xbox live deal of the week

Earlier this week we reported that N.O.V.A. 3 would come to Xbox Windows Phone 8 on Wednesday, but that information sadly turned out to be incorrect. Check out our Monster Burner story for more details, and let’s not shoot the messenger!

So what are gamers who’ve been left waiting for a rigorous and downright manly 3D sci-fi shooter supposed to play this week? Well, besides the obvious answer of Monster Burner, your next best is the Xbox Red Stripe Deal of the Week. The new sale game is Sally’s Salon Luxury Edition from Game House! It is now on sale for 99 cents, down from $2.99. Definitely an excellent substitute for shooting aliens full of holes.

In all seriousness, if you need a more hardcore gaming experience on the cheap, you’re in luck! Spectral Souls, the console-style strategy RPG is discounted for the first time ever with a whopping seven bucks slashed off its price. The Encyclopedia Britannica app rounds out the Red Stripe Deals of the week.

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.

You’ve probably heard that Miniclip is offering four of its Xbox Windows Phone games for free right now. And as of last week, the Xbox Deal of the Week is back. So with a bunch of games gone free at the moment, does that mean we don’t get a new Deal of the Week today? Heck no it doesn’t!

This week’s deal game is another blast from the past, as it’s been on sale once before. But it’s actually a pretty awesome game that many players might have overlooked: Tiki Towers from Game House. Even better, the sale price is 99 cents this time, the cheapest Tiki Towers has ever been.

Now is the part where I remind you, our dear readers, that the Windows Phone Store doesn’t always update like clockwork. Sometimes price changes take time to go live. Case in point: I’m not seeing Tiki Towers on sale yet. But Microsoft assures us it will go on sale, and I believe them. So just be patient and check later tonight or Thursday; the sale will eventually go on.

Update: The sale is not scheduled to go live until Thursday for some reason. That explains it!

Last week’s Xbox Windows Phone Black Friday sale was the largest sale the platform has ever seen, with no less than six Xbox titles discounted. And in fact, the Windows Phone Store hasn’t updated yet, so you can still get those games on sale as of this writing. I have to bear some bad news though… Microsoft has revealed to us that the popular Xbox Deal of the Week program will be taking a break for the remainder of the year. Presumably it will restart sometime around January 2^nd.

We’ve had our fair share of quality Deals of the Week lately. Surely some Windows Phone gamers’ wallets are aching and could use a rest. Well, this week’s Deal should accommodate such folks as it’s certainly of the less-exciting variety. Starting Wednesday, Earthworm Jim HD from Gameloft goes on sale for $2.99 for the third time, down from the outrageous price of $4.99.

Yes, with Gameloft’s recent announcement of 12 big name Windows Phone 8 games, it would’ve been all too easy to forget the ‘Loft had published a somewhat unimpressive port of Earthworm Jim as a Windows Phone 7 launch title.

It’s board game week for Windows Phone. First the long-awaited Carcassonne debuted on Xbox Live, and now another board game has become the Deal of the Week. Babaroga’s Zombies!!! is on sale for the first time for $2.99, down from $4.99. Are you ready to roll some dice and do battle with the undead?

We’ve had lots to say about Rocket Riot lately. A few weeks ago it received an update that added Avatar Awards and asynchronous multiplayer, and not long after that we published our exclusive preview of the Windows 8 version – Rocket Riot 3D. Now that the phone games has all that fancy multiplayer challenge stuff going on, it needs people to play it. Luckily it’s going to be this week’s Xbox Deal of the Week, going dropping to $2.99 (down from $4.99) when the sale goes live tomorrow.

It’s Gameloft week on Windows Phone, folks. Not only do we get a long, long, long-awaited new Xbox release from the big G (Real Soccer), but another one of their titles is going on sale as well. Let’s Golf 2, normally priced at $4.99, drops down to an affordable $1.99 this Wednesday. This continues the awesome trend of greater-than-50-percent discounts on Xbox titles.

Let’s Golf 2 is an arcade-style golf game modeled after Sony’s popular Hot Shots Golf franchise. Features include cartoony players, clean 3D graphics, six 18-hole courses, and both Career and Challenge modes. Even if you don’t care about the sport of golf at all (like me), the game is actually very enjoyable and easy to learn. Check out our full review for more details.

Last week’s Xbox Live Deal of the Week marked the return of the popular sales program, but it failed to impress due to the subterranean quality of the game on sale, Fusion: Sentient. Still, the DOTW’s return promised brighter days to come, and quickly, too. This week’s deal is Monster Island, widely regarded as the best Angry Birds-type game currently available on Windows Phone. Plus it’s on sale for not just $1.99 like we’ve come to expect from a discounted $2.99 game, but only 99 cents!