40 Winks scores 6/10 in the verdict of The Games Market editorial team.
Once Upon a Time
40 Winks: goodnight and dream platformer
by Simon Larocca·December 23, 2024
For those like me who were born
and raised with classic Christmas films, masterpieces like A Christmas Carol and detached, disillusioned characters like the
misanthropic Scrooge belong to our
childhood as much as “Trading Places” belongs to Christmas Eve.
The guys at Gt Interactive may have been inspired by him way back in 1999 when they released, boosted by an unusual advertising campaign in retrospect, the video game 40 Winks and its dream-stealing villain, the infamous Nitekap. Released for the Christmas season and therefore destined to ride the holiday wave and the willingness of young gamers’ parents to spend money, this title was supposed to steal the show with its deliberately cartoonish graphics, its colorful and “cute” characters, and a plot that heavily exploited the Good vs. Evil dualism in the guise of a sleep-deprived man opposed by two children, determined to thwart his terrible plans.
The typical Christmas story, in a nutshell, among good feelings and
clichés that deep down, let’s admit it, we all tolerate more
when the old bearded man in red approaches, the one who pulls the reindeer and
sneaks down the chimneys of houses all over the world (and once drank liters and
liters of Coca Cola, but that’s another story).
The Winks in the title are nothing more than delightful creatures capable of transforming people’s dreams into dreams of gold: dream worlds where time is stretched out and everything is idyllic, unicorns hop happily around and Bambi’s mother never died. Nitekap and his henchmen, minions that I remember as something halfway between teddy bears and creepy goblins, decide to kidnap them (guess how many there are?) and turn the peaceful dreamlands into a perpetual nightmare from which one cannot wake up.
Nelle vesti di Ruff o Tumble,
brother and sister whom we will select at the start of the game, we will have
to make our way through the lands of dream to save the Winks and return to the world the thing
most precious to us: a good restorative sleep. The game had many
problems, both in development and in publishing. 40 Winks was supposed to hit
the scene on the Nintendo 64, however only a version for PlayStation was released,
we would dare say in haste and fury, but the truth is that a platform game must satisfy two essential parameters: intuitive controls and inspired settings that convey the desire to explore the
levels, even more so if we are talking about 3D level design.
40 Winks boasted a Christmas story
that was more than inspired, the foray into dream territory is not original
but has interesting precedents (Sandman
by Gaiman and Little Nemo are
two valid examples), but what undermines the foundations of the stage
is its fundamental sterility. Poorly crafted settings, almost bare, simplistic
puzzles and the feeling, or at least that is what I felt back then and even
today, replaying it to refresh my memory, that they had wanted to force the
timing in order to release it in time for that year’s holidays. The game itself is not
incomplete, however it would have won many more hearts if it had been a little more. A little more polished in the
levels, a little more polished in the localization and voice acting, for example.
Yet, the plot is very nice and
the cut scenes are not bad at all in my opinion, the story moves along and 40 Winks is
one of those unfortunate titles that deserve a second chance.
Del rest, it is Christmas.
6
Pro
All in all, inspired setting, the floating world of the Dream always has its charm
A simple story, where it is easy to root for the good feelings opposed to the forces of evil, though never truly frightening
Contro
Bare levels and with a rather simple structure
Terrifying dubbing that will make you miss the monotone tones of the first version of Alexa.
The target audience is very childish; Quake fans will hardly play it, a title that, among other things, was actually produced by GT Interactive!
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
Simon Larocca
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
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