Nights into Dreams

This is a 1996 game for the Sega Saturn game console. The premise for the game is that two kids, Clair Sinclair and Elliot Edwards, have nightmares when they go to sleep. Claire wants to sing and Elliot wants to play basketball, but their dreams turn to nightmares. Nights, a being who lives in the dream world, goes through their dreams to find these red bubbles that represent courage, and when you get through all of the levels, you eventually get to Wiseman, the ultimate bad guy, and have to try to defeat him to allow their dreams to come true.

To begin playing, you must choose either Claire or Elliot, and then using Nights, you travel through their dreams trying to get a high enough score to progress to the next level before the alarm clock wakes you up. There are seven levels in total with a mini boss after each level. As Nights you have to fly from left to right across the level, but other than that your movement is pretty much free, and you can gain points by executing several different acrobatic movements or loops while you get your points.

The game was really well received. A hand-held version came out and a sequel was made for the Wii in 2007. Also, a mini comic book series was released where Claire and Elliot meet up in the real world to save Nights. I really enjoyed playing it, and still do. It's colourful, imaginative, and creative. Even though it's a side scrolling game, so you can only move left to right, there is still a bit of freedom. There are a few secret passageways to find and a couple of shortcuts. All in all, one of my preferred games from childhood.

Dragon Force

I loved this game growing up. It's an amazing strategy game with just enough of a story line to not make it all about telling soldiers where to go. It's not very plot based at all which is great, you can really do whatever you want, but there is enough structure to give the player an objective.

There are 8 characters in total, each is a monarch and a master of one of the different types of soldiers you can use in the game. The objective is to pick one of the characters and conquer the whole world. You have a limited number of troops and you have to decide where you will send them, and what kind of soldiers you will send where. Each class has an opposing class that they have an advantage over, and one that has an advantage over them. When you choose a character to send into battle you have to take into consideration how their class will fare against your opponent.

When you first play the game you can only choose 6 of the 8 characters, but after you beat the game once you can unlock the other two characters to select them. Each monarch is different and so every time you play you'll have different strengths and weaknesses which will probably keep you entertained for a good while. Even after beating the game with all 8 characters, I sometimes went back to replay it, it's really that good. You can change your strategy every time you play too... it's a really versatile game.

As a player you do not actually fight with any of your characters. You just play the role of an overseeing general. You tell who to go where and give the commands in battle, but you never actually bloody your own hands. It's more of a thinking game then a first person combat game.

It's amazing and I recommend you try getting your hands on it, or playing it at least once if you can.