The Download Munkey : Finder of Things …

Wallpapers for the Nintendo DS title Luminous Arc 2 : not too sure why Altus loves to make their fans work for the goodies like wallpapers.

© Altus

Complete a jigsaw puzzle to earn the download link for each of the three wallpapers or fiddle with the URL after finishing the first puzzle

Download the wallpapers from the official Luminous Arc 2 site.

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A collection of 25 wallpapers featuring characters designed by Kaito Shibano for Marvellous Entertainment’s Nintendo DS tactical game Luminous Arc. Some of my favourites below from the official American site for Luminous Arc by its publisher Altus.

© Marvellous Entertainment / Altus USA

Now the main draw for me when it comes to wallpapers and promotional stuff for games are the “secret/unlockable” downloads. Luminous Arc has two additional unlockable wallpapers if you can guess the correct answer to the question when you select the Lucia wallpaper for download.

© Marvellous Entertainment / Altus USA

The first unlockable wallpaper is the alternative wallpaper of Lucia in a more eye-catching costume than the default white dress (above). Here’s a preview

© Marvellous Entertainment / Altus USA

The correct answer for this wallpaper to unlock this wallpaper can be found at githias’ blog.

If you enter a different word, you’ll get this one below instead

© Marvellous Entertainment / Altus USA

For more Luminous Arc wallpapers, check out the official UK site (7 wallpapers) and the official Japanese site (13 wallpapers - look under Special and click the orange button).

© Marvellous Entertainment / Rising Star Games Ltd

Some of the UK wallpapers above.

© Marvellous Interactive

A selection of the Japanese wallpapers.

Download Luminous Arc wallpapers from the official Luminous Arc websites for the US (under Extras > Wallpapers), UK and Japan.

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Wallpapers from the PS3 game Valkyria Chronicles aka Valkyrie of the Battlefield : Gallian Chronicles, which looks more like an interactive anime film than a game thanks to the unique rendering techniques used by its CANVAS graphics engine.

While most of the content for the Japanese site for this SEGA game is already accessible (not that it would make any difference to visitors who can’t read Japanese since Google Translate can do nothing for Flash-based sites), the wallpapers section is still under construction with only 3 out of the total 20 wallpapers being downloadable at this time.

© Sega

What really interests me about Valkyria Chronicles aren’t the beautifully designed characters nor the refeshingly different anime graphics but the world in which Valkyria Chronicles is based.

Valkyria Chronicles takes place in a fictional pre-WWII Europe where the tiny nation of Gallia (somwhere in The Netherlands) is wedged between the forces of the Atlantic Federation and the East European Imperial Alliance (a pre-war NATO and Warsaw Pact if you will). Most of this information is stuff that I gleaned from watching the various Japanese trailers posted at Gametrailers so there may be some inaccuracies here and there.

© Sega

The game retains that WWII feel familiar to most gamers except for the seemingly outdated East European infantry who still wear 15th century sallets rather than WWII helmets and are armed with cumbersome giant pikes. The infantry later actually reveal the true function of these pikes as early model RPGs by employing them in an offensive anti-tank role - you weren’t half expecting the infantry to form up into square formations to await a charge by tanks, do you?

© Sega

Since the main characters fight with or alongside the blue tanks, I assume they belong to the Atlantic Federation. Curiously, these tanks look very much like a turreted version of the late production model of the German Sturmgeschutz III Ausf G with its distinctively contoured Saukopf gun mantlet/shield (check out thisTamiya model of this exact StuG III version which I used as a reference.)

© Sega

The brown tank of the East European Imperial Alliance (above) appears to be a more sensible version of the monster Soviet T-35 multi-turreted tank with a boxy turret reminiscent of the KV-2.

Download the wallpapers from the official Valkyria Chronicles site or check out the trailers @ Gametrailers.com.

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Wallpaper from the anime Afro Samurai starring Samuel L. Jackson as the voice talent for the main character of the same name. 30 wallpapers in total with my favourite 8 below.

© Funimation / Gonzo

It seems rather concidental that Afro Samurai’s nemesis Justice (top) looks rather similiar to Hellsing’s vampiric Alucard (bottom) - the same aquiline nose, bulging eyes, pointed chin and a set of extremely white (and clenched) teeth.

© Gonzo

Image from baike.baidu.com.

Found Afro Samurai by chance while googling for “Afro” after listening to an absolutely catchy remix or bootleg of the 1978 number one disco single Boogie Oogie Oogie in one of DJ Bone’s brilliant mixes (Attack #30 - around 56 mins to be exact). Here’s a 30 second sample of the remixed version, please drop a comment if you know the exact remix. The closest I got was this white label by A Taste o Money but it’s only remotely similar.

Download Afro Samurai wallpapers (Look under Fanfare).

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A beautiful orchestral theme from the Xbox 360 RPG Blue Dragon composed by Nobuo Uematsu who also scored the music for the Final Fantasy series.

© Microsoft Game Studios

If the character design of the boy Shu bears more than a passing resemblance to Dragonball Z’s Gohan, it’s because both characters were essentially conceived by the same artist Akira Toriyama.

My favourite character, Zola (below right), the girl wearing the black bandana with the Jolly Roger, reminds me of the violent alternative personality of Lunch/Ranchi in Dragonball Z.

© Microsoft Game Studios

Two wallpapers featuring Zola and the rest of the characters from the fansite kit.

© Microsoft Game Studios

The contents of the entire fansite kit are follows:
4 MP3s
9 Avatar Images in multiple resolutions
3 Banner Images
2 High Resolution Boxart Images
0 Concept Art Images (Really wondering WTH the concept art folder is for )
4 Logo Images (Blue Dragon, Artoon (Developers), Mistwalker Studios (Producers), Microsoft Game Studios (Publishers))
18 Screenshots
12 Wallpapers (800×600, 1024×768, 1280×960, 1600×1200 resolutions)
17 Assorted Images for building a Blue Dragon fansite.

Look in the Approved Music folder for the 4 MP3s - I heartily recommend the magical 04_piacon.mp3. The first track 01_open1.mp3 is essentially a shortened edit of the same track.

Download the 63 MB fansite kit via Xbox.com. (direct link)

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Ibara (鋳薔薇) Desktop Wallpaper