It’s been a rough few weeks for Xbox Windows Phone games. We haven’t seen a new Xbox-branded game since UNO & Friends released at the end of July, for crying out loud. Sure, the new version of Fruit Ninja and Chaos Rings’ recent Windows Phone 8 compatibility have helped, but mobile Xbox fans still thirst for brand new games and Achievements.

Today that thirst gets quenched for a while! Like a much-needed whisky on the rocks after an afternoon showdown, Six-Guns has finally arrived on Windows Phone 8. First announced back in March, Six-Guns is one of the 15 games that Gameloft recently promised in August. It also happens to be free! See our first impressions video and more details after the break!

Windows Phone heads to the Wild West

Six-Guns starts with a stylish, fully-voiced motion-comic introduction. Our hero (or is that antihero?) Buck Crosshaw wakes up just outside of a desert town, head throbbing with hangover. You know, pretty much your friendly neighborhood Games Editor’s typical Sunday morning experience. Soon a woman’s scream beckons, and the tutorial begins…

Gameloft’s latest release is an open world action game modeled after Rockstar’s popular Red Dead Redemption console game. A virtual stick on the left controls Buck’s movement, while swiping anywhere on the right adjusts the camera. A large revolver button delivers melee blows or fires Buck’s gun. If you’ve played a console-style action game on mobile phones such as The Amazing Spider-Man then you’ll feel right at home with Six- Guns’ controls.

Slinging guns ain’t easy

This is a Wild West-themed game that spans a large world, so of course our hero needs a horse. Tapping the horse button at the top-left corner calls your trusty steed. Once you’ve accepted a quest, you can simple hop on Rainbow Dash (or whatever you call your horse) and follow the glowing waypoint markers to the mission destination.

Along the way you’ll pass a beautifully rendered landscape. Six-Guns features some excellent art designs, though the frame rate falls a bit short. It seems to run on the same engine as The AmazingSpider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises, which means it’s playable but not the smoothest game in town. I’m willing to put up with some frame rate hiccups (or what you young’uns call lag) in order to play a huge game with a cool western theme.

Get it now on phone, soon on Windows 8

The lineup of Xbox-enabled Windows Phone 8 games is looking slim for the rest of the year, so Six-Guns came not a moment too soon. The game clocks in at just under 500 megabytes, but as with all Windows Phone 8 games, you’ll need at least four times as much space (approximately two gigabytes) in order to install it.

An interesting facet of Gameloft’s August announcement that you might’ve missed is that Six-Guns will be coming to Windows 8 too! The Windows 8 version will be Xbox-enabled and free, just like this one. Gameloft hasn’t announced a specific release date for the tablet and PC game yet – hopefully it comes sooner rather than later.

Six-Guns– Windows Phone 8, including 512MB devices – 436 MB – Free – Store Link

Thanks to Mark Tepper for the super speedy tip!

The original Big Buck Hunter Pro game for Windows Phone had the misfortune of launching right before Windows Phone 8 last year. It ran a bit poorly on early Windows Phone 7 devices, so many of us looked forward to improved performance on Windows Phone 8. Unfortunately, the game proved incompatible with the new mobile OS and remains that way almost a year later.

On the brighter side, developer Merge Interactive and Microsoft released a Windows 8 and RT version entitled Big Buck Hunter Pro Adventure earlier this year. On top of an awkwardly long name, Adventure brings all the fun of the Windows Phone and original arcade game, a bounty of extra content, and a new helping of Xbox Achievements. Get the full rundown after the break.

Adventures in animal shooting

The new Adventure mode is a longer and slightly less linear than the traditional arcade mode. By default it consists of two large campaigns: Whitetail Deer and Elk. Each of these offers Easy, Medium, and Hard mini-campaigns with 25 levels (20 hunting and 5 bonus levels) a piece. That’s 60 total hunting levels compared to the Windows Phone game’s 30.

Each level has an optional side goal such as hitting a target from a certain distance or killing one-hit killing three targets. Completed levels can be replayed at any time for higher scores and ratings, greatly adding to the replay value.

The goal in each level (as always) is to kill all three defenseless male animals with your superior weaponry. Hitting the beasts’ heads or hearts will kill them instantly, but otherwise they take exactly three shots to kill. Shoot a marginally more defenseless female animal and the level instantly ends. Hunters can however kill smaller critters like raccoons and birds for extra points.

The level ends after all three male animals are dead and gone or the player wings a female. The player then receives an overall rating based on animals killed and accuracy. To get a 5-star rating, you’ll need to kill all three males with single shots AND hit all the optional critters in the level. That critter requirement asks a bit too much, but it really only affects Achievement hunters.

Bonus games

One of the highlights of the phone game was its assortment of six bonus games. Those games all return, plus 12 new ones (including DLC). Some of the more amusing additions include: ‘Mars Needs Cattle,’ in which players save cows from UFO abductors; the outer space ‘Meteor Bash;’ and a Beer Tapper-inspired ‘Mugshot’ that features a bevy of horrible nightmare ladies sliding mugs around a bar. The Dove Hunt game that ran so poorly on some Windows Phones runs beautifully on the Surface Pro.

Arcade mode returns

Those minigames can be played individually outside of Adventure mode in the Classic mode. To unlock Classic, just complete any Adventure mode campaign.

Classic is actually the entire Windows Phone of Big Buck Hunter Pro. Players can choose to take on one ‘Trek’ (five hunting levels) or a full three-trek game. Adventure mode is longer and less linear in nature, making Classic slightly redundant. But it’s still a cool bonus.

Downloadable content

The only thing Classic mode is missing compared to the actual arcade version of Bick Buck Hunter Pro is four types of animals: Antelope, Bighorn Sheep, Moose, and Caribou. But all four animals are available as In-App Purchases. One animal costs $1.99, while the pack of all four sells for $5.99.

What do you get by buying premium animals? Each one adds three new treks to Classic mode, three new campaigns to Adventure mode, and three new locations. The optional $5.99 purchase essentially triples the length of the game. The DLC sadly doesn’t add new Achievements, though it will make the one for killing a thousand bucks far less boring.

Windows 8 controls

The arcade Big Buck Hunter games use a light gun, which Windows 8 obviously lacks. But the touch screen controls work just fine. One finger can tap anywhere on screen to shoot, while tapping the bottom of the screen with another finger reloads.

If you’re playing on a PC or touch screen just isn’t your thing, you can also opt for either mouse only or mouse and keyboard controls. The left mouse button fires and the right button reloads. The spacebar also reloads, which I find easiest for rapidly firing and reloading.

Whichever control method you pick, aiming is slightly inaccurate by design. See, in the Big Buck Hunter games, your shot doesn’t automatically land in the center of the aiming reticule. It can hit anywhere within the reticule’s circle. I assume the inaccuracy originated as a design decision in the arcade game in order to make the relatively simple act of killing harmless animals more challenging. It’s a little annoying in the home game, but you get used to it.

Censorship, bugs, and performance

The Windows Phone game unnecessarily removed the live-action female models found in every other version of the game, and the same applies to the Windows 8 game as well. Shame on whichever person at Microsoft asked for their removal.

The phone game also included a couple of online features: ‘Arcade Finder’ (locate a nearby arcade machine) and ‘Coin-Op Login’ (share scores with the arcade game). However, neither feature actually worked properly, making them extremely useless. They have been omitted from Adventure.

More troubling, I experienced a number of graphical glitches when playing on my gaming laptop. Textures often flicker in and out, especially in the snow levels (as pictured above). These glitches don’t happen when running on the (significantly less powerful) Surface Pro, so they’re not a universal problem.

Possible texture glitches aside, Adventure looks quite a bit better than the Windows Phone game or even a slightly attractive second cousin. Well, you can’t legally marry this game in most states, but it does have a graphics slider tucked away in the Help & Options menu. This allows for a smooth game whether played on Windows RT or full-on Windows 8.

Achievements

The only Windows Phone Achievement of real difficulty involved playing a perfect round of the ‘Dove Hunt’ bonus game. Due to performance issues, it proved impossible for many players. Adventure has a single Achievement for perfecting all the default bonus games, but that should prove easy thanks to this version’s superior performance.

Two long-term Achievements involve killing a total of 1,000 bucks and 100 does. The doe one feels a bit steep since players are NOT supposed to shoot does. But I suppose a fair number of female animals will get hit by accident as players grind towards the thousand males and other Achievements.

‘Wiped ‘em out’ is the hardest Achievement by far. It requires players to 5-star every level in all three of an animal’s Adventure campaigns by killing every buck in one shot AND every critter. That’s 60 levels to perfect! It’s an annoying requirement, but at least we can replay levels individually. Unless you REALLY love the game, you probably won’t want to bother going after it.

Overall Impression

Sorrowful as the lack of Big Buck Hunter Pro on Windows Phone 8 is, at least its big brother Big Buck Hunter Pro Adventure turned out very well on Windows 8. It comes with twice as many levels as the phone game by default and runs far better. Also, it supports cloud saves! Fans of gun or hunting games can't go wrong with this one.

Should you grab the four DLC animals? Well, six bucks gets 240 more hunting levels and 12 new bonus games to play. Just like the main game, the DLC represents a fair value. Big fans of the game will love the extra content, whereas players who are only in it for the Achievements can probably skip it.

Big Buck Hunter Pro Adventure– Windows 8 or RT – 246 MB - $4.99 – Store Link

This has been a happy week for mobile Xbox gamers. Gameloft published the highly anticipated Six-Gunsfor Windows Phone 8, and it’s a free game to boot. But more is always better where games are concerned.

The latest Xbox Red Stripe Deal has you covered then, gamers. Gameloft’s Modern Combat 4 is one sale for $2.99, more than half off the regular price. It’s a killer Windows Phone 8 game that has never been on sale before. Call of Duty and first-person shooter fans won’t want to miss it.

Rounding out the Red Stripe Deals are popular puzzle game Crazy Machines Golden Gears from Viva Media and finance management app myMoneyBook from Tiziano Cacioppolini, both on sale for $1.49. Head past the break for details and Store links.

Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour (Windows Phone 8)

Regular price: $6.99 Sale price: $2.99 Download size:  1011 MB Store Link

Modern Combat 4 features an exciting single-player campaign as well as a robust multiplayer component. The campaign storyline revolves around a series of terrorist attacks as well as the kidnapping of the US president. Players will take on several different roles throughout the game, including not only heroic military operatives but even the lead enemy (who is a huge jerk)! It’s an excellent campaign.

As you would expect in a game inspired by the Call of Duty series, multiplayer is a major part of the Modern Combat 4 experience. Multiplayer games support up to 12-player matches via local Wi-Fi or online. Don’t expect to fill up a room too often – the matchmaking leaves something to be desired and there’s no way to chat with other players, hence a tiny community. But this sale will provide new players. at least.

Also note that Modern Combat 4 suffers from one broken Achievement. Check out our full review for more details.

Crazy Machines Golden Gears (Windows Phone 8)

Regular price: $2.99 Sale price: $1.49 Download size: 53  MB Store Link

Did last week’s Implode sale not fill the need for physics puzzles in your life? Then Crazy Machines is for you. This one highly resembles Amazing Alex in that players must combine various objects to create simple machines that will solve puzzles. It features:

• 60 different parts to combine including Lasers, Nitros, Dynamite, Explosives, and more
• Dozens of Challenge levels (puzzles)
• Puzzle editor
• Share and download puzzles online

myMoneyBook (Windows Phone 7 or 8)

Regular price: $2.99 Sale price: $1.49 Download size: 3  MB Store Link

If I have one great weakness (sure, only one!) it’s my money management skills. Totally runs in the family. Every month, my vast Windows Phone Central fortune is squandered away on tequila and señoritas, leaving me broke until the next big payday. That’s why I should get an app like myMoneyBook (all one word, oi) to keep things in order.

Features:

• Enter your daily receivables/payables in just few steps and set a monthly budget to track your spending.

• Customize the categories to suit your needs.
• Add the tiles to the start screen to streamline operations.
• Customizable statistics charts!
• Data backup via SkyDrive and csv export!!
• Privacy settings
• Live Tiles
• Real Metro Style

Do any of our dear readers use myMoneyBook or a similar app?

The days of Xbox Windows Phone games being announced in advance are pretty much behind us. Most weeks we get no game at all, and the games that do pop up were either announced long ago (such as this week’s Six-Guns) or just pop up out of the blue. Blame changes within Microsoft for the dwindling quantity of titles and lack of PR for mobile Xbox games.

But but but! Nokia has actually put a fair amount of time and money into bringing new Xbox games to Windows Phone in the last year or two. Two recently announced games: Angry Birds Star Wars II and Tetris Blitz both come from Nokia’s strong relationship with Rovio and Electronic Arts. But Nokia’s Facebook page announced Tetris Blitz for the end of August and it never showed up. Could the game have been announced in error?

Windows Phone Central has finally received official confirmation from EA: Tetris Blitz is definitely coming to Windows Phone 8 soon. Head past the break for exclusive details!

What is a Tetris Blitz?

First, let’s explain why we care about Tetris Blitz. Unlike traditional Tetris titles, games last for exactly two minutes in this one. The goal is to score as much and earn as many coins as you can within those two minutes. Clear lines quickly to enter Frenzy mode. In Frenzy, you’ll score double for each line cleared.

The coins earned in-game can be spent on 15 different power-ups. These provide beneficial effects like an extra burst of time, removing random lines, lowering the stack of blocks, and more. As you might expect, power-ups are key to achieving really high scores on the global leaderboard.

It’s been said that touch screens don’t offer the precision controls required for a relatively fast-paced game like Tetris. Well, in designing Tetris Blitz specifically for mobile play, EA really created a smart new control method…

When a tetromino (Tetris piece) enters the field, several possible landing positions appear asoutlines down below. Just tap an outline to drop the piece in that location! If none of the suggestions look good to you, hit the Cycle button on the side of the screen for a new batch of placement locations.

Windows Phone specifics

Now for the good stuff! As our introduction clearly hinted, Tetris Blitz will be Xbox-enabled when it arrives on Windows Phone. It will NOT be a Nokia exclusive either, despite Nokia’s involvement in announcing the title. Good news for the HTC and Samsung users in the house.

Tetris Blitz will require Windows Phone 8 though, most likely because the game is designed around In-App Purchases (IAP). Players can earn the coins needed for power-ups through gameplay, or they can opt to buy them with real money. Speaking of IAPs, Tetris Blitz will be free to play when it arrives on Windows Phone.

Tetris Blitz is targeted for a late September release. Angry Birds Star Wars II is already due on September 19, so September 25 looks like a good bet for Blitz. Keep in mind the September release is not set in stone, so it could slip to October. But if everything goes well and Tetris Blitz makes it out in time, September will be the best month Xbox Windows Phone has had in ages.

Update: EA has confirmed that Tetris Blitz WILL be free to play.

SimpleRockets is an interesting game for Windows Phone 8. You're tasked with designing, building and launching your very own rockets into space and explore the solar system. It's a fun little indie game, which has launched on not only Windows Phone, but also Android, iOS and PC. So head on past the break and find out why you should waste countless hours travelling through space.

The first task is to choose and connect multiple parts together to construct a rocket ship. You have a choice between multiple rocket engines, fuel tanks and other components. It's even possible to construct rovers with powered wheels. Individual components have different values, and don't naturally assume the biggest equals the best. That's a mistake which is simply hilarious to watch on-screen as your poor rocket ship literally pulls itself apart.

So what can you do once you've configured your ship with the right parts and are ready to rock and roll? There are a number of challenges available, including landing on the moon, maximum speed, orbit practice and many more. If you're not quite into challenges or have completed them all, there's always the sandbox mode where you can let your imagination run wild.

It's strongly recommended to check out the tutorials available as they only take a few minutes to quickly read through. While it's humorous jumping in and configuring a rocket that simply wouldn't work on paper, let alone in simulation, there's a sweet feeling of achievement when you manage to take off and advance smoothly.

Check out the video below for a quick look at what SimpleRockets has to offer:

To quickly recap on what's included; you can launch from any planet in the solar system, the game itself sports realistic rocket physics, there are numerous challenges available and there's the almighty sandbox mode to keep you occupied for hours.

You can download SimpleRockets from the Windows Phone Store for $0.99 (or PC). There's no free trial, but take it from us that it's worth downloading: Thanks, Ronan, for the tip!

Console gamers might be aware that Rayman Legends just launched on Xbox 360 and other platforms this week. By all accounts, Legends is another sublime platformer like Rayman Origins before it. Awesome for Xbox owners, but how about mobile Windows platforms? Don’t they get any love?

Turns out they do! Windows 8 and RT users, anyway. Rayman Jungle Run, one of the finest Xbox Windows 8 games in town, got a major update recently. The free update adds 20 new levels, pushing Jungle Run’s grand total up to 70 levels. Pictures and impressions after the break!

Grabbing the new levels

 The update itself doesn’t automatically include the new levels – just the ability to download them. I guess Ubisoft wants to let players decide whether to use the extra storage space on their devices or not. Users will need to select the “20 More Levels” button and then agree (?) to the free download.

More levels to love

The first set of new levels is called Pirate Ship. You’ll see the titular pirate ship in the background of 6-1, but you won’t face it until 6-7. At that point, the flying ship chases after Rayman or Globox, firing cannonballs into the foreground. You’ll have to jump quickly whenever the cannon aims for the platform you’re running on!

The second new level set goes by Giant Plant. These levels are filled with fast-growing vines. Rayman and team won’t have to wait as long to fight the Giant Plant boss (first seen in Rayman Origins). It pops up in 7-3, chasing our heroes. You’ll have to quickly punch switches to open pathways in order to stay ahead of tthe massive creature. If it catches up, it’s instant death.

These new levels add some beautiful backgrounds not formerly seen in Jungle Run. They also bring a few mechanics back from Origins, such as moving background pieces. Sometimes the only way to go is up, and Rayman must jump between huge pieces of land falling from the sky. It’s high intensity platforming.

Pirate Ship and Giant Plant also include two brand new Teeth of Death levels. To access these stages, you’ll need to collect five or more teeth in each new area. Collecting a tooth involves grabbing all 100 Lums in a level. Once you’ve got enough teeth, prepare for some super tough platforming challenges.

Achievements

The new levels sadly don’t bring any new Achievements to the game. Free updates seldom do. But they do potentially make the game’s hardest Achievement ‘Lums Survival’ a little easier.

The Achievement requires players to collect 3600 Lums in a single run without dying. The game always provided a potential 4500 Lums to grab by the end of 5-9. After the update, a player who reached 5-9 without getting enough Lums could just go on to the new levels. It’s not all that likely that someone would get to 5-9 in one life without enough Lums though.

Could Windows Phone be next?

This update is great for Windows 8 players, but the Windows Phone 8 version has yet to be updated. Hopefully Ubisoft plans to show Windows Phone some love soon too.

• Rayman Jungle Run– Windows 8 and RT – 58 MB - $2.99 – Store Link
• Rayman Jungle Run– Windows Phone 8 – 49 MB - $2.99 – Store Link

Earlier this year, we brought news of a mobile payment system called Fortumo extending its support to Windows Phone and Windows 8. Fortumo allows developers to add mobile carrier billing to their games and apps, even on platforms that don’t normally support In-App Purchases  like Windows Phone 7. Fortumo’s carrier billing can allow users living in countries where credit cards are uncommon to make online purchases that they would otherwise miss out on.

Fortumo support on mobile Windows Phone platforms is still fairly new, but one popular game has already integrated it: Ragdoll Run from Swedish developer Dawnbreak Studios. Ragdoll Run is a free to play game that also happens to be exclusive to Windows Phone 7, 8, and Windows 8. Just how well do the game’s the Fortumo payments work, and what made Dawnbreak decide on Fortumo integration? Head past the break for the full story.

Creating Ragdoll Run

Dawnbreak consists of two people: Mikael Litendahl and Sebastian Cederholm. The when the two started their studio in 2012, they decided to side with Windows Phone because it gave them a better chance at visibility than other mobile platforms. Both Mikael and Sebastian had experience with XNA and C#, which made it easy for them to start coding for Windows Phone 7.

Bringing Ragdoll Run from Windows Phone 7 to Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 could have presented a real challenge if not for MonoGame. Using MonoGame, Dawnbreak quickly got the game up and running on the new Windows platforms. Of course, they also reworked the save system, screen resolution, 3D models, and textures to take advantage of Windows 8 in particular.

In-game payments

On Windows Phone, Ragdoll Run is sold both as a free, ad-supported game and an ad-less version for 99 cents. The Windows 8 version only comes in the free variety. Regardless of version, players earn a currency called Ragdollars by collecting coins and jewels as they play. Ragdollars can be spent on characters, upgrades, and themes.

As with Temple Run and other endless runners, Ragdoll Run players can also buy more currency as In-App Purchases (IAP). Naturally the game supports the standard integrated Microsoft payment (credit cards and other payments users have on file with Microsoft). But it also supports PayPal and Fortumo payments.

The Fortumo payment process

Ragdoll Run's mobile carrier billing screens

The game describes the Fortumo option as “Pay by Mobile.” Once the user selects that option, they must then select a quantity of Ragdollars to purchase and their country of residence. Finally, the user inputs his or her mobile number and completes the payment process.

Fortumo supports carrier billing in a lot of countries, but not all. Most conspicuously, Ragdoll Run does not offer mobile billing in the United States. It’s not that Fortumo doesn’t support US billing, just this particular game.

Fortumo tells us that US carriers manage the mobile payment ecosystem more than carriers in other parts of the world. Adding US payment support to Fortumo integration extends the time to market from one day to about a month. Credit card penetration is high enough in the US that developers like Dawnbreak often opt to support international carrier billing first and then add US billing down the road.

Fortumo integration versus PayPal

Fortumo supports US carrier billing, though Ragdoll Run does not.

Fortumo prides itself on providing easier integration for developers than PayPal. How much easier though? Sebastian Cederholm of Dawnbreak tells us:

"In [our point of view] as .NET developers PayPal was a bit off a hassle. Most of the examples [provided by PayPal] regarding .NET related to old technologies like WebForms.

Fortumo was easier to work with since the examples they provide are built by a clear step by step system that is easy to understand regardless of what language you as a developer choose to work with.

Another important reason why Fortumo took less time was that we pretty much [copy and pasted] the examples, tried them on our page, and then modified as we went along. PayPal required a greater understanding of the process. That being said, PayPal was not that hard to get up and running. It's just that Fortumo was much easier."

A cuddly-cool runner

Ragdoll Run is an endless runner that stands out with its bright, adorable visuals and multitude of unlockable characters. It uses an angled perspective that we don’t see in most 3D runners. Players can even rotate the level geometry in order to find safer paths or collect more treasures.

My only complaint is the UI looks a bit scattershot on Windows 8, with an abundance of clutter and buttons spaced oddly around the screen in most menus. But if you’re looking for a running game that isn’t just a Temple Run clone, Ragdoll Run is definitely worth a try.

As for Fortumo, another Windows 8 game called No Brakes Rally has already integrated their mobile carrier billing. Fortumo tells us that several more developers have signed up, so we should see carrier billing become more common as time passes. Developers can sign up with Fortumo at Fortumo.com/windows8 or browse the Fortumo technical documentation.

• Ragdoll Run– Windows Phone 7 and 8 – 24 MB – Free – Store Link
• Ragdoll Run (Premium) – Windows Phone 7 and 8 – 24 MB – $.99 – Store Link
• Ragdoll Run– Windows 8 and RT – 51 MB – Free – Store Link

Are you a fan of Angry Birds and you just can’t get enough? Then make sure you head to the Store to grab Angry Bird Rio, version 1.7, which is now live for Windows Phone 8 (the 7.x version has not yet been updated).

So what does version 1.7 bring? Bug fixes? Performance enhancements? Nope, how about some actual new gameplay with the Golden Beachball pack.

Angry Birds Rio v1.7 changes

• Enjoy the sunset in 15 new beach levels!
• Unlock bonus levels by collecting all the golden cherries!
• Fun surprises including floating pig balloons and inflatable fish pool toys!

Not a bad update from Rovio, who have been fairly regular lately with updates to their Angry Birds lineup on Windows Phone. In fact, we now have five Angry Birds titles, including Original, Rio, Star Wars, Seasons and Space. This month we’ll be adding a sixth to that list with Angry Birds Star Wars II, which lands on September 19th.

Angry Birds Rio features 225 action packed levels along with 45 bonus levels (maybe more with today’s update, hard to tell). This version of the game is optimized for Windows Phone 8 (HD graphics) and is Xbox Live enabled for those achievement hunters out there.

We’ll keep an eye out to see if the 7.x version gets updated too.

Angry Birds Rio – Windows Phone 8 – 99 cents – 28 MB – Store Link

Thanks, Kyle, for the tip

Square-Enix’s Chaos Rings is easily the cream of the single-player Role-Playing Game crop on Windows Phone. With an intricate storyline spanning alternate dimensions and timelines and four teams of playable characters, it’s also one of the vaster and most complex games in the Xbox Windows Phone lineup.

Windows Phone Central has spent countless hours exploring Chaos Rings’ every cranny and secret, and now we’ve got an exclusive Achievement Guide to share with you. Learn which team to start with, the best equipment and skills to use, where to find the hidden bosses, and lots more – after the break!

Game flow

While each team takes on the worlds in a different order, their games all follow the same flow:

• First world
• Second world
• Arena battle against another team
• Third world
• Fourth world
• Arena battle against remaining team
• Original Door
• Bereshith Road (fifth world)

The first four worlds each consists of two halves and two bosses, plus four puzzles each. If you get stuck on a puzzle, use this guide.

After defeating the Agent and going through the Original Door, you’ll get an ending. Make sure you save once the credits finish. Then load the same team and the Bereshith Road area will become available. You won’t get the team-specific Achievement until your team completes Bereshith Road. Don’t forget to save after that, because you’ll be revisiting the team later on!

Each time your team completes a world, Piu Piu’s shop updates with new inventory. Always buy the best weapon, armor, and jewel available in his shop. The stat boosts will make life much easier. Keep at least 10 keys on-hand as well so that you don’t miss out on valuable locked chests.

First team: maxing out the genes

Your first team’s playthrough will be the longest because you’ll be working towards ‘All genes max level’ at the same time. Gene progress (and money) carriers over to the other teams, so subsequent playthroughs will go much faster. You can choose Escher’s or Eluca’s team for this run; I suggest starting with Escher and Museia to keep things simple.

The first time you fight any new type of enemy, you’ll acquire its gene. A gene starts with only one skill. As you fight more of that enemy type, you’ll randomly acquire that gene’s remaining skills. Get all six of a gene’s skills to max it out.

Your team is more likely to acquire skills from higher level enemies. You can also increase your chances of learning skills by equipping a maxed out Slug Gene. As soon as you learn the Slug Gene’s ‘Get More Genes’ skill, equip it on both characters. Don’t unequip it until you’ve maxed out every gene and unlocked the ‘All genes max level’ Achievement.

The strategy for learning new skills is simple. Whenever you find a new type of enemy as a random encounter, stay in that area and grind until you’ve maxed out the skill. Enemy types that first appear as bosses will eventually show up as regular enemies, so don’t worry if you haven’t seen one appear for a while. Several genes can’t be maxed until Bereshith Road.

Here are the genes you need to max out:

• Mouse Genes
• Dog Genes
• Crocodile Genes
• Deer Genes
• Bird Genes
• Monkey Genes
• Hippopotamus Genes
• Insect Genes
• Manta Genes
• Slug Genes
• Tiger Genes
• Elephant Genes
• Lion Genes
• Fish Genes
• Tortoise Genes
• Devil Genes
• Dinosaur Genes
• Dragon Genes
• Panda Genes
• Celestial Genes

For a list of gene abilities, go here. To see which enemies appear in each area, go here.

First team: reaching level 100

You only need to reach level 100 with one team, though it’s a good idea to do it with all of your teams. The key to leveling quickly is the Elephant gene’s ‘EXP Up’ skill. As soon as you get that skill, equip the Elephant on both of your characters and don’t take it off until they hit 100.

The best place to grind for EXP is Bereshith Road. There are two possible strategies to take before you reach that area:

• Play slowly. Do runs through the first four areas on both the same level you’re on and the highest level available. This takes longer but it’s easier and will also contribute more towards the ‘Defeat 1000 enemies’ Achievement.
• Play quickly. Only run through each area once, selecting the highest level available. This is harder, but saves grinding time that will be better spent in Bereshith Road. Just make sure you’ve always bought the best equipment available and plenty of healing and elemental items.

Once you clear the fourth area, Piu Piu starts selling the Paradise Apple (Body) in the shop. This item doubles EXP gained from a battle. You only need to use one per battle; the benefit applies to both teammates.

As soon as they become available, buy all the Paradise Apples (Body) you can afford. I would get 50-90, just to be safe. Use one in every battle that follows, whether it’s the final Arena battle or a random encounter in Bereshith Road.

The single best location to grind for EXP is the treasure room on floor 137 of Bereshith Road (pictured above). The fifth world doesn’t actually 137 floors; you’ll reach 137 fairly quickly via elevator. Near the end of floor 137, you can take an exit crystal towards the computer room and the area boss, or go past that exit to another exit. The second exit leads to a room with three treasure chests; that’s our destination.

Inside the treasure room, you’ll randomly encounter three types of panda enemies. The red variety, Tomorrow Biliken gives the most EXP in the game. Use a Paradise Apple (Body) while fighting him and your team will gain 2-6 levels after the battle!

Sometimes Tomorrow Bilikens appear relatively frequently, other times hardly at all. Just stay in the treasure room, using Paradise Apples (Body) during every single battle, and you’ll reach level 100 after one or two hours.

Once you hit 100 (and assuming you’ve maxed all genes), turn off Random encounters by pressing the button at the top-right corner of the screen and then press the ‘Enc’ button that appears at left of the Camp button. Proceed to the computer room and the area boss. Defeat the boss; you’ll get the team-specific Achievement after the credits roll. Save and then it’s time to start the next team!

Second, third, and fourth teams

The three remaining teams will go so much quicker than the first. Follow this strategy and they will take about four hours apiece to complete.

At the start of each team’s game, head to the shop and buy the best equipment and some healing items. You’ll also need to equip three genes on each character before heading to the first area. I recommend:

• Elephant (for the EXP boost and S-Healing)
• Lion (for Auto Counter, which helps battles go faster whenever it activates)
• Dragon (adds 100 points to speed and attack)

This setup only gives your team fire magic. You’ll mostly be brute forcing battles instead of worrying about elements. But when you need the elemental advantage during a boss fight, just use element-changing items.

Having readied your party, jump into the first world on 11-20 difficulty. Use the ‘play quickly’ strategy I described earlier, running through each area only once instead of multiple times. Occasionally a boss might give you trouble, but if you remember to heal and use elements as needed, you’ll come out on top.

Once your teams reach Bereshith Road (71-80), you can make for the treasure room and get them properly leveled. I highly recommend getting each team to at least level 80, if not 100. They still have a few tough boss fights ahead after Bereshith Road…

Complete the ‘Final’ battle

Having completed each team’s story, you’ll now have the option to engage in the Final scenario with any team. The Final scenario consists of four consecutive battles; one for each duo of heroes. As long as your teams are high level, these battles will be a cakewalk.

Watch the end credits and remember to save. The ‘Clear all areas’ Achievement will unlock.

Defeat the hidden bosses (all teams)

Each of the five main worlds has two hidden bosses who can only be fought after completing Bereshith Road for the first time. These bosses award the best weapons, armor, and jewels in the game.

When you’re ready to face the hidden bosses, return to any of the main worlds. In the spot where you previously faced a boss, you’ll now find a large crystal. Activate it to fight the hidden boss within.

To reach the hidden bosses as fast as possible:

• Turn off random encounters
• Choose to skip the first half of the world. You’ll start just past the first boss fight. Backtrack immediately to reach the first hidden boss. Then progress through the rest of the area to meet the second one.

All four teams must defeat all nine secret bosses for the ‘Defeat all hidden bosses’ Achievement to unlock. The process should take about 20 minutes per team. After getting the Achievement, save and return to the Ark.

Finally: face the secret boss

After defeating all hidden bosses with all couples, take your strongest team and talk to Piu Piu. You’ll now have the chance to fight the hardest boss in the game!

The boss is so challenging because he casts a different elemental attack every 1-2 turns and automatically recovers 10,000 HP every turn. Your team will need to cast whatever spell the opponent is currently weak against (or use an item to do so) and then attack until he changes elements again. Repeat the process, casting S-Healing as necessary, until you win.

The battle should take 10 minutes or so. As soon as it ends, you’ll unlock the secret ‘Defeat Piu Piu’ Achievement. You’ll also receive the best “jewel” in the game: the ‘Super MV.’ Piu Piu only needs to be beaten once, but each team you thwart him with adds an extra two percent to your completion ratio.

Epilogue: kill 1,000 monsters

Having cleared every storyline and defeated every boss, you should be left with only one Achievement remaining – ‘Defeat 1000 enemies.’ The game doesn’t provide a way to check how many monsters you’ve killed, sadly. But if you ran through the main areas more than once with a few of your teams, you’re probably pretty close to a thousand kills already.

To grind the rest of the kills out, either head to the treasure room we grinded in earlier or just make a few trips through previous worlds. Choose low levels (1-10) to make the fights end sooner. Just keep fighting and you’ll get that last Achievement sooner or later.

Time for Chaos

RPG fans, we hope you’ve found this guide useful. And for players on the fence about Chaos Rings, we’ll have a full review soon!

• Chaos Rings– Windows Phone 7 or 8 – 775 MB - $9.99 – Store Link

Heroes of Mythology is a beat 'em up styled game where you play the role of mythology heroes battling an endless supply of enemy hordes.

With Heroes of Mythology the choice of hero comes down to either Hercules or Achilles. You earn gold as you slay the enemy that can be used in the game's store and with each wave of bad guys, things get a little more dicey.

Heroes of Mythology is a Windows Phone game well suited for the times you are in the mood for a straight forward, battle game.

The main menu for Heroes of Mythology play the game in either the Normal Mode or Legendary Mode (basically easy or hard difficulties). You can also view the leaderboards, the game's "How to Play" screen, view the credits and if you're experimenting with the trial version, an option to buy the full game ($.99).

Once you choose which game mode you want to tackle, you'll need to choose your hero. Achilles is armed with a long spear and Hercules has a war hammer. Beyond that, the two are only separated by appearance.

The game screen has your health meter in the upper left corner with your gold count beneath. Up in the right corner are any bonus items that are at your disposal.

Game controls consist of an A and B button that control your strikes (B Button) and your evasive maneuver (that would be the A button). Your player movement is controlled by moving your finger along the bottom left corner of the screen. There is no directional pad (which would have been nice) so at times you'll find your finger drift away from the directional control area, making your hero an easy target for the bad guys.

Game play calls for you to take out your enemy before they take you out. Enemy hordes come at you in waves with each wave becoming more difficult. The downside to game play is that you have no idea how close you are to finishing a wave. It's nothing to make your hero run for the hills, but it would be nice to know how many more bad guys you have to slay before advancing.

In between waves you have the option to advance to the next wave or visit the store where you can spend the gold you've earned slaying the enemy on boosts and upgrades.

All in all, Heroes of Mythology is a nice, casual combat game for your Windows Phone. Graphics are very good, game play challenging and fast paced. While I like Heroes of Mythology, there are a few things that would help improve the game.

First, your progress isn't saved. If you battle your way to the fifth wave and have to exit the game, when you return you start at wave one. Next, you really need a directional pad for reference. Not having one works but having that visual reference helps give your finger an anchor point.

Lastly, while you can always dial down the volume on your Windows Phone the game needs a mute button. This will let you keep your ringer volume up and not disturb anyone while your bashing in the enemy.  While there is room for improvement, Heroes of Mythology isn't a bad gaming choice. There is a free trial version that limits your game time with the full version running $.99.

You can find Heroes of Mythology here in the Windows Phone Store. It is available for both Windows Phone 8 and 7.x devices.

We've just been informed that MonsterUp Adventures (www.monsterupgame.com), the popular platformer for Windows Phone, has had its price slashed to just $0.99. This is a perfect time to grab the title, which is available for both Windows Phone 7 and 8. So what are you waiting for? Get yourself in Trelloland and help out the cute, cuddly monsters of MonsterUp.

If that weren't enough, as a quick tease to round the deal off the development team behind the MonsterUp series of games has hinted at a new title on the way, which should be heading for a Q4 2013 release. Here's a quick teaser to build some hype:

More information to follow in the future. You can download MonsterUp Adventures from the WindowsPhone store for $0.99 (usually $1.99 - available for both Windows Phone 7 and 8). The game has also recently been released on both Android and iOS.

Some development teams just made solid product after solid product. One of those development teams is game studio 10tons. They’ve given us great (sometimes weird) games like King Oddball, Sparkle, and more. Seriously, if you haven’t played a game from 10tons you need to go to the Windows Phone Store, pick one up and at least play the trial. You’ll probably get hooked. Well 10tons has just recently released another game for Windows Phone called Joining Hands 2, a follow up to their previous puzzle game of the same title. Let’s check it out.

Joining Hands 2 is a whimsical puzzle game. Your job is to complete puzzles by joining the hands of these little creatures called Peablins. Gameplay is straightforward, you drag and drop them from cell to cell in order to have them all holding hands. Here’s what you get with Joining Hands 2:

• More than 140 fun and challenging levels
• Eight kinds of adorable Peablin characters
• Unlimited hint system: Never get stuck
• Fun for all ages: No violence, no time limits, no pressure
• Great for child and parent cooperative puzzling
• Cute graphics and joyful soundtrack
• Ten achievements

The game is delightful and gets increasingly more challenging as you progress. Don’t let the early simplicity of the trial make you think this game is going to be a walk in the park.

You can grab Joining Hands 2 for just $0.99 in the Windows Phone Store. There’s also a free trial that will let you play the first stretch of levels. The game is available to those with a Windows Phone 8 device, including those with only 512 MB of RAM.

You’ll find it in the Windows Phone Store, by using the QR code below, or by swiping to the more section in our app. 

Thanks for the tip JD!

Scoundrels is a turn based board game for your Windows Phone with a slight role playing game feel to it. You compete against other players to discover treasure before they do.

Along the way you have monsters to deal with and traps to avoid as well as your opponent. Scoundrels is more of a tactical/strategy game than an action game so don't expect a lot of fast paced game play. Scoundrels isn't without appeal but may be more of an acquired taste when it comes to Windows Phone games.

When you launch Scoundrels you are greeted with the main menu where you have options to play Campaign or Free Play modes, choose your language and mute sound effects/music.  Campaign is a single player (you vs. the computer), multi-level mode that follows a story line. The Campaign mode also has tutorial pages that will walk you through game play.

Free Play supports up to four players (human or computer) where you can adjust a few gaming variables (number of monsters, traps, etc.) or have these variables set randomly. The multi-player mode is pass/play style when dealing with multiple human opponents.

The gaming screen has your playing board (the map) with player stats/vitals running up the right side of the screen. Each player has a starting point and movement is done one adjacent square at a time. You move to grab the treasure and return to your starting point. Along the way you'll stumble on bonus items to help you with battles, traps and monsters. You may even have to find a key to be able to gain access to the treasure.

When you stumble on to monsters you have two options, fight or run. Combat is automatic and you do have the option to skip the blow by blow narratives and find the outcome of the encounter. If the monster prevails, you have to return to your starting point. If you win, you move into the space.

Again, the goal is to snatch up the treasure and make it back to the safety of your starting point. If you get hurt in battle, you heal as you move or you can skip a turn and heal all the faster. You also have traps of your own that you can toss out that will snare your opponents. Traps will hold a player in place for a few turns, giving others a jump on things.

By the way... if your opponent gets to the gold first you can always catch him and start a fight.  Beat your opponent down and you can snatch the treasure and high tail it to your starting point for the win.  Just remember, your opponent can recover and chase you down.  So no sight seeing and watch out for traps that will make you vulnerable.

Scoundrels plays like a board game on your Windows Phone with very little flash and action. That doesn't make Scoundrels a bad game it just might not appeal to everyone. Graphics are decent, game play while basic is challenging, and if you have to leave a game mid-stream Scoundrels will save your progress.

Scoundrels is a good game for your Windows Phone but give the trial version a go before making the commitment to buy. The trial version will give you access to the Campaign mode. This is enough to either sell you on the game or decide it's not your cup of tea and move on.

The full version of Scoundrels is running $.99 and you can download it here at the Windows Phone Store. It is available for both Windows Phone 8 and 7.x devices.

Video game maker Ubisoft has announced that they will be releasing a follow up to their hit game Rayman Jungle Run this Fall on Windows Phone 8, iOS and Android. Rayman Fiesta Run will consist of 75 levels of running and jumping through a foody, fruity party-filled world. Along with the fast-paced running and jumping that we have come to expect, Rayman will also add the ability to swim, shrink and punch.

Rayman Fiesta Run will also include 4 levels of Invasion Mode, a game mode found in another title in franchise, Rayman Legends.

In addition to the fact that we will be seeing another fun-filled Rayman game from Ubisoft, what is great about this news is that it looks like Rayman Fiesta Run will be released on Windows Phone at the same time as its rival platforms, iOS and Android. If this is indeed the case, it may be a sign that Windows Phone is gaining more traction in the mobile operating system race.

Recently, we've seen how company's like Gameloft face challenges in getting games to market on Windows Phone at the same pace as other platforms. This kind of latency has led critics to question the viablity of Windows Phone. If companies of Ubisoft's caliber continue to make the effort, we could see Windows Phone gain a little more traction with consumers.

If you haven't checked it out already and want to prime yourself for the sequel, check out Rayman Jungle Run  here for $2.99.

Source: Polygon; via Windows Phone Central Forums

Disney and Microsoft seem to be hitting it off well as every week we’re seeing more and more games arrive on Windows Phone and Windows 8 from the famous studio. Just last week Wreck it Ralph arrived for Windows Phone and Temple Run: Oz before that. This week it’s the more timely Monsters University.

Based off of the hit summer movie and weighing in at 82 MB, the 99 cent game looks to be quite a blast on Windows Phone. Featuring HD cut scenes right from the film, Monsters University features two “exciting mini games”, like “Catch Archie” (think Temple Run but at an angle and you ride a pig) and “Toxicity Challenge”.  Each game has a tutorial, but if you played Temple Run before, you’ll pick it right up.

Check out what the game is all about after the break in our hands on video.

You can unlock characters and use your collected coins to buy powerups too, and while some of the gameplay may be repetitive, overall the graphics are quite impressive.

The game has some lengthy loads times and will only work on 1 GB devices (sorry, folks) but overall for 99 cents it seems like quite a fun adventure. It even comes with a fancy doublewide Live Tile, though we haven’t seen it flip around just yet. The settings are quite basic, however you do get selective control over music and sound effects.

Monsters University description

Catch Archie:

• Get a hold of Archie the Scare Pig, the squealing mascot of Monsters University’s rival school, Fear Tech, in this thrilling mini game!
• Chase Archie in 30 exciting stages, and tire him out to win each stage!
• Jump, slide, and dodge tricky obstacles throughout campus!

Toxicity Challenge:

• Compete in the first scare game event of the year, and put your agility skills to the test!
• Race against the clock, and run through the sewers before time runs out.
• Watch out for the stinging glow urchins that will sting and slow you down throughout all 30 stages!

Other Monstrous Features:

• Play as 3 of your favorite monsters: Mike, Sulley, and Squishy.
• Level up to unlock special power-ups!
• Find and collect Scare Cards featuring famous monsters.
• The Scare Games continue soon with updates that will include more characters and new mini games based on the other events!

Overall, Monsters University looks to be a lot of fun and while the game costs 99 cents with no free trial, as you can see from our hands on video above, it seems well worth the dollar.

Pick up Disney’s Monsters University here in the Store (or scan the QR code below). Windows Phone 8 only, 99 cents, 1GB of RAM required

Thanks, M C, for the tip

Windows Phone Role-playing fans welcomed Square-Enix’s remake of the original Final Fantasy with open arms last year. At last, we had a lengthy and well-made RPG in the Xbox Windows Phone lineup. But the RPG genre has advanced dramatically since the first Final Fantasy dawned on 8-bit Nintendo consoles. The remake’s modest enhancements couldn’t prevent the game from feeling dated.

Thankfully Square-Enix did not choose the equally dated (but still good) Final Fantasy II as its next Windows Phone RPG. Instead, the publisher followed up with a port of Chaos Rings. Originally released on iOS in 2010, Chaos Rings is an original Japanese RPG (JRPG) designed exclusively for mobile devices. How does it stack up against modern RPG standards? Read on to find out!

Small size, big heart

Whereas Final Fantasy understandably offered a threadbare narrative, Chaos Rings features a tale that is relatively small in scale (character-wise) and yet surprisingly complex and dramatic.

Developer Media Vision wisely understood that smartphone users play games in shorter and less predictable sessions than console gamers. Make a game too long or put too many characters in it and a busy mobile player might not remember a character or plot detail the next time they start the game up.

As such, Chaos Rings consists of four shorter scenarios (and a brief final scenario) that add up to tell a complete tale. Each scenario stars a team of two protagonists for a total of eight playable characters. Factor in five NPCs and the entire cast only numbers 13 large!

Despite (or perhaps because of) its economical nature, Chaos Rings’ story still creates quite an impact. In fact, I would argue that it carries more emotional resonance and coherence than Final Fantasy XIII, a much larger and higher budgeted console game. The tighter focus and more singular vision in Chaos Rings make all the difference.

Four teams united and divided by adversity

A strong premise helps as well. As Chaos Rings begins, five pairs of humans (each male partnered with a female) awaken together in an unknown location following a mysterious eclipse. None of them knows how they got there (or do they?), but soon an ominous Agent informs them of their purpose: the couples must battle to the death in a tournament. The victors will win eternal life.

Each of the playable scenarios follows one of the kidnapped duos as they participate in the tournament upon threat of death. If one team wins, that means the others all lose (their lives), which creates some highly compelling scenarios. You’ll go from playing as one team and sympathizing with their plight to the next scenario in which your new team has to kill the last one. Few games allow players to experience a conflict from so many sides, let alone one as harsh as this.

The danger in retelling one story in four different ways is that the audience could lose interest after the first telling. Indeed, after completing Escher the mercenary’s scenario first, I didn’t connect nearly as well with Eluca the royal executioner’s plot. But then the third scenario involving Olgar (who knows something about the tournament) throws some serious twists into the mix. I didn’t think Ayuta the stable hand’s scenario could provide any surprises, but it does – as well as tying up a lingering thread or two.

It might even seem that some characters’ personalities differ from scenario to scenario. Those discrepancies are just one of the mysteries wrapped around the tournament. All becomes clear by the time the four scenarios wrap and the final one begins.

Presentation to match

Nearly flawless presentation greatly aids that narrative in its impact. Visually, Chaos Rings follows the lead of the seminal Final Fantasy VII. Characters are always polygonal, and much more detailed than those of the seventh Final Fantasy. The environments they navigate are generally two-dimensional, though in battle and cut scenes the backdrops become 3D.

Low resolution textures and thin black borders on both sides of the screen (more discreet than Final Fantasy’s single larger border) are the only real flaws in Chaos Rings’ visuals. Otherwise, it stands among the most beautiful games on Windows Phone – even compared against Windows Phone 8 titles.

Chaos Rings also sounds great, with a well-composed (though not iconic) orchestral soundtrack. Japanese voice actors speak about eighty percent of the dialogue, with the rest going unvoiced. English voice acting would have been highly welcomed, but the Japanese seiyu deliver stronger performances than we’re ever likely to hear from a Gameloft title.

Combat

Battles in Chaos Rings move at a brisk pace despite their turn-based nature. At the beginning of your turn, you can select to direct the two protagonists individually or as a pair. Attacking as a pair is faster than not. But each enemy attack will target both party members when you perform a pair attack, which could prove dangerous to your party.

Both characters can also equip three genes collected from various types of enemies. A gene grants access to six skills when fully developed. Some skills are passive, like EXP boosts, while active skills allow the party to cast attack and defense spells.

Most spells conform to one of three elements: fire, water, and gale (wind). Casting a spell temporarily imbues the player or enemy with that spell’s element. The elements have a rock-paper-scissors relationship, so water attacks do extra damage against enemies who use fire attacks, etc. You can typically ignore the element system in favor of physical attacks during normal encounters. But smart element use could mean the difference between victory and defeat during tougher boss clashes.

The game also has a “Break” system in which both sides compete for momentum against the other during battle. Breaks don’t have much impact on the flow of battle though, and can be safely ignored.

Puzzle fever

Combat isn’t the only thing that will interrupt the exploration. Each of the five dungeons contains several puzzle rooms that players must solve in order to progress.  Puzzles come in several varieties, all involving manipulating blocks or candles. Most aren’t too hard, though some users might get stumped and seek a guide for help.

I assume the developers included the puzzle rooms because puzzle games are so popular on mobile devices. The puzzles don't fit all that well with the rest of the game, but they don’t harm it much either.

Save anywhere, why not

The first Final Fantasy betrayed its console origins in that it disallowed saving during certain hours-long dungeons. Thankfully Chaos Rings lets players save absolutely anywhere outside of story scenes or battle. With no unnecessary save file selection option, recording your progress is fast and easy. That’s good because the game does crash occasionally. You’ll want to save often, just to be on the safe side.

Achievements

Most of Chaos Rings’ Achievements come naturally from completing the various scenarios. The Achievement for reaching level 100 takes a little grinding, and the one for defeating 1,000 enemies requires a lot. It should take about 30 hours to get the full 200 GamerScore.

Two Achievements (one of which is secret) involve winning hidden boss fights. The game hunts at those bosses, so players might end up discovering them on their own. But we also reveal their locations in our exclusive Achievement Guide.

Overall Impression

Chaos Rings stands tall as the most expensive Xbox game on Windows Phone. Japanese publishers like Square-Enix are infamous for pricing their mobile games higher than average. But Chaos Rings justifies its price with an intriguing and mature story, nearly flawless presentation, and approximately 30 hours of gameplay (more if we count New Game+).

New releases of this caliber sell for thirty dollars or more on portable consoles. Role-playing game fans, don’t let the price tag deter you from owning one of the best mobile RPGs of all time. We all need to pony up and show Square-Enix our support. If this one sells well enough, maybe they’ll release the prequel Chaos Rings Omega and Chaos Rings II to Windows Phone as well.

• Chaos Rings– Windows Phone 7 or 8 (with 1GB of RAM) – 775 MB - $9.99 – Store Link

Despicable Me fans have a relatively new Windows Phone game available that features the little yellow minions. Minions Space Battle is a Galaga styled arcade game where you battle minion against minions.

While not an official Minions game, Minions Space Battle has potential. The opening screen is a giggle loop from the minions that will make most grin and game play isn't too bad with a moderate pace.

Minions Space Battle could use a little fine tuning but as is, it's worth a try.

The user interface for Minions Space Battle is very straight forward... just tap the launch screen to jump into the game. Your game screen has your score in the upper left corner, your lives in the upper right corner and your mission objective splattered across the center of the screen.

You control a two-eyed minion that is trying to take out single-eyed minions that drop from the top of the screen. Both you and the enemy minions are armed with an endless supply of bananas and to shoot the enemy, just tap the screen.

Your game objectives basically lay out how many minion hits you need to make before advancing to the next level. Game play starts out slow and quickly increases as you move through the game.

Minions Space Battle lacks any boss battles and at times just getting near an evil minion's banana will take you out. Player movement also needs a little tuning in that there is a slight lag between tilting your phone and seeing movement. You do have ten lives but I haven't seen where you can earn new lives back through your scores.

Minions Space Battle makes for a nice gaming foundation but it just needs a little more. Either bosses to battle, more sound effects true to the characters or better controls might help make the game more attractive.  Additionally, if the game objectives would eventually fad away that would help too.  With each level of play, the background changes (which look rather nice) and the "Go To The XX Hits" message is distracting and gives the game a little cluttered feel to it.  Maybe have a "hits left" counter at the top of the screen?

Minions Space Battle is a free game for your Windows Phone that you can find here in the Windows Phone Store. It is available for both Windows Phone 8 and 7.x devices.

When Electronic Arts announced Tetris Blitz would be coming to Windows Phone in late September, we fully expected that to be the publisher’s only Windows Phone release this month. As it turns out, EA did have another release in store for us, though it popped up a little late in the day: The Sims FreePlay!

The Sims FreePlay is the third Sims game for Windows Phone, following The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval. But those games are essentially simple RPGs dressed in Sims clothing. The Sims FreePlay is much closer to the true Sims games for PC and Xbox 360. As the name suggests, it’s also free to play. You’ll need a Windows Phone 8 device with 1 GB of RAM to install it. More details after the break!

The Sims FreePlay Store description:

LET THE FREEPLAY BEGIN! CREATE UP TO 31 CUSTOMIZED SIMS FROM HEAD TO TOE, AND…

• Design dream homes complete with swimming pools and multiple stories
• Let your Sims get married, make babies, and then watch them grow into toddlers and pre-teens
• Care for pets, grow gardens, even bake a cake
• Give your Sims careers and earn Simoleons to improve their situations
• Complete goals for Lifestyle Points, then spend them on hip items
• Live with your Sims in real-time (when it’s day or night for you, it’s the same for your Sims!)

The main difference between FreePlay and the previous Windows Phone games is the real-time element. Everything your Sim (virtual person) does now takes time to complete – the same amount of time it would take in real life, basically. Your Sims do nothing when you’re not playing, so you’ll need to check on them throughout the day in order to make progress.

Free to play mechanics

We’re always glad to see another Xbox-enabled game on Windows Phone, especially from important publishers like EA. Now that the EA and Nokia exclusivity deal has ended, it looks like EA’s games will be available to all. Sims FreePlay and Tetris Blitz are both launching as free to play games, whereas the Nokia exclusives all had their free to play elements removed (for better or worse).

Much of the fun in Sims games is decorating a house and acquiring new goods for your Sims to interact with. These things of course cost money (Simoleans). Your Sim can get a job, sell the vegatables they grow, and complete other actions to earn money. Of course this is a free to play game, so players can purchase Simoleans with real money.

The game’s second currency Lifestyle Points are used to complete timers and make things go faster as well as purchase premium clothing and furniture. Lifestyle Points can be bought via In-App Purchase as well.

Get ready to Simulate

The Sims FreePlay is a large download, and like other Windows Phone 8 games, it requires about 4x extra free space in order to install. Two gigabytes of free space should do it.

Note that the publisher really doesn’t want players to cheat by messing with their phone’s clocks. As such, FreePlay requires an internet connection in order to play. Make sure you watch the official video trailer above.

• TheSims FreePlay – Windows Phone 8 (1 GB of RAM) – 427 MB – Free – Store Link

Thanks, Kyle S. and Kevin G., for the tips

Last week’s Xbox Red Stripe Deal knocked it out of the park by offering Modern Combat 4– a game that had never been on sale before – at a significant discount. But we can’t expect a new game to go on sale every week… Not if we don’t want our hearts broken. The latest discounted Xbox Windows Phone game has been on sale twice before, most recently in June. Yep, UberGeekGames’BulletAsylum is 99 cents once again. We’ll try to contain our enthusiasm.

Meanwhile, the non-Xbox Red Stripe Deals are actually a lot more exciting. Indie Minecraft clone Discovery from Noowanda (?) is only 99 cents, which should please the construction crowd. And all three versions of Garmin’s GPS app Navigon (USA, Europe, and Australia) are half off as well. Descriptions and Store links after the break.

BulletAsylum (Windows Phone 7 and 8)

Regular price: $2.99 Sale price: $.99 Download size: 16 MB Store Link

BulletAsylum is a modern take on the arcade classic Missile Defense. Aliens rain down from the sky and it’s up to your turrets to stop them. You can use a single finger to fire all your weapons at one area or two fingers to split the fire. Game modes include the extremely easy Arcade, an endless Survival mode that has no Achievements for some reason, and the frustratingly hard Architect mode.

It’s easy to get into BulletAsylum thanks to the pretty colors and flashing lights. The unlocking system is decent, and the Achievements are attainable for most mortal men and women. Still, I found the gameplay far too simplistic to maintain interest; the lack of depth really keeps the game from having much staying power. At least it's only a buck right now! Check out our review to learn more.

Discovery (Windows Phone 7 and 8)

Regular price: $1.99 Sale price: $.99 Download size: 17 MB Store Link

Survivalcraft is the king of Windows Phone Minecraft clones, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only game in town. As you’d expect from this type of game, it allows players to explore a large, blocky virtual world, gather resources, and build things. This one has some especially nice features like cloud saves and online sharing, so it definitely looks worth a buy.

Features:

• smooth, high quality 3D graphics with up to 60 FPS on 1st generation phones
• realistic light and shadows
• giant world of blocks
• World Browser for sharing your worlds with others
• Backup/Cloud system
• different times of day
• atmospheric music
• TNT :)

Navigon USA (Windows Phone 7 and 8)

Regular price: $49.99 Sale price: $23.99 Download size: 11 MB Store Link

Windows Phone Central’s own Daniel Rubino proclaims Navigon to be his favorite GPS app, so you know it’s got to be good. Developed by Garmin, Navigon has all the advanced features you could possibly want in a GPS app. It also looks about a million times nicer than the free apps our phones come with. However, it’s quite pricey by default. Even at half off, it’s still kind of expensive – but you get what you pay for.

Features:

• Traffic Live
• Reality View Pro
• NAVIGON MyRoutes
• Active Lane Assistant
• Speed Assistant
• Safety Camera
• Weather Live
• NAVIGON Reality Scanner
• Last Mile Navigation
• Google Street View
• Text-to-Speech and precise spoken announcements
• Extended Pedestrian Navigation
• Destination entry with coordinates
• Emergency help
• Special destinations along the route
• Can be used in portrait and landscape format
• 2D and 3D map views
• Automatic day and night mode
• Direct access and navigation to contacts saved in the smartphone’s address book
• Take Me Home function with a single click
• Route planning function
• Favourites can be saved directly on the Windows Phone Start screen via the NAVIGON shortcut
• Latest Map Guarantee: Guarantees that you receive the latest maps when you make your purchase!
• Link from Bing Search to the NAVIGON app on your Windows Phone.  Lets you start navigating immediately to destinations which you have found on the Internet.

Navigon Europe (Windows Phone 7 and 8)

Regular price: $99.99 Sale price: $49.99 Download size: 12 MB (at least 1.1 GB with maps) Store Link

Navigon Australia (Windows Phone 7 and 8)

Regular price: $46.99 Sale price: $28.99 Download size: 12 MB (at least 900 MB with maps) Store Link

Thanks to Marcel for the tip!

The last few weeks have been good to fans of Disney’s Where’s My Water? and its spin-off games, Where’s My Perry? And Where’s My Mickey?. First the Windows 8 versions of all three titles went on sale, and then like a week later Disney gave them away free for some reason. The phone versions of the first two games also went free for a brief time at the beginning of the year. It’s safe to say that people who enjoy asking where liquids or cartoon characters have gone probably acquired two or three such games by now.

Well, later today Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 users will get to ask “Where is my water currently located?” once again. Disney is releasing Where’s my Water? 2 for mobile Windows platforms – and simultaneously with the iOS versions! Well, almost simultaneously. The mobile Windows Store links aren’t working just yet, but they should go live within a few hours. In the meantime, head past the break for a trailer and gameplay details!

New stuff

Where’s My Water? 2 stars Swampy, the series’ original alligator protagonist. Or is he a crocodile? I forget. Joining Swampy are two crocogator friends, young girl Allie and Cranky the old-timer. Both were first introduced via downloadable expansions to the original game.

Possibly the most exciting additions to this sequel are the new Duck Rush levels. In these stages, players will frantically dig a path for water as the screen scrolls downward. It’s like Mr. Driller but with water. You’ll find these levels on the new overhead map.

Previous spin-off games like Where’s My Mickey? introduced new mechanics like wind, rain, and clouds. We’re not sure if those return in Where’s My Water? 2, but it does include new locations such as a soap factory and a beach. You’ll also be dealing with more than just water now. Steam and poison must also be used to solve puzzles, which should change up how some levels play.

Free to play

Unlike previous games in the series, Where’s My Water? 2 will be free to play. That would usually be good news for most gamers, unless you’re that guy who played a free game he didn’t like a few years ago and now grumbles about them in the comments constantly.

Our grouchy friend might just have a reason to complain this time, though. Yes, Where’s My Water? 2 is monetized with some innocuous In-App Purchases like power-ups and hints. But it’s also bogged down by a time-based energy mechanic.

Each time you play a puzzle in this game, you’ll consume some energy. When that energy runs out, you won’t be able to play any new levels until it recharges over time… Not unless you pony up to restore your energy. As you might imagine, this mechanic limits players’ ability to replay stages for better scores, to say nothing of just chilling out and enjoying the game as long as they feel like it.

Find that water already

Free to play concerns aside, Where’s My Water? 2 coming to Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 on the same date as iOS (and ahead of Android!) is a welcome show of support from Disney. Hopefully we’ll see more timely releases like this in the future.

Remember, these links aren’t working quite yet. When they go live, we’ll update the article.

• Where’s My Water? 2 – Windows Phone 8 – ? MB – Free – Store Link
• Where’s My Water? 2 – Windows 8 – ? MB – Free – Store Link

Thanks to EasyPeasyJD for the tip!