[Thanks, Adam]

January: Nightopians ring in the New Year by setting off fireworks once every hour beginning at midnight on January 1.

February: Nightopians revisit the New Year theme to celebrate the Chinese New Year. This time you can catch them holding a giant dragon and throwing firecrackers.

March: March is the month of carnivals, and as such many Nightopians will don a mask for the occasion.

April: For this month the Nightopians show off their passion by wearing a Flamenco-inspired rose.

May: The Japanese celebrate the Boys' Festival on May 5, and so do your Nightopians. This month they can be seen flying a carp streamer.

June: Acknowledging the tradition of June weddings, Nightopians will appear with a boquet or flower basket.

July: Nightopians equip themselves with bull armor and a red cape to celebrate the Bull-Running Festival.

August: Nightopians turn to music, performing with various instruments during this month.

September: The Nightopians transition into fall with full moon paper fans.

October: Nightopians will dress up as witches for Halloween and will also carry pumpkin lanterns throughout this month.

November: Autumn leaves and fruit make for a perfectly nationality-free Thanksgiving for the Nightopians.

December: Here's where the Nightopians really go nuts. Throughout December, the Nightopians will dress as Santa and join together under a Christmas tree. They can also be seen carrying around cake, wearing a tricorn, and letting off fireworks. On December 24 and 25 specifically the Nightopians will sing a special Christmas song.

Move over Mario and friends, you aren't the only collection of characters that can have a sports game. Sonic and friends are taking to the court in a new tennis game entitled Sega Superstar Tennis. While sports games don't really intrigue me, I do like the collection of characters they've gathered for this game like Nights (from NiGHTS), Amigo (Samba De Amigo) and my personal favorite, Space Channel 5's Ulala. Of course Sonic and Dr. Eggman are on hand as well because after all, what would a Sega title be without Sonic. But this trailer really begs the question: Who would win in a tennis match, team Mario or team Sonic?

Sonic Team USA Takashi Iizuka told Games Radar, "I hear there is a lot of demand for a sequel, to bring out Burning Rangers on Wii so... we'll see." If you could, that'd be just great. We certainly don't want you working on another Shadow the Hedgehog game, OK?

NiGHTS team prefer Gamecube pad to Wii-mote [Games Radar]

Don't let the block letters fool you, SEGA can be slippery. Take Takashi Iizuka, for example. The NiGHTS: Journey into Dreams producer. You've got questions, he doesn't have answers! Well, he has answers, just not the ones you want to hear. Don't believe me? Let's dive in:

How has the development team made the transition from 2D into 3D with NiGHTS? Can you explain to us exactly how the game is played?

We originally designed the gameplay around the joy and freedom of flight system which has made NiGHTS a unique gaming experience. The sequel will embrace the same unique gameplay experience while adding a variety on new game ideas and mechanics to expand on the original. The sequel is being designed to fully utilize the Wii remote so that the player can intuitively execute a wide variety of game actions being designed for the sequel. We also are creating a brand new story surrounding two new characters and the challenges they overcome with the help of NiGHTS.

Is there any truth to the rumors that the game was originally in development for Xbox 360 and or PlayStation 3? If this is true, why move it to Wii?

I've always wanted to make the sequel to the original NiGHTS, and we would love to bring NiGHTS to other platforms, however, the unique gameplay in NiGHTS and the innovative Wii controller seemed to be a perfect fit. It's reminiscent of when we released the original NiGHTS with Sega's 3D controller. That said...we can't think about anything else but stay focused on creating a sequel that we hope you will all love!

Interview about NiGHTS [Advanced Media via Sega Nerds]

If you're a BioWare fan and fancy yourself a designer, this could be the perfect opportunity for you. BioWare is currently on the hunt for a world designer for their upcoming MMO that's being developed in Austin, Texas. To help them along in the process, they are holding a contest to see who can create the best module using the Neverwinter Nights 1 Aurora Toolset. But, there's more to world design than pretty scenery and cool characters, and you can bet Bioware will be scrutinizing every entry.

When hiring world designers, BioWare looks at your scripting/technical abilities, your creative level design skills, your ability to create cinematic moments, and your ability to create interesting and fun puzzles. Because BioWare is known for quality, we also value a world designer's ability to create stable, bug free work that is well documented.

If you think you've got the skills to pay the bills, check out all the official rules for the contest here. You better get crackin' though, all entries must be uploaded to the site by July 20th and worlds take more than seven days to build no matter what anyone says. Good luck! Flynn De Marco

BioWare World Design Contest [BioWare]
[via GayGamer]

The wait is over! When NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams was originally announced in Japan, Sega said it hadn't yet decided on a Japanese title. It has and will be called NiGHTS: Hoshifuru Yo no Monogatari (AKA "Story of the Night of the Falling Stars"). Even in Japanese, that new surtitle doesn't really do it for me. At all. Brian Ashcraft

New NiGHTS Name [IGN via Joystiq]

Famitsu has posted a handful of NiGHTS: Journey Into Dreams screenies. It's been 11 years since the last NiGHTS game, and this Wii sequel is rumored to take advantage of the Weather Channel and is expected to take full advantage of the Wii-mote. While it's not fair to judge a game on the quality of screenshots, these images don't exactly have my interest piqued. What about yours? Brian Ashcraft

NiGHTS Screens [Famitsu]

Now that NiGHTS for the Wii is officially official more details have popped up on Sega Europe's website. Those details are:

• Three sets of Persona masks give the player new shape-shifting abilities and more ways to explore the world.

• • Dragon mask: Transforms NiGHTS into a huge dragon and makes him resistant to wind effects.
  • Dolphin mask: NiGHTS can change into a dolphin and explore under water.
  • Rocket mask: NiGHTS takes the shape of a rocket and travels at supersonic speeds.

• There are seven fantastical dream worlds to explore and the unique environments of Nightopia introduce an extraordinary, magical world unlike any other.
• 
  
• Wii connect 24: Exchange items with friends via the network and change the scenery according to real-world seasons using the Forecast Channel.

Oooooh. That Forecast Channel inclusive makes us think, hope, pray that Sega might *just* be able to pull this off. Brian Ashcraft

NiGHTS Info [Sega Europe via Sega Nerds]

The Swedes were right. Today, Sega officially announced NiGHTS for the Nintendo Wii. NiGHTS producer Takashi Iizukia says:

It's been 11 years... A long silence is broken, and NiGHT flies into a new dream world with a new story and on a new platform called the Wii...

Currently called NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (Japanese title not yet decided), the game does not have an announced release date other than "This Winter." Brian Ashcraft

NiGHTS Announced [eg via NeoGAF Thanks creamsugar!]

Sega reveals finally the first images of NiGHTS Wii envisaged exclusively on Wii in the Portuguese magazine Maxi Comforted. This new opus of the series seems to preserve the same graphic style that the original play, one notes the graphics very coloured with many effects. Playable to 2 players, NiGHTS Wii was to propose an on-line mode, new characters, and new movements with Wiimote. The official advertisement of Sega should take place at the beginning of April, we will thus be entitled to more details on this play in a few days.

NiGHTS Wii : premi res images [Jeux-France.com - Thanks Process!]

This would have been up sooner, but *someone* forgot to set it to post.

Thanks for the heads up, Alexander! Michael McWhertor

GameReactor #46 Preview [GameReactor]

While I'd like to think this has something to do with that unforgivable hedgehog-human kissing, this viral ad actually seems connected with that "big announcement" next month. You know, the one in which Sega says they'll stop driving the Sonic franchise into the ground. Can't wait. Brian Ashcraft

Dev Kidnapped [Sega Nerds]

At least that's what he says.

CVG spoke with the figurehead behind the original NiGHTS game for the Sega Saturn who stated he had "no such intentions" of revisiting the franchise. Now with the partially Sega funded Prope studio, Naka's involvement doesn't really mean squat. Sega's been passing around classic franchises to all sorts of dev houses lately, so a NiGHTS sequel developed by an internal or outsourced team is still a possibility.

Still, I'm with Luke. Give me a Samba de Amigo sequel before this! Michael McWhertor

No new NiGHTS from Yuji Naka [CVG]

Sega Saturn NiGHTS could be getting that long-over-due sequel gossips Famitsu. The game's creator Yuji Naka has publically stated he's against NiGHTS 2, TWO NiGHTS, Another NiGHT, NiTE NiGHT or whatever they're gonna call it. He told the a British Dreamcast mag in 2000: ""I know a lot of people love it and want us to make a sequel, but for us it's a really important game. Like the way Spielberg likes E.T. so much he won't remake it, I don't want to make another NiGHTS." Then, how about E.T. 2?

More Here [RacketBoy]