NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams - hands on

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You still get graded on each level and we were pleased to get an A rank on our first play. This was partly due to defeating the boss quickly. As before, there's up to 2x score multiplication awaiting the fastest players. The first boss was a lot like Puffy from the original, only now you have to throw the spherical demon upwards towards teeth waiting for him at the top. We missed a couple of rebounds and had to chase him down the tower again as he fell. We were out of dash too, so it was mortifying to see all our progress lost without being able to catch up in time.

The other bosses would also have sat nicely in the original game, although the technology required wasn't available at the time. The first was a magician who hid behind a wall that NiGHTS could clear with his paraloop. By following a trail of cards that became visible behind it, NiGHTS tracked down the boss who was using a cloaking device-like effect to conceal himself. One paraloop later and he was history. The third boss was a massive fish (not Gulpo - Girania, apparently) who leapt from the floor at NiGHTS. Judging the leap so that he jumped straight into a paraloop made the boss burst into hundreds of coloured spheres. Looping these sucked them into oblivion, until the boss was defeated.

Justin Towell
Justin Towell
Freelance Writer

Justin was a GamesRadar+ staffer for 10 years but is now a freelance writer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.