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Let me tell you a little story.  Once upon a time, I stumbled across this game completely by accident at a video store around when it first came out, and fell in love with it.  I was a bit surprised to find out later that it had gotten such low scores from popular publications such as Game Informer, because it was just an interesting game to me.  I also learned that an N64 and Windows version was in the works around the same time as the PS1 version was created...only for the PS1 version to be the only one that wasn't cancelled.  But cut to roughly 2018, and both the Windows and even N64 versions were thrown onto Kickstarter, with the Windows version releasing on Steam around 2018 (and the N64 version apparently releasing in April of 2019, making it the actual last N64 game ever made).

Naturally, the one I'm going to review is the original PS1 version, as I only just learned upon writing this review that the Steam version even existed (and according to the reviews, it's just a bad port of the PS1 version).

So 40 Winks is both cliche as well as not at the same time.  As you'd expect, it's a game that plays on the idea of dreams, and the overall story/plot is incredibly cliche.  Likewise, it's absolutely a sort of collectathon type of game that is compared to Mario.  At the same time, it had the disadvantage of being a new game releasing around the same month as Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage and Donkey Kong 64 (both of which were highly received), but at the same time that the Dreamcast was being launched with Sonic Adventure being released 2 months prior as well as other notable games like Soul Reaver, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, the original Crash Team Racing, and GTA 2 being released a month or so before.

Much like many new unknown games, it was basically destined to fall into obscurity under the release of many good titles, since 1999 was a hell of a time for game releases.

But...is the game an underrated gem? Well...overall yes, and in some small ways no.  As I said, the overall plot is beyond cliche, and some gameplay aspects such as the racing segments are pointless.  Overall though, the gameplay and creativity of it is actually pretty enjoyable.

Story
Tell me if you've heard this one: Bad guy is angry at people for something (in this case not being able to get sleep), and vows to take revenge by turning something (in this case turning their dreams to nightmares) against people...but of course some unexpected heroes (in this case kids) journey through unique lands (in this case various dream lands), save captured creatures that were locked up, and do what they can to thwart the bad guy.

Yeah, as I said, it's cliche from point A to point B, and it's something you'd see coming at all angles of the story from a mile off...no twists or anything, just straightforward in how everything is.

At the same time though, in a weird way that also becomes a small strength for the story.  The creators knew they were going for something that's been heard a million times before, so they made the villains a bit over the top in how silly they are.  After your first fight with the main villain's right hand man (well...creepy-faced living teddy bear), their whole talk is about (of course) how he'll make the next fight bigger and better so that he doesn't lose again...and then ends with the main villain offering the choice of polka dots or floral for patching up the teddy bear sidekick (known as Threadbear).

On the flipside, the kids are so unbelievably well spoken and not-kids that it's kinda funny.  In the game's intro when you meet them, they talk like they're highly intelligent adults trapped in kids bodies rather than the rambunctious kid heroes that you'd usually expect...and it's just funny to see that they flipped the roles with the villains being almost over the top silly while the kid protagonists are basically child-adults.

But yeah, the story is still 100% completely predictable despite the fun little flavoring mixed into it.  You know what's going to happen from start to end.

Gameplay
Now, I will say this is the game's biggest strength if you were to take the pointless racing sections out of it.

It plays like a typical platformer from back in those days in that you run, jump, and swim throughout slightly big but very limited area with each level that you go through.  Your character needs air to breath so you can't be underwater forever, and you can sometimes use objects you come across (such as floating furniture) to get you to a higher point.  There's also sometimes hazards such as lava that will deplete your life every time you touch it, and you can also sometimes take fall damage if you fall from too high.  There are occasionally puzzle like elements which usually just result in a switch that you'd jump and then butt stomp to activate.

Battle wise, you can either attack with your fists, or you can use a Moon token and scream at the enemy, doing a little higher damage.

To make the game a little more unique, there's also Jack-in-the-Boxes in all of the different levels.  If you hop in one, you'll get a new costume based on the symbol on it.  If it's a Star, you become a Fairy Princess (if you're the girl) or a Wizard (if you're the boy).  If it's a paw print, you become a Caveman/Cavewoman.  Each costume grants different abilities such as being able to shoot homing shots in place of your scream, being able to jump higher or double jump with the second being a higher one, and so on.  Certain buttons also require a certain costume to be able to activate.

The costume you wear is on a timer, however, and will make you revert back to your normal self if that timer hits 0.  But if you collect tokens that look like the symbol of the box where you got your costume, it'll prolong that timer.

In this game, there are 6 different world-areas with 1 racing area, 1 boss, and 3 levels each (and a final boss after you beat all of those).

In those three levels for each world, you have two objectives: Recover 4 dream keys in each level, and save 1-3 Winks as well.  Getting all of the Dream Keys will unlock the boss, while getting the Winks will unlock the next world-area.

It doesn't sound like a lot, but the levels themselves are a pretty decent size and range greatly in difficulty.  Many levels will be mind numbingly simple except when it comes to finding the Dream Keys (since they can hide them pretty well), and others can be frustratingly difficult at points, such as the Underwater levels.  Enemies after a certain point when killed will automatically respawn in most areas, so it's more about collecting what you need and leaving.

Other collectibles include: large coins to where if you get 10, you get an extra life.  Zz which are basically the game's version of Sonic rings, and most importantly are Cogs, which are needed to open up many locked areas that will have a number of them required.

Bosses is where I will fault the game a bit when it comes to semi lack of creativity in the same vein that I fault Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex in the same capacity: All of the bosses are virtually the same villain (aka Threadbear) taking advantage of some trick with that world (such as riding a giant spider in the creepy woods, or using a giant mechanical crab in the Underwater world).  Sure, the new "creative" way they try to kill you is interesting...but why not just have a completely different villain in general do it...or have it be just actual nightmare creatures fighting you?  I just like bosses that are diverse, especially when it's not even the main villain doing the destroying.  I mean, despite Jersey Devil occasionally re-using its own side-antagonist, even some of those boss fights were completely different characters (such as a sumo bear-thing, a seductive woman that can change into a "scary" bigger version, a frog monster, etc...) in which the side-antagonist was nowhere to be found.  Which...sure, they're the side antagonist for a reason, definitely throw them into some fights, but good lord please spice it up a bit and don't just make every boss fight him with a new "trick."

One interesting choice was blocking off certain parts of levels depending on who you chose as the protagonist, as you'd be met with some doors that the game tells you are "Boy Only" or "Girls Only" depending on the one you picked.

Overall though, I thought the gameplay was the best area, though again, races were pointless since the story-progressing collectibles didn't require you taking part in racing (though I usually hate forced-racing mechanics worse than optional ones).

Graphics
For its time, it was a very pretty game, though obviously it's a product of its time.  CG cutscenes were cute, but bordering between ugly to fucking creepy (as I said, Threadbear is creepy looking).  Regular graphics were pretty okay for a PS1 game.  Nothing special, but nothing terrible.  The use of colors was very well chosen for each of the worlds and characters.

I will say that I did like the bit of detail between the two choices.  If you chose the boy protagonist, he carried a candle that had a nice little motion to it, and left a motion-blur stream behind it when you walked.  Likewise, the girl would carry a teddy bear (hopefully not as creepy as Threadbear).

Overall though, it wasn't bad at all.








Music
Soundtrack wise, the game was fine.  It's one of those games where the soundtrack was serviceable enough, but nothing really stuck out as amazing to me, but there were no tracks that I hated either.

Click here for the soundtrack

Sounds/Voices

Again, sounds ranged from perfectly serviceable to pleasant.  Nothing really in particular stuck out for me on this area.

Voices were also pretty alright all around.  The main characters sounded like kids despite not actually talking like most kids (at least not like most normal 90s kids that age range), the villain had a fun almost flamboyant voice, and Threadbear had a nice gruff voice...overall everyone was pretty alright in this area.

Replayability
There's optional races as I said, but nothing special for doing them, therefore this'll more than likely be a one and done game.

Overall
Is it the new Mario or even on the same level? Ehhhh, no.  There's definitely some unique ideas and some nice elements, but Mario is still by far a better franchise overall, with the most comparable title at the time (Mario 64) being immensely better in creativity alone.

However, it is an idea I'd love to see expanded on and revamped a bit with a more engaging, either less predictable and more intensive story...or balls to the wall cliche and deep diving into the silly rather than this middle-of-the-road way that they went.

But it is a game that I'd recommend trying at least once, preferably the original PS1 version if you can get it since the Steam port is apparently pretty poor.