Developer: Sonic Team Publisher: Sega Released: December 12, 1996 Genre: Action
In spite of their rocky history at times Sega has always cared about its fans. When the Genesis took off in the US Sega of America were extremely aggressive about bringing over any title that looked cool. The Dreamcast was short lived but shined extremely brightly. In 1996 Nights into Dreams was their flagship title for the holidays. But despite its polish it was still rushed and missing some planned features. Sega would take those discarded ideas to create Christmas Nights. Rather than charging for it Sega gave it away with various magazines of the day. Despite being short collection of features this is still a pretty cool little package.
Think of Christmas Nights as a demo or teaser of the full game. Even though I call it a demo the game has enough content to stand on its own, oddly enough. Aside from the holiday theme Christmas Nights has a wealth of modes and bonus content to round it out. For those that like the gameplay loop of Nights this is practically a dream come true.
The main campaign of Christmas Nights is Spring Valley. This course is the only one in the game which you play through with both characters. Spring Valley is normally Claris only so Elliot’s route features a different layout. Despite the familiarity the level has received a complete holiday makeover. It takes place in winter with snow covering everything, Nightopians dress up as elves, the Ideya Capture is a Christmas tree, and the various items are now presents. The gameplay is still the same: complete four routes in the level to earn as high a grade as possible. This time however your final grade at the end has a tangible benefit.
At the end of every level your grade gives you chances to play a simple matchmaking game to open presents. Presents hide a number of things, from high resolution artwork (or as high res as you could get in 1996) and promotional videos to extra modes. To get everything will probably take five or six runs in Spring Valley which is tedious but worth it. The entire fantastic soundtrack from Nights into Dreams is available for your listening pleasure. But it goes a step further with tools to manipulate each song as you see fit. There is also a Karaoke mode to sing along to the opening theme Dreams, Dreams along with onscreen lyrics. I’m not into that so have at it I guess.
The rest of the extras are more substantial. Sonic the Hedgehog’s absence that holiday season was notable but Sonic Team did you a solid with Sonic into Dreams! In this mode you explore Spring Valley at your leisure with no alarm clock hunting you down. The standard goals still apply even though you are on foot. Sonic can jump extremely high and collects any ideas in his vicinity automatically. The previous boss Puffy is now Robotnik for that extra touch. Honestly this one is more of a novelty in my opinion as the gameplay was not meant for Sonic regardless of any adjustments. It is also a kick in the nuts for those looking forward to the oft delayed Sonic Extreme that year.
Time Attack is a smaller version of Frozen Bell that challenges you to collect every item and reach the goal as fast as possible. My personal favorite is Link Attack. This mode is simple and to the point. Ideas, rings, and stars are arranged along a short course and the goal is to see how long you can keep the link chain going. Even though the map is short it is incredibly intense as the higher your links the shorter the time you have to keep the chain going. My best was 224 when I was 16 and getting that number probably ruined my vision for life. I would have loved to see more stages for these modes as I think they are the best reason to play Christmas Nights. But this is just a demo after al.
The game makes use of the Saturn’s internal clock in a number of ways. Even though the game is titled Christmas Nights it does have more extra depending on the date. Outside of December the game defaults to regular Nights. On April fool’s Day you can play as rival Reala. As cool as that sounds he is basically a re-skin of Nights with no differences. In November and January it becomes Winter Nights, which is Christmas Nights with a slightly different soundtrack.
In Closing
Christmas Nights is an extremely cool thank you to the fans and a great standalone product. If the gameplay of Nights did not grab you there is nothing in Christmas Nights to change your mind. But for the fans it is excellent.
