Before playing Ninety-Nine Nights, ask yourself the following:

• Do I like Dynasty Warriors?

• Would I enjoy the series more if it didn't have any technical flaws?

If you answered yes to either question chances are you qualify for at least one satisfying night with Ninety-Nine Nights, an epic single-player adventure with thousands of enemies. You'll stab, slaughter, combo, and juggle these enemies -- sometimes while hovering 30 feet in the air. They'll attack in droves without relenting, retreat when in smaller numbers, and do their best to put on a show that's worthy of being called Best in Show.

As Inphyy, the Angel in Crimson Armor, you'll fight in a war of Light versus Dark. It's not Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings, but it follows many of the same themes. The Forces of Dark are reinforced by Orcs and Goblins, two creatures encountered frequently in the game. Inphyy, a Temple Knight, is supposedly considered to be a spiritual leader of the Forces of Light. Aspharr, the Reluctant Blue Knight, has been unofficially credited with that title as well.

Glance at a character screen and you'll swear this is an RPG. Examine a battle shot and you'll think something else entirely. Though it's looked and sounded like many things, Ninety-Nine Nights is (without question) the first real Dynasty Warriors killer. It is almost exactly like the title it beats, boasting battles with hundreds at any given time. You'll get a few hundred enemies of your own to command, with actions limited to guard and attack. But it's hard not to feel alone on the battlefield. In every circumstance it's the player who ends up doing most of the work.

Plowing through enemies – droves and droves that just keep coming – is no doubt exciting, at least initially. The X and Y buttons trigger basic and strong attacks. Both can be combined or pressed individually for various combos. It doesn't take much trial and error to figure out all the attacks available, but the game provides a list (via the pause menu) just incase.

Slaughtered enemies leave behind red orbs, which are drawn to Inphyy in the same way Devil May Cry's spiritual droppings cling to Dante. Orbs replenish a special attack meter – filling it lets you unleash Inphyy's super power. At this time she'll make Goblins cry with a stunning dash move that kills most enemies in one hit. Enemies killed by this power are rewarded with blue orbs – a mega-powerful magic that takes out several hundred enemies in one Earth-shattering blast.

Killing also enemies earns EXP, the one RPG element in the game. Every additional level adds space to your health meter, increases character performance, and usually adds new combos to the move list. By level 2 Inphyy will be able to perform a spinning attack where she dives into enemies like a helicopter flying sideways. By level 5 she'll able to merge that combo with others, letting her hit several enemies on the ground, lift them into the air, and strike six or seven more times before gravity steps in.

The game does all this, repeatedly, without any glitches. Enemies never pop up -- they run in, from a distance, with animation that stays smooth and consistent from the time you first see them to the time they arrive. Whereas Dynasty Warriors had a stagnant camera, Ninety-Nine Nights lets you change the view at any time. Spin, twist and turn the camera to your liking. The game will stay functional at all times. Clipping, which I find in almost every other game, is nowhere in this title. If this is what the next generation of consoles is going to bring, then all games – even clones and sequels – will be vastly superior to their predecessors.

Ninety-Nine Nights shines as a Dynasty Warriors clone. It does everything that series has attempted to do with better results. But no game can be a clone of DW without picking up its most unlikable trait: repetition.

Ninety-Nine Nights does not have derivatives. It does not feature any puzzles, or any significant world exploration. There is nothing to do but the first thing you do when the game begins: head for the nearest pack of enemies, kill them, and wait for the stage to end.

Those who have never touched a DW game before will be thoroughly amused until they die. Dying means having to re-start the level, as there are no check points and very few opportunities to replenish health. I've spent more time playing fighting games than any other genre, and have spent more hours than I can count with the Dynasty and Samurai Warriors series. That experience made Ninety-Nine Nights a bit of a cakewalk for me, and will likely seem just as easy to other players with similar experience.

Newbies, however, will be frustrated a bit more easily. What Ninety-Nine Nights does right it does very well. But playing it is like watching the same music video over and over: it could be the best video in the world, the greatest ever played on MTV. After a while it gets tiring, and before you know it, downright boring. Eventually you have to turn the channel, or hope they play something else. Ninety-Nine Nights is a fun game, but its channel never changes.

Gameplay: 7.0
A Dynasty Warriors killer built for next-gen players, Ninety-Nine Nights shows how many characters one game can (currently) cram onto one screen. The constant hacking and slashing, orb attacks, and overgrown bosses will take you back to the days of quarter-eating arcade machines. The fact that everything you do (killing enemies) is all you do takes you back to thoughts of Dynasty Warriors, which is why this game leaves little replay value at the end of the quest.

Graphics: 7.0
Not nearly as impressive as I expected. Ninety-Nine Nights has a grand display of enemies, cramming over a thousand into each stage, with hundreds filling the screen at any given time. Adjusting the camera yields a glorious view of all the action, with no clipping, pop-up or pixelization to ruin the effect.

Though visually stunning, when you get close to these guys, stare at the backgrounds for a bit and study the battlegrounds, you’ll find that Ninety-Nine Nights does not have the polygon potency of other Xbox 360 titles. It’s pretty, and currently crams more enemies onto one screen than any other title. But it’s not beautiful, and it doesn’t look entirely next-gen.

Sound: 6.0
Generic, highly repetitive music mixed with boring real-time scenes. Many have above-average voice acting (for a game), but it’s nothing standout, especially when the industry is finally starting to understand what it means to tell a good story.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Remember the old method for winning in a fighting game: block a combo and immediately strike? The same is true here as well, especially for boss battles. Clusters of enemies are no match for your powerful, multi-enemy-killing moves. There are moments of frustration that will cause you to scream (no check points – so don’t die!), but other than that Ninety-Nine Nights is a very easy game.

Concept: 7.0
Everything you’ll see and experience originated in the Dynasty Warriors series. By developing exclusively for Xbox 360, the developers were able to eliminate all the technical nonsense that came with that series, creating a new title – Ninety-Nine Nights – that is just as repetitive yet vastly superior.

Overall: 7.0
Ninety-Nine Nights uses the Dynasty Warriors formula to perfection, having no glitches, a steady camera, and seamless attacking. Perfection is then lost by the formula; a game structure that has players jamming on the X and Y buttons from the moment the game begins. Few other buttons will be used aside from the brief times when you need to jump or use a power-up attack. It’s tiring, but I enjoyed the endless dose of hack-‘n’-slashing – sparingly. One play through will more than enough to satisfy (or push away) most gamers.