games

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Windows Phone 7 and 8 gets new ports of Angry Birds and they're free for a limited time!

By Paul Acevedo, Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 4:58 pm

When we didn’t hear from Microsoft about an Xbox Windows Phone release this week, we feared that there wouldn’t a new game today. It turns out that we should have had faith, because a new release did quietly slip out, and it’s an interesting one!

Following on the heels of their early April release, Amazing Alex, Rovio now breaks in the month of May with the game that started their rise to fame: Angry Birds. We’re not talking about a new Angry Birds sequel or the oft-requested spin-off Bad Piggies. No, a Windows Phone 8-exclusive version of the original Angry Birds (now called Angry Birds Classic) has just arrived with all the content missing from its unloved Windows Phone 7 predecessor. Windows Phone 7 gets a new, updated version as well but without the Xbox features. And best of all, both versions are free until May 15!

Ice Age Village Review: Build a happy home on Windows Phone

Games

By Paul Acevedo, Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 11:45 am

Windows Phone 8 got its first proper taste of Xbox-enabled freemium games when Gameloft’s Real Soccer 2013 debuted earlier this year. But that game reached for players’ wallets so deeply and so often that we could barely enjoy it. Now Gameloft gives us another freemium game, the social city builder Ice Age Village. Don’t let Real Soccer 2013 or Glu Mobile’s Bug Village sour your feelings toward this one; it is less buggy than its genre predecessor and even players who choose not to spend any real currency can have a good time.

Strike 'em down with Ninepin Bowling for Windows Phone 8

Games

By George Ponder, Tuesday, Apr 30, 2013 at 8:35 am

Ninepin Bowling is a 3D bowling game for your Windows Phone 8 device. It's a nicely animated, somewhat challenging game for those wanting a break from the 10-pin bowling games.

Ninepin Bowling is a fun game for your Windows Phone but it does have a little room for improvement. The one issue that may hold this game back the most is the lack of a trial version.

Get ahead in Ice Age Village with our Windows Phone Achievement Guide

Games

By Paul Acevedo, Monday, Apr 29, 2013 at 10:26 am

Ice Age Village from Gameloft is a free Xbox city building game for Windows Phone 8. As far as we know, any Windows Phone 8 device can run it and the game only takes up 79 MB of storage, so it should have a sizable player base already.

The city building genre is a time consuming one since many tasks involve returning to the game at a later time or date to reap their rewards. Wouldn’t it be nice to speed up the process a bit and get your village making money faster right off the bat? Darn right it would.

Windows Phone Central has a bunch of codes for free Coins, animals, and items, plus a handy Achievement guide. Don’t spend a single Acorn until you’ve read it!

Marblie: Marbles Reinvented, a challenging little puzzle game

Games

By George Ponder, Monday, Apr 29, 2013 at 8:31 am

Marblie: Marbles Reinvented is fairly simple, yet challenging Windows Phone puzzle game. Marblie has you moving marbles around the game board to match six marbles of the same color in adjacent tiles.

Marblie is a nice puzzle game with a casual pace. While it may lack a lot of bells and whistles, the game is challenging enough to keep things interesting. Overall, Marblie: Marbles Reinvented isn't a bad way to pass the time.

Play with the friendly monsters in MonsterUp Colors, now available for Windows Phone

Games

By Rich Edmonds, Sunday, Apr 28, 2013 at 1:07 pm

The developer of popular jumping game for Windows Phone, MonsterUp has released another title. MonsterUp Colors is a colour-matching puzzle game with the same theme as MonsterUp (hence the brand use). Featuring local multiplayer support, online scoreboards and more, MonsterUp Colors is a title worth checking out.

These Windows Phone games are for the birds

Games

By George Ponder, Friday, Apr 26, 2013 at 8:49 am

Windows Phone Central Roundup: Bird Games
Windows Phone Central Game Roundup: Bird Games

As The Trashmen so aptly put it, "The birds is the word" with this week's Windows Phone Game Roundup. These are games with the central character being a bird.

Most are really nice games to pass the time with and include an Xbox Live title, a sequel, and one that can easily get tangled up in knots. We picked out five games that stood out in the Windows Phone Store and there are still a large flock of "bird" games loose in the store.

If we've missed your favorite game of birds, feel free to chime in below in the comments with your recommendations.

Ice Age Village's social features don't work on Windows Phone just yet [Updated]

By Paul Acevedo, Thursday, Apr 25, 2013 at 8:40 pm

Gameloft’s Ice Age Village just launched for Xbox Windows Phone 8 yesterday. If you enjoy the town-building genre or the Ice Age movies, it’s a fun and addictive game. It’s also worlds better than Bug Village, so don’t let that early Windows Phone 7 misfire put you off from trying the game.

All that said, we have some good news and bad news to share with you now. This article covers the bad news. One of Ice Age Village’s advancements over Bug Village, its social integration is just about completely broken at launch. Read on to learn about the kinks in the works and whether we can expect Gameloft to take care of the situation

Azkend 2 for Windows Phone 8, escaping from the center of the Earth

Games

By George Ponder, Thursday, Apr 25, 2013 at 8:54 am

Azkend 2 is yet another fantastic Windows Phone 8 game fro 10tons. Azkend 2 is a puzzle game that calls on you to find strings of three or more of the same object. The storyline for Azkend 2 has you traveling across the ocean from England to the U.S. At some point your ship gets trapped in a whirlpool that sends you to the center of the Earth. You solve the puzzles to collect tools to help you escape to the surface.

As with other 10tons games, Azkend 2 has impressive graphics and challenging game play. Along with the main puzzle game, you also have a side game that appears in between levels that has an "Eye Spy" feel to it. Azkend 2 is a nice addition to our Windows Phone gaming library and will satisfy the puzzle lover in all of us.

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Mark May 21st for the next Xbox to be revealed, here’s what we know so far

Windows Phone News

By Sam Sabri, Wednesday, Apr 24, 2013 at 5:33 pm

The next few months are shaping up to be super busy around here at Windows Phone Central. The Lumia 928 is right around the corner for Verizon. Then we have Catwalk in June, followed by EOS in July. And that’s all just from Nokia. We’ve got E3 in the first part of June and BUILD towards the end of that month. And on May 21st we’ll be learning about the next Xbox for the first time.

Gameloft brings Ice Age Village to Xbox Windows Phone 8 for free!

By Paul Acevedo, Wednesday, Apr 24, 2013 at 2:49 pm

We’ve just settled in with two strong Nokia exclusive Windows Phone releases this week, but avid gamers and non-Nokia owners are already hungry for more. Hey! Why don’t you go order a pizza from your Xbox 360 if you’re so hungry?

Well, assuming we’ve all had a nice lunch/dinner/second breakfast, it’s time for a new Xbox game from our good friends at Gameloft. This week’s release is Ice Age Village, one of the more casual-friendly titles that Gameloft announced for Windows Phone 8 last year. Whether or not the theme appeals to you, Ice Age Village happens to be free-to-play, so we all might as well put down our vegetable peelers and give it a try.

Smile, Mush is this week's Xbox Red Stripe Deal on Windows Phone

Games

By Paul Acevedo, Wednesday, Apr 24, 2013 at 1:53 pm

Last week’s Red Stripe Xbox Deal gave us a fine sale on Sonic CD, a game that had never been discounted before. This week’s game has never been a Deal of the Week before, but many of us picked it up during the Black Friday sale last year. That’s right, Mush from Angry Mango will be the new Red Stripe Xbox game starting on Thursday. It’s going on sale for 99 cents, down from $2.99.

World Domination updated and added to the Windows 8 lineup with cross-platform support

Games

By George Ponder, Wednesday, Apr 24, 2013 at 1:45 pm

World Domination is a Risk type game for your Windows Phone. It is a turn based game where you play to... well... dominate the world.

The game was recently updated to version 2.2 that took care of a few bugs and added options for 12 or 24 hour turn durations and an option to invite players using the public chat.

Cut the Rope: Experiments Review - More candy-filled Windows Phone fun

Games

By Paul Acevedo, Wednesday, Apr 24, 2013 at 8:34 am

The original Cut the Rope is one of the most popular Xbox Windows Phone games, and for good reason. The gameplay is simple and easy to learn, while perfecting levels provides a fair challenge. It packs a ton of levels and it only costs a buck – the perfect price point for mass market acceptance. And of course, it stars the lovable Om Nom, an endearing creature who has his own series of animated shorts on YouTube and physical merchandise like toys and games.

Now Cut the Rope is back, but not as the update with more levels promised within the game. Instead, ZeptoLabs has just released a sequel, Cut the Rope: Experiments. This one packs 150 more levels of gameplay in exactly the same style as the first, plus a few minor improvements. Now that its price has dropped to a buck, is Experiments a necessary buy for fans of the original? Read on to find out!

Skulls of the Shogun updated - we examine the improved Windows Phone visuals

By Paul Acevedo, Tuesday, Apr 23, 2013 at 2:00 pm

Skulls of the Shogun will forever be known to Windows Phone enthusiasts as the game that broke the Xbox release drought we went through earlier this year. It also happened to be a fantastic game, despite a few rough edges here and there.

When we met up with one of the game’s developers a few weeks ago, he promised that updates would soon be coming to all three versions of the game: Windows Phone, XBLA, and Windows 7. At last those updates are upon us! We've got an exclusive screenshot comparison and visual breakdown of the revamped Windows Phone visuals, plus full change logs for all three versions of Skulls of the Shogun.

FlipSomeTiles, a golden game for your Windows Phone

Games

By George Ponder, Tuesday, Apr 23, 2013 at 8:22 am

FlipSomeTiles is a simple, yet challenging puzzle game for your Windows Phone 7.x or 8 device. The goal is simple, trace a path from the Start Tile to the End Tile, turning the tiles gold in the process.

The challenge is that once you turn a tile gold, you can't retrace back over it. So you'll need to choose your path carefully. FlipSomeTiles is a fun game for your Windows Phone to pass short bits of time with and it does have a slight addictive quality to it.

Windows Phone Deal Alert: Cut the Rope: Experiments price reduction

By George Ponder, Monday, Apr 22, 2013 at 1:50 pm

Cut the Rope: Experiments is a fun Xbox Live game for your Windows Phone 7.x and 8 devices. It hit the Windows Phone Store last week for $2.99 and today, the price has been cut to $.99.

The sequel to the original Cut the Rope has a mad scientist putting the title character, Om Nom, through a wide range of scientific experiments. Cut the Rope: Experiments brings 150 levels of game play to your Windows Phone and at only $.99 may very well be a steal of a deal.

Rum Run updated with a plethora of new features

Games

By Rich Edmonds, Saturday, Apr 20, 2013 at 7:50 pm

Rum Run, a popular game for Windows Phone, has been bumped to version 1.5. The latest release includes a number of updates that will improve the experience of the strategy game. So what's Rum Run all about? We reviewed the title a while ago, but if you're not familiar the story puts the player in the role of a ship captain who is tasked to deliver food to a starving village. Sounds dangerous, right?

Welcome to Greed City, an exclusive Windows Phone 8 location-based game

By Paul Acevedo, Friday, Apr 19, 2013 at 7:16 pm

Remember the location-based social interaction game Torchbear? The creators of Torchbear, Lighthouse Games Studio, are back within another location-based game – this time exclusively for Windows Phone 8. Their new title Greed City combines the property and wealth acquisition elements of Monopoly with the real-world location and GPS elements of Four Square. It’s much more game-like than Torchbear and costs nothing to download, so Windows Phone 8 users should definitely give it a look.

We've got a quick-start guide and more impressons to share, so read on!

Connect 4 and Risk no longer Lumia exclusives, available to all Windows Phone owners

Games

By Rich Edmonds, Friday, Apr 19, 2013 at 12:28 pm

It's always great when Nokia exclusives are no longer upheld and other Windows Phone owners can subsequently enjoy more available content. Today we've been alerted to both Risk and Connect 4 becoming available for not only Nokia Windows Phones, but other handsets too. Both titles are very popular, with the former picking up a number of favourable reviews.