NiGHTS Grounded for 28th Anniversary…

On July 3, 2024, Saturn game hacker & reverse engineer, Bo Bayles, released a special game patch in celebration of the 28th Anniversary of NiGHTS into Dreams… In this reimaged ‘NiGHTS Pedestrian Challenge’, rather than taking to the skies, as usual, both Elliot & Claris will have to huff it on foot if they want a chance at that sweet A RANK…

Patch Download

How It Works

In this Pedestrian Challenge, you still need all five Ideya in order to free NiGHTS from the Ideya Palace. At the start of each Dream, you approach the Ideya Palace to grab the Red Ideya.

You’ll be knocked back from the Ideya Palace once you touch it. Now the first mare begins! Collect 20 blue chips on foot, then follow the arrow to the Ideya Capture. Once you’ve obtained the Ideya, proceed back to the Ideya Palace.

Repeat the process for the rest of the mares. Once you’ve finished all of them, you’ll fight the Nightmaren boss as NiGHTS like usual.

Elliot and Claris have a few advantages in this mod relative to the normal game: They bounce off hazards (like the purple void) rather than being knocked down. Also, they’re much faster, and get up to speed more quickly.

The scoring system has been adjusted. You can get an A even though it’s much more difficult to get links — just be sure to collect as many chips and stars as you can. Don’t forget to jump through rings: they’ll boost the dash gauge for the boss fight — orange rings increase it by 1; yellow by 2.

Some other features:

• The Alarm Egg won’t bug you while you’re running around.
• The camera camera controls have been upgraded, so you’re not restricted to 90 degree viewport movements.
• You can access every stage from the beginning; there’s no need to unlock them one at a time.

This patch serves as a great opportunity to observe and appreciate the level design features in Spring Valley, Splash Garden, Mystic Forest, Frozen Bell, Soft Museum, and Stick Canyon in a bold and fresh new way! Hopefully folks get a kick out of this one, and Bo welcomes feedback regarding how folks score in this version of the game. Feel free to let him know what you think of it, and we’ll be keeping an eye on Bo’s blog for his next project…

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Bo’s Previous Game Patches

Check out some of the amazing game patches that Bo has already done for the community to enjoy:

• Burning Rangers – Restoring 2 Player Co-Op Mode
• Fighting Vipers – Enabling Unused Character Costume
• Fire ProWrestling S: 6Men Scramble – Restoring Unused Characters
• High Velocity – Restoring Hidden/Unused 4 Player Mode
• Clockwork Knight 2 – Changing Gameplay Styles

What games do you think would make great candidates for a patch? Let Bo know.