Those of you who remember the humble beginnings of this website might remember an old piece of artwork I done called 'Paradox' featuring Claris, Elliot, NiGHTS and a whole lot of little details from the game. The image featured on our splash page for many years long before we were a wordpress site. Back then we didn't have much in the way of direct contact with SEGA themselves, we made our own fun and our community was small but very hardcore and closeknit.
Fast forward to November 2007. Journey of Dreams was about to make the rounds and a Mr Kevin Eva (AAUK) popped into our lives to unleash the frankly-awesome-power of SEGA's community team. And what a top job he did too, even securing us an interview with Iizuka and coming all the way up to our house in Scotland at the time to promote the new game. Back then he took some prints of my artwork to show Iizuka san in London and talk about the NiGHTS fanbase. As a gift Kev brought back some signed things, one of which being my print of Paradox signed by Takashi Iizuka:
Well then fast foward some 3 years to 2010 where I now work for SEGA Europe myself and AAUK is currently visiting SEGA Japan on work related business. Kevin asked if I wanted to pass anything to SonicTeam, soooo….
I gave Iizuka san the original framed painting to keep! And he remembered it! He liked the print the first time he seen it in 2007 so i figured it'd be fun to suprise him with the actual real one instead. Just to keep him on his toes. Just incase he ever y'know… forgets NiGHTS or something ;D I wrote him a letter in Japanese on the back telling him us NiGHTS fans are still going strong and care about the character AND that we really want to see this port happen. After the comment he made about NiGHTS 3 a while ago I wanted to give him an extra 'across the ocean' nudge. So it's safe to say he's up to date on our situation and even congratulated me for getting into the company *lol* Yeah I've been grinning all day 
Thanks AAUK, as always you're the man 
… Also, I've heard that Kev is bringing back some mad flavoured Japanese KitKats to give away in Freestuff Friday, so look out for that.
Win!
From Famitsu magazine:
Yuji Naka’s upcoming game has been teased in Famitsu and it won’t be published by SEGA. The game will be published by Kadokawa Games. Never heard of them? I don’t blame you, all they have done was a port of RPG Maker for DS and some other girl anime game. But it seems the company wants to become bigger, first step is with the Yuji Naka HD game (along with a game by Grasshopper).“The game itself is an action title that takes place in the sky. The action gameplay is what I’m focusing on the most with this project — interactivity is the most important attraction with any sort of game, and if that doesn’t evolve, then games won’t be everything they can be. Sonic was all about completely taking over the land, and Nights brought that same concept into the skies. I had always thought that action games that take place in the sky are too hard for players to cope with, but then I thought up a new method for dealing with it. That’s how this project got started. If I had stuck around at Sega, then I might have used this concept to make a sequel to Nights!” – Yuji Naka (Prope)
It is most likely that SEGA passed on publishing Yuji Naka’s title. Most likely due to how poor a bigger known IP like NiGHTS did on Wii and how he compares the concept to that or it could be due to how poor Let’s Tap did. We will never know. We wish Naka luck with his new title and if its good, of course we will all be playing it, regardless of publisher.
So there you have it, Yuji Naka did have something in mind for a NiGHTS sequel. Be it something similar to Air NiGHTS or something completely new and off the wall. Naka has been quoted many times in the past right up to current day saying that he had no desire to create a sequel to NiGHTS because he deemed NiGHTS into Dreams to be perfect as it was. So this news leaves some interesting questions and emotions. The main one being for me, what is this new game going to be? It's certainly not NiGHTS, but I'm still excited to see what Naka and his team can do independently. What if Journey of Dreams had used this concept or a third game had been created? I think bittersweet is the best term to use here
Thoughts? Discuss here in our [ forums ]
Thanks to ShadiWulf for the find.
You know me, I rarely post anything here UNLESS it's NiGHTS related, but I think today should be an exception. Today the long awaited sequel Sonic 4 is released. Available to download from XBLA and PSN today (Wiiware on Friday,) I can assure you that it is more than worth downloading. I've been a Sonic fangirl for years since I was 10 and I've been dying to play a 2D Sonic game on a console for way too long. DiGi and I have been playing the game today and we absolutely love it! A free demo is available to download, so give it a go if you think it sounds too good to be true. Be warned, the game is very addictive … especially with the online leaderboards haha
Welcome back Sonic, we missed you.
If you're a regular to DeviantArt.com you'll most probably also be a member of the main NiGHTS fan club there. NiGHTSFan has been around for many years and the growth of the fanbase coupled with the busy life of the owner means things are becoming hard to run it by herself. Jamie is looking for staff to help out, experience running a club prefered but not essential as long as you can follow orders and get work done. Good dedicated staff are hard to come by online, a lot of people are interested for about 3 days, get bored and then just float on over to the next thing. If you're going to offer help make sure you are actually able to do so on a very regular basis.
Interested? Then head on over to this journal here, read the details – then drop Jamie a note telling her why you are suitable for the job.
Thanks
Got some nice coverage today from GamesRadar.com who chose NiGHTS into Dreams as their music of the day. Thanks for linking to our NiD15 port campaign too guys, it's very appreciated
What NiGHTS fans lack in numbers, they make up for with unbridled passion for the best little Sega series that never truly got its fair shake. 1995: The Saturn wasn’t taking too well to 3D but Sega needed to harness all its polygonal power and showcase itself as a console capable of doing everything that was blowing the minds of people playing PlayStation, and soon on the Nintendo 64. Give gamers an analog stick, open of an extra plane to play on, maybe? Boy, did they deliver! And for the few who bought the ticket, NiGHTS was a truly unforgettable experience.
Read the full article here: http://www.gamesradar.com/f/game-music-of-the-day-nights-into-dreams/a-201010041620815027
NiGHTS fans always manage to knock me for six in terms of creative love for the game. This website sub knocked me for seven eight AND nine. How awesome is this? I've heard of fans having DREAMS DREAMS and stuff played as their wedding music but this fan has really pushed the boat out in dedication!
"Howdy,Long time no see. I just wanted to share the good news. I was married over the weekend, but of particular interest to you and the site, my wedding band was NiGHTS.It was custom made and paid for by two retired teacher-friends. It's silver and they will help me recast a white gold one for my 5th year anniversary.
Take care!Noe V"
Epic fan we salute you. You're right up there with INSANE!REALASCULPTURE and MANLY!TEARS. Congratulations and best wishes to you and your lucky partner from all of us here at Nidcom
Today I'm very happy to report that our NiGHTS digital port campaign has reached 3000 fans. Thank you for all your support in spreading the word and getting people talking about NiGHTS again. When we started this campaign we weren't expecting so many of you to sign up. So a major thanks is due to each and every one of you who told a friend, posted a topic online, linked back or just simply clicked once on the button.
This number may seem like a lot but we need a lot more than this if we are to convince SEGA that a digital port of of NiGHTS into Dreams is worth their time and money. So keep all that NiGHTS attention coming our way and pass the link around your gaming friends. You don't have to have been around in 1996 to vote for this – if you have a genuine interest in the NiGHTS franchise and want to see it get more recognition then add your click to our page
Great work guys!
And in SEGA related news – I got the job at SEGA Europe as a games tester. To say today is a good day would be an understatement. So happy I could explode in raging-fangirl glitter lol. So I guess now I work for SEGA. How long did that take me? XD 17 years of my life! Never give up on your dreams kids 
Every Friday SEGA Europe and SEGA America host a big prize giveaway on Twitter. You can win all sorts of assorted gaming merch, games and very rare collectable things. THINGS! I know you all can't get enough of things.
So anyhoo, today a nice bit of NiGHTS Journey of Dreams merch has gone up for grabs. A signed CD music sampler from JoD. These CD's were made in a very limited quantity for SEGA Europe as a promotional item, so to own one of these SIGNED by TAKASHI IIZUKA is something you should be interested in It's been signed this year too ( so you also get the amusing knowledge that (probably AAUK) hounds the guy to specificaly sign NiGHTS merch for us XD ). Iizuka-san you can never escape the NiGHTS fans! lol
If you'd like to be in with a chance to win this, along with some other spectacular prizes like Amigo ASR concept art prints, just go to Twitter.com and follow the official @SEGA account and wait for further instructions. Remember that you have to be following them and they have to be following you in return. Direct messages only when taking part as regular replies don't count.
Best of luck!
It's been a very NiGHTSy news day today, kinda wish it was like this every Thursday afternoon. Anyhoo, thanks to an interview at GamesTM, the same magazine responsible for the recent NiGHTS cover news, it has been reported that Iizuka is very interested in making a NiGHTS 3.
“I would personally love to make a third NiGHTS game”, he told us before adding “but that decision will always be up to the management at SEGA.”
You can read more of the interview at GamesTM.
Journey of Dreams being a 'NiGHTS 2' story continuation of the Saturn classic, is debatable at the best of times. So what sort of direction would a possible third game take? Would it be another stand alone story or a continuation of either NiD or JoD? Will all this end up a bit Zelda? We pray not.
Regardless it's always nice to know that NiGHTS is loved by Sonic Team despite the ups and downs of the last title. On a personal wish/note of us two admins here, we would much prefer any sort of NiGHTS continuations to start with having the original Saturn game ported (one way or another)- so people can understand why NiGHTS is so loved in the first place. Do things in order methinks. Only then would it be wise to start churning out sequels or spinoffs. NiGHTS 3 could be incredible if the proper time, budget and care was granted. But like I say, order of priority.
Whatever your thoughts, rantings or musings, come waffle them in our [ forums ]
NiGHTS into Dreams has featured in many 'top *insert number here* games of all time' lists over the years. But this one over at U.K GamesTM magazine is particularly epic peppers considering our favourite purple Nightmaren gets his own front cover along with eleven of SEGA's other most loved franchises. I'll be stalking the supermarket shelves for this one!
GamesTM goes on sale September the 2nd, buy it to find out what number our NiGHTS comes in at Thanks to SEGA.com for the news.