Worthwhile Reviews: Ninety-Nine Nights | X360 | $24.99 | New

This was the first game I ever played on the XBOX 360, at a friend's house, and when I saw the number of characters on-screen at once I was impressed. When I saw one of the screen-clearing Orb Spark attacks, I was even more impressed. With my recent purchase of a 360, I finally had the opportunity to explore this game in more detail and picked it up with my console.

Ninety-Nine Nights (N3) is a hack 'n slash game in the Dynasty Warriors vein where you'll mash the attack buttons through entire armies of enemies, often felling several with each swing. Stages can be repeated to gain experience and to achieve better ranks, and characters learn new attacks and combos as they gain experience. A handful of upgraded weapons and other items for each character can be found hidden on levels or awarded for acheiving specific ranks.

There are 7 characters in N3, although some of the characters you unlock later get shafted on the number of stages available to them. You'll begin the game as Inphyy, A goblin-hating young warrior whose breasts command the Temple Knights. She's a good all-around character with some nice combo attacks and decent speed. Aspharr is her adopted brother (with whom she has the most uncomfortably charged sibling relationship since Luke and Leia) and is also a well-rounded character. Myifee the mercenary has a decent number of stages and attacks, but somehow manages not to be all that fun to play. Well, except for his Orb Attack, which is so devestating that it can't not be fun.

Dvingvatt the goblin is actually on the other side of the conflict from the other characters, and in playing him you're supposed to see that there are two sides to every conflict, and that nothing is as black-and-white as it seems. Whatever. That's not why I play a game like this--I play a game like this to cut through opposing armies like I'm harvesting grain. Dvingvatt is incredibly fast (while the other characters are rather plodding), but other than that he's not very interesting.

Next up are Klarran and Tyrryu, a priest and a witch repectively. These two have less stages to play than the other characters, and their play mechanics try some new things. Klarran can't jump but has great combos, weilding what appears to be a church steeple, and was one of my favorite characters to play. Tyrryu differs completely from the others by having no melee attacks at all. Instead, she uses her magical control of water to damage enemies, from blasts out of her palm to an impressive Orb Spark that drowns everything out to the horizon.

The last character is hidden until you complete the game with everyone else, and isn't all that interesting anyway. His attacks aren't bad, but he gets only 2 stages, meaning a lot of repetition to level up.

Although N3 does a good job of keeping a lot (and I mean a LOT) of characters moving on-screen at once, the frame-rate does dip when there's a lot of chaos, and especially during an Orb attack or Spark. There's also a lot of little glitches and rough spots, which is understandable for a launch game, but no less irritating. Cut-scenes are annoying because they can cut off the Orb Attack/Spark you just initiated, and enemies often get free hits on you before you regain control from the cut-scene. You also have to be extremely careful with some Orb Spark attacks--face even slightly the wrong direction and the gauge you spent the whole level filling will empty on the side of a mountain instead of on your enemies.

Was it worth my $25? Yes, although its not exactly going to go in my top 5 games of all-time list or anything, N3 was an enjoyable introduction to the current generation of gaming. A gaming pop-tart that's quick and easy to enjoy, but not something you'd want to make a staple out of.