Ninety-Nine Dead Goblins

Ninety-Nine Nights for Xbox 360™ drops you into a gorgeous fantasy world in which you're a warrior assigned to protect an entire kingdom from a massive horde of goblin soldiers. While that might sound a little intimidating, the fun here is plowing through wave after wave of enemy soldiers. Your survival might not be assured, but your enjoyment will be.

Ninety-Nine Nights benefits from an epic storyline enhanced by a powerful A.I. This single-player action battle game puts you in the seat of power in a kingdom overrun by an aggressive enemy and challenges you to solve the mystery surrounding the invasion.

As you play the various characters involved in the story, you begin to understand exactly why things are happening the way they are. That makes Nights one of those games that enchants and seduces you in an almost addicting way.

Inphyy right before she opens a can.

Multitudinous Masses
Using the enhanced memory and processing of Xbox 360, Night's developers have managed to pit the main characters against hundreds and thousands of orcs, goblins, trolls, and other terrifying things that don't even have names.

Not only does Inphyy, the main character, take them all on, but she has the advantage! Using special moves, she sweeps through the enemy ranks like a twister in a trailer park. In your first mission, your goal is to defeat 50 enemy units. It takes hardly any time at all.

If you enjoy fantasy, you'll love the
characters and world of Ninety-Nine Nights.

As the game progresses, the number of enemies you face increases, as does their threat to your safety. Satisfy mission requirements in order to succeed at a particular chapter. In this way, the game takes you from mission to mission, telling the story of your war. Eventually, you unlock other characters, and playing as each of them shows you a new side of the story.

Inner Beauty
This game's character models are strikingly beautiful. The action is interspersed with cut scenes that take the breath away. The game was developed in Japan and (at the time of this writing) maintained the original Japanese voice acting with English subtitles.

It has the aesthetic of high quality 3-D Japanese animation. All the characters have grace and poise. Even the monsters, which lack something in sex appeal, have a charm that can make you laugh.

Beautifully detailed character models? Check.

With so much richness built into the characters, the scenery fades into the background (so to speak). It's easy to focus entirely on the battles and ignore the detail that went into the surrounding landscape. You move so quickly through the various locations, following the enemy as it invades or retreats, that you hardly have time to look at the rolling hills in the distance.

Fancy Moves
The game's missions push you to reach the limits of your abilities. The more enemy units you take out of the equation, the better your tallied score. Your character can utilize both regular attacks and orb attacks.

Various button combinations make up your regular attacks. For example, press Y, Y, Y, X, X in order to do a front flip in the middle of your attack. This launches you over the head of shorter enemies. For a charge attack called the Rising Slash, pull the right trigger, then press X. Use your attacks at any time, but each of them has a particular use that is the most advantageous.

For your orb attacks, you build up power as you kill enemy units. Once your orb bar is full, make your orb attack and take out an even greater number of goblins with one fancy move. Combine other buttons with an orb attack to further vary your attacks. For example, during an orb attack, press Y to streak back and forth, becoming a regular killing machine.

Chain together kills and combos to be most effective.

On Guard
Inphyy doesn't take on the goblin army by herself. On the contrary, she has her own soldiers to command. Set these troops up prior to entering into a mission. You can choose between four types of units: infantry, heavy infantry, pikemen, and archers.

In the beginning, you are only allowed two units of soldiers. Each unit consists of only one soldier, and as the game progresses, you earn more supporters. Mix and match them to fit whatever needs the upcoming mission might have.

Give these back-up units commands, telling them where to go, when to follow or when to stay behind. In addition, give them orders for whether to attack or defend. They can protect you, or they can take a more aggressive approach and dive into the front lines as well.

Your success will rely heavily on how well you handle your units. Without them, no matter how powerful you are, you'll still be vulnerable.

If you enjoy fantasy, you'll love the characters and world of Ninety-Nine Nights. From the introductory cut scene until the last, the game seduces you with amazing graphics, challenging situations and intriguing plot twists.

Step up, Knight, for the day has come when you must defend your kingdom. Let's see how great a hero you can be.

Article by Angel Leigh McCoy