Between listening to music tracks you have copied onto your smartphone, or listening to a radio station, there is a delightfully fertile ground of streaming apps to help you discover new artists, albums, and music. Mixtapes brings a huge collection of curated playlists to your finger tips.
Amazing Alex arrived on Xbox Live last week (for Windows Phone 8 users), but Rovio also released a standalone version for Windows Phone 7 users. Like many of the March releases around GDC, Amazing Alex has been available on iOS and Android, and was pushed heavily as the 'follow up game' to Angry Birds. Now it's here on the Microsoft platform, it's hard to see what the fuss was all about.
There's a rush of games at the moment in the gaming world of Windows Phone which are taking two styles of game and using them to make another. Nokia pushed another of them, Vampire Rush, out and I've been happily hunting vampires ever since.
I've always taken it as read that mobile gamers with smartphones like resource-based games, where you have to earn items, fashion new ones, make a profit, and go buy more items. I also reckon mobile gamers like tile-based puzzle games. Take those two elements, smash them together, and you get Puzzle Craft. And I think a lot of people will be playing this free to download title for some time to come.
Ready to take on another life? To better yourself and help those around you? To immerse yourself in past times for fun and personal development? If so, you need the latest version of The Sims from EA and available to Nokia Lumia owners... The Sims: Medieval.
Temple Run is a tricky game to review in one sense. It's a title most people will be familiar with, but it's the first time it's been available on Windows Phone. So all you need to say is that 'it plays as well as other version'. But in another sense, it means the focus can be on the more technical details and how the app delivers the experience, The good news is that Temple Run delivers in this area as well.
Gameloft might be getting out the big graphical numbers on Xbox Live at the moment (with Asphalt 7, The Amazing Spiderman, and The Dark Knight Rises), but they've not lost their touch with causal games either. Shark Dash is another physics-based 'throw yourself around' title, but it has been developed with a light touch and a sense of humour.
After a few games of Marblie, you'll begin to wonder if you've played the game before, but can't quite place it. Then you'll realise you're still playing the game and enjoying it. So even if it is an old concept, it's a great implementation.
This isn't the first Yahtzee game on Windows Phone and it probably won't be the last - but it's definitely the most official, with Electronic Arts licensing the title from the official copyright holders. Which saves a lot of naming worries and means that Yahtzee here can be a no holds barred implementation of the classic dice strategy game. In fact, you get the full game plus a lot else, including one-on-one competition and a genuine Yahtzee rules enhancement, adding in extra (colour) elements. NB. At the time of writing, this is exclusive to Nokia-powered Windows Phones, though I'm sure its availability will be widened in future.
And we're back with the impressive XBox Live titles. Quietly arriving last week, Galactic Reign is a tactical combat game, where you have no control over the combat. Taking a higher up view, you set up your space fleets and send them off into battle. How did they got on? Well, you'll be able to sit back and watch the whole battle in a rendered video, just like your favourite space opera! And did I mention you'll be playing against your XBox Friends?
