Nearly two years ago, we reported that SEGA had registered a trademark for something called “Nights Dream Wheel.” We speculated that it could be a new NiGHTS game. Now, we finally know what it is, and well…we were half right!
A few weeks ago, on June 24, San Manuel Casino, which is a Highland, California casino, posted a tweet about their newest slot machine, NiGHTS Dream Wheel. The slot machine operates in one cent denominations, with a 5 cent minimum and $5 maximum. It features art and branding from the NiGHTS sequel, Journey of Dreams.
We only just learned about it while researching for this week’s 7 Days of NiGHTS articles. Certainly not what we were expecting (or hoping for) but it’s…interesting to see NiGHTS branding being utilized at all, so long after the release of the last game.
We’re running NiGHTS articles all week to celebrate its 25th anniversary, which you can read about here.
via Twitter
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Sonic Lost World is racing onto Nintendo’s Wii U and 3DS systems at the end of this week in Europe, and it appears even with mere days to go there’s still a few surprises in store – one of which being that the Deadly Six Edition, once believed to be a retail exclusive pre-order bonus, will now be offered via the Wii U eShop for a limited time as well!
The news comes courtesy of Official Nintendo Magazine, who have posted Nintendo’s schedule for this week’s eShop releases – with Sonic leading the pack as the headline title. With regards to the Deadly Six Edition, the following statement is made:
You can receive download codes for the additional level available in the Deadly Six Edition and five Black Bomb colour powers if you purchase Sonic Lost World from Nintendo eShop on your Wii U between 00:01 (UK time) on 18 October and 23:59 (UK time) on 27 October.
So, if you download Sonic Lost World from the Wii U eShop by 27th October, you’ll get the NiGHTMARE DLC and five Black Bomb Wisps as an added bonus!
Sonic Lost World will cost £39.99 to download on the Wii U and £34.99 on 3DS. Will you be buying them digitally when they launch in Europe on Friday?
Source: Official Nintendo Magazine
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In the second part of our Summer of Sonic interviews, I sat down to talk robots and character design with Metal Sonic and Amy Rose’s creator – Kazuyuki Hoshino!
TSS: First of all, what does it mean to you to be here at Summer of Sonic?
Kazuyuki Hoshino: It’s great to be here and meet the fans who have continued to love the characters that I have created!
TSS: How do you go about the process of creating the Badniks and other enemies for Sonic games?
Kazuyuki Hoshino: Other than creating some of the key central characters I’ve also created lots of sub-characters. Whenever I create a main character, someone that’s central to the story or series, I always fully immerse myself in that character to really put myself in their shoes. When I was younger I always dreamed of my creations being sold as figurines in shops so people could buy some of the things that I had created. I’ve always kept this in mind when creating characters so I can design them to look great not only for their purpose, but so they would look good as figurines too.
TSS: Out of all the enemy characters you have created, which would you say is your favourite (Metal Sonic excluded!).
Kazuyuki Hoshino: Although he’s not as much of an enemy anymore, I’d definitely have to say Shadow the Hedgehog.
TSS: How did designing for NiGHTS differ to designing for Sonic games?
Kazuyuki Hoshino: When I’m creating characters for Sonic, I always have in mind that it needs to be appealing to millions of people. Sonic has such a big mass audience so I try and design to meet that taste. With NiGHTS, it has a very particular theme with quite a specific and niche market so I can push the boat out a little further to make designs that are more dream-like and psychological.
TSS: What were your biggest challenges in terms of design when making the transition from 2D to 3D games?
Kazuyuki Hoshino: When designing in 3D, you have to make sure that you create everything so that even the parts that weren’t visible before in 2D are now visible in 3D and they look good. You have to figure out how every part of the design would look from different angles and make it work. In the classic Sonic games he only had to be shown from the perspective that made him look best, now that everything is in 3D, you see Sonic from behind a lot more than you ever would have in 2D so now you have to make sure he and all of the other characters look good from all angles. Shadow has a red stripe going down his back and this is because we wanted to make him look both cool from behind and distinctively different from Sonic.
TSS: If you were to re-design Metal Sonic today, what new features would you give him, if any?
Kazuyuki Hoshino: When we originally created Metal Sonic, the thing I really had a focus on was making him look metallic because he is, of course, called Metal Sonic. If I were to re-design him, I would potentially challenge this and try to give him a different feel and texture that you would pick up just from looking at him. For example, a new feature I would perhaps give him is the ability to become invisible. You know in Sci-Fi films where they have the light-reflection technology that camouflages the user? I’d love to experiment with things like that and incorporate that technology into not only his skillset, but his visual design too.
TSS: You’ve created many iconic and memorable characters over the years. Do you think that we might see an art book dedicated to your works one day?
Kazuyuki Hoshino: I’m honoured that this question has been asked several times already today! I don’t have any plans at the moment to create a compilation of all the art that I’ve created so far. It would be great to have though and my Mother actually looks at art books quite often so she would be incredibly proud!
TSS: Thank you very much for your time, Hoshino-san!
Thanks again to Bobby Wertheim for translations!
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With charity streaming the in thing right now, members from Sonic game superplay site The Sonic Center are joining the fun with their own marathon.
Taking place over six days, the TSC Charity Marathon will be playing through a buttload of Sonic games, along with Sonic Team classic Ristar and the NiGHTS series, in aid of the game-oriented children’s charity Child’s Play. If you want to support a good cause, be there and consider donating or spreading the word.
Also taking place on Friday will be open lobbies for Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing and Sonic 4 Episode 2‘s co-op mode – both on Xbox 360 – and Puyo Puyo VS 2, a Windows sim for the series that included Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine. Have one of those games, and you could take part live on stream.
The Sonic Center Charity Marathon starts at 7PM (UK) Tuesday 21st August, and continues to Sunday. For full scheduling, see the stream channel.
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In an interview with Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka, GamesTM Magazine reaveals that the man behind upcoming titles Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and Sonic Colours “would personally love to make a third NiGHTS game”.
Iizuka also reveals that he has considered making both Tails and Knuckles games in the past: “I actually considered making a game like Knuckles Chaotix at one point, but Sega has unfortunately not given me the green light to do so.”
Although there are no current plans to make either title, the interest of the head of Sonic Team could mean that there could be a possibility for the creation of these titles in the future; something that should give die-heard Knuckles & NiGHTS fans a small ray of hope.
The rest of the article can be read in next month’s edition of GamesTM Magazine, available to purchase in the UK from the 2nd of September, 2010.
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Two people considered to be celebrities in the NiGHTS community are now ready to wow you once again. DiGi and TRiPPY of nightsintodreams.com recently scored an interview with Sonic and NiGHTS into Dreams creator Yuji Naka, which has been published on their site today. This interview proves to be very significant among NiGHTS fans, as Mr. Naka reveals the truth behind quite a few rumours regarding development, concepts and characters that have been circulating the internet for years. Also, of note is some interesting info about inspiration behind the game’s setting, a second platform, a special guest demo tester (you’ll never guess who it is) and support for DiGi and TRiPPY’s latest campaign. It’s a great read and I won’t spoil it for you here. Head on over to nightsintodreams.com to read it.
If you haven’t already taken part in DiGi and TRiPPY’s latest campaign (which is currently at 1,724 votes), you can sign the petition to get a digital NiGHTS into Dreams port on current console services (such as PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and WiiWare) at nid15.com. You just have to click the ‘Fans’ button. Simple!
Thanks to Indigo Rush via SSMB pm and TRiPPY via e-mail for the heads up!
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UPDATE: We’ve taken down the picture of NiGHTS out of respect for the guys over at NiGHTS into Dreams since this is their exclusive so if you’d like to get a good look at NiGHTS in ASR follow the below link to their forums and check it out. /UPDATE END
Speaking exclusively at the NiGHTS into Dreams forums Steve Lycett of Sumo Digital has officially revealed NiGHTS role in Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing after the cat was let out of the bag a few days back thanks to a certain eagle eyed forumer known as Doctor Eggman.
Right then – first off… We didn’t forget NiGHTS!
Just since you’ve all been trying to make him out from that blurry capture from Youtube, I figured we better put a nicer shot out! Consider this an exclusive
We’ve given NiGHTS a very important role. He starts all the races, and also finishes them too! He also resides over Time Trial, whenever you set a new lap record, you’ll have NiGHTS flying along with you celebrating!
I have to admit the main reason he’s in was after we saw your heartfelt pleas, especially those of DiGi and TRiPPY, we had to make sure NiGHTS was in and played an important role. After all, we really didn’t want them to burn all their collection now. So whilst he’s not playable, he very much made it in, and as a result of the huge amount of support for the character that you all showed.
Does this mean that NiGHTS may not be in future DLC? Well who can say. That’s a question I can’t answer right now – it all depends on how well the game does
Anyway – cats out of the bag, so I figured we best make it official!
Now, I can look forward to yet more ‘Don’t forget Flagman!’ posts I’m sure
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S0L
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So there you have it! Sumo Digital aren’t just an hard working developer, they are a caring developer who after listening to the community didn’t forget NiGHTS 😀 Join me in a toast won’t you? Now where’s my hankey…
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We’ve just had a scan through the new Wii trailer for ASR and at 1:18 you can see NiGHTS waving the checkered flag at the finishing line. It look’s like he/she’s going to play the referee role much like Lakitu in Mario Kart.
Those who wanted him/her to be playable now have their answer why he’s not playable because he instead has been given the duty of official flag waver. What do you guys think of NiGHTS new job?
Check it out here
Thanks to Doctor Eggman at the SSMB for sorting out those pictures for me.
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UPDATE: Steve Lycett from Sumo Digital under his S0L nickname has confirmed the Nightopian sightings are just environment reflections. However Steve has seen how keen the community is to see NiGHTS in the game and still doesn’t confirm either way wether the character is in the game or not.
I feel slightly like I’m spoiling your fun here – but it’s purely the reflection of the environment you’re seeing there…
You guys really are rather desperate to see NiGHTS in there aren’t you!
Put it this way – that would have taken some quite extensive photo-shopping – and you’re also credting us with fair more deviousness than even I have!
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S0L
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UPDATE END
Original story below:
Editor’s note: Those are not in-game gold rings…
I’ve just spotted another Nightopian in the above picture. It’s in the shiney wood finish in the red circle, turn your head to the left and you’ll see its head, eyes and large white collar. It would explain the sparkles in the screenshot too.
Eagle eyed SSMB member HunterTSF has spotted Nightopians in the above old screenshot of Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing. Nightopians are small residents of Nightopia seen around various stages in the NiGHTS games. This isn’t confirmation but could very well mean our favourite jester NiGHTS could very well be in Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing after all.
Let’s hope NiGHTS is the now possibly delayed special announcement Sumo Digital’s Steve Lycett has been talking about recently.
Thanks again to HunterTSF and his eagle eyes!
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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.
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Takashi Izuka has said in an interview with German site G-Wie-Gorilla that he think’s Nintendo’s machine was the right choice for NiGHTS and if they make a future installment it will be for Wii.
“When we decided to finally make a sequel to NiGHTS, we didn’t know which console it would be for,” he recalled. “We only decided later on that we would develop the game for the Wii. But I think it was a good choice – should we make another instalment, we would make it for the Wii.”
The new Wii game NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams has seen a mix of positive and negative reviews so far with it’s Japan and US launches but with the European release soon and the NiGHTS into Dreams port to PS2 hitting Japan soon we won’t count the jester out just yet.
For the full interview click here but beware, the text is all in German.
Stay tuned to Sonic News for more news as it happens!
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Sega Japan and Wavemaster are teaming up to come out with a special Sega Saturn 10th Anniversary DVD and CD compilation, both can be bought seperately.
The Visual Collection Vol. 1 is a DVD that features opening and endings to 16 games, including Sonic Team’s NiGHTS Into Dreams.
Continue reading Sega Saturn History CD & DVD
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Yes, you can play a cut-down version of NiGHTS into Dreams on your Game Boy Advance by hooking it up to Phantasy Star Online on your Gamecube, but soon you’ll be able to get a real taste of Nightopia in Sonic Team’s online RPG with a special themed DLC quest just in time for Christmas.
Continue reading NiGHTS Makes a Full Appearance in PSO in Special Sonic Team Quest
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