N3 battles with the best

Ninety-Nine Nights is not a complex game. About 90 percent of the gameplay is just pressing "X" repeatedly. Every now and then you might press "Y." About once a level you hit "B."\nRepeat that a few dozen times and you beat the game.\nBut what N3 lacks in depth it makes up for in style. Every new press of the "X" button or combo with "Y" unleashes a giant slash of your melee weapon that sends literally hundreds of orcs and goblins flying that's just as exciting to see the 100th time as it was the first time.\nThe entire game is like the coolest battle scenes from the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy amped up to 11 with none of homoerotic hobbit undertones.\nThe graphics aren't jaw-dropping but they're more than acceptable. And it is damn impressive to lead a hundred knights into battle against thousands of orcs with not even a hint of slowdown.\nIf I've got one complaint it's that every now and then the action gets so hectic it's almost impossible to tell where your character is amidst the chaos.\nThere's a decent story here about orbs and the battle of light and dark in the world. It's standard fantasy fair, but it is kind of cool to see the story through the eyes of the seven playable characters.\nThe real highlight here is the orchestrated soundtrack, much of which plays in tandem with the hacking and slashing going on at the time. The musical pieces here are on par with any Hollywood epic.\nThis is no surprise however as the game's producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi has worked on some of the greatest soundtrack's in gaming such as "Space Channel 5," "REZ" and "Lumines."\nOn the other hand, voice acting ranges from acceptable to downright cheesy.\nUnlike a lot of other hack and slashers, N3 is pretty long too. Beating the game with all seven characters easily sucks up 20 hours. Beating every level with an "A" or "S" rank to adds on another couple of hours.\nThe unlockable concept art really isn't much motivation to continue though unless you really get into the game's universe.\nN3 won't win any awards for originality, but it is easily the best beat 'em up game to come out since "Dynasty Warriors 2"