NiGHTS into Dreams .Com

In 2010 SEGA and Sumo Digital released Sonic and SEGA All Stars Racing, a mascot racing game with Sonic and all of his SEGA pals. There was someone missing though, a secondary SEGA mascot of the purple dream variety! After a campaign by the fans, NiGHTS was included in the game as the flagman, appearing only at the start and end of each race.

Roll on to 2012, and the sequel is released, Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed! Thankfully they didn't forget NiGHTS this time round, and even Reala appeared on the roster! A level based on the franchise, named Dream Valley, was also included!

Gameplay of NiGHTS, Reala and Dream Valley can be viewed below. Dream Valley only has plane and boat segments so NiGHTS and Reala's videos are on different levels, ones that have car segments as well.

The Shleep look like porcelain nightmares!

The second game in the SEGA Superstars franchise, SEGA Superstars Tennis allows you to play as both NiGHTS and Reala, with a court based on Aqua Garden from Journey of Dreams! As demonstrated in the video below, each character also has a Superstar move, allowing them to mess with the ball and opponent in various ways. NiGHTS' move is one I find particularly humourous, check those fingers go! I can only imagine what kind of noise that'd make on a piccolo! 

SEGA sure does love its polls lately! The latest one is for their mobile game SEGA Heroes, where you choose a team of four SEGA characters and go on a Campaign through missions. The poll is to vote for which three SEGA characters you'd like to appear in the game, and just a surprising amount of NiGHTS characters from both NiD and JoD are options! No Will's Dad though, so I guess we'll just have to focus our votes on more eponymous characters instead. Click here to cast your vote!

While of course I've got to vote for NiGHTS characters, some of the other franchises *coughPanzerDragooncough* are really tempting~!

The date is April 1st which can only mean one thing in this neck of the internet woods: Reala Day! Ah, the age old tradition of playing Christmas NiGHTS on this date to replace NiGHTS with Reala~!

Over on our Twitter people have been sending us their favourite Reala projects, to be shared here with you!

Let's start with the art!

D.P  shared this fantastic piece of Reala on his throne! The white outline really makes them POP!

Aiken_Cer shared this spooky piece of Reala having a good chuckle to himself! The pointy grin makes this piece stand out!

Dans_Tes_Reves shared this oldy but a goody of a Halloween inspired Reala! The orange ruff suits his design really well!

electricmaren shared this wonderful piece of Reala with a Red Ideya, the media used adding to the already unique art style!

Electricmaren has also gifted the world with this piece specifically for today!

jartiscool shared this close up of Reala's face, cleverly filling in the empty space with the words "April Fools"!

SiLVER shared this brilliant piece of NiGHTS and Reala dressed as one another for April Fools! The sparkles all around give this piece the sense that there's actual air around them!

Silver also shared with us some older Reala pieces, which are superb!

Spider Matsu shared this cool unique design for Reala, he has some SICK bling!

gechotaris created this stunning piece of NiGHTS and Reala, The way the purple oozes over the red really captures you!

manospi shared this very cute picture of Reala with a cool pop art background!

MKRNightvee shared this rather suggestive piece, showing NiGHTS will always come out on top haha!

acrosanti shared this incredible little Reala plush, which I'd pay good money for!

We've also had people celebrating Reala Day by sharing their musical creations!

The Network Nomad shared this finger snapping MS-DOS cover of "NiGHTS and Reala", the use of early Reala concept art is a stroke of genius given the musics context!

What a fantastic amount of work people put in this year! If you have anything to contribute, feel free to contact us and we just might post it here!

I'm away to sail through the skies as a certain red and black jester for once~!

It is always a good day when the world gets new NiGHTS merchandise, even if it's just a keychain, and that's exactly what's coming out in Japan this April!

Behold, The keychain design in all of its glory! This new product is part of a set of SEGA keychains from some of the franchises that maybe don't get as much love as they should! The image below shows the collection, front and back!

Very nice~! From what I'm gathering, the Keychain will be transparent so that when you look at the back of it, the characters silhouette contains an additional image, in our case Twin Seeds City is visible.

You can order one of your very own from From Japan, as well as Hobbylink Japan!

Special thanks to DreamyRei on Twitter for initially pointing this out to me and for the From Japan link, and to MiSHiKiS for the Hobbylink Japan link! Our community looks out for each other!

I bought two, one to put in the Merch pile and one to actually use~!

If you had a Dreamcast back in the day then chances are you had ChuChu Rocket!, a puzzle game by Sonic Team designed for online play. Gameplay revolves around leading the ChuChu's through various courses to safety using carefully placed arrows to direct them, avoiding KapuKapu's along the way.

Completion of all 50 courses on Puzzle mode gave you a little bonus; the option to replace the ChuChu's with NiGHTS' own Nightopians! 

A mobile port of the game was available for Android and iOS until 2015, and guess what was still an unlockable?

The game was remade with new models, meaning a different look for the Nightopians as well. It's a shame the KapuKapu's couldn't have been replaced with one of the minion Nightmaren but it's fun all the same to save the Nightopians in this beloved puzzle game.

Y'know what the beautiful thing about the PS4 is? Even I can record footage for games, saving me having to bother others for gameplay of the latest NiGHTS cameo in Sonic Forces! Included in the bonus edition of the game were SEGA costumes for your Avatar character, with our own purple jester being one of them! While the costumes give no added abilities, they're a stylish way of representing other franchises while playing the game. Included below are two videos showing my initial Avatar dressed all swanky, NiGHTS style! The first video features gameplay of the fourth level in the game, Prison Hall, an Avatar exclusive level. While I've chosen these levels specifically because they're early in the game the dialogue may still contain spoilers so if you haven't finished it yet there's your heads up!

The second video features gameplay of the Seventh level, Arsenal Pyramid, a level where you play as both the Avatar and the Blue Blur himself, Sonic. The Avatar I've chosen here is the bird because, like NiGHTS, they're known for flying.

Flying along those chains of rings can feel really satisfying haha!

With SEGA's current emphasis on reviving older IP's it's hard not to think about the future of NiGHTS, given that not long ago the series was very close to being forgotten about by them. If nothing else, little cameos like this keep the franchise in the minds of the players, and also help to entice new fans too so they're always a positive thing!

At last, some 2018 NiGHTS news!

As many of you might know, SEGA of America have an online store dedicated to selling merchandise of their IPs from over the years. Up for pre-order on this store as of today is something both surprising and greatly appreciated; A T-shirt based on "NiGHTS into Dreams…"! 

I'm a fan of the design, it's quite minimalistic yet instantly recognisable as to which franchise it's from, with the signature crescent moon and NiGHTS' very distinct silhouette. The inclusion of the 5 Ideya really makes this design stand out with their rainbow of colours surrounding the rest of the design! If you're interested in this product you can visit the SEGA Shop to pre-order it for $29.95 (before shipping). Be wary though, as the SEGA Shop does not ship worldwide, so be sure to check their list of locations to see if they'll send it your way (living in the UK has ruined my existence yet again).

I really wish I could support this but since I can't, be sure to do it in my stead~!

While Burning Rangers may have been the first game to have a NiGHTS cameo, the Sonic franchise has always done well to include NiGHTS. Among these cameos, few are as prominent as the "NiGHTS into Dreams…" pinball table on Sonic Adventure. Sonics first fully 3D adventure went above and beyond to ensure than as well as the aesthetics, the music and atmosphere that made NiGHTS stand out all those years ago was present in this cameo. Indeed, due to the SEGA Saturn selling poorly this was many peoples first exposure to SEGA's purple secondary mascot, and it did well in showcasing what made NiGHTS special, from the cards displaying the unique character designs, to the moments where Sonic is whisked away through sections of Nightopia flying through rings alongside NiGHTS. 

These moments are best experienced in motion, and so fellow NiGHTS fan MidniteandBeyond has seen fit to supply us with a video of gameplay! 

Well THIS is a spot of bad news.

First4Figures, the people behind the recent NiGHTS statue, were due to be making a follow up statue of Reala, as seen in the prototype image above. Due to a perceived lack of interest however, the statue is in danger of being scrapped. In order to save Reala, we need EVERYONE to vote "yes" on the poll First4Figures are conducting here on Facebook; be aware though that you must join their Collectors Club here to be able to vote. The "no" votes are not counted, and we need to get the "yes" votes at least to 550 before Reala can be saved and put into production. This is bigger than just Reala though, as any future NiGHTS statues that might have been made are entirely dependant on this poll, so to have ANY chance of getting other characters made later on, you must vote yes in this poll!

We cannot allow NiGHTS to fall into obscurity again, and if we all just take a minute to get on and vote in this one poll, we can make sure that NiGHTS continues to get the love and attention that the franchise deserves!

You can read the initial First4Figures blog on the subject here.