Ninety-Nine Nights review

We had such high hopes for Ninety-Nine Nights, but sadly, this game bores us on an unacceptable number of levels. A tedious slog through an admittedly amazing number of on-screen foes, Ninety-Nine Nights lacks anything in the way of innovation or inspired design. Instead, you get a veritable Jessica Simpson of gameplay - a completely vacuous, albeit staggeringly beautiful game.

Who cares about the array of unlockable characters when they all basically handle the same? Press the X button and/or the Y button in some mashed up combinations and watch the senseless laser lightshow gush blood and body parts in glorious hi-definition. It all amounts to simply watching the game unfold before you instead of actually challenging your brain in any way at all. Even the challenge of twitching your fingers fast enough is bled of any significance as you'll frequently swing your sword (or double-bladed axe or spear...) and fail to damage bosses for no apparent reason. The difficulty of this game seems like the challenge of being mugged at gunpoint - the times you fail are always due to simply having the deck stacked unfairly against you.

Of course, you can always boost your character's "stats" (a weak attempt to add some role-playing character development) by going back through the same stale levels and beating them all over again. It's boring the first time through, but it's painfully mind-numbing the second time. Add to this the game's premise of showing one war from different angles and you end up playing through remarkably similar levels with different characters over and over again.