The NiGHTS Museum

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NiGHTS into Dreams...	Christmas NiGHTS

Dream a Little Dream

The dream began as far back as late 1992. Having just recently completed Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in the US, Yuji Naka boarded a plane heading back to his home country of Japan. As he sat waiting for the plane to take off, Naka-san was struck by one of those rare moments of genius that starts as a simple idea and expands into a brilliant concept...a game that accurately captures the sensation of flying. Unfortunately, technology wouldn't allow this dream to become reality for another four years...

When the 32-bit Sega Saturn came along, Naka-san seized the opportunity to apply his latest artistic vision to silicon. Naoto Ohshima and Takashi Iizuka, the game's lead directors, began tossing around various ideas on the character model and general theme of the game. The original concept was a small bird who is too weak to fly, but gains the ability as he grows and strengthens. The whole bird idea was killed for fear it would draw direct comparisons to Sonic, and the Team decided to go with a more human-like character. More trashed designs included those for an Indiana Jones-esque character, and a military themed character.

Once a dream theme was decided upon, the Team hit the books and did their homework. (And you thought game-designing was all fun.) They studied various books on psychology, most notably the works of Frederick Holtz and Jung. They compared the two and drew their ideas upon those foundations.

And thus, NiGHTS was borne of the same creative roots responsible for Sonic the Hedgehog. Dream on!

Sources Well, I didn't get any HELP with this one! Everything you see on the following pages was researched and compiled by ME, MYSELF, and I! Well...Heidi "Zero-chan" Kemps sent me the pic of the Japanese Christmas NiGHTS cover, but everything else I did all by myself! You proud of me?

Further sources include: The official Sonic Team HP, Sega Online, Sega Entertainment Universe, Sega of Europe Online, and Tiger Electronics.

Let's Get Flying!

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NiGHTS into Dreams... is a trademark of Sega Enterprises and Sonic Team. Page designed by Jared "Green Gibbon!" Matte.