Sonic the Hedgehog-centric site TSSZ News cites a now-deleted personal blog "Boss Rush" written by former Sega Europe employee Ben Andac as its source for the revelation. Andac, posting under the more anonymous title "jpeg," wrote of then in-development games like Sonic Unleashed and the then still to be announced NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams.

On the blog, he lamented the fate of Sonic Team, venting that the internal Sega development studio had "lost their quality touch" calling them "bored, weary, closed-minded and out of touch with any sense of what makes games good anymore; not to mention what consumers want (and in the long-term what the company itself so desperately needs)."

The change in platforms from the high-definition PS3 and Xbox 360 wouldn't be that out of the ordinary, nor notable, if the game weren't so highly anticipated by fans of the original NiGHTS for the Sega Saturn.

Andac's version of the Wii game's development history purports that Sega brass switched platforms at a late point in the game's production. He writes that, due to the change, Sonic Team had little more than a year of actual development time to finish the title.

What ultimately resulted was a Wii title that was coolly received by fans and critics. Whether Andac's assessment of the situation at Sega is accurate is unconfirmed, but his post, archived here, is fascinating to read.

The Blog Sega Doesn’t Want You to Read [TSSZ News]

Now NiGHTS has come back to the masses on the Wii in NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. So does its predecessor live up to expectations? Hit the jump for our Frankenreview: every thing you need to know about everything that is this one particular game.

GameTap
You can play Journey with several configurations. Each of them has a steep learning curve, but the remote-only setup will wear down your patience and send little kids crying to their mommas. It's just too tough to keep the remote cursor steady enough that it doesn't skitter around the atmosphere as you try to guide Nights past obstacles. Better to attach a nunchuk or plug-in a classic controller or even a GameCube controller, where the analog joystick eventually rewards your persistent thumb work with fairly smooth flying.
GameSpot
Visually speaking, Journey of Dreams is deliciously vibrant. Each dream world is unique and colorful without veering from the overall art design. From beautiful underwater vistas to a busy carnival complete with exploding fireworks, environments are created with painstaking care. Nights is smoothly animated, though in the ground levels, the children don't move as fluidly. Cutscenes are also well done and often poignant, thanks to expressive facial animations. You will encounter frequent moments where the frame rate dips a tad, but it doesn't usually get in the way of smooth flight.
1UP
This time, you assume the roles of William and Helen, two new tykes sucked into the dreamworld of Nightopia in order to better cope with the very modern pressure of living with unloving, often-absent parents. Unfortunately, you'll actually get to know these kids a little too intimately, thanks to an overabundance of heavy-handed, talky cut-scenes that assault the eyes (and ears) with amateurish production values. We definitely liked Nights when he/she was an enigmatic, laconic benefactor 10 years ago...now that it's more of a corny purple Mary Poppins that won't shut up, we're considerably less enamored.GameZone
More than half of Journey of Dreams' stages are worth playing through multiple times. Unfortunately, there are a few stages that you won't care to revisit. It's not that they're significantly bad, but they're not much fun either. They lack the excitement and awe-inspiring feeling that the rest of the game offers.
IGN
You'll also find odd sections of loading that don't bring up screens or icons at all, instead keeping the screen fully white or black for upwards of 15 seconds with no explanation. If it wasn't for the music playing in that background we would have assumed the game was frozen. This lack of overall polish can be found in virtually any area...
It looks fairly passable unless you are a big NiGHTS fan, though Wii owners who've beaten Super Mario Galaxy may be looking for something new.

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (WII)
The long awaited sequel to the Sega Saturn classic arrives on the Wii.

Rock Band (PS2)
The PS2 finally gets some Rock Band love in this slightly pared down version.

MX vs. ATV Untamed (X360, PS3, PS2, PSP, DS)
Tame the untameable in this off road racing game.

Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command (DS)
The power of Warhammer in the palm of your hand!

NeoGeo Battle Coliseum (PS2)
Your favorite Neo Geo characters in a battle royale.

Sensible World of Soccer (X360)
Soccer is ever so sensible.

Atari Classics Evolved (PSP)
Battlezone, Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Lunar Lander, Centipede, Millipede and more updated with new graphics and sound.

Legends of Norrath: Forsworn (PC)
The Everquest online trading card game gets an expansion.

Indianapolis 500 Legends (DS)
Indianapolis racing action for your DS.

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]

NiGHTS on PS2... the good one! [CVG]

Gameplay is similar to the Saturn game and involves plenty of balletic aerial maneuvers, guiding Nights through a series of rings, picking up scattered bonuses, paralooping around blue orbs, the typical fare one engages in when in a jester suit. The level on hand at TGS started off on foot, with human boy William, but just for a moment.

We quickly took control of Nights, chasing a key-wielding bird around the grassy obstacle course. If you've never played the original NiGHTS Into Dreams, you'll fly Nights in a locked 2D plane, looping around items to collect them racing to catch up with the bird. It's fairly simple, but great fun. Relaxing at times, frantic at others, you'll want to revisit levels to improve your performance.

At the end of the level, the camera switches from a semi-side scrolling perspective to one directly behind Nights. Unfortunately, Nights' speed appears to remain the same during these segments and they feel much less enjoyable than the normal gameplay.

The demo ended with a boss fight, one against a giant clown balloon. You'll latch Nights onto the underside of the balloon boss, looping him around, then launching him through a series of doors. It's a gargantuan game of boss bowling played against the clock.

Yadda yadda yadda... So, how does it play? Pretty damn good. As a Saturn owner who wasn't particularly taken with the original—at least not on the level that ravenous NiGHTS fanboys seem to be—I enjoyed myself more than I thought I would. Control via the analog stick felt a little loose, but adjusting to the mechanics would take longer than a fifteen minute demo.

Graphically, the game looks like a Wii game. Better than the Saturn, better than Cruis'n, but it's certainly not going to change anyone's mind about the Wii's graphical prowess. The framerate isn't that solid right now, but the game doesn't ship until December 13th in Japan, so there's plenty of time to add polish.

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams doesn't do much to set itself apart from the original game from what I played on the show floor. However, the mere fact that the game is returning to home consoles after such a long wait may simply be enough for fans of the first.

PLAYSTATION 3
Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! *
Valkyrie of the Battlefield
Imabi Kisou
Sega Rally *
The Golden Compass *

Wii
NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams
Fuurai no Shiren 3
Ghost Squad
Miburi & Teburi *
The Golden Compass *
Doraemon Wii: Himitsu Doguo Kettei Sen

Xbox 360
Sega Rally *

PlayStation 2
Jissen Pachi-Slot Hisshouhou! Hokuto no Ken 2
Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus *
Seaman 2 *
Sega Ages 2500 Vol. 31: Dennou Senki Virtual On *
Jissen Pachinko Hisshouhou! CR Sakura Taisen

Nintendo DS
Sonic Rush Adventure
Sakura Taisen: Kimi Arugatame
BLEACH The 3rd Phantom
Picto Image DS
Mainichi Shinbun 1000 Dai-News *
Touch de Zuno DS *
The Golden Compass *
Kodai Ouja: Kyouryuu King - 7-tsu no Kakera
Dream Cat Smile DS

PSP
SEGA Rally *
The Golden Compass *

PC
Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus *
Splash! Golf *

Sega Official Website - Tokyo Game Show 2007 [Sega.jp]

In addition to dropping this new trailer for you enjoyment, Sega announced today that NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams for the Wii will feature two-player co-op along with "network support." They'll also bring back the sandbox A-Life mode with the ability to capture gene splice inhabitants of Nightopia. Live it up, NiGHTS fans (and just those who like random decapitalized letters).

As for the video, wait until a little over halfway in for some decent gameplay footage.

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]

Takashi Iizuka was on hand yesterday to talk a bit about the upcoming NiGHTS title for the Wii. In a sort of surreal twist, he spent much of the 15 minute presentation talking about Carl Jung and dream theory.

He started by saying that this latest NiGHTS is inspired by the dreams we all have when we go to sleep at night and then he touched briefly on Carl Jung's dream research pointing out that the five archtypes of Jung's research (Great Mother, Old Wiseman, Shadow, Anima and Animus) were all represented by people in the game. (NIghtmares, Wizeman, Nights, boy and girl.)

Iizuka went on to say that the heart of the game was about making flying fun and in this Wii version you will be using your remote to guide your character on his flights of fancy. The game will have seven worlds to fly through and an eclectic mix of bad guys and bosses.

After about 12 minutes of talking generalities, Iizuka showed us a roughly minute long trailer which showed a bit of the flight and some of the surreal settings from the game... looked sorta like Sonic in the air, but it was hard to judge with such a short clip. Brian Crecente

I'll come clean and admit that, even though I own the original NiGHTS Into Dreams and still have my Saturn stashed in the back room, I haven't touched the thing in close to a decade. Worse, I hardly remember how the thing played. Maybe I should put that on the list of What I'm Playing This Weekend... Michael McWhertor