NiGHTS


 * For more information, see NiGHTS' Wikipedia article.

NiGHTS is the protagonist of the games NiGHTS into Dreams, Christmas NiGHTS, and NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega. Like the rest of the Nightmaren species, NiGHTS is technically genderless, but is generally referred to as a 'boy' in the in-game dialogue to simplify the matter as referring to something as an "it" would be considered rude. Though (s)he has a feminine-like tone to his/her voice, (s)he was meant to sound like that of a child as the dreamers are children. (S)he wears a purple jester style hat and outfit, with a diamond-shaped red jewel on his/her chest.

Relation to Sonic
NiGHTS makes occasional appearances in Sonic games, no doubt because Sonic Team developed all the NiGHTS games too. His/her most notable contribution cameo in Sonic Pinball Party, where NiGHTS helped Sonic free Amy and Tails from Doctor Eggman's hypnotism. But in most Sonic games, NiGHTS simply appears briefly in a cameo role. Whether the Sonic and NiGHTS games series are based in the same reality has not been confirmed, NiGHTS' relation to the Sonic universe is unknown. Although Sonic and NiGHTS do not interact with each other as much as the other Sega characters do, the two seem to be very good friends despite their lack of personal time together in a game. NiGHTS is described to be an androgynous character whose gender was originally to be determined by the player.

Significant Game Appearances
The character's first appearance was in the video game NiGHTS into Dreams... for the Sega Saturn. The second game in the series, NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, is for the Nintendo Wii. NiGHTS also starred in the Limited Edition sampler game Christmas NiGHTS (a Christmas-themed two-level version of the original game) for the Sega Saturn (Sonic is also a playable character in this game, with Eggman dressed as Santa, replacing Puffy), and in the PS2 remake of NiGHTS into Dreams.... NiGHTS even made appearances as a playable character in Sonic Riders, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity and Sega Superstars Tennis. In Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, NiGHTS makes a cameo as the flagperson.

Sonic Adventure
In Sonic Adventure, NiGHTS appears as a pinball game (along with a Sonic pinball game) which features elements from NiGHTS into Dreams. These cameos reappear in the Director's Cut version for the GameCube and PC. In the missions, NiGHTS' picture can be seen on a small billboard next to Tails' shop. NiGHTS him/herself can also be seen in person in the NiGHTS pinball game in Casinopolis. (S)he appears to be floating over an Ideya Palace when Sonic loses his last ball.

Sonic Shuffle
In Sonic Shuffle, when the date on the Dreamcast is set to December 24th, NiGHTS will make a cameo appearance, replacing Lumina as the guide, although the voice will still be Lumina's. Similarly, Reala replaces Lumina when the date is set to April 1st.

Sonic Adventure 2
In Sonic Adventure 2, NiGHTS makes multiple cameos. In the City Escape stage, billboards and posters depict advertisements for The NiGHTS Hotel, which can be seen in the skyline of Shadow's Radical Highway stage. NiGHTS also makes a cameo appearance as a Chao. The Neutral Fly Type Chao resembles NiGHTS, while the Dark Fly Type Chao resembles Reala, or an evil-looking NiGHTS. Some NiGHTS fans claim that a third type of Chao resembles Jackle, a boss from the first NiGHTS game.

Sonic Pinball Party
In Sonic Pinball Party, NiGHTS appears as a pinball game once again, featuring many elements from NiGHTS into Dreams. Sonic Pinball Party is the only game where NiGHTS actually interacts with Sonic. NiGHTS is also a level two competitor in the main tournament.

Sonic Battle
In Sonic Battle, NiGHTS appears in the Speed Demon minigame, where (s)he can be seen flying in the background. This is similar to his/her appearance in Sonic Adventure.

Sonic Riders
NiGHTS' first playable cameo is in Sonic Riders. (S)he can be unlocked if the player completes the missions of all three of the Babylon Rogues. NiGHTS' Extreme Gear is called Night Sky. Sections of the SEGA Carnival/SEGA Illusion courses feature elements from NiGHTS into Dreams.

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
In the sequel to Sonic Riders, NiGHTS returns as an unlockable playable character. Also, in both the 90's and '80s Boulevard courses, signs advertising NiGHTS and NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams can be seen.

Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing
In Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, NiGHTS appears as the flagperson who waves the checkered flag at the start and end of races. Steve Lycett of Sumo Digital said that NiGHTS could potentially become a DLC character if the game became successful. However, later that year, SEGA announced that they no longer planned to include any downloadable content after the release of Metal Sonic and the Death Egg Zone track.

Sonic Generations
NiGHTS appears in the Nintendo 3DS version of Sonic Generations as a statue on top of a building in the Radical Highway stage. (S)he is the only non-Sonic character to appear in the game, a possible reference to the fact that (s)he has appeared in numerous games with Sonic.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Due to popular demand to make NiGHTS a playable character in the first game, NiGHTS and Reala appear as playable characters in ''Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. ''They appear as the vehicles while a Nightopian and a Nightmarian drive them, respectively. When the player gets a All-Star Move as either racer, they'll control NiGHTS or Reala for a limited time. A NiGHTS related race-track, Dream Valley, will also appear in the game. Because NiGHTS is a playable racer in the game, Ristar replaces him/her as the flagman.

Creation and conception
Naoto Oshima was the original NiGHTS designer and Kazuyuki Hoshino was the character designer for the video game NiGHTS into Dreams.... Though Nights into Dreams... was left without a sequel for over a decade, NiGHTS continued to appear within games developed by Sonic Team as a cameo, showing much affection for the character and the game. This led to the eventual sequel, NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. Naoto Oshima had left SEGA by that point, so Kazuyuki Hoshino was placed in charge of character design for NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. Takashi Iizuka, the lead game designer, felt that with Hoshino, they captured the style used for his in the original game. The character was specifically created to be gender neutral: neither male or female, according to Iizuka, this is so both boys and girls can identify with the character.

Character
NiGHTS is a first-level Nightmaren, created by Wizeman to steal Red Ideya. Despite being one of Wizeman's most powerful creations, NiGHTS is a remarkably mischievous free spirit who did not like taking orders, so much so that Wizeman has on multiple occasions, imprisoned him/her within Nightopia to keep him/her out of the way. NiGHTS asks for the assistance of Claris and Elliot (Will and Helen in the new game) in defeating Wizeman simply because (s)he doesn't like Wizeman, and not because NiGHTS is inherently 'good', a mistake even fans often make. NiGHTS' rival is another first-level Nightmaren, and his/her sibling, Reala.

Personality
NiGHTS detests being ordered around or restrained, and freely flies through the skies of Nightopia. NiGHTS is full of curiosity, and loves anything new or unusual. (S)he sometimes scares or makes fun of people. Although (s)he doesn't have a strong sense of righteousness, (s)he is unhappy about Wizeman's attempts to eliminate Nightopia. (S)he also enjoys showing Visitors around and generally sees them not only as allies against Wizeman, but also as companions. NiGHTS is also shown to be rather sympathetic toward some of his/her enemies, such as Reala, which is easily turned against him/her and cares greatly for the Visitors, even letting him/herself get captured so they wouldn't be harmed.

Abilities
NiGHTS' main and most notable ability is flight, able to fly freely and gracefully through the air. Besides flying, NiGHTS shows various other abilities in both games.NiGHTS can create small portals called paraloops if (s)he flies in a circle using his/her "twinkle dust", a bright substance emitting from his/her hands when (s)he flies.NiGHTS is also able to spin around him/herself to gain speed and hit enemies, this move is called the "Drill Dash", possible reference to Sonic's Spin Dash.In the first game, NiGHTS shows the ability to transform into a bobsled, an ability that was expanded upon in the sequel with the introduction of Persona Masks. Each mask allows NiGHTS to change forms and abilities accordingly, including those of a dragon for gust resistance, a rocket for acceleration and a dolphin for swimming.Along with the persona masks, NiGHTS is also able to transform into a boat and a roller coaster, as well as rolling up in a ball to roll down slides.NiGHTS has also been seen playing an "invisible" flute on numerous occasions, called the "Dream Flute", which plays "Dreams Dreams".NiGHTS can also be noted to have the ability "Acrobatics", which is when NiGHTS releases a yellow bright ribbion-like light from his/her hands and then does a frontward flip in the air.

Home
NiGHTS lives in the world of Nightopia (The place of good dreams in the Night Dimension) and it takes shape according to the thoughts, ideas, personalities, and will of the Visitors (humans from the real world). NiGHTS lives alongside Owl (a brown owl who acts as elder and guide in the sequel) and the Nightopians. NiGHTS however is a Nighmaren and henceforth his/her origin of creation is in the dark realm of Nightmare. NiGHTS does what (s)he can to stop Wizeman from taking over the Dream World and eventually, the Waking World.

Interaction with other characters
NiGHTS sometimes scares or makes fun of people, but is playful in nature and shows kindness to Visitors.

Characters:

The Children: (Claris, Elliot, Will and Helen) NiGHTS is kind towards the children in both games, helping all four of them to defeat Wizeman on two separate occasions. NiGHTS shows the children around different Dream Worlds and works together with them to dispatch numerous Nightmaren.

Owl: NiGHTS shows disrespect for Owl on a regular basis, but also shows a sort of friendship with the old bird. Owl often seems frustrated with NiGHTS' rambunctious behavior and occasionally lectures him/her, but to no avail.

Wizeman: NiGHTS shows a special distaste for Wizeman. NiGHTS is glad to put a halt to Wizeman's plans, and has defeated Wizeman in combat twice. Any orders given to NiGHTS by Wizeman are in vain, as NiGHTS simply continues the rebellion against the creator of Nightmare. It should be noted that the reason that NiGHTS rebels against his/her master is not because NiGHTS is good and Wizeman is evil, but simply due to NiGHTS' extreme dislike for Wizeman and his ideas. He is also regarded as NiGHTS' "father".

Reala: NiGHTS' relationship with Reala appears complicated. NiGHTS seems to still hold Reala as a friend or at the least, a former one, while Reala pities NiGHTS for rebelling against Wizeman. Reala often plays on NiGHTS' mercy, using it as opportunity to imprison him/her. Reala sometimes refers to NiGHTS as a "sibling".

Reception
In his review of Nights: Journey of Dreams, Kevin Vanord of GameSpot described the character as an "androgynous jester." Vanord said, "NiGHTS is smoothly animated", but said its "vocal personification [won't really be] everyone's cup of tea." Vanord wrote, "The jester is genderless...and the accompanying voice is, well, correspondingly confused. But whether you think NiGHTS sounds like a young woman or a young boy, it's a good fit for the character."

Referring to Nights into Dreams..., IGN said "Nights was essentially Sonic in the air..." The IGN review of Nights: Journey of Dreams called NiGHTS a "mysterious creature." The IGN reviewer noted, "strangely Nights and all other characters in Nightopia are from England?" but said the voice acting was "decent, if not a bit over-the-top." In the English version of the game, NiGHTS is voiced by American voice actress Julissa Aguirre.

Theme Song
NiGHTS's theme song is Dreams, Dreams, which is also the main theme of both NiGHTS game and (s)he plays an instrumental version on his/her Dream Flute.

Trivia

 * Despite Sonic having visited a dream realm in Sonic Shuffle, he did not encounter NiGHTS there, although NiGHTS can be found in the game as a cameo. An explanation might be that the world Sonic visited is Maginary World and NiGHTS resides in the Night Dimension. It should also be noted that Lumina and Void bear heavy resemblance to NiGHTS.
 * The first time Sonic appeared in full 3D was in the Limited Edition Christmas NiGHTS, where he was an unlockable character in the "Sonic the Hedgehog: Into Dreams" minigame. In the minigame, Sonic is only playable in the Spring Valley stage, and the original game's Puffy boss is re-skinned to resemble Doctor Robotnik. The music is a slightly remixed version of "Final Fever", the final boss battle music from the Japanese and European version of Sonic CD.
 * NiGHTS makes more appearances in Sonic's media than his/her own.
 * Despite various fan beliefs concerning NiGHTS' gender, as well as Reala referring to NiGHTS as a "he" in Journey of Dreams, (s)he is technically genderless, as all Nightmaren are. Rather than to assign NiGHTS a gender or confuse or annoy fans or players, Reala's remarks were most likely an easier way to address NiGHTS than referring to him/her as an "it."
 * Yuji Naka, creator of both Sonic the Hedgehog and NiGHTS, stated that NiGHTS' androgyny and lack of a gender were both intended to make it easier for the fans and players, both boys and girls, to associate themselves with the character as they controlled it.
 * Sonic and NiGHTS have only interacted with each other once or twice, but despite this, both of them are good friends with one another and seem to be quite close as well.
 * Flyfly.jpg Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, there is a Chao that appears to resemble NiGHTS. Another Chao resembles NiGHTS' rival, Reala, and fans claim that a third one resembles a boss from NiGHTS into Dreams, Jackle.
 * NiGHTS' fifteenth anniversary takes place in the same year as Sonic's twentieth anniversary.
 * NiGHTS is considered to be one of SEGA's most popular characters, along with Sonic, Amigo and Billy Hatcher.
 * NiGHTS has made more cameo appearances in the Sonic franchise than any other non-Sonic related Sega character.
 * In Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, NiGHTS and Reala are the only characters who do not transform into plane form when using their All Star moves.