Ninety-Nine Nights (N3), the game everyone wanted released in North America until they played it. During the pre-release and early launch days of the 360, videos of N3 were circulating around websites causing quite a stir, this great-looking massive beat ‘em up showing waves of enemies being pulverized in over-the-top attacks had somehow not been picked up by a publisher for a release in North America. The companies behind the title, Q Entertainment and Phantagram, had the pedigree to almost assure a hit with the later being the studio behind the excellent (and similar) Kingdom Under Fire titles for the original Xbox, but no one was biting. Sensing the heightened interest, Microsoft snatched the title up and many months later we are left with what we have today: a game that at least looks kinda cool.

There’s a story here involving a broken orb and how the factions holding each side – the humans with the light side and goblins with the dark – are being toyed with to reunite it so that a monstrous king will be given the power to resurge and rule the land, but it’s not terribly important. It serves as a decent enough backdrop for throwing hundreds of cloned soldiers your way so that you may dispatch them with light trails and high pitched squeals of rage, though. 

Covering all aspects of the war, N3 presents six characters for you to control: Imphyy, a 17-year-old commander in the Temple Knights, seeking revenge for the death of her father; Aspharr, Imphyy’s brother and a 19-year-old commander in the Temple Knights, and the game’s quintessential male Meg Ryan-looking character; Myifee, a mercenary that is endowed with powers of the light and is actually over the age of 20 (32); Tyurru, an obnoxious sorceress that haphazardly picks a side to assist, using her power to control water, clocking in at a very sagely 12-years-old; Klarran, another oldie, a priest for the light; Dwingvatt, a goblin warrior seeking revenge after seeing Imphyy kill his brother in their village; and Vigk Vagk, the not-all-that-well-hidden character that is unlocked after all the other campaigns have been completed. Each character fleshes out the story a little more, with a few showing the reasons for actions that are fairly minor in other portions, which is pretty cool and does a decent job of giving more background into a fairly generic story.

The only playable character starting out is Imphyy, and after completing her campaign the game will then unlock one or two other heroes to use upon subsequent completion of their campaigns. There is one part in Aspharr’s portion that allows you to decide where to go, a decision Imphyy made for you in her story, which alters the ending; this is a nice touch, but despite the ample opportunities for such interesting liberties, it is the only divergence beyond button mashing of its kind. The rest of the portions aren’t so involved, with the game simply telling you where to go as you navigate using an obtuse mini map and move at the speed of molasses. The cause-and-effect relationships between the characters are really one of the few plusses in the game, even if they don’t go beyond simply replaying a battle in a different area.

Looking at screenshots and reading up on the title, it would be difficult to ascertain that it’s not a particularly good one. It certainly looks good, with characters in wild armor unleashing huge attacks on waves upon waves of troops; hearing about all of the combos, playable characters, different enemy types, and over a hundred weapons and items to find littered on the battlefield. The problem is that the game doesn’t require the usage of the extensive combo list, items can be a pain to find, the enemies aren’t that interesting, and it simply doesn’t work as it says it does.

For most of the game’s problems, I wouldn’t have too hard a time overlooking them. Sure, finding the treasure chests that hide the weapons can be as easy as hitting the one chest in the middle of a confined area or searching through a maze of a level using the game’s shoddy mini map (almost transparent transportation routes highlighting the immediate area you’re in; great for everything except, you know, finding out where to go), and running across items (charms for drop rate, armor for increase attack and defense bonuses, and so on) that you very rarely feel are helping, isn’t that exciting. While I wouldn’t put that as positive, it’s certainly not so bad that I wouldn’t want to continue playing. No, it’s the absolutely horrible army and repetitive combat, made worse by a lack of checkpoints and the ability to save in-level, that killed the game for me.

The manual touts, “And since each warrior acts based on his or her own unique AI, your actions as the player character (PC) will be met with appropriate and distinct reactions as you experience the excitement of spectacular battles in which massive armies of fierce warriors struggle in a grand tug-of-war.” (Pg. 2). The problem with that snippet is that the “distinct reactions” spoken of boils down to the troops either randomly cheering or lethargically attacking enemies.  In the midst of heavy combat, there is little else as reassuring of success as seeing your troops throw up their hands in victory all the while being attacked by the enemy right next to them; or, watching six of your finest men bash a simple enemy grunt for minutes on end, wailing away until you come over and dispatch the seemingly indestructible foe with a few thwacks. No, there is nothing exciting about that.

While Kingdom Under Fire gave you command over what troops to bring into combat and how to use them, N3 gives some heroes a varying list of units (basically heavy and light infantry, archers, and pikemen) and the battlefield commands of telling them to defend or attack, with defending apparently really meaning ‘attack after a few seconds of holding.’ I can understand the army being used as a way of emphasizing how ultra badass you are – you having to constantly save the day by swiping down hundreds of units – but they are there to give you the feeling of being a commander. Instead of streamlining the Kingdom Under Fire approach, they watered it down to the point of it being both useless and frustrating. You don’t feel so much like a commander as you do a babysitter.

The game also has another significant problem, and one that is the answer to the question: How does a game whose longest level is forty minutes and its shortest less than ten wear out its welcome so quickly? The answer is a lack of checkpoints in a game that has poor-to-horrible mission structure – even a ten-minute mission can get annoying when you go through it for the third time. The developers are fond of throwing you in either extremely short and simple missions or seemingly short missions that mushroom into hour-long affairs because of constantly introducing new mini bosses or bosses or sections to go through. The game also has this annoying habit of there being one soldier that is extremely effective at attack and defending with no apparent reason to be, or not apparent reason to be any more talented than the four hundred and ninety-nine compatriots of his you just dispatched; so because of being a lucky strike leading into an annoying chain of landed hits (move, hero!) or an untimely boss battle (they have the ability to attack through your blocks but you not through theirs – great!) you will have to repeat that level. Again. It’s a few missions in that you realize that what you’ve been given to play through also wasn’t enough for a particular level or boss, meaning you have to go back and play through earlier levels to level up accordingly.

When you level up you unlock new combo attacks, as well as more health and the ability to use better weapons. By looking at the combo lists for the characters, or even seeing them in action, you would think that the combat would really pick up the slack. Unfortunately, it never does. The only thing you need to do is alternate between the heavy and light attack keys to cut through swaths of enemies, then attempt to block if surrounded. With each dead enemy comes a red orb that both goes towards leveling you up and also to fill up an orb meter. Once filled, you can unleash an orb attack that is deadlier than your normal attacks, with those being killed by these leaving behind blue orbs that fill your Orb Spark gauge. Orb Spark attacks are really what the game was designed for, because they are loud, big, unwieldy, and extremely impressive to behold, laying waste to hundreds at a time. The orb attacks are really the hallmark of the game, and are really the only thing noteworthy about it.

There are other problems as well, including transparency limited to certain objects that leaves others to block the camera; a save feature that requires you give each hero a save slot less you want to save over your past progress with one; and the frustrating dropping of items past the invisible barrier or right before a cutscene, making them impossible to get. There’s also some slowdown as well, which I wouldn’t say is so much indicative of the power of the 360 as it is of the developers.

Overall: 2.5/10

Ninety-Nine Nights is an unimpressive effort that’s not worth the asking price. For fans of the massive beat ‘em up titles, there is always Koei’s offerings, plus the upcoming Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom. This is such a light offering that a rental will suffice, but given how disappointing it can get, it would be better to spend that money elsewhere.