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'360 degrees of hack 'n slash'
 Developer: Q Entertainment / Phantagram
Publisher: Microsoft
Category: : hack 'n slash
Official Site
Platform: X-Box 360
Might look like: /
Date posted: 27 November 2006
Written By: Scott
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Button mashing !
So you enjoy games like Dynasty Warriors? Then you've come to the right
place as N3 (Ninety-Nine Nights) takes a page from the button mashing, hack and slash genre.
The story is about as generic as they come (humans vs. goblins) and at times it seems as if the story was slapped on as an afterthought.
You get seven
different "heroes" to play the story through and each time the story ends a little differently with each character.
The list of character's is interesting enough, there are two human commanders with sword and pike, a mercenary with a giant sword on a chain, a priest who wields a giant cross, a little girl spellcaster, a goblin warrior
with lightning speed and a giant troll.
They all have a decent number of combos you can perform and the higher you level you're character up (to a max level of 9) the more elaborate and powerful your combos become.
Ninety-Nights Gameplay
Which brings me to the core of the gameplay. If you've played any of the Dynasty Warriors games then you'll feel right at home.
The basic concept is to throw as many enemies at you at one time while you mash on the buttons to perform your combo's.
This is definitely the most impressive aspect of the game.
The sheer amount of enemies you face at once can sometimes seem overwhelming! We're talking hundreds of enemies on screen at once!
Each enemy that you kill drops an orb that you absorb automatically. Collect enough of these and you can unleash a charged attack. Your charged attack will cause the enemies you kill to drop blue orbs. Grab enough of these and you get an even bigger attack.
This serves a welcome rest from the mashing on the X button that you were doing to get to that point because you get to push the B button for once.
The blue orb special attacks are basically huge magical attacks that basically kill all enemies on screen.
For instance the young girl wizard summons a huge tidal wave that washes all your enemies away.
It's quite a nice sight to see.
At the end of each level you are graded on your performance based on the amount of enemies killed, items picked up, number of enemies killed with the blue orb attack and time it took you to complete the mission.
This aspect provides some replayability as you'll want to go back through each mission and achieve the higher ranks to unlock special weapons.
  
If you can manage to get at least an A rank on every level you'll unlock an achievement worth 200 points. This will be quite a challenge on several missions.
The rest of the achievement are clearing each character's storyline and leveling everyone up to level 9.
Graphics & Sound
As far as the graphics are concerned, they're a mixed bag.
N3 succeeds in
putting an insane number of enemies on the battlefield at one time, sometimes leading you to believe the battle is hopeless. However, there is quite a bit of slowdown that occurs at times.
It happens most often when you try to use your special attacks. It's dissapointing that they weren't able to keep a solid frame rate during these moments when the point of the game is to have as many units on screen at once.
Another complaint is there is no variety in the enemy's appearance, it's always the same exact goblin or orc.
Making the graphics seem even blander is the repetitive use of environments. Playing through the war seven times means you're going to be fighting in the same places over and over again. While the environments appear large in size, they're mostly lifeless and lack any sort of graphical
touch that makes you think this is a "Next-Gen" experience. Shame.
  
One area that I felt really shined was the music. The entire score is fully
orchestrated and I felt this gave the game a more epic feel.
Just listen to the start screen song and I think you'll agree.
Unfortunatly the voice acting is terrible and at times will have you reaching for the mute button but still excellent score !
Conclusion
In the end, "Ninety-Nine Nights" this is a very average title for the Xbox 360 and it's hard for me to recommend spending your hard earned money on such a mediocre title.
With no Xbox Live features and very repetitive gameplay, there's not a whole lot to do once you've beaten each of the characters story-lines other than go for A ranks on each mission and maxing your character's level for the achievements.
Still if your a true "hack 'n slash" gamer, then N3 will definitely bring you a lot of fun!
-Scott
Ratings
Manual:
84 % |
Graphics:
81% |
Music & Sfx:
89% |
GamePlay:
78% |
|
This game scores
on our 5-point Rating System
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