The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

Just played through the demo of IO Interactive’s Mini Ninjas – an enjoyable but rather short little romp through a cartoonishly rendered medieval Japan. You control a party of three different Ninjas (more in the full game) and can switch between them at will – little Hiro who can possess nearby animals and then sneak past enemy guards, Futo a big brawny fellow with more than a passing resemblance to Mr Incredible from Pixar’s The Incredibles and Suzume whom I haven’t figured out her specialty yet.

While it’s nothing particularly innovative or challenging, Mini Ninjas is surprisingly immersive and engaging – I have played the demo over and over for more than five times, mainly trying to find all the secret areas and hunt down every single artifact.

Maybe it’s the goofy character design and animation, or the silly cutscenes or simply the lightheartedness of the game or even its soothing music which keeps me playing on and on.

Watching the exaggerated motion of the enemy samurai goose-step with armor clinking as they patrol along paths in the bamboo forest or chitter “Ninja Ninja” incessantly like insects as they swarm towards you, never gets old for me

Different types of enemy samurai ensure that a little more than simple button-mashing is required if you’re going for the brute force approach. As with IO Interactive’s Hitman series and with ninjas in general, the preferred way is to rely on stealth and use force only when necessary – sneaking past enemy patrols by creeping around in tall grass is a viable option even for big bad Futo although you’re always welcome to cut the enemy at your own discretion.

More devious gamers will be delighted to find that there are more fancy tricks at your disposal for every situation. You can sprinkle caltrops as a gift for pursuing samurai when you’re feeling nasty or you can always switch to Hiro and use his Spirit Form spell to sneak past enemy strongpoints as a harmless chicken to avoid shedding blood (especially your own ).

I guess Mini Ninjas won’t last long judging from the length and linearity of the demo but it’s a blast while it lasts (hey, it rhymes )

Download the demo and other goodies (click on the Castle to download wallpapers) at the official Mini Ninjas website.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Shinobido Imashime Opening Movie
Katakijin – Stylish Ninja Hack n’ Slash Game
Ninja Rinseout
Makibishi Comic – Japanese Point &Click Flash Adventure
Ninja Gaiden 2 Official Wallpapers

Originally caught these Rocket Riot wallpapers off THQ UK but the links there were broken

Rocket Riot is a side scrolling action game from Dutch games studio Codeglue and features a cute and rather unique art style. Apparently, it’s also the first Dutch developed game to be sold at Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) too

© Codeglue / THQ

Download these wallpapers from Codeglue’s official blog for Rocket Riot.

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Swords & Sandals 2 : Emperor’s Reign
Ninja Town Wallpapers
Domo-kun Wallpapers & Clock Widgets
Xevster Eyesores Wallpapers
Double Fine Wallpapers

Mars TD is a grim 8 bit preview of the future when we establish a colony on the red planet. If you thought the octopi-like Martians of Metal Slug 2 were the creations of wildly imaginative (or possibly insane) game designers, you’re absolutely wrong – Mars TD designer Taro knows farbetter that they are real and dangerous lifeforms native to Mars and they eat human colonies there for breakfast.

Walking octopi from Metal Slug aside, Mars does have a variety of weird fauna from spinning heads that eerily resemble Crash Bandicoot’s and even the catlike Qoo from the similarly named range of drinks from Cola-Cola.

These hostile Martians will appear and attempt to ravage the colony unless we humans start building towers to defend ourselves – that’s right, it’s another tower defense game again but Mars TD has a couple of neat gimmicks that sets it apart from other games of the genre.

The attributes of each tower from top to bottom : Level, Exp, Attack Strength, Attack Speed and Unknown (sorry!). The buttons from top to bottom are : Upgrade, Move and Sell

When a tower blows an alien to bits, it gains both experience and credits – I guess it’s probably the gunners in it who gain experience since the concept of inanimate towers gaining exp on their own is rather freaky With sufficient experience, towers will automatically level up on their own. Towers with more experience are also cheaper to upgrade than untrained towers – especially the more advanced towers (I have seen a total of five different types as of writing)

Towers with yellow, orange and red arrows are progressively cheaper to upgrade

There’s also an ability to switch the positions of towers which is free between stages but will cost you when you move them around during each stage. Walls can be built if you need to move a tower to an unoccupied spot, which is a handy tactic when you have insufficient credits to build actual towers but want to implement a more in-depth defensive strategy by shifting them around.

At the end of the day, it’s still tower defense but it’s tactically challenging (read : super hard) and addictive as hell. The 8 bit feel is a plus in my book too – huge pixels, garish colours, bleepy soundtrack and outlandish critters complete the surrealistic effect Mars TD has on the senses.

Play Mars TD at mogera.jp. (there’s also a review at JayIsGames where I saw this).

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More Tower Defense Flash Games : Onslaught 2 & VectorTD
Retro Tactical Warfare in Nectaris for Windows
OpenTyrian – The Best DOS Shoot’em Up – Now for Windows XP/Vista and Other OSes
The Last Stand & The Endless Zombie Rampage & Crimsonland

Been seeing Dragonica stuff everywhere this week – from the ads in PCZine issue #31 and 360Zine issue #32 to the installation CDs at Challenger Funan and even Dragonica paper bags – so I’ve finally succumbed to my curiosity and checked out the official website(s) for this free-to-play MMORPG.

© Barunson Interactive

Obviously I’m not going to try it anytime soon since I really don’t need another extra addiction to tie me to the computer Dragonica does have some nice wallpapers and concepts downloadable from the official European website by gPotato. There’s also a fan site kit up at the Southeast Asian website by IAHGames (which I can’t download because it’s up at Megaupload).

© Barunson Interactive

Download these Dragonica wallpapers and artworks or try your luck getting the fansite kit off dragonica.iahgames.com.

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Korean MMORPG Wallpapers (X) – Tera Online
Project Coo! Wallpapers
Luminous Arc 2 Wallpapers
Warrior Epic Concept Art and Wallpapers
Archaic Sealed Heat Wallpapers

Quite enjoyed my complimentary copy of Faerie Solitaire from Subsoap (thanks Brian!) so here’s a little review of it and how it stacks up to Fairway Solitaire (recently reviewed here at The Download Munkey ).

First off, players familiar with good old Windows Solitaire will immediately feel at home in Faerie Solitaire. You see, unlike Fairway Solitaire where the underlying golf theme is closely tied into all aspects of the game, Faerie Solitaire definitely feels closer to an actual game of Solitaire albeit with a deck of cards adorned with fantasy illustrations. While this might suggest that Faerie Solitaire is inferior graphically and gameplay-wise, these differences actually work in Faerie Solitaire’s favour when it comes to really casual players like my mom (who still has difficulty relating pars and golf scores to their actual effect on each hand in Fairway Solitaire). The less cluttered screen also makes for faster gameplay which is why I much prefer Faerie Solitaire since I can blaze through 9 hands in under 10 minutes

Now, the gameplay in Faerie Solitaire is very similiar to Fairway Solitaire but it would be most unfair to dismiss Faerie Solitaire as a mere clone. The biggest difference between the two games apart from the obviously different graphical theme and sound effects would be the extra elements that carry over game after game in Faerie Solitaire to provide some continuity and replayability in what would otherwise be a series of Solitaire games.

You still have something similiar to Fairway Solitaire where you can buy optional game-enhancing items but there is now an extra incentive to continue playing each stage not only to unlock the next stage and advance the story. You see, Faerie Solitaire rewards long-term players with a selection of 32 little critters you can encounter and collect in your journey to save the faeries. It might seem a relatively minor addition but it does alleviate a lot of that repetitive feeling when there’s a (very small) chance to acquire a new creature in each hand that you play – and believe me, you can easily play over a hundred hands in a single hour

While the critters are an interesting diversion, the fact that they do not add any special abilities to your gameplay seems to be a rather superficial feature at best. Perhaps in a sequel

Overall, an interesting twist on the solitaire genre which will appeal to players who are looking for an addictive card game that’s simple to learn and play. The lovingly illustrated cards (I love the swamp lizards on the 6s) and the dreamy background music add a sparkly magical experience without overly distracting the player from the actual card game.

Download the demo for Faerie Solitaire from www.subsoap.com. The full version is now available for purchased at Big Fish Games at a promo price of 6.99 USD.

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Fairway Solitaire
She Asked … for a Bejewelled Clone
Giga Rensya Mini-Games Part II
Giga Rensya Mini Games Part I
Mytheria – Virtual CCG