If you like physics-based puzzle games, check out Reindeer Round-Up for Windows Phone 8. Originally launched for iOS and Android, the game has just been released at the Windows Phone Store. This game should get you in the mood for the holidays. Reindeer Round-Up is addictive, so don’t start playing it before an important errand.

Here's the official game trailer:

There are 5 zones with 10 levels each. The zones are named as cities: New York, Paris, London, Rome and Rio de Janeiro. The main goal is to stack cute reindeers on top of each other to reach the presents above them without falling. There are also levels where you pop bubbles or break boxes instead. The game starts out very easy, but becomes more difficult as you proceed to the next levels. The 2D graphics and animations look great. We also like the upbeat music.

At the beginning of each level, there are reindeers floating with parachutes. To start stacking the reindeers, tap a parachute and drag them the bottom. Use logic to carefully place the reindeers at the bottom, so that the reindeers on top are less likely to fall. Some reindeers have round shapes and some are contained in slippery ice cubes that make things a little more difficult. If you are having a hard time with a level, you have an option to skip it.

Reindeer Round-Up is developed by Christian West using Unity. It’s the first game for Windows Phone 8 he has released and he plans to bring a few more. Christian claims to have ported the game and submitted to the Windows Phone Store in just one day!

Reindeer Round-Up costs $1.29 at the Windows Phone Store. Unfortunately, there is no free trial available in the initial release. We’re not sure if that option will be available later on.

What other Holiday-themed games should we be playing? Let us know in the comments!

SweetNRoll is an odd sort of game for Windows Phone 8 that has you solving puzzles to feed a little creature, Pete.  Graphics have a Candy Land feel to it and Pete has a loose resemblance to Om Nom of Cut the Rope fame.

Regardless of the similarities, SweetNRoll is a decent game on its own and has over one hundred challenging puzzle levels to conquer.  Game play is not difficult, but without a help section, you will go through a trial and error period to get a handle on things.

All totaled, if you are looking for a casual, puzzle game for Windows Phone 8 SweetNRoll is worth trying.

The main menu for SweetNRoll has menu options that can be pulled up by corner icons as well as the option to jump into game play.  In the left corner is a gear icon that will pull up options to mute sound effects, mute game music and view the about screen.  In the right corner is a people icon that will pull up options to share the game via email, view the developer’s Twitter page and view the developer’s Facebook page.

SweetNRoll has one hundred and five levels of play that are progressively unlocked.  However, it appears that you will need to make a donation to the developer to unlock the levels past level thirty-five.

The first few levels serve as a tutorial with illustrated instructions that appear in the upper right corner of the screen.  These directions will get you in the ballpark and the more you play SweetNRoll, the better you get the hang of game play.

SweetNRoll’s game screen layout has your gaming stats running across the top of the screen along with a pause and replay buttons.  The goal of the game is to send the various pieces of candy to Pete, who is hanging out in the upper right corner of the screen.  You accomplish this by breaking chains holding the candy that will send the candy to join another piece of candy.  Once paired, you can tap the candy and it will be tossed up to Pete.

It sounds simple but you only have a limited number of moves available that, at times, have to be completed in a specific order.  You will also need to feed Pete as fast as possible to better your score.  Each level gets a little more challenging with multiple candies to pair and only a few solutions possible to solve the puzzle and feed Pete all the goodies.

SweetNRoll is not a bad game but could stand to have a better help section to explain game play.  Graphics are nice, the puzzles challenging but it would be nice to have a better feel for game play from the onset.

Overall, SweetNRoll is an entertaining casual game for Windows Phone 8.  SweetNRoll is a free game with extended levels available through in-app purchase.  You can find your copy of SweetNRoll here in the Windows Phone Store.

We had expected the latest installment in the Angry Birds series of Windows Phone games, Angry Birds Go!, to land in the Store on December 11, 2013.  However, many awoke this morning to find the title already listed in the Store as a non-Xbox Windows game.  

Sadly though, it appears the game isn't completely ready for play.

Angry Birds Go! departs from the traditional style of gaming we have grown accustom to with the gaming series.  Instead of hurling your collection of birds through the air to defeat the pigs, Angry Birds Go! is a racing game.

You compete in a series of downhill races with go-karts that are upgradeable and driven by your favorite Angry Birds characters.  We’d love to comment further but while we were able to install the game to our Windows Phone, upon launching we consistently received an “unable to connect to the internet” error.

This could be a case that the game was made available in the Store before the online servers at Rovio were switched on, a bug in the game itself or AT&T playing a cruel joke on me.

If you feel like seeing if Angry Birds Go! will cooperate on your Windows Phone, it is a free app for Windows Phone 8 devices.  There were some tips stating there was a 2GB RAM requirement and while the game is listed as “unavailable” for the Nokia Lumia 520, I was able to install it on HTC 8x (but still received the connection error).

You can find Angry Birds Go! here in the Windows Phone Store.  If you have any luck getting the game to run, let us know in the comments and we'll keep you posted should we here anything new on the game's playability.

Thanks, everyone, for the tips!

Technically speaking, it’s been a slow week, mostly due to the hangover from last week’s holiday festivities. In reality though, you probably have noticed that developers have been busy tweaking and improving their apps. We’ve covered a bunch of ‘em but there are still more. Today, we know of two pretty big updates that are well worth your time.

Both Miniclip’s Rail Rush, a freebie and Nokia exclusive game, got a Christmas bonus and Huyn’s Snapchat client, 6snap, received a few new features as well. Here are the details.

Rail Rush 1.5 (Lumia exclusive game)

Version 1.5 of Rail Rush is now available. The endless-runner game, akin to Temple Run but with a miner’s cart, has won our hearts due to the bold graphics and addicting gameplay. It’s a really great game that just got a little more endearing with its recent update.

This update has one purpose: Christmas. Launching the game, you’ll notice a new splash screen, winter layout, Christmas-esque music and a bonus level called Snow Land. Snow Land is beautifully designed winter wonderland where you cart has Christmas decorations and you grab ornaments from the air. Awesome. We're totally down with holiday-themed games, so this one wins.

Full details:

• New world "Snow Land" - visit the wonderful Snow Land and deal with the rumble valley!
• New hero "Santa Claus" - a Christmas exclusive hero who helps you in destroying rolling snowballs
• New Christmas theme music and game menus

It’s cute. It’s timely. And it’s free. Rail Rush is one of a few endless-runner games out there, but we’re fans of Miniclip , so this one is on the top of our Christmas list. How about yours?

Pick up Rail Rush version 1.5 here in the Store. Nokia Windows Phone 8 devices only!

6snap 1.2.1

Earlier this week we say Rudy Huyn’s 6snap get a solid update with new features, including landscape support and new filters on board. Today’s update is not nearly as big, but it’s still significant, especially if you like using that front-facing camera. This update fixes some issues users were having with their front shooter, at least for “low resolution” ones and it brings a few other knickknacks.

• Fix front camera on device with a low resolution front camera
• Support "Team Snapchat" videos
• Allow multi-line text on pictures
• Add a menu "clear all drawings"
• Drastically improves video quality on low memory devices

We’re not users of Snapchat but even we recognize those are noteworthy changes, features and fixes. If you’re a big fan of Snapchat, make sure you pick up version 1.2.1, which is now live in the Store.

Pick up 6snap here for Windows Phone 8 devices. It’s ad-supported, but you can remove them for $1.29 with an in-app purchase.

Thanks, Joris, Rahul and all the others for the Rail Rush tips!

We are having a hard time putting our phones down after the latest version of Rail Rush became available this morning. It’s another endless-runner game, but we like that the latest update gets you in the Holiday mood.

We put it in front of our camera to show you how it looks on our Nokia Lumia 1520. Head past the break to watch the video.

What’s new in version 1.5:

• New world "Snow Land" - visit the wonderful Snow Land and deal with the rumble valley!
• New hero "Santa Claus" - a Christmas exclusive hero who helps you in destroying rolling snowballs
• New Christmas theme music and game menus

If you want to play as Santa Claus, you need 25,000 points. You can earn points by playing the game, or you can buy them from the shop. This may be a good time to use those fresh Microsoft points from buying a new Lumia phone.

Playing Rail Rush is very simple. Lean left or right by tilting your phone. Swipe left or right to switch between tracks. Swipe up to jump and swipe down to crouch. Your job is to collect precious stones, so get as many gold nuggets and gems as you can. Try to avoid falling Christmas trees or other things that block your way. It gets harder the longer you stay on the tracks.

You can use the “Save Me” button after falling to prevent you from starting over. It costs points, so try not to use it too much. You can also equip your cart with power ups to extend your chances inside the mine, while completing missions and ranking up.

Rail Rush is a free download at the Windows Phone Store. It’s currently only available to Nokia Windows Phone 8 devices. Go check out the Christmas update and let us know what you think in the comments!

An awesome puzzle game from iOS and Android has just made its way to the Windows Phone Store. We previously covered a similar title, but it was not the official version. This is the real deal. Let’s check out Move by Nitako.

The game is simple. The goal is to move the dots onto the target squares. They all move together in the same direction unless they are blocked.

Here’s the official game trailer (from iOS and Android):

Move starts out really easy. On the first level, there are three dots on the screen and you swipe once to get them inside the squares. It gets tougher as you go to the next levels. Later on, you’ll need to match the colors of the dots with the colors of the squares. The only physical actions required from you are swipes. Swipe left, right, up, or down to move the dots. The other requirement is, of course, your thinking ability.

The number of moves is displayed at the bottom of the board. The lower right corner tells you the perfect amount to get the perfect score of three stars. Just completed a stage in six moves? Try it in four.

We love the simplicity in this game. The colors are bold and the sounds are soothing. We can see ourselves playing this game for a long time.

Move is a free game. There are 3 packs available with 100 levels each. There are 9 other packs within the game that can be unlocked. You can pay $0.99 for each pack, or buy all of them at once for $3.99. We’re still playing in level 30, so we have 270 levels to play that are free. If you play a lot faster than us, then the extra packs could be a great purchase for your new $20 voucher from Microsoft!

Move is compatible with Windows Phone 8 devices. Grab it for free from the Windows Phone Store and let us know what you think in the comments!

Sylvain Dubrofsky of PopCap Games and Windows Phone Central's Paul Acevedo

Microsoft’s Xbox One console is in stores now and doing very well; we even gave it a highly detailed review last week. Early adopters have more than twenty games to choose from, most of which are actually quite good. We’ll be reviewing more of those titles very soon, but in the meantime let’s look ahead at the next great Xbox game to go on sale: Peggle 2!

PopCap’s Peggle 2 is one of the upcoming Xbox One titles we played during our visit to Electronic Arts headquarters just before Thanksgiving. If you’ve ever played the original Peggle on Xbox 360, PC, DS, or phones (sadly it never arrived on Windows Phone), you should know why we’re excited for the sequel. Peggle 2 launches as a timed exclusive on Xbox One this Monday as an $11.99 download.

Head past the break for our video interview and hands-on footage of Peggle 2 in action!

Taking down the pegs

Peggle is a deceptively simple game. Each level consists of an assortment of colored pegs and bricks for players to destroy by firing balls at them. Blue pegs just give points, purple pegs add to your score multiplier, green pegs activate your character’s special power, and all orange pegs (they look red) must be cleared to finish the level.

Players have ten balls with which to take down all those pegs. You aim and fire the ball from a launcher at the top center of the screen. Once it hits a peg, the ball bounces around realistically, hopefully striking other pegs before it falls off the bottom of the screen. Hit enough pegs in one shot, or get the ball to land in the moving bucket at the bottom, and you’ll earn a free ball instead of depleting your supply. These mechanics combine skillful aiming and reflection judging (much like pool) with a fun element of chance.

Improvements galore

The original Peggle was always designed for 4:3 monitors, so even the great XBLA version didn’t take advantage of its widescreen presentation. The new game runs at a native 1080P resolution and really benefits from the wider presentation. The playable Peggle Masters occupy the left side of the screen, where they react to gameplay and animated like real cartoon characters. The backgrounds themselves are lush and filled with parallax scrolling. Everything has so much more life than before.

This sequel allows players to select between five Peggle Masters, including the returning unicorn Bjorn and four new ones. Bjorn still has his advanced aiming ability that provides a detailed guideline while aiming. The new masters have more complex and creative abilities. Luna the ghost girl, for instance can fire shots that pass through blue pegs in order to reach the orange pegs behind them. Berg the yeti’s special shots cause pegs to move around and bump into each other, knocking out whatever they hit.

Peggle 2 plays just like the first game, but its campaign mode works a little differently now. Each Peggle Master still has his or her own set of 10 levels to play through. After clearing a set, these levels can be revisited in any order with the Master of your choice.

Standard levels have three optional objectives to go after, such as clearing all pegs or making specific types of shots. Every master also offers 10 Trial levels with pass-or-fail objectives. Complete the Trail mode or complete enough optional challenges and you’ll unlock new outfits for the Peggle Masters.

The online multiplayer mode first introduced in the Xbox 360 version makes a return as well. We haven’t tested it yet but playing Peggle with friends can never be a bad thing.

Almost here!

Peggle 2 first appeared on PCs in 2007, so this sequel has been a long time in coming. Xbox One players will be able to play it first, just like the upcoming Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare. Both are timed exclusives and welcome additions to the Xbox One lineup. You might not buy a powerful new console just to play a small-scale game like Peggle 2, but you’ll definitely be missing out if you don’t add this one to your collection.

Peggle 2 arrives on Monday, December 9^th. It will cost $11.99. Grab it from the Games Store on your console or Xbox.com once it becomes available. We’ll have a full review soon!

Recently winning the $30,000 First Prize from the 2013 Unity3D game contest in the Windows Store category, Freddy from MobiTouch is now available for Windows Phone 8. Freddy is a physics-based arcade game with great graphics and fun gameplay.

Head past the break to watch our gameplay footage with the Nokia Lumia 1520.

The goal is to keep the poisonous balls from falling down to the frog named Freddy. He likes to eat them and gets sick when he eats too much. To keep the balls from reaching Freddy, you have to make sure they drop into the flasks or tubes. Draw lines on the screen to make the balls bounce or roll towards the flasks.

There are things you can let Freddy have, like clocks to increase time. There also bonuses for hitting other items like flying nuts or windows. You get more points for matching the color of the balls with the flasks.

The first few levels are easy, but it becomes more difficult right away. Flasks start moving around and balls drop faster. Fortunately, the upper right corner lets you know what’s about to drop down. You have to be on your toes, because you’re calculating a lot of things at the same time. You‘re trying to figure out the perfect angles for your lines while trying to match colors, too.

The initial release for Freddy is labeled as beta in the splash screen. We’re a little surprised by that because it doesn’t feel like a game in beta. The developers promise to bring a lot more stuff by the end of this month for the full version. According to MobiTouch, you’ll get:

• much more addictive levels!
• great achievements!
• daily bonuses!
• Christmas bonus pack!
• many improvements!
• more languages!
• and much, much more!

You can download Freddy from the Windows Phone Store for 99 cents. There is also a free trial available. Check it out and let us know what you think in the comments!

Sky Cups is a matching game for Windows Phone 8 that calls upon you to create three of a kind matches from a stack of teacups where a tiny hippo sits at top of.  You create the matches by strategically adding cups  that are sitting at the bottom corners of the screen to the stack and when matched, the cups are crushed and the hippo slowly makes his way to the ground.

The game sounds simple but you are racing against the clock and cups are added to the stack every few seconds.  Overall, graphics are nice, game play challenging and Sky Cups is a fun time-killer of a Windows Phone game.

Sky Cup’s main menu has options to jump into game play, visit the game’s Facebook page and access the game’s settings.  Settings cover turning on or off the game’s sound and music as well as viewing your achievements, trophies, and gaming statistics.  You can also launch a quick game from the settings and visit the plate shop where you can purchase (with the coins you earn during game play) new saucer plates for your hippo to sit on.

Sky Cup has over ninety levels of game play that are spread across six worlds that are progressively unlocked.  The first few levels serve as a tutorial, walking you through game play.

The game screen has your score at the top of the screen and your timer lining up along the right side of the screen.  In the center, you will find your tiny hippo, Steve, perched atop a stack of colored teacups.  To either side of the stack are your two cup sources that you use to create the matches of three or more of the same colored cup.

You'll swipe at the point in the stack where you want to add a cup and the direction you swipe dictates which cup is added.  Swipe the stack of cups from right to left to add the cup displayed in the right corner.  Swipe left to right at the stack and the cup in the left corner will be added to the stack.  When you create the three of a kind match, the cups will be crushed, taking them out of play, sending the hippo closer to the ground. 

You are racing the clock and if you get in too much of a hurry to create the matches, you will find yourself swiping the wrong way and adding the wrong cup.

The goal is to eliminate all the cups and send your hippo to the plate before the timer hits zero.  Every few seconds a new cup is added to the stack so you will need to keep up a healthy pace with Sky Cups, not only to beat the clock but also to stay ahead of any new cups being added to the stack.  The faster you get Steve to the ground, the higher the score and the more stars earned.  You will also earn coins that can be used to buy new plates in the game’s store.

On top of the vertical matching game, you also have a few levels that put a spin on game play.  For example with some levels, you have to solve a puzzle by swapping cups between two stacks to create the matches.  You have to create the matches in a manner that both hippos land safely on their plates at the same time.  It is a nice touch to add a little variety to the game.

Each gaming level of Sky Cups is re-playable and the levels progressively get more challenging.  To help you get through each level, specialty cups are available such as a bomb cup that will explode and take out a large chunk of cups and an ice cup that will freeze the cups allowing you to shatter them by tapping on them.  You will find the bonus cups really come in handy with the higher, more challenging levels.

All totaled, Sky Cups is a fun game for your Windows Phone gaming library.  Graphics are well done, game play challenging and there are plenty of gaming levels to keep you busy.  Sky Cups is a great gaming choice to consider if you have five minutes to pass or feel like sitting down for a longer gaming session.

Sky Cups is a free game and is available for Windows Phone 8 devices.  You can find your copy here in the Windows Phone Store.

We love games with great soundtrack and cool graphics. Picnic Rumble from Tree Men Games has both of those features. You control four strange characters and help them find a perfect picnic spot in a surreal world filled with food. It’s really fun and we think you should check it out.

Head past the break to watch some gameplay footage with the Nokia Lumia 1020.

The basic mechanic is to reorder the four ‘rumblers.’ The one you click goes to the back of the line. When enemies appear, you need to put the rumbler with the matching color in front of the line. If the color matches, the rumbler smacks the enemy with a picnic basket. After the hit, the rumbler goes to the back of the line.

It gets more interesting when more than one enemy appear. You get bonus points for making the right combinations. You also get points for collecting food. Each level ends with a magical piñata that any rumbler can hit.

The game includes 5 worlds, 30 levels, 5 boss fights, 2 challenge modes, and extra special options. Did we mention we love the soundtrack?

Tree Men Games is a small indie company from Helsinki, Finland. Picnic Rumble is their first commercial product and a second one is in the works.

You can download Picnic Rumble at the Windows Phone Store for $1.99 (Windows Phone 8 only). There is also a free trial available. If you have a Nokia Lumia 1520, you will not be able to download this initial release, thanks to lack of resolution support and the following incompatibility message:

App only supports the following resolutions: WVGA (480x800) and WXGA (768x1280).

Update: Tree Men Games tell us they are busy working on their next games, but Lumia 1520 compatibility for Picnic Rumble is indeed in the works. They just need to get their hands on a 1520, but that should be reasonably soon.

Does controlling four odd looking characters and smacking stuff with picnic baskets sound like a good time? Take the game out for a spin and let us know what you think in the comments!

The Sims FreePlay is getting into the holiday spirit on Windows Phone. We reviewed The Sims FreePlay back in early October and walked away impressed with the amount of Sims content you can pack into a mobile game. The game has just received an update that brings a set of new features and items just in time for the holidays.

Head to the Windows Phone Store and you’ll see a new update for The Sims FreePlay. That puts the game at version 1.2.0.0 and brings a ton of new content that is all holiday specific. Here are some of the features you can look forward to in the latest update to the game:

• Help Santa find his elves
• Make presents
• Get rid of the grouch
• Unlock reindeers
• Celebrate New Year’s Eve with a bang

We'll be installing the game/update and taking a look at it soon. In the meantime, tell us what you think below of the latest festive additions. 

The game is free (various in-app purchases) in the Windows Phone Store and works on devices with both Windows Phone 8 and 1GB of RAM. Download clocks in at 555 MB. Grab it from the Windows Phone Store today. 

Thanks, David B., for the tip!

Tank Arena is a relatively new Windows Phone 8 game that has you piloting a tank through various combat courses.  The story line has the Dromedians, an alien invader, establishing military bases on the outer planets of our solar system.  It is your mission to guide your tank to the various planets and destroy the Dromedian invaders.

Tank Arena currently has thirty training missions that are based from the Earth’s moon.  Additional levels of play are under development and based on the training missions, Tank Arena makes a nice first impression.

The main menu for Tank Arena has options to:

• Access the game's settings
• View your gaming progress
• Visit the game’s Store for in-app purchases that include gold ($.99 to $2.99) that can be used in the Depot to upgrade your tank and getting rid of the ads ($.99)
• Visit the game’s military depot to upgrade your tanks
• Play the game

Additionally you will find links to a help screen, to share the game, to rate the game in the Windows Phone Store and to view the About Screen.

Tank Arena’s settings cover sound/music volumes, customizing your player name for the online leader board and choosing your tank controls.  Here you have two options, Swipe and Tap or Thumbstick and Tap.  Swipe and Tap has you controlling your tank by swiping at the left side of the screen to control movement and tapping the screen on the spot you want your tank canon to fire upon.

Thumbstick and Tap places a virtual joystick in the bottom corner of the screen to control your tank and to fire the canon, you tap the screen.  The Thumbstick works a lot better than the swipe method and while the tap to fire method works, it is easy to have an accidental discharge.  A fire button would help but then you have the issue of aiming your canon.

Game play is spread out across thirty missions, all based on the moon and all progressively more difficult.  The first few levels are rather easy to get you accustomed to the gaming controls.  From there the enemy positions become more numerous and aggressive.

Mission goals are displayed before the start of each mission and once met, the level ends and you can advance to the next mission.  You can spend the gold you earn in the game’s depot to upgrade your tank, canon or ammunition.

All totaled, Tank Arena is a fun game with nice graphics and challenging game play.  Controls will take a little time to get used to though.  There is no indication when the additional levels will be added but based on the training missions Tank Arena is a combat game worth trying.

Tank Arena is a free, ad-supported game available for Windows Phone 8.  You can find Tank Arena here in the Windows Phone Store.

In India, films are one of the biggest indulgences. One after the other, there are big releases with huge budgets and extensive marketing. And the latest trend is to have mobile games based on movie’s theme or characters. It’s a win-win for both the producers and the audience.

While these games create buzz around the movie release, it also provides free entertainment to fans featuring their favourite movie stars. Who doesn't want to download free games?

Microsoft pulled two exclusives recently with Krrish 3 : The Game and Dhoom:3 The Game which were very popular, supported with a huge marketing push from Microsoft.

Another one now joins those big ticket titles. Chennai Express – Escape from Rameshwaram arrives on Windows Phone… a tad late after launching on Android and iOS few months back and when the movie is off the theatres now. But, most Windows Phone users or movie fans won’t complain.

The game inspired by endless running games like Temple Run and Subway Surfers features the main protagonists of the movie – Rahul and Meena – embark on a running adventure, fighting their way through an army of thugs dropped by helicopters while dodging obstacles like vehicles, coconut carts, manholes, and more. You can purchase Magical Urns using the coins collected in-game and can also upgrade the time duration for which all power-ups last.

The game offers exciting fast paced unlimited running action with simple controls and immense replayability. The game features unique graphics and music score inspired by the movie and the South Indian town it is set in - Rameshwaram.

The game is available for free for Windows Phone 8 devices from the Windows Phone Store. The Indian flavour of the game and addictive gameplay makes it great fun. There's no reason why you shouldn’t grab this one!

A few weeks ago, a bunch of Xbox Windows Phone games (mostly Nokia collection titles) went on sale at once. Nokia, who seems to have organized the sale, also announced that several more games would be discounted in early December.

Those titles (and a few more) are now on sale. We’ve got Contre Jour, Flight Control Rocket, Spy Mouse, Storm in a Teacup, Vampire Rush, and Zuma’s Revenge are all on sale for 99 cents. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, which regularly sells for $4.99, has been marked down to $2.99. All seven games come from Electronic Arts and/or its subsidiaries Chillingo and PopCap.

Head past the break for descriptions and Store links!

Contre Jour (Windows Phone 7 or 8)

Regular price: $2.99 Sale price: $.99 Download size: 33 MB Store Link

We’re still waiting on the Windows 8 version of Contre Jour, but at least we can get the Windows Phone version for cheap in the meantime.

Contre Jour is one of the loveliest Windows Phone games thanks to its effective use of light and silhouette, not to mention the haunting musical score. The goal is to get the tentacled protagonist Petit to each level’s exit while collecting all the lights along the way. Instead of directly controlling Petit, players manipulate the environment by stretching the ground and activating various gadgets.

Technically this is a physics puzzler, but the bold art direction and unique gameplay puts it in a separate league from other genre entries. The difficulty is pretty steep… But if you get stuck, there are guides available online.

Flight Control Rocket (Windows Phone 7 and 8)

Regular price: $2.99 Sale price: $.99 Download size: 41 MB Store Link

You’ve probably played the original Flight Control, but perhaps you missed its mostly superior sequel. This one switches things to a retro sci-fi setting in which players must help incoming rockets land on a space-faring mothership safely. You do this by drawing paths from each ship to the appropriate runway, all while trying to avoid collisions.

Not only is FC Rocket way prettier than its forbear, it also offers a lot more gameplay. The three modes each mix the gameplay up in interesting ways, changing up the combo scoring system, bonus rounds, and even mixing in stranded astronauts to rescue. Players can also purchase and equip a variety of robot helpers to customize the gameplay a bit.

The only catch is that FC Rocket’s Achievements are horrendously grindy. The original iOS game allowed users to make IN-App Purchases that would speed them up, but there is no such option on Windows Phone. Still, as I say in our review, if you ignore Achievements this is the best line-drawing game in town.

Spy Mouse (Windows Phone 7 and 8)

Regular price: $2.99 Sale price: $.99 Download size: 111 MB Store Link

Spy Mouse's developer Firemint is best known for popularizing the line-drawing genre with Flight Control. In this one, they’ve utilized that line drawing tech to make a stealth game. Players control the titular mouse by drawing a path around each level. He’ll need to grab cheese and reach the level exit without being nabbed by patrolling cats.

Each level has three optional goals such as not being spotted, drawing only one continuous path, and finishing within a certain time limit. Completing every level with those goals completed will net some tasty Achievements.

Storm in a Teacup (Windows Phone 7 or 8)

Regular price: $2.99 Sale price: $.99 Download size: 32 MBStore Link

The game stars a little boy named Storm who hops around in a teacup through fanciful levels dreamed up by his brother Cloud in this touch screen platformer.

Storm in a Teacup is extremely simplistic in the graphics department – the backgrounds don’t even use parallax scrolling, which they sorely need. And yet the frame rate is somewhere in the 10-15 FPS range. It’s like Gameloft’s 3D Windows Phone 8 games, only nothing complex is even going on under the hood. Blame Cobra, whose port of iBomber Defense also runs quite poorly.

Still, if you can tolerate crap graphics and love platformers, you might be able to put up with this one. I’d definitely play Sonic CD and Little Acorns first though.

Vampire Rush (Windows Phone 7 or 8)

Regular price: $2.99 Sale price: $.99 Download size: 99 MBStore Link

In Vampire Rush, players take on the role of Captain Greg, a British swashbuckler. Only Greg can stand between the gates of the city and armies of the undead in this mix of tower defense with hack-and-slash action.

You’ll run around each map, hunting down vampires and their kin on the map and swording them into oblivion. Sometimes they drop gold, which can then be used to build and upgrade turrets or purchase character upgrades. Just don’t let the enemies reach the gate or Greg and the village will meet an untimely demise. Check out our full review for more details.

Vampire Rush features both a campaign mode and survival mode, the latter of which was added in an update. That same update fixed a broken Achievement, but failed to fix another broken one. A-Steroids has told us they would like to get the final Achievement working, but it seems unlikely to happen at this point.

Zuma’s Revenge (Windows Phone 7 or 8)

Regular price: $2.99 Sale price: $.99 Download size: 197 MBStore Link

Zuma’s Revenge put players in control of a stationary frog who can rotate in any direction and shoot colored balls from his mouth. In each level, more balls roll on-screen along one or more paths. The frog’s job is to stop them from reaching the goal at the path’s end by quickly making as many colored matches as possible. Levels in which the frog can hop between lily pads, move along a slider, or battle boastful bosses keep the game fresh and challenging.

The mobile version of Zuma’s Revenge is pretty much a straight port of the PC game. Adventure Mode gives players a limited number of lives and they must reach checkpoints every few levels in order to continue when those lives run out. So the Windows Phone game ends up a bit harder than the Xbox 360 version. Beating levels unlocks them for free play in Challenge Mode, at least.

PopCap pretty much makes nothing but great games (most recently Peggle 2on Xbox One), and Zuma’s Revenge is no exception. Read our full review to learn more.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (Windows Phone 7 or 8)

Regular price: $4.99 Sale price: $2.99 Download size: 113 MBStore Link

Need for Speed: Rivals might be one of the better Xbox One launch games, but not every Need for Speed is a winner. Take the Windows Phone version of Hot Pursuit, for example. Sure, it looks pretty for a Windows Phone 7 game and has the slick menus and licensed music you’d expect from this series. It even lets players choose between controlling a cop or a street racer, just like Rivals.

Presentation isn’t everything though; a game needs to be fun to play. Hot Pursuit starts out fun but gets insanely difficult and grindy before too long. You’ll need to do the same races over and over again in order to unlock the cars needed to compete in higher level events. Even then, some events simply require perfection from the player – not easy or fun given the phone game’s naturally less precise controls. See our review for more proof of frustration.

Get them while they’re hot

Nokia and EA haven’t advertised when this sale will end. Maybe it will last a week, maybe less. If you’re interested in a sale game, better to download them now rather than waiting.

What do you think of this sale selection, dear readers? Did you grab Zuma’s Revenge or any of the other games?

Thanks to Diego Magnani for the tip!

As November and American Thanksgiving drew to a close, Windows Phone classic gaming fans experienced a bit of a shock. Indie developer M.k’s three Nintendo console emulators SNES8x, VBA8, and VGBC8 all disappeared from the Store. Naturally Windows Phone Central stepped in to reveal why the emulators had been delisted. It turns out that M.k had passed development duties on to a new programmer, who would soon be relisting the emulators.

Less than two weeks later, all three emulators are now back on the Store (yes, we’re a tad late on this). The new developer has big plans for these Nintendo emulators. Learn about them (and a competing GameBoy Advance emulator called GBA8) after the break!

A new developer enters the fray

SNES8x

SNES8x, VBA8, and VGBC8 all return to Windows Phone 8 under the care of an individual named Duc Le. Duc (who goes by illidanx in our forums) appears to be relatively new to Windows Phone development. He first published a financial management app called Loan Book+  last month.

The three emulators, which previously existed as paid apps with free trials, now come only as free versions. In order to support development, the apps display advertisements during menu screens. Luckily the ads don’t appear during gameplay. Paid versions of the emulators will also come in the future.

Emulators evolved

Turtles in Time on SNES8x

Duc hasn’t just brought the popular emulators back from the grave; he also plans to continue advancing their development. Besides the introduction of banner ads, here are the changes he’s made to all three apps so far:

• No more oversized header.
• No more rotation anywhere except inside the game.
• Add tilt effect when taping and holding a ROM

The reduction in header size is a welcome change. The emulator UIs can now display more games on-screen than they did during M.k’s run. And they especially show way more game titles than Andre Botelho’s emulators. Hopefully Andre follows Duc’s example and makes some UI improvements to EmiPSX and EmiGens Plus in the near future.

What advancements can we expect from Duc in the future? Why, MOGA Pro Controller support of course! He actually bought a MOGA controller for testing, which is more than any other emulator developer for Windows Phone has done. Someday soon we’ll be able to enjoy Super Nintendo, GameBoy Advance, and GameBoy Color games on our phones with the comfort of physical buttons!

Other planned improvements include proper support for importing ROMs from email attachments and support for importing ROMs from SD cards. I'm crossing my fingers for prettier and more authentic on-screen controls, too.

• SNES8x– Windows Phone 8 – 1 MB – Free – Store Link
• VBA8– Windows Phone 8 – 1 MB – Free – Store Link
• VGBC8– Windows Phone 8 – 1 MB – Free – Store Link

Competing emulators

Curiously, when M.k stepped away from Windows Phone development for good he also released the source code for his emulators. That means other enterprising Windows Phone developers can step in and release competing versions of SNES8x, VBA8, and VGBC8 as well.

Another developer named MobWi (who has published a couple of little aquarium apps) has done just that, releasing a new version of VBA8 called GBA8. MobWi’s version comes in paid and ad-supported varieties. Other than that (and the too-high $2.99 price), it’s identical to M.k’s final VBA8 release and lacks Duc Le’s improvements.

On the other hand, MobWi has some improvement plans of his own (text and errors quoted from Store page):

• Re-layout the UI
• Fix the bug that games in non-English language crash when catching pets.
• Disable the lock screen when downloading games
• Add in-app searching for games to download game from web(granted that you already purchased the game before)

Disabling the lock screen is something Andre Botelho needs to work into his emulators. But what’s this crashing when catching pets nonsense?

• GBA8– Windows Phone 8 – 1 MB – $2.99 – Store Link
• Free GBA8– Windows Phone 8 – 1 MB – Free – Store Link

December is shaping up to be a great month for Gameloft fans. Last week, the mobile publishing giant released Dungeon Hunter 4 for Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8. Mobile Windows platforms need all the action-RPGs they can get. Dungeon Hunter is also one of 15 titles that Gameloft announced back in August.

Another one of those titles – perhaps the most highly anticipated one – is Despicable Me: Minion Rush. 3D endless runners are crazy popular, to say nothing of people’s love for the Despicable Me movies. Those folks’ hearts should be a flutter today because Minion Rush is finally available on Windows Phone 8!

This release coincides with the Despicable Me 2 Blu-ray and DVD, which just came out today. The promised Windows 8 version of Minion Rush is also now available. Neither Windows version has Xbox support, which should come as no surprise after Dungeon Hunter 4 and Asphalt 8 released without it.

Strive to be the best

Minion Rush opens with a short cinematic starring the Despicable Me films’ adorable minions. These guys (who closely resemble Cheetos) live for nothing else than to please their employer Gru. One day they discover Gru has implemented a Minion of the Week program, complete with shiny trophy for the star minion. Soon the minions set out to win the award – by outrunning their peers in a series of obstacle courses.

If you’ve played the Temple Run games, you should have a pretty good idea of how Minion Rush plays. Swipe left or right on screen to move around, dodging obstacles and collecting bananas (this game’s high-Potassium currency). Swiping up dodges, whereas downward swipes slide. Spiral-shaped sections of the level require tilting in order to keep your minion balanced and on-track.

Windows Phone specifics

Minion Rush features some beautiful 3D graphics. The art style matches the looks of the movies quite well, with bright and welcoming colors and lots of minion cuteness. The actual frame rate could be a little better on Windows Phone – a common problem with Gameloft titles. But the game still plays quite smoothly, so frame rate hardly becomes an issue.

The Windows Phone version includes content from the first Minion Rush update that appeared on iOS and Android. This includes the unlockable “El Macho’s Lair” environment. Subsequent updates added Mall and Beach levels, but those haven’t made it to Windows Phone yet. Our version will get those levels eventually, though Gameloft doesn’t plan to release other platforms’ minor seasonal updates on Windows platforms.

Gameloft’s press release suggested that Minion Rush would have an exclusive landscape orientation mode on Windows platforms. Normally, the game is played in a portrait orientation. However, I haven’t been able to get landscape to kick in. It could be that only the Windows 8 version will have it and the signal got a little crossed on Gameloft’s end. Our contact at the publisher is investigating, and we’ll update when we hear back. Update: Only the Windows 8 version supports landscape, which is fine.

Minion Rush is free to play and supported by optional In-App Purchases. It runs on devices with 512 MB of RAM or more, so all Windows Phone 8 owners can enjoy it. We’ll have more Minion Rush coverage soon!

• Despicable Me: Minion Rush– Windows Phone 8 – 46 MB – Free – Store Link
• Despicable Me: Minion Rush– 8 – 141 MB – Free – Store Link

City-builders are those sorts of games that you can literally pour hundreds of hours (and/or dollars) into, whether you have a daily commute or some free time to spare each day. One such title is Undersky: The Eternal Saga, which has just been released on Windows Phone 8. The game, developed by SteamWarShip and published Renatus Media, is slightly different as it offers a strategic combat twist to the familiar gameplay.

Move on past the break for the full read through.

So what's the backstory of this magical kingdom? Unfortunately, a terrible disaster has occurred and it's up to you to now build up the kingdom, develop an economy and purge the lands of invaders. It's essentially a free-to-play city-building game, just like competitor titles already available. But as noted above, there's a twist - a battle system.

Just when you thought that constructing and developing buildings and managing resources was all you'd be tasked with, you're going to need an army. From swordsmen to dragons, you'll need to have your wits about you as you repel attacks from enemies. There are also numerous challenges and activities available to earn coins and crystals (in-game currency) to keep you busy.

Just like other city-builders and you know and love, you'll be constructing buildings, but in a fantasy setting. Sawmills, foundries, barracks and other buildings are required to get the economy back on track (if only it were that easy in the real world).

That's not all as just when you thought that was it, there's also a card collection feature, enabling you to upgrade characters up to the "invincible" rank and transform your kingdom into a beautiful monolith. There's finally a main story with an open ending, leaving it up to you how the kingdom flourishes. It's certainly an interesting mix of genres.

If you're a fan of said games, we strongly recommend you check out Undersky. Of course, just like the other city-builders, you can purchase more in-game currency to help speed up the experience in case you're slightly impatient. 

You can download Undersky: The Eternal Saga from the Windows Phone Store for free (requires Windows Phone 8).

It was just four days ago that Rovio, and by extension we, teased you about Angry Birds Go! arriving for Windows Phone 8. The link for the latest and greatest in Angry Birds gaming was leaked and passed around rapidly. But the sinking realization of the app’s inability to connect to Rovio’s servers hit quickly and many were left with just a useless icon on their device.

Tonight (or even early morning for some of you), that tale has come to an end as version 1.0 of a true working version of the game is now live in the Store. That's just shy of under two-weeks after iOS got the game, which isn't too bad for platform parity.

Weighing in at 98 MB, the latest Windows Phone 8 game is a new take on the popular franchise, taking a page from Mario Kart racing. The game notes in the description “Feel the rush as you fling those freewheeling birds and piggies down the track at breakneck speed – with plenty of twists and turns in a thrilling race to the finish line!”.

The game boasts these features:

• FIRST-EVER 3D ANGRY BIRDS WORLD! See the birds and pigs from every angle as Piggy Island comes alive in this rich and colorful 3D world!
• RACE AS THE BIRDS OR PIGS! Jump behind the wheel and race as Red, Chuck, Terence, Stella, King Pig, Moustache Pig and many other favorites!
• MASTER THE TRACKS! Plenty of racetracks, stunt roads, air courses and off-road races – each throwing big and unexpected challenges your way!
• AWESOME SPECIAL POWERS! Smash your opponents off the road and take that winning position thanks to unique special powers for each character!
• MANY GAME MODES! Test your skills with super-fun and surprising game modes: Race, Time Boom, Fruit Splat, Champion Chase and Mega Match!
• UPGRADE YOUR RIDE! From a homemade soapbox car to a super-fly supercar, with tons of karts and awesome ways to upgrade – yours to earn or purchase!
• MUCH MORE TO COME! The race has only just begun – so look out for many more fun things coming your way!

Indeed, the game at least looks like a nice changeup from the regular fling ‘em style of previous Angry Birds releases. Plus, it’s completely free (though you can bet there are some in-app purchases to make up for that “oversight”).

For now, we’re just going to fire up the 3D racer and take her for a spin, pardon the pun. For the rest of you, you can update the previous version or just grab the Store link here to get Angry Birds Go! for your Windows Phone 8 device. Note: you need at least 1 GB of RAM, so no Lumia 520/620/625/720s!

Thanks, Yarim B., Froi F., Kevin B., and Anmol M., for the tips!

After taking last week off to review Microsoft’s Xbox One console, I’m back with a look at a just-released indie game for Windows Phone 7 and 8. BigBot Audio Drop comes from Wisconsin-based indie developer BigBot Systems. Not only is it their first game, it’s also exclusive to Windows Phone.

BigBot Audio Dropblends traditional falling block gameplay with thumping electronic music and slick visuals. The gameplay and design are closely modeled after Lumines, an early PSP hit that later came to XBLA and other platforms. But Lumines never came to Windows Phone, so Audio Drop fills a nice gap in our favorite smartphone’s software lineup. It also comes in both paid and free versions, so it won’t break the bank.

Match three? No way, four square

Many falling block games fall into the match-3 category, with players matching three of the same object in order to eliminate them. Not all genre titles are match 3, though. Tetris– the father of the genre – marches to the beat of its own drum, after all.

BigBot Audio Drop is one of those that works a tad differently. Within the playing field you’ll find pieces falling from the sky, sure. There’s also a vertical line called the time bar which passes from left to right at regular intervals, proving important to differentiating Audio Drop (as with Lumines before it) from other puzzlers.

Each square-shaped piece that falls from the sky is made up of four smaller blocks. Those smaller blocks only come in two varieties: circle and square.  The player’s objective is to match at least four of the same shape in a 2 x 2 pattern. Once you do, those pieces get “primed” (marked) to be cleared.

Those marked pieces don’t actually disappear until the vertical line scrolls by and touches them. As long as pieces are marked but haven’t been cleared yet, you can get more points by stacking more of the same shape next to the marked structure, causing them to merge with it. If any additional, separate sets of marked shapes get cleared by the same vertical line, you’ll get. a combo bonus for them

In addition to rotating pieces and stacking them as best you can, you can also drop them down instantly. Dropping is important for making combos since you want to clear as many pieces as possible each time the line passes by.

Power drops and abilities

Additionally, two little beat indicators constantly tick down at the bottom of the screen. Drop a block exactly when the beat hits the center to perform a power drop. These charge up special abilities and boost the combo meter. I find timing my drops to the beat somewhat difficult when I’m trying to frantically make matches, but you’ll get enough power drops just by chance anyway.

Special abilities are another way that Audio Drop differs from typical puzzlers. Instead of grabbing power-ups from the playing field, players have four different abilities that charge up during a level. Each one charges at its own rate, with the more useful abilities taking longer to become available than the simpler ones. Activating an ability depletes all four charges, so you basically have to save up for just the one you want and ignore the others.

Abilities include:

• Switch: a virtual d-pad appears, allowing players to switch any blocks on-screen with the current active block
• Slow: The timeline bar moves half as fast, making combos much easier to get
• Multi: a temporary quadruple points multiplier
• Bomb: the virtual d-pad allows players to detonate pieces off of the playing field

Music and levels

Whenever a current level’s song ends, players move on to the next song and level. The game launches with six songs, all electronic compositions from an artist called SGX. Each song also has its own beautiful background and color theme for its falling blocks.

You can select a song to play from the main menu, but it’s hard to know what you’re picking if you haven’t memorized the song. It should play preview snippets of a song before players choose to launch the game.

The selection of songs is quite similar to what I remember from Lumines. Honestly, most of them are too discordant for my liking. “Span” is okay. I never dug Lumines’ soundtrack either. Music is of course subjective, and I expect some players will really dig the tunes. You can even buy an expanded version of the soundtrack at Xbox Music.

Unlike the songs, Audio Drop’s sound effects are mixed fairly quiet. So much so that I first thought they were missing or something (partially my own fault). I had to turn them up louder than the music to actually hear them very well.

As for the song transitions between levels, the level you’re playing basically just ends with no warning. You’re then taken to a Scoreloop leaderboard screen and the next song starts after a few seconds. I don’t like how abruptly songs end though. The screen should flash and count down to the end of the song or something – provide a little urgency to the puzzling.

Controls

As slick as BigBot Audio Drop looks and sounds, its controls need a little work. In the default scheme, tapping the left and right sides of the screen moves the falling blocks left and right. The bottom corners rotate the pieces, and tiny little drop buttons beside the rotation areas.

The problem is the hitboxes for the left/right movement don’t extend low enough on screen, so you need to keep your thumbs higher up than usual in order to hit them. And the drop buttons are just too tiny and hard to hit… All of which adds an unintended degree of challenge to the game.

Having played a prerelease version of the game for a few days now, I’ve already had the chance to discuss the controls at length with the developer. Thankfully, they agree about the control issues and plan to fix them in a forthcoming update.

Free versus Paid

BigBot Audio Drop comes in both free and paid versions. The free version includes five songs and the default “Audio Drop” game mode. It displays adds on the menu screens, but not during gameplay.

Buying the full game for $1.99 will disable ads. It also adds a sixth song: “Coactive (Over my Shoulder Mix)” and a “Pure” game mode that disables special abilities, simplifying gameplay a smidge.

Depending on how well the game does, BigBot would love to add more songs in the future. That would certainly boost the game’s longevity.

Overall Impression

BigBot Audio Drop is an unusually polished game from a first-time indie developer, with ample visual flair from start to finish. The menus and fonts just look super slick, and the gameplay graphics and backgrounds don’t disappoint either. The music (while not quite to my own taste - give me chiptunes!) fits the visual style very well, justifying the title of the game. There needs to be more tracks, but those will surely come in time.

If you like puzzle games or electronic music, drop this game into your download queue and give it a go.

• BigBot Audio Drop– Windows Phone 7 and 8 – 18 MB – $1.99 – Store Link
• BigBot Audio Drop Free Edition  – Windows Phone 7 and 8 – 16 MB – Free – Store Link
• BigBot Audio Drop Soundtrack– 14 tracks – $9.99 – Composer's Store Link– Xbox Music Store Link

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is Rockstar Games’ biggest release to mobile yet with a vast open-world covering the state of San Andreas and its three major cities – Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas. While it has just released for iOS devices, Windows Phone users don’t have to wait long. According to Engadget:

Rockstar Games tells us that the promised Android and Windows Phone versions will hit next week.

GTA: San Andreas includes over 70 hours of gameplay featuring remastered, high-resolution graphics built specifically for mobile. We can’t wait to play this game. It’s probably going to look awesome on the Nokia Lumia 1520. Are you looking forward to this game? Let us know in the comments!

Source: Engadget; Thanks for the tip, RyanDaLyon!