Feudal Efforts
Ninety-Nine NightsMicrosoft Game Studios, Xbox 360
It’ll take way more than 99 nights to slash through waves of feudal warriors in this epic battle that rivals any combat scene found in a big-budget Hollywood saga. Relying on sheer bloodlust, the game hands over control of seven superhuman samurai hack-and-slashers embroiled in some lost-in-translation drama about a broken orb and a quest for power — which sounds like pretty much every other Japanese-themed fantasy game ever.
Despite the paint-by-numbers plot, the game’s all about zoning out to the Zen of mindless violence, a refreshing change after having to memorize a 30-page playbook just to toss the pigskin in the Madden games. The most brain-draining part is upgrading the fighters, but such machinations pay off big by unlocking brutal sword-and-melee combos, and even larger piles of enemy corpses will start to collect on the panoramic outdoor battlefields. Thanks to the high-end graphics produced by the pixel-pushing Xbox 360, the environments and characters look so real that even the most bloodthirsty gamers will feel a twinge of remorse for each battered body left in their wake.
Even in fantasyland, good help is hard to find. Legions of allied soldiers have your back, but their dim-witted ways leave players to do the heavy lifting themselves. There’s also some creepy mumbo-jumbo going on — kill enemies, then collect their spirits, which will unleash supercharged attacks that keep the bad guys falling like rows of dominoes. Best not to let things like “story” or “thinking” get in the way of good, cathartic bloodshed.
Out Now:
The Secret Life of The Veronicas
