The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

Normally one wouldn’t associate the idea of fun with the tedious but obviously important task of chopping firewood for the (hot) pot but this frivolous Flash mini-game at the official Japanese website for Taiko no Tatsujin seems to imply otherwise (and yes, I do know that Taiko no Tatsujin has been featured in more than one post here )

和田イヌ (which supposedly translates to Wada Inu according to this GameFAQs article – inu means dog in Japanese) is trying to gather as much firewood as possible for his yosenabe (cooked in a claypot known as donabe) within a single minute and it’s your job to help him.

Over-application of force

Despite its appearance, this mini-game is no clickfest but is actually a test of hand-to-eye coordination since Wada Inu has to judge and time each attempt so as to utilize the minimum amount of force necessary for splitting each wood block with a single stroke of his axe. Using too much force simply wastes time which could be better spent on splitting more wood. Conversely, an underpowered strike will only lodge the axe bit in the larger blocks, requiring him to either retry again with greater force and finesse or hammer the wood repeatedly until it splits (much slower).

Boing! Under-application of force.

It’s a cute little diversion that should last you more than a couple of tries during lunchbreaks or for those days when you need to entertain youself with something brainlessly simple (and admittedly pointless).

So how many logs can you split ? My current record is at a lowly 60

Play this Taiko no Tatsujin log-splitting mini-game. (sorry, I’ve absolutely no idea what the Japanese game title translates to)

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Learning About Japanese Festivities with Taiko no Tatsujin
Domo-kun Wallpapers & Clock Widgets
Makibishi Comic – Japanese Point & Click Flash Adventure
Zookeeper – A Bejewelled Clone in Flash
Official Tuzki (兔斯基) Emoticons

Stomping Grounds is an addictive strategy/tactical casual game developed and released by aptly named Mind Control Software in 2006. Found out about Mind Control Software from a programming forum of all places

The single player campaign follows Leo the Lion as he travels the world in search of his missing brother Lee. He must recruit new members to his herd to battle against other hostile animals which would block his way on his journey.

Each encounter with an enemy herd on the map (above) involves six consecutive bouts known collectively as a Stomping Ground (and hence the title) which will really put your strategical and tactical skills to the test. The tactical aspect of choosing the correct target for your animals during each round isn’t all that difficult but the selection of up to eight animals for each fight will pose a serious challenge to your resource management abilities, especially at the beginning when Leo starts with a tiny herd of raw recruits.

Since animals must spend the next round recovering their strength after fighting (animals knocked out during a bout spend the next two rounds recuperating), you have to decide on the number and type of animals to deploy for each round depending on both the quality and size of your opponents as well as the prize at stake which can be new recruitable animals or food for your herd. Strategic choices abound for this team management portion of Stomping Grounds – should you hold the stronger animals back for later rounds or stretch your available forces thin in an attempt to win every single round?

Since you do not always have the numbers necessary to fight with the full complement of eight animals for each round, deployment becomes very tricky indeed. Even when there is a choice between two prizes, you must decide whether to pick the animal or food since there is also the need to collect a set amount of food at each stomping ground. Food is also required for improving the fighting prowess of individual animals in your herd after each victorious stomping ground. Recruiting more animals to your herd makes it easier to field larger numbers per round but also increases the number of mouths to feed and consequently reduces the amount of food available for upgrading your fighters.

Skipping battles is also possible when you perceive a low chance of victory or wish to conserve your units for the upcoming rounds. Do remember that each bout that you win not only rewards you with the prize at hand but also gives you a key that unlocks one of six treasure chests at the end of each stomping ground for additional food and animals so skipping battles should only be resorted as a last-ditch tactic.

The trial version offers you one full hour of gameplay which should allow you to at least complete the savanna and jungles ares of Stomping Ground against the gazelles and baboons in the singleplayer campaign.

Download the trial version of Stomping Grounds or purchase the full version for 19.95 USD (~29 SGD).

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IGWB (II) – Battle of Tiles
Explore 3000 Rooms & Kill 10000+ Monsters in Meritous
Legion Arena Review
Combined Arms Warfare in Battalion : Nemesis
Brutal Football @ Abandonia

A series of wallpapers from Korean art collective, Project Coo!. I don’t know what’s exactly Project Coo! is all about although I do know that the members of this collective include bombay, KEI, laziel, Maggi, milktea, NAKBE, NOX, oro, U’s and Yueciel.

A myriad of styles are represented from the requisite busty female anime character to Maggi’s hip fashionista (fourth from top) and Yueciel’s bright pink and saccharinely cute vectors.

© Project Coo!

Found Project Coo! entirely by chance after visiting Maggi’s Harem from the archives of the Elderly’s now silent Forbidden Forest. If you’ve ever seen the concepts for the MMORPG Granado Espada : Sword of The New World, you’ll definitely recognize her works from the intricate detail of their clothes and elaborate hairdos

Download these wallpapers from Project Coo!.

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Magna Carta Wallpapers
Korean MMORPG Wallpapers (I) – Soul of the Ultimate Nation
Endless Saga Concept Art & Wallpaper
Warrior Epic Concept Art and Wallpapers
Luminous Arc Wallpapers

At first thought, toon style illustrations might seem totally unsuitable for depicting the grim and gory Warhammer 40,000 universe but Nacho Fernandez’s illustrations just manage to fuse the lighthearted playfulness of toons with Warhammer 40,000 without losing the enticingly dark flavour of Games Workshop’s sci-fi meta-universe.

© Nacho Fernandez

I first encountered his work in the form of the Imperial Fists Commander in the Firebase Wallpaper pack (which I won’t feature here again because yellow isn’t my favourite colour ). Personal prejudices aside, I just feel that that his Imperial Fists Commander isn’t representative of the far cooler works in his deviantART gallery where he’s known as nachomon. Above are two of my favourites – I just had to pick the Eversor Assassin and Chaplain Savaal because skull-faced characters are cool!

© Nacho Fernandez

Some more cool Warhammer 40,000 stuff above – Techmarine Dreadnought Tjorvi and an assortment of other characters from a murderous Khorne Berzerker, a heavily-armed Tau Commander to a rampaging Tyrant Guard of Hive Fleet Leviathan.

© Nacho Fernandez

And for the more artistically inclined visitors, his tutorial on drawing a Space Marine should prove quite useful for learning to draw like his Iron Dragons Space Marine.

© Nacho Fernandez

All is not lost if you’re not a Warhammer 40,000 fan of course since there’re equally fabulous non Games Workshop related works in his gallery, like this piece featuring a faceoff between Space Marines of two different universes, Dreamcast Transformer and a vicious Alien Xenomorph.

© Nacho Fernandez

© Nacho Fernandez

The cover for his Midnight Rockers #1 is pretty impressive too.

Check out Nacho Fernandez’s gallery @ deviantART.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Firebase Wallpaper Pack
Games Workshop 2009 Collector’s Guides
Favourite Illustrators of Warhammer 40,000 (VI) – Kevin Chin (King Mong)
Favourite Illustrators of Warhammer 40,000 (V) – John Gravato
Favourite Illustrators of Warhammer 40,000 (I) – Adrian Smith

Don’t know how I missed out on the first series of these cheeky Boxpunx by Harlancore and friends when both series were announced on Cubeelog. The first series by Harlancore + Scorpidio features the X-Men (not too sure about the inclusion of Spider-Man though) and the second by Harlancore + Esteban showcases a selection of 12 other superheroes and villains from the Marvel universe.

Papercraft © Harlancore + Scorpidio, Characters © Marvel

The villains Magneto and blue-skinned Mystique are my favourites. Would have loved to see big bad Juggernaut though

Papercraft © Harlancore + Esteban , Characters © Marvel

The Punisher looks awesome and so do Daredevil and Nick Fury. Hopefully we’ll get to see Venom and Deadpool in Series Three (crosses fingers )

Download BoxPunx Series 1 (X-Men) and BoxPunx Series 2 (Marvel).

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Simpsonized @ Springfield Punx
Cubee Craft – Marshmallow Man, Master Chief, Imperial Stormtrooper Paper Toys
Marvel Official Wallpapers
Marvel vs Capcom 2 FE (Free Edition?)