Ice Age Village hit the XBox Live store in April, and the characters from the hit animation film were looking towards gamers to help them build a new village for their friends. And in the same breath, developers Gameloft are looking to make as much money as possible. Unfortunately the two ideals for this title are mutually exclusive, and Gameloft have pushed the freemium format too far.
Arctica has got me sussed. Throw in 3D action with plenty of particle physics and a sci-fi theme and I'm basically putty in its hands. In this case, Speedfest, though Arctica's other titles are also getting ported from Symbian to Windows Phone (watch this space). If you're into first person, seat-of-the-pants action games then I think you too will love it.
Continuing a run of conversions of popular board games on Xbox Live is Electronic Art's Monopoly Millionaire. Released exclusively for Nokia devices last week, this is a variant of the trading board game Monopoly. The core gameplay is there, but EA have added a lot more to the game to make it feel more modern and faster paced for mobile. Was that the right thing to do?
Squirrel is another entry in the continuous running game genre, but unlike many of the titles, it offers a 3D perspective that is both fast moving and slick, but also slightly nausea inducing. That's not enough to stop me enjoying it, though.
Fling Theory, from Coding Jar Studios, hands you a number of puzzle based levels, and asks you to throw a single atom around the level, collecting coins and clearing the way so you can get the atom to the exit. Is that enough for a hit game?
Zeptolab's return to the world of Cut the Rope this month has been an interesting one to watch. Cut The Rope can rightly be considered a marquee game for a mobile platform, with its recognisable central character (Om Nom), well known gameplay, and attractive graphics. So Cut The Rope: Experiments is a welcome addition to Windows Phone, but it's not without some controversy.
Ask anyone the biggest name in consumer computer chess and the answer will come back 'ChessGenius'. It's available for every single platform, old and new (this is its debut on Windows Phone), it's been around for well over a decade, the chess engine it's based on has won ten (computer) world championships and it'll thrash you unless you happen to be a grandmaster. And even then you might struggle. Happily, there are options here to make it less forgiving of us lesser mortals...
I really wanted to like Storm in a Teacup. I like quirky off the wall games, I like platform games with a bit of exploration. I also like my games to be responsive, look nice, and feel right. Unfortunately Storm in a Teacup was more of the latter than the former.
Working in the same realm as the Xbox Live title Doodle God, but naturally in opposition, is Doodle Devil. Starting with a few building blocks, can you create every evil thing in the world and balance out all the good things created in Doodle God?
A new game on Xbox Live? A new game in a franchise and we get it first? And it's a follow up to Gravity Guy? Sounds wonderful! Is it a fast paced sideways scrolling arcade game? Yes it is. Is it infuriatingly unforgiving? Definitely. Is it about to be reviewed? Could be!
