HyperShadow

Hi everyone. Long time lurker but I haven't posted in years so before I describe what I think of JoD, I thought I'd share my life-long experience with NiGHTS in this thread, so here goes:

1996: NiGHTS into Dreams is released for the Sega Saturn. My 13-year old Sonic-obsessed self just falls in love with every screenshot published in Sega Power (UK Magazine).

1997: I get a Sega Saturn for my birthday together with NiGHTS. NiGHTS quickly becomes the best game I've ever played. To this day it still holds that title, and as a major Sonic fan, I dare say it's better than any sonic game too.

1999: While on holiday in the UK, I come across a "Computer Exchange" store that had Christmas NiGHTS. The excitement is overwhelming as I had never imagine I could ever get my hands on a copy (this was before ebay).

2007: While experimenting with emulators and finally having a fast enough PC, I get NiGHTS and Christmas NiGHTS running smoothly using SSF emulator. My fiancee starts to play it and loves the game too. She beats my Spring Valley highscore. Awesome.

2007 (later in the year): As soon as I heard a sequel to NiGHTS was being developed for Wii, I decided there and then I would buy that console. NiGHTS JoD arrives and at first, I'm overwhelmed by the graphics, but very quickly I become disappointed. NiGHTS talks in a british accent, cutscenes are long and boring, that owl is EVERYWHERE and just won't shut up, and the chase mission is very different to how one would normally play NiGHTS. I sadly fell out of love with JoD, and being that I had just started a new career that year, I played through the game just a single time and never touched it again.

2012: SUPER excited for the rerelease of NiGHTS into dreams on xbla, I spend some time playing the original on an emulator. The game is released, and I quickly notice that despite the beautiful graphics, the controls are all wrong. Another disappointment. Nevertheless, I keep playing and I realise just how short NiGHTS into dreams was. I start to wish that somehow a mission pack of sorts would be released, or maybe even some extra levels. After a while, I decide to load up JoD again, just to have a look at it once more. As I try my hardest to ignore all the things that bugged me about this game before, I realise...NiGHTS JoD is EXACTLY the mission pack I had been imagining in my head! If one just ignores the long tutorial sessions and godawful voiceacting, you're left with a pretty decent set of NiGHTS levels that look gorgeous and play better than the current remake!

I'm posting this because I've been wondering if anyone else had any similar experiences with JoD .... The second time around, I'm really starting to appreciate how wonderful this game really is