The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

Federation Wrestling is just one of Mat Dickie’s many games from a prolific game development career spanning nine years from 2000 to the present day. Essentially an one-man development team, you gotta respect someone like Mat who took it upon himself to code and create the accompanying graphics and sounds to implement his own gameplay ideas into real, playable games.

Mat Dickie, da Man!

Federation Wrestling is a freeware release of one of the older games in Mat Dickie’s portfolio. While the 2D sprites may turn off gamers used to the photorealistic 3D graphics in today’s games, I find these old-skool graphics nostalgic as they remind me of a time when pro-wrestling was more entertainment than bloody violence that the current WWE has become.

While there are no licensed wrestlers in Federation Wrestling, any wrestling aficionado will surely appreciate the sheer customization options offered by this game. It’s pretty obvious at this point that Federation Wrestling was developed by a big wrestling fan

After tweaking your wrestler’s appearance, fighting animations and moves (and even the entry theme music) to your heart’s content, lead him (sorry, there’s no option to create a female wrestler) to fame and glory though a 12 month contract to prove himself as the best in the game. Thankfully, the story in the 48 match Contract mode isn’t half bad either (for a wrestling game, that is )

action

Standard moves like punching, kicking and grappling are available to everyone together with loads of different bodyslams, suplexes and submission holds and other special moves for each wrestler. While climbing up the turnbuckle for more risky aerial moves is possible, there’s unfortunately no way for running clotheslines and the like since the ropes are static (and your wrestler can’t run).

Aku Rinne staring intently at a stick of dynamite as he enters the arena. It’s gonna be one explosive match tonight

As you make your entrance into the ring with your custom theme music blaring in the background, note the bewildering array of handy tools like microphones, baseball bats (and wait, dynamite??) lying around conveniently outside the ring for the dirty players. Some of the largerprops like glass panels and crates are interactive too – try tossing your opponent through the glass and see what happens next

Aku Rinne just busted Benjo onto a long table

Watch out when you use your dirty tricks though since not every match allows the referee to turn a blind eye to your wrestler bonking his opponent over the head repeatedly with a microphone. Different rules, scoring systems and optional gimmicks like steelcage matches will ensure that the matches in Contract mode never end up being overly repetitive.

Download Mat Dickie’s Federation Wrestling (scroll, scroll, scroll).

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Behold Alien Assault, a recently released freeware offering by Swedish development team TearDown, the rules of which will be instantly recognizable to players of Games Workshop’s Space Hulk.

Your team of soldiers in their green S.P.A.R.T.A.N battlesuits will take the fight to vicious aliens lurking behind heavy steel doors and prowling along dark claustrophobic corridors. But not to worry, a very intuitive mouse-driven interface and a comprehensive tutorial campaign makes learning the ropes of Alien Assault a breeze even if you’re no Space Hulk veteran.

Unfortunately, the close quarters combat in Alien Assault is brutally unforgiving and your troops rarely survive once those pesky aliens get to servo-gauntlet’s range to use their sharp claws Positioning your soldiers in areas with clear fields of fire, mutual support between soldiers (the standard issue Thunderbolt assault carbine can be frustratingly inaccurate at times) and the proper use of overwatch mode will hopefully retain enough survivors in your team to enable you to complete the mission objectives.

Uh-oh. Blips = BAD!

Sound effects are suitably atmospheric – from the crunch of your soldiers’ heavy armoured boots to the growl of hungry aliens attempting to tear your team into bite-sized pieces. I haven’t really got much other information to offer about Alien Assault apart from the rather obvious stuff stated above since I’ve been constantly sending soldiers to become alien snacks in Mission 7 : Onslaught

Don’t get too attached to your soldiers – the lifespan of each soldier is violently short

Download Alien Assault.

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Downloaded this free Falcom game Lord Monarch at the same time as Vantage Master Online (two years back!) but didn’t get the hang of it until recently. It’s actually quite fun once you understand how to effectively command your troops in battle.

Lord Monarch is essentially a grand strategy game where you have to defeat and destroy your opponents by conquering and holding to their territory. More territory means more troops for your military maneuvers and troops are the only resource that is important in Lord Monarch. Everything else is pretty much abstracted out in its depiction of military power since the army with the most troops always wins.

The modelling of war might seem simplistic but this is what makes Lord Monarch so fun because only the strategic skill of opposing commanders will make or break their armies fighting in the field. By default, settlements in friendly territory will generate troops at regular intervals who will then expand your territory by building more settlements or rush to the nearest skirmish in scattered little units. While this automatic behaviour is usually sufficient when there are no huge enemy armies rampaging nearby, challenging an enemy with superior numbers in this way is akin to throwing eggs against a stone wall. You can adjust the default orders by right clicking anywhere in the map – you’ll also need to click Start in the same menu to actually commence each level too

A competent commander will assemble troops behind the frontlines into larger armies to defend chokepoints, open multiple fronts, conduct raids or simply as a reserve for future operations. Raiding is particularly effective as it diverts enemy troops from the front lines and temporarily disrupts the quantity of enemy reinforcements from the captured settlements until they are retaken.

Building up an army to assault the enemy stronghold

Securing the bridge

To amass a huge army, left click to select one of your units, left click the location where you want it to assemble and then select Standby from the popup menu. Troops moving towards that unit will then join the army while it waits for your next order.

Once the army is large enough, select it and give a destination by left clicking and choose Standby to advance to the new position while your reinforcements mop up all resistance in its wake. Alternatively order it to Build or Destroy, the latter commanding it to wipe out all opposition before settling in.

Blocking reinforcements from the enemy castle while another army destroys all in its path

Supply is equally abstracted in Lord Monarch. An army isolated in the midst of enemy territory will eventually bleed itself dry from prolonged combat as it can only receive reinforcements from settlements that are not blocked by enemy armies. Also, troops that are not in a settlement slowly lose strength.

Lord Monarch is not always about war in the traditional sense – this stage requires you to dominate over 3 other rival fast food chains

To advance to the next stage, you need to complete the map within the alloted number of days. If you find the days run by too fast, adjust the game speed by moving the slider to the left in the progress window (below).

Download Lord Monarch. Remember to create a SAVE folder in the game folder, otherwise you will not be able to save your games!

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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.

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Simon or AuthenticKaizen as he’s known at the TIGSource forums, emailed me a while back about his new game website Pixel Prospector. Half expecting another indie/freeware game site ala the IndieGames Blog, I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be another showcase of quality freeware games with a difference. You see, the focus at Pixel Prospector is on games that are still in development which is a bloody good idea IMHO, since there hasn’t been a website (bar the various indie game / game development forums) that presents the very best (and still unfinished) games on the Internet at the moment.

Obviously a labour of love for Simon, Pixel Prospector’s an incredibly handy resource for time-strapped gamers like me who want to try out some of the more promising non-commercial games in development without having to spend half their weekends personally hunting them down

New games are continually being added to Pixel Prospector, with screenshots and links to the official site (or forum thread for some) for each entry. Most entries even contain gameplay video trailers if the screenshots aren’t enough for you. The clean design should make finding interesting games at Pixel Prospector a breeze, but be advised that only games tagged playable (a complete list is available here) actually have working downloads.

A couple of my favourites from Pixel Prospector to start you off – zombie fragfest Zombpocalypse and retroish racer Polymaniacs (anyone remember Big Red Racing?) . Another duo which I’m anxiously awaiting playable versions of – The Proper Undead’s Pogo Pogo and Heavy Metal Thunder Warriors.

Check out Pixel Prospector (or just the list of games with playable versions). Subscribing to the Pixel Prospector RSS feed is the most convenient way to keep updated IMHO.

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