Alphajax has taken an unconventional route to Xbox Live. Originally an independent release in the Windows Store, Microsoft noted its popularity and has brought it to their flagship brand. But it's an app with some problems, and that dulls the impact.
Every time I come across an app from Beautiful Mind Games in the Windows Store, I'm amazed how they can take a well known gaming mechanic, twist it just enough to be something new yet familiar, and produce a really good gaming title. While there is no single wow moment in their latest title Orientile, it continues a strong run of successful games.
Replicating the exact behaviour of something in the real world inside a smartphone is never trivial. Or even, necessarily, desirable. Yet this is what RC-AirSim: Model Airplane attempts - and succeeds wildly. The downside, as you might imagine, is that all the frustrations of the real world come over as well. This is part game, part simulation, part tech-demo for the developer's physics and graphics algorithms - yet I love it. Read on for why....
Nokia continue to release their exclusive Xbox Live titles on Windows Phone, with some big names for the public to recognise. That might seem a bit trivial to regular Xbox Live players, but never put aside the pursuit of the casual consumer suddenly spotting a familiar logo in the marketing material. Which is why Trivial Pursuit is an important title.
Now this is more like it! A gaming title which feels at home on a mobile device, that takes into account the nature of modern gameplay, with smart looking graphics and an easy to use (and understand) control system. There's even enough tactics to make the game more than a 'follow the level designer's obvious route' to victory. Yes, I rather like Spy Mouse. How much? Let's find out.
Last week's Xbox Live release, Turn N Run from Electronic Arts, is a platform game with a unique view on the world... a unique view that can change to give you a whole new set of platforms to run over. But is that enough to make up for some lacklustre design and slow gameplay?
This might not have been the Sonic game you were expecting (we're all still waiting for "Sonic 4: Episode 2"), but will this port of the classic release for the CD enabled Sega MegaDrive be a suitable substitute? For the casual gamer, yes, but the more dedicated fan will see this as little more than a stop-gap.
Parking Mania is well known in the mobile world, having already existed in the iPhone and Android ecosystems and done very well, so it's only natural that it should appear on the 'third' ecosystem as well. It's a classic game scenario: part puzzle, part arcade and 100% frustration. It's also fair to say that if parking your real life car in a tight space is your idea of hell then it's probably a good idea to give Parking Mania a miss too!
So it's finally here. Zynga's board game with some eerie similarities to Scrabble has had a talismanic hold on mobile gamers since it took over Facebook. "Does it play Words with Friends?" has been a question many have asked. After all, if iOS and Android users can play their games on their smartphone, so should those of us with Windows Phones be able to. Now we can.
Last week's release of The Game of Life on Xbox Live was another exclusive title from Nokia. It's a curious choice of board game to convert to the digital sphere, but EA have done a really good job in replicating the experience of playing the game. Is that enough to make a strong smartphone title?
