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.