Ninety Nine Nights is your typical light vs. dark game where you heroes of good must vanquish the villains of evil, all the while battling their own inner demons and personal issues. Not too much to really worry about; bring on the baddies and button mash until the cows come home.

N3 doesn’t exactly cause a brain cramp. Almost anyone can pick the controller up and start going crazy. Sure it’s a button masher, and yes it can be compared to the Dynasty Warriors series, but N3 separates itself by offering a slew of combos and doing everything in a bigger, better fashion. Now, it goes without saying, some people just don’t like the hack and slash button mashing fiasco that N3 offers; just like some people dislike first person shooters. So I suppose that would be the only real caveat; this game isn’t for everyone.

For those who do enjoy the hack and slash, larger-than-life battles, N3 is going to offer you plenty of enjoyment. Each character has their own set of moves and storyline. It’s pretty interesting seeing how their stories weave in and out of each other. The one thing N3 does not do is blend any type of real strategy. Make no mistake; any army you might command in this game is merely for show and eye candy. Often times, your legions will stand around, kill an orc or two and basically collect their paycheck. These guys are the epitome of lazy. I still find the ability to switch from a full frontal attack and a “hold the line” defense extremely useless. Many times you’ll find yourself simply cleaning up all the enemies that your troops had forgotten.

But let’s be honest, a game where you compile 1000s of kills and combos that would make any Killer Instinct player drool isn’t really concerned about strategy. You’re a one man/woman wrecking crew. Charging into a fray of 100 enemies only to dispose of them with artistically beautiful moves will make any Dynasty Warrior fan instantly hop onto the N3 bandwagon. Bigger, better, larger battles are without a doubt N3’s hugest selling point. Even though it’s not perfect, and you might find yourself wanting to crack your controller in half with the lack of save points on missions that can take over 30 minutes, or the nerve racking fights with bosses, N3 offers a glimpse into the new and improved hack and slash genre.

In case you haven’t noticed, this game is all about producing enemy on top of enemy on top of enemy. Yes the animations are crisp, the moves are fluid and absolutely beautiful to watch on a HDTV, but what N3 really does well is throwing an onslaught of characters on the screen with barely any slowdown or hiccup. Pulling off a huge combo and watching a plethora of enemies fly into the air is the pinnacle of what N3 does best. There are plenty of particle effects and lighting to go around that surrounds all of the nifty moves that your character performs. Each character displays a different array of moves, special effects, and colors that are displayed brilliantly, never suffering from a dull moment. In fact the only negative I would say is that the lip-synching is a huge disappointment. It seems that the voiceovers were merely imported without any care or consideration taken to the characters and their lip movements. It makes it seem like N3 was merely a port and not the entertaining title it truly is.

The levels are pretty big, which they need to be given the fact that every stage has anywhere from 2000 to 3000 enemies coming at you from every direction. The sheer magnitude of watching the screen fill with goblins and orcs in a Lord of the Rings fashion is breathtaking. The battles take place in a multitude of areas such as forests, canyons, snowfields and flat lands. While they might not display a whole lot of pretty things to look at, they serve as the perfect canvas for the huge battles N3 pumps out again and again.

Listening to the opening theme at the main menu screen and you’ll get a perfect sense of the type of music you can expect from N3; a choir driven, orchestrated, adrenaline pumping score that drives you further and further into battle. Though the option, as with all Xbox 360 titles, allows you to drop in your own music, I’ve found it to be unnecessary and welcome the N3 soundtrack with open arms.

Unfortunately, as it was with Kingdom Under Fire, the voiceovers aren’t great at all. While each character has their own interesting story to play out, the script doesn’t allow for any real character development. More often than not we’re treated to two or three lines of discussion before a mission that lay out the basic premise of what’s going on. Add to the poor lip synching and the dialogue becomes quite laughable.

N3 has a very basic interface consisting of a semi-transparent map on the top right hand corner, a combo/kill meter located at the bottom right corner, and finally, a health/orb meter on the opposite side. Though you never really have to plan or strategize where your troops are going, your map shows you how to get from point A to point B as well as the location of both friendly and opposing troops.

As I mentioned before, the controls are very easy to pick up and play and the combos, though plentiful in number, don’t take a whole lot of practice to master. N3 uses the basic hack and slash equation and allows players to grab the control and go wild.

N3 might not be the perfect title, and not everyone is going to enjoy the hack and slash gameplay (as is the case with most titles of this genre), but it is a huge evolution to games like Dynasty Warriors. The amount of enemies and the huge Dragon Ball Z – like moves are what make N3 so enjoyable to play. As mentioned, the drawbacks such as the lack of save points and nerve racking boss fights are a bit hard to swallow. If you have a little patience there’s no reason N3 can’t be a game you play over and over again. Collecting new weapons, building your characters up to their full potential, and maximizing that kill number extend N3’s life for quite some time. Maybe not for everyone, but definitely for me.