NNN demo dons armor, attacks XBLM
by Christopher Grant 
{ Jul 28th 2006 at 10:25AM }
The combined superpowers of Lumines' Q Entertainment and Kingdom Under Fire's Phantagram weren't enough to save the Microsoft-published Ninety-Nine Nights from a middling reception in Japan, the title's target audience. So, instead of taking their word for it, hit the Xbox Live Marketplace and download the all region, 587MB demo for yourself, no matter what country you're in (that means you too, Ludwig).
Of interest, this is the second demo that Microsoft has released on the day whose name shall not be spoken (pssst, that's Friday). The rationale was that if something goes wrong (we're looking at you Kong demo), there wouldn't be any Xbox Live minions on hand to yank the demo. So make sure you don't break anything while they're gone, k?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
J.Goodwin @ Jul 28th 2006 10:45AM
Actually, it was Thursday in Seattle when the demo was released. It hit around 11PM Seattle time.
watership @ Jul 28th 2006 10:48AM
Xbox Live has gone from us begging for content to MS dumping loads of it. I think they were listening.
Alex @ Jul 28th 2006 10:50AM
phantagram is actually responsible for kingdom under fire, not DW, but same thing.
C. Grant @ Jul 28th 2006 11:00AM
J.Goodwin: alright, a technicality then! :) Wasn't in the workday though.
Alex: Amended. I've always gotten those names confused.
Todd H. @ Jul 28th 2006 11:42AM
How about someone commenting on the demo itself? Is it any good (I'm working so I can't try it until I get home)?
Todd
http://www.proxbox360.com
guesswho @ Jul 28th 2006 12:17PM
the demo is suprisingly goood, its very reptitive but the action is smooth and the supermoves are pretty cool. Tons of badguys on screen and framerate takes no dip. One problem with it, The camera. It's horrible.
All in all a good demo.
Nick @ Jul 28th 2006 1:02PM
Hurray, i can't wait till i get home from work to play this,
Anthony D @ Jul 28th 2006 1:07PM
The demo sucks, another bargain bin title....BOOOOO!!!
Anthony D @ Jul 28th 2006 1:11PM
If you want to play a great demo, go get the preview disc for Saint's Row........EXCELLENT DEMO!!!
Adam @ Jul 28th 2006 4:03PM
Just got finished playing the demo, and I can't wait to play the final game!
Sure, it gets repetitive, but I've never gotten over 3000 kills and a 1,000-hit combo in a game before -- in just one mission. This blows the Dynasty Warrior series away.
That's my review of the demo, I guess -- If you enjoy the Dynasty Warrior series, or other hack 'n slash titles, you'll absolutely enjoy this game.
Yash @ Jul 28th 2006 4:37PM
Yeah, I just got done finishing it and I LOVED it. Only one problem, like the other guy said, is the camera...
Sid @ Jul 28th 2006 5:19PM
I played it, and it kind of turned me off. I'd probably play the retail version at some point, but buying it is a little iffy.
The dubbing was pretty abysmal, as far as voices, lipsyncing, and writing goes. Also, while the framerate wasn't nearly as bad as Quake 4, I did see it jerk around a bit, mostly in cutscenes. The characters seemed pretty uninspired and generic, too, but the scenery and general models/textures weren't bad.
It's basic hack-and-slash gameplay. Hell, if you played the Kameo demo, you've seen pretty much everything already. Kill guys, move to the next group of guys, kill them, and after a while a short plot advancement movie shows up. Repeat ad nauseam. Killing guys makes a red meter fill up, which lets you go into a bullet-time thing (how original). Kill things in this mode to make a blue meter fill up. When THAT'S full, you can make an explosion thing that the game focuses on like a summon from a Final Fantasy game. This thing either blows up or sucks enemies into it, I couldn't tell, but as soon as I activated it, it must have killed the enemies I was wading through because another plot sequence started.
Another thing that bothered me was that the game didn't even feel the need to explain how to play it. It basically went "here are the controls, have fun." Now, in most games, this is acceptable, but when you have two special move meters and the ability to command guards around (speaking of them, I still never found out how to use them effectively, but it really didn't seem like they were necessary at all considering your own guy can decimate 65+ enemies with a rudimentary attack), you really ought to give the player a heads-up so they can at least enjoy it for what it's worth. Also, there's a map, but since the game (again) didn't give you any clue, all I got from it was the fact that enemies are red.
I went up a level, but hell if I could find an XP bar or any real purpose to it other than two new moves that were ultimately useless, since everything you came in with was more than enough to get the job done.
So, yeah, since it doesn't really cost any money, try it out for yourself. Just try not to show your friends who a) look down at the 360 or b) are borderline buying it. Hey, if the Japanese wouldn't pay $400 to play it, it's probably not that big a deal.
BillDoE @ Jul 28th 2006 7:30PM
This demo lasted about 5 minutes on my HDD before deletion. Boring Hack N slash, blurry backgrounds & crappy camera angles killed it. Anything more that 2 feet away from the camera is all blurred to keep the frame rate up. ZzZzZ....
Branden @ Jul 28th 2006 11:45PM
I just tried this demo out and it crashed my 360 and corrupted my gamer profile - 120 hour of Oblivion gone!
WTF!!!!
dvdguy @ Jul 29th 2006 3:48PM
I'd buy this as a $20 greatest hits title... it would be fun to pick up every once in a while to have some mindless hack-n-slash fun. I wouldn't pay full price for it though... just not my genre.