis. His profile had been raised considerably by the release of Journey of Dreams for the Wii and even rival Reala got in on the action. Fast forward to today and NiGHTS is conspicuous by his absence.
Understandably this has his fans worried. DiGi Valentine of fan site NiGHTS Into Dreams.com sums up the mood perfectly.
“…the inclusion of NiGHTS is secondary to Sonic. He is a secondary mascot behind Sonic the Hedgehog and with all the current evidence shown to me I don’t believe NiGHTS is in AllStars Racing. I don’t think our fanbase should be treated in such a way as to have our favourite character not make the final line-up for whatever reason. We have not built this community up all these years only to have NiGHTS disregarded.”
Because of this DiGi has set up a campaign to make sure Sega don’t forget about NiGHTS. While any call for a character to be included in a game would usually be pointless so close to release this particular campaign has been spawned from rumours of impending DLC.
“I am not a man to act upon weak theories unless I have some form of proof and right now DLC has been mentioned, NiGHTS is no where to be seen. If DLC is being planned then this would be our only chance to make SEGA take notice and get NiGHTS in the game if he’s not already in there. And if NiGHTS is already in the game then all you’ve done is shown support for the character regardless.”
Should you feel passionately enough to help this worthy cause you can find the plan of action in full at the NiGHTS Community Forum. The crux of the campaign is to make Sega themselves aware of the fan outcry for NiGHTS. A previous effort was directed towards Sumo Digital who were entirely sympathetic to the cause but ultimately claimed their hands were tied and couldn’t reveal anything. Even if NiGHTS is in the game this may push Sega over the edge and have them reveal his existence this alleviating. So if you want to make a difference, read the plan carefully and whatever you do, don’t forget NiGHTS.
Gah THANKYOU so much! ;_; Thank you for trusting us! If you guys ever need any help in the future with ANYTHING please give me a shout and i’ll lend you our fans 😀
xx
Community power a go!~
inb4itsnotRyuitsRyo
Sega not gonna like that D:
Thank you! THANK YOUUUU! This campaign needs as many people as we can get. When i jumped in the SSMB today to promote this i didn’t bargain on anybody really helping but you had some great people in there who really helped promote this campaign. That was already more than i expected.
But this? This is beyond my gratitude. Thank you for making it a news post. I am so happy to see this kinda ‘back up’ from a neighbouring community. The NiGHTS community is much much smaller than Sonic’s so when it came down to this we really needed to reach as many people as we could.
Thank you sooooo so so so much for reporting this.
All my respect and purple fanboy thanks
~
DiGi Valentine
Jix, shhh! If we keep it quiet, nobody will ever know because it’s fixed now and everything.
DiGi, TRiPPY, it’s the least I could do. Being a huge NiGHTS fan myself and actually a member of your message board (Though I’ve not posted for an age) I got the e-mail heads up and felt the need to write a little something to promote the cause here. If you hear anything back from this I’ll be sure to follow it up. Now I just hope it has the desired effect!
Makes sense.
I mean, Nights was in SEGA SuperStars Tennis, as well as both Sonic Riders games. I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up seeing… uh… him/her?… meh… in the All-Stars Racing game sooner or later.
I thought that NiGHTS was already confirmed at SOS 09? Or was that someone else that they let slip by mistake?
@Paul – sure thing, i’ll let you know if this campaign gets a result! And thanks so much again ^_^
@Casanova – nah, that was just us NiGHTS fans having a joke with Sumo Digital because the week before we emailed them asking for NiGHTS. The whole SoS 09 thing was just us messing about, nothing was ever confirmed at all. Though they were a great bunch of guys, those Sumo’s. But at the end of the day, it’s not Sumo we should have been contacting to ask for NiGHTS, it was SEGA.
Nothing about NiGHTS was confirmed at SoS. People misread us joking with Sumo as being him confirmed in the game. Then the misinformation sort of spiraled and spread online. The reason we were joking with them was because we’d spambombed their server 2 days before SoS and had to appologise to them. That was awkward, but all in good humor.
Keep spreading this folks. You’ve got nothing to lose. If I’m wrong, NiGHTS is in. If I’m right (and you’ve trusted me) your actions can help change this. Please ask SEGA for DLC.
I’m more than willing to take the brunt of this for NiGHTS’ sake.
screw nights. He has only appeared in some games and his gameplay was never really unique. Ive played it on the saturn. I loved it. But not worthy to be a BIG sega icon. I consider chu chu rocket to be more of a meaning than nights.
Just my thoughts on this
I want Skies of Arcadia characters. T.T
I just sent an emial to every email address listed (except the Japan one).
@DiGi Valentine Good luck
Wouldn’t they be putting the finishing touches on the game around about now..?
Kinda late right?
But I guess if Nintendo can pull (capcom character) out of Brawl and replace him with a Fox clone (Wolf) in under 2 weeks.. I guess there’s a chance
Even if NiGHTS isn’t in the game now, there’s always chance he could be added as DLC. So no, it’s not too late to act at all.
@Jix – It is too late for the main game, that’s what my campaign is noticing. As Paul has just said though we’re requesting DLC of NiGHTS for ASR should NiGHTS be absent from the main game, which is highly likely now.
Thanks @MilesDX 🙂
Sent my e-mail. Personalised it a bit from Digi’s writeup. 😀
————————
[Supporting NiGHTS for Sonic & SEGA AllStars Racing]
Hi. I’m Darkspeeds from the Sonic the Hedgehog community but a supporter of NiGHTS fanbase.
I feel strongly that NiGHTs plays an important part in SEGA’s history – NiGHTs X-mas was one of my best experiences for the SEGA Saturn and after completing the game I’m proud
to have shared a piece of SEGA gaming history.
We still have not seen anything of NiGHTS yet in Sonic & SEGA AllStars Racing.
I would love to see NiGHTS in this game. If he is not in the main game then can you please make him a DLC character?
Greg Johnson, creator of ToeJam & Earl, has recently stated that DLC might be planned for AllStars Racing so if NiGHTS is not in the game can you please make NiGHTS a DLC character. We would support it by buying NiGHTS DLC for this game.
Please let NiGHTS take part in AllStars Racing.
Don’t Forget NiGHTS
Kind regards,
Elson ‘Darkspeeds’ Wong (Western Australia)
————————
I’m not a too deep of a NiGHTS fan when compared to Sonic but it doesn’t mean I can’t show my support right? = ) This ones for DiGi, TRiPPY & the inspirational NiGHTs community.
Oh and Paul, thanks for a brilliant article – this moved me for the fact that you took the initiative to promote a SEGA related IP on a Sonic community fansite! I’m proud of ya dude, keep it up.
Darkspeeds you the man! 😀 *madhugs*
I really couldn’t care less about Nights. How about bringing back more classic Sega characters? I personally wanna see ToeJam and Earl.
This is all wasted effort. NiGHTS is obviously going to be in the game. Sega is copying Smash bros. where they only reveal a few characters at a time. We all knew Peach and Bowser would be in Brawl even though they weren’t official until a year after the game was announced. NiGHTS is probably a secret character, heck Sega has to save someone to be an unlockable.
I’m not really sure if its really a big issue either, I mean. From what I recall, NiGHTS can fly, and so can Reala. So I’m guessing that would be the main reason why they wouldn’t really need to be in a kart racing game. I mean if you really think about it, it wouldn’t make much sense for NiGHTS or Reala to be in a kart either.
Uh hello aren’t we forgetting ristar!
You know, NiGHTS is actually a pretty good friend of mine. We’ve collaborated several times in the past, and I’ve always had fun working with him! I haven’t exactly got the chance to haggle for his spot myself, though, since my part in this is finished and production of Project Needlemouse is underway, of course. But don’t forget NiGHTS! He’s a little loopy, sure, but don’t forget him! He’s more than just important – he’s an icon of the good old days.
(…And after all this time, I still call NiGHTS ‘him’. Huh…)
Lol, Sonic. That was a great reply! XD
As for everybody else posting here, i’m not expecting everybody to like NiGHTS but for those that do they need to be fighting for him. Trust me on this, i wouldn’t lie about something this big.
People still are unsure if they should believe me so i’m inviting anybody and everybody who doubts this campaign to a live broadcast that i’ll be doing tomorrow night at 8pm GMT at http://www.livestream.com/imagni
The broadcast will be recorded and looped so if you can’t make the live showing please check the recording.
It’s a lot to believe me, i know. But after tomorrow hopefully i will have gained all your trust and get some more support from people who are still ‘on the fence’ about this whole compaign.
Once again, thanks to Paul for making this a news post 🙂
I’m betting that NiGHTS will already be in the game as a hidden character, like in Sonic Riders.
8pm tommorow and crazy stuff is going to happen 🙂 Be there. We’re raising the stakes.
Crazy stuff? I like the sound of that…
Paul, I am severely disappoint that your article did not even make mention of the Grand Awesomesocks Bet (GAB, for short) that I have enacted between myself and the NiGHTS community regarding the inclusion of NiGHTS and Reala in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. It has been directly stated that this wager was newsworthy than none other than TSS administrator Dreadknux himself, and I feel that it is your duty as a TSS News reporter to keep up with a current event of such an important status within our community.
Kind regards,
HunterTSF and his socks
No one remembers Ristar anymore apparently ThespeedyDE. tbh, Ristar would make a better character for this game then friccin’ NiGHTS.
Omg Ristar! how could you say people have forgotten him!
Ristar on the megadrive could almost rival sonic 3 in terms of graphics, and the stretchy arm gameplay was really unique and fun!.
However, if he were to come back today this would be the best way about it, id hate sega to make a brand new game with some lame “wii” controls that’d be another bomb out mediocre game.
Also, Reala please =D
*nods*I think sonic unleashed was the only game where nights didnt make a cameo and I was surprised.You would think somewhere in spangonia,she would have made a cameo at the clock tower in the night and day stages.A nights is like the main thing you need to put in a sonic game along with speed and fantastic characters/transformtion.
Maybe the best way that NiGHTS could work would be if he were to be transformed into a car, with either Helen or William driving him. Either them or Claris or Elliot, the ORIGINAL Visitors.
Ristar is in the game, so quiet.
If they chose Ristar as the mascot over Sonic, Sega would have failed years ago.
I’d laugh my ass off if they decided to put in Agent G and his partner, Isaac Washington, from House of the Dead: Overkill! Riding in the motorcycle with friccin’ Varla Guns! For their special, it would be them driving the Ice Cream Truck they had to go in after the swamp level, with the bullet time screen, so then your passing everyone with the slow mo effect.