Let's be honest, there are a huge number of games out there that are inspired by Tetris. Some of them only tangentially so, others sail the 'tribute' line very close to the wind. I'm not sure where I would place Blugri's Boxes. It's obviously the game of disappearing lines, but it has power-ups, stronger blocks, and enough of a difference to be noticed. What I am sure about is that it's pretty addictive, and a little quirky.
Last week's release of Koozac followed up the critically acclaimed Skulls of the Shogun on Xbox, and started to bring back some momentum to the release schedule of Xbox titles on Windows Phone. Unfortunately, the game itself is a bit of a damp squib.
I've been a huge pinball fan in real life, which hopefully helps me appreciated the sterling job the developers have done with simulating a pinball table in Dr Pickaxe. The physics are downright perfect, the gameplay always interesting, plus mini-game/mini-tables extend the gameplay even further. Add in a generous 'trial' version and you've got a title that every Windows Phone gamer should have installed and (hopefully) bought.
Putting aside the issue of Skulls of the Shogun being an oasis in a drought of new Xbox Live releases, 17-Bit's strategy game is a wonderful and accomplished title on the Windows Phone platform (which is where this review is focusing, even though it's also on Surface RT and Windows 8). It takes the simple question of 'what happens to all the shoguns who die?' and answers it with 'they never stopped fighting'. Now all you need to do is help them to victory.
Just before Christmas, we posted news about 'Starcrossed' from Kajak Games Osk, one of the winners of the 2012 Dare to be Digital contest run by a number of Scottish Universities. Since then I've been dipping into this title frequently, and it's about time this arcade puzzler had a full review.
When the team behind the second James Bond film 'From Russia With Love' settled on a marketing message, they went for the simple idea of a 'bigger, better, Bond'. Firemint have gone for the same approach with their sequel to the genre defining line drawing game Flight Control. Released as an Xbox Live exclusive title by Nokia, Flight Control Rocket moves the action into space, and asks you, once more, to marshall the approaching craft into a safe landing.
Robotek is an unlikely mix of cuteness, post-apocalyptic futures and fruit machine gameplay. See, told you it was unlikely. Not only that though, it throws in a dash of strategy too, forcing you to use your grey matter rather than just how well you can time stopping the spinning symbols to activate your various activities. Besides the fun factor of Robotek, it's also a title that shows signs of the future of the Windows Phone ecosystem, as this game was recently released on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, which, of course, is the promise of the common kernel between Microsoft's desktop and mobile operating systems.
Nokia's Xbox Live exclusive title Blobster is an example of a game that looks great on paper, and has all the elements that should make for a good game - but fails to deliver. It's not easy to put my finger on why Blobster doesn't make the grade, but let's give it a go.
There's always a certain amount of trepidation whenever I see Judge Dredd in something other than 2000AD. The iconic British comic creation rarely makes the jump to other media while retaining the core aspects of the character. But then having Dredd on my smartphone was a temptation that I couldn't avoid. And I found a great game with very little 'grudd'.
While it is a Nokia exclusive, it's the only new Xbox Live title released in 2013 (so far) so let's take a look at the artillery/destruction genre gaming that is on offer in Picnic Wars.
