I remember the ads for this, and I remember wanting it. Bad. Desperately. Big time. Were it not for the high price of the Saturn this is the game that would have got me buying one in a shot. "Fly, fluid and free..." the ads said as the character flew around, doing loops and simply looking utterly wonderful. This game is what Sega was about in their heyday - beautiful, incredibly creative games that you just don't want to stop playing. It's a side of Sega that seems to have wanned slightly recently, much to the loss of gamers everywhere.

I did end up buying a Saturn. It cost me half as much as it did to track down NiGHTS and two analog pads (don't even think of playing this game on a digital one) but this game, along with Panzer Dragoon Saga, is reason enough to own a Saturn. While I initially expected a full 3D flyer (how ignorant I was of hardware capabilities at the time), it turned out NiGHTS was nothing like that, though this wasn't a bad thing in the slightest. You start in the middle of a map and fly on a 2D plane - it's like a flying platformer. You have to collect glowing balls as quickly as you can and return them to the central arena. When you've done this once you return to the central area and go off on another "branch" - basically the map has 4 branches stemming from this central shrine-type-thing. Once you've completed each branch you get a grade (A-E) and then an overall grade, and then you go to the battle a boss, something I'll detail more later.

It sounds so simple, and frankly, it is. On the surface. But once you give it a chance NiGHTS shines like you could never imagine. Flying around the maps gracefully is just unmatched as a gaming experience, the character animation so fluid and the levels such a wonder to behold and glide through, even on the ancient Saturn system. It's the artwork and design that make the game stand the test of time; graphics hardware becomes irrelevant with art talent such as worked on NiGHTS. The music is also utterly charming - it's extremely cute Japanese music, but instead of sounding annoying it ads to the sense of wonder that this game instills in you if you allow it.

It's also surprisingly challenging - you can complete a level fairly easily, but if you want to get an "A" that requires much more work and practice doing perfect loops (a quick way to capture multiple spheres) and boosts. You can even have the main character do acrobatic loops by pressing a button and direction - not only do they look great but you can do them to gain points at certain places in the game.

The bosses have also all been designed with the unique NiGHTS gameplay mechanics in mind. The first one is a huge bouncing beachball-type monster-woman in a long corridor. You have to fly into her, grab her and kind of roll her around until you're facing the direction you want to push her, at which point you boost and send her flying. It sounds complex but it's beautifully simple yet challenging just like this rest of the game. The other bosses are just as creative in their design.

Despite my best efforts I still don't think I've conveyed in this review how uniquely wonderful this game is, even after all this time. I played it only two years ago during the Dreamcast's heyday and it STILL impressed me. The whole thing just comes together as a brilliant, original game and easily the best Sonic Team has done since the Genesis days. Saturns are going for scant bucks these days. If the screenshots and game concept (along with my teary eyed fanboy gushing) even remotely grabs you, find a Saturn, find this game, find an analog pad, play it. Simple.