By Peter Gothard

Nights Into Dreams was a game that could never hope for wide public acclaim, appearing is it did on a console that enjoyed little success in the west. Due to the announcement of Sony’s PlayStation hanging over Sega’s head, and a series of unwise design decisions making the Saturn a challenge to program for, Sega’s 32-bitter was a hugely undernourished machine. The few treasures it offered went unnoticed by the majority as Sony ushered in an edgier era of gaming. The deafening clamour for another Sonic game on the Saturn didn’t help its innovative bridge between 2D and 3D gaming get largely lost in the mists of time.

In 2012, Nights feels far more appealing on its own terms in a world far more accustomed to nuanced, idiosyncratic gaming concepts. Its retro Sega charms – gorgeous blue skies and lush forests against a J-pop soundtrack – are now so rare as to be missed, and the tautology of its platform and racing gameplay fusion now feels far more palatable to a public less obsessed with spiny mammals, and more welcoming of unique ideas.

Nights has a story, but it’s so baffling it hardly seems to matter. Two children fall asleep and are haunted by nightmares about their fear of failure in their every day lives. But Nights – a being created to steal the dreams of sleeping children – realises these kids have the courage to help him overthrow his master Wizeman, who has been orchestrating a plot to use stolen dreams to rule the dream world of Nightopia.

In gameplay terms, the player picks Elliot or Claris and uses them to ‘inhabit’ the character of Nights, who flies his way around a series of preset laps (“Mares”) around a level in order to collect a series of blue orbs, and find as many other ways to score points as possible before the timer runs down.

Effectively, it’s a platform action game without any platforms. Lead designer Takashi Iizuka says as much in the included, and excellent, ‘making of’ interview. It’s also a 3D game on a 2D plane, and a racing game with only one racer. Nights is a series of contradictions alright, but once you’re in the groove, you’ll see how it all comes together.

The enjoyment, and skill, comes in mastering the versatility of Nights’ central ability of flight. While he can’t move in or out of the screen, he can travel as far up or down as he likes, seeking out new interactive objects and ‘paralooping’ around them to attract, collect, or destroy them as he speeds horizontally around the stages.

Nights can also be sped up to plunge majestically through groups of airborne rings, and it’s chaining all these moves and elements together that builds the multiplier, and turns F ranks into A ranks come the end of the level.

The genius of Nights is the short, sharp nature of each level’s laps. Once the requisite blue orbs are collected, the remainder turn gold, as Nights enters Bonus Time. Here, it’s time to attack the lap with breakneck speed, using the knowledge of your previous circuits to revisit all the highest scoring elements, diving for clutches of concealed orbs, twisting and turning between ring sets and mastering the control of ad-hoc on-rails segments – including bobsleighs and cable cars – to come out with a result before the clock hits zero.

There’s nothing more embarrassing than devolving back into a child and plunging unceremoniously to the ground as your precious orbs scatter every which way. Instantly turning an A grade back into an F, there are few more bitter punishments in gaming than limping on-foot to an exit in Nights.

A boss section is the cherry on the top of a successful run, as hurling a giant spherical clown through a series of windows, or denuding a cackling, card-throwing jester of his cape will add an overall multiplier to your average score for the previous four laps.

With at least a C grade required for Elliot and Claris’ seven total levels in order to complete the game (and unlock the classic and previously hugely rare “Christmas Nights” as a bonus), the impetus to return and keep building up skills and knowledge becomes moreish in the extreme. It’s bigger still when, unlike in 1996, there’s a world of leaderboards out there to keep competition as high as can be.

The HD, widescreen transfer is sumptuous, preserving the game’s twisting, turning control set perfectly while making proceedings more gloriously colourful and vibrant than ever. Sega’s decision to provide the untouched Saturn version in addition is a kind gesture, but mostly serves just to highlight what a brilliant job has been done on the update.

For little over £6.00, there’s absolutely no excuse not to dip into Sonic Team’s crazy dream world. Strikingly original in its day, Nights still feels as fresh now as it did 16 years ago. Bold, beautiful and expertly crafted, it has easy charm and a gentle enough learning curve to suck almost anybody into an A grade-chasing frenzy.

Nights Into Dreams HD is out now via Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network or PC.