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.

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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

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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100+ Best Freeware Games x2
GamerZines = Free Magazines for Gamers
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Dragon Fist 3 – a must-play game if you have ever wondered who would come out victorious if the legendary Bruce Lee had challenged the folklore hero Wong Fei Hong to a fight or if a Chinese broadsword (大刀 – used in battle as recently in 1933 during Operation Nekka) was superior to the spear or even a Japanese katana?

Now here’s your chance to prove your theories with Ben Oldings’ awesome fighting game with over 32 fighters – some legendary heroes in Chinese folklore, others movie stars and the rest probably fictional – and look, there’s even a Shaolin monk and Japanese swordmaster Miyamoto Musashi in here. All carry a weapon ranging from exotic hook knives to nunchaku and even throwing stars for the ninjutsu proponents.

Each fighter has his/her own special move like Billy Lo who packs a gut-busting one inch punch or Mr Lee who unleashes a flurry of rapid kicks to his unfortunate opponent’s chest and face.

Combat is a tactical affair with fighters trading punches and kicks and evasion and parrying thrown into the mix. Evasion is more effective than parrying for certain characters – especially Li Mu Bai from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon who jumps like a kangaroo Of course, with so many characters you’re likely to meet opponents who seem nigh impossible to beat with your current character like the pair of Dragon Guards who quickly make short work of reckless unarmed fighters with their Chinese halberds (关刀) but the game is fairly balanced on the whole.

There’s a lot of different techniques and combinations to keep things interesting, some of the basic ones being simply whack your opponent hard enough to charge up your power meter to execute special moves or string up a series of punches and kicks to knock your opponent to the ground (watch the red meter above the the health bar) Weapons can also make fights easier to win with their range advantage (when used properly, of course) but they also prevent your fighter from using their special moves.

Alternatively, sweep your unwary opponents off their feet, grab their weapon and hit them back with it. Throw your flying knives or grab that pesky defensive, parrying opponent and then follow up with your special move – just two more ways to dominate any fight.

A character editor is also unlockable to create your fantasy characters once you’ve completed the game at the Beginner difficulty.

Obviously, Ben Olding’s tribute to kungfu movies and games, Dragon Fist 3 emphasises playability over realism although the different kungfu styles that each character adopts is very convincingly animated, plus it’s always fun to watch Beggar Su’s fighting in his drunken fist style. Besides, there aren’t many games for the PC that allow you to argue the relative merits of kungfu styles and melee weapons – the PS had the unique Bushido Blade at least.

Download or play Dragon Fist 3 : Age of the Warrior online.

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Legion of Man Demo Impressions
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Digipen Games (II) – Mystick
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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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Mytheria – Virtual CCG

I’ve been a fan of rally racing games for the PC after playing Colin McRae Rally 2.0 (CMR 2.0) years ago. It was probably the first racing game that I actually played for months at end because 4WD rally cars were easier to drive and tended to spin less frequently. Each stage was a individual event which meant you competed to beat the time record alone instead of competing with other drivers at time.

Colin McRae Rally 2005 continues this fine tradition with more cars, more stages and of course more visual eye candy. Gameplay-wise, it’s nearly the same as CMR 2.0 (I missed out on CMR 3 and CMR 04 because my computer back then was crap), but it’s now only USD 9.99 as a digital download on GOG.com so you might want to give the demo a test drive.

The demo contains three stages to race in – a gravel/mud stage in th UK (Gwyddelwern), a tarmac/gravel stage in Germany (Niederlauterbach) and a snow/ice stage in Sweden (Hjalmarson). Two 4WD cars (Peugeot 206 and Toyota Celica GT4) and the classic RWD Lancia Stratos are available in the demo with an additional 31 other cars in the full game.

Aesthetically speaking, the car and damage modelling is way ahead of CMR 2.0 and the mud and rain on your windscreen when you drive around with the in-car camera is really impressive.

The graphics for the tracks themselves are a mixed bag though as most objects are 3D while others are still unmistakably 2D – the biggest eyesore being the sprites for the cheering crowds – which jar the immersion facto quite a bit. You’ll probably not notice these graphical niggles when you’re hurtling along narrow forest dirtpaths at full speed with the responsive controls though

The improved detail of each stage is not only in terms of visual quality but also translates to additional complexity for the player. You’ll really need to listen carefully to your co-driver/navigator as he reads out the turns ahead since some of the turns aren’t visible from the in-car view until you fly off the track

Like its predecessors, the only music is the whine of high powered engines and the crackle of dirt being ignited by the hot exhaust fumes when you slow down. Besides, you need to concentrate on driving and pay attention to your navigator

Download the demo for Colin McRae Rally 2005 (cnet.com mirror) or buy the full game at GOG.com.

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