In 2009, Nicalis announced that they were publishing a Nifflas physics-based puzzle game on exclusively on WiiWare titled
Night. The title was later changed to
NightSky and never saw the light of day on WiiWare. Instead, the game was published on Steam in 2011 and announced for the 3DS eShop the same year. Finally, the game saw release on a Nintendo platform on October 25, 2012. Was it worth the wait?
Trailer for the PC game.The goal of
NightSky is simple enough. You control a black sphere and have to guide it through a series of dreams. Each dream consists of three screens, and there are thirteen dreams in a level. If you die (which you will), you'll restart from the beginning of the dream that you're working on.
Roll a ball, huh? Easy enough, right? Not so fast. There are plenty of obstacles in your way ranging from ramps to boulders, icy terrain to dangling platforms. You’ll have to roll the sphere over ravines or knock over objects to form bridges to advance. Fortunately, there are a few tricks that you have at your disposal to get from point A to point B.
First off, you can hold the A button to accelerate while moving left or right, and that lets the sphere move faster and get more height on those tricky jumps. Speed sounds good, but sometimes you need a bit more control. Hold the B button to brake when you need more precision, and this also has the sphere gripping onto whatever object it’s currently sitting on. Depending on the dream, holding the B button will also reverse gravity, which can make for some interesting puzzle sequences. In some dreams, one of the buttons may be disabled, and that includes the d-pad.
Roll to the top, but how?Then there are the vehicles. Some are flying contraptions, some are car-like vehicles, and some are just plain weird. They all control very differently (and are each explained in-game), so I won’t even attempt to go into how each one controls. Most of the puzzle aspects of these dreams are trying to figure out how to get the vehicle moving the way you want it to. As a whole, these were my least favorite parts of
NightSky, although some of the vehicles were fun to mess around with.
Some dreams house secret stars. If there’s one present in your current dream, a black star with a white outline will be present on the bottom screen. The stars aren’t visible. No sir. They’re hidden in crevices that are often hard to get to and require planning, good timing, or both. There are twelve stars to be found, and they unlock dreams in the final stage.
A lot of people describe
NightSky as an atmospheric game, and for good reason. It’s very relaxing when you turn up the sound…breezes, acoustic guitars, and simple sound effects just get the job done. The environments are all in black which can make navigating tricky at times, but the color in the background gives the game a charming, beautiful look. The 3D doesn’t need to be on to enjoy the game, but it does enhance the atmosphere in my opinion.
One of the many contraptions you'll have to master.NightSky has two difficulty settings. Even with that, the game can be beaten relatively quickly (I found every star and beating every dream on both difficulties took me just under nine hours). The puzzles can be tricky, but not maddeningly difficult. For $9.99, I would have liked more, but I was satisfied with it in the end. I highly recommend it if you want a relaxing puzzle game.
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