Three more Xbox Live titles now available for all Windows Phone handsets

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Three more Xbox Live titles have come out of their exclusivity period with Nokia, and are now available across the Windows Phone range. Head over to the Windows Phone store now to pick up your copies of Bejeweled Live+, iBomber Defense, and Zuma's Revenge.

Of those titles, the one that I would be most excited about is Zuma's Revenge. While the three games all cover basic genres (arcade/puzzle, tower defence, and colour matching), it's Zuma's Revenge that has got everything working well on a mobile device, from great sounds and graphics, to level design and the user interface.

Zuma's Revenge

The biggest plus to this title is that it feels not just complete, but as if there is more in the application than you would expect to find. There are sixty regular levels in the adventure mode (which you can work through sequentially), while the 'challenge' levels, made up of independent non-linear levels with set goals to achieve, adds another sixty levels to the mix (and that's before you toggle the difficulty level of these scenarios to give you a few more combinations). That's a lot of game right there, and while I'd like to see a 'random' or 'endless' game option to keep providing a new challenge for as long as I want to play, this package is going to take at least two weeks to worth through.

Read the review, and download Zuma's Revenge from the Windows Phone Store.

IBomber Defense, while being a relatively polished implementation of the Tower Defense genre still feels a bit lacking and slap-dash in implementation.

iBomber Defense

The one control issue there is with the small 'playback' controls in the top right of the screen, which give you access to the settings, pausing the game, or restarting a level (which you can initiate at any point, but then need to play through three more levels to have it available again). These are rather small, with an unforgiving target area...

Unfortunately, iBomber Defense is still needing some work. Both the loading times for a level and a slowing down of frame rates, when a level becomes 'busy' with weapons and enemy troops, damaged my confidence in the game while playing. While I've not experienced it, others report the game is still prone to some 'crashing' and requiring a restart.

Read the review, and download iBomber Defense from the Windows Phone Store.

Finally Bejeweled Live+ is a collection of alternative ways to play the classic tile swapping/matching game Bejeweled. Technically it's a great piece of code, but you do need to think carefully if you already have a Bejeweled styled game on your smartphone:

Bejeweled Live + Bejeweled Live +

How much value for money is on offer here is an interesting question. Bejeweled fans already established on Windows Phone will likely have the vanilla version of Bejeweled Live downloaded already, and even with the two extra game modes and another 200 gamer points on offer for the achievements, I think the price is a little too much to ask, even if it is slightly cheaper that the original title.

But for anyone who's not played the first XBox Live version - and with the explosion of Windows Phone devices, especially WP8 devices, that could be a lot of people - going straight to Bejeweled Live Plus makes a lot of sense. The two extra modes add to the game, and the achievements are slightly easier to complete.

Read the review, and download Bejeweled Live+ from the Windows Phone Store.