This week, the massive open world Grand Theft Auto 5 launched on consoles. Sadly, Rockstar has yet to port any of its excellent mobile Grand Theft Auto titles to Windows Phone. But thanks to Gameloft, we do have one open world game on Windows Phone 8: Six-Guns. Of course, Six-Guns takes its inspiration from the Wild West-themed Read Dead Redemption, but it’s still the closest thing to GTA in the mobile Xbox lineup.

Six-Guns is a free to play game – a payment model that can be a blessing or a curse. Is this one of Gameloft’s free to play successes like UNO & Friends or a greedy failure like Real Soccer 2013? Read on for our verdict…

Wild Wild West

While Six-Guns is obviously based on Read Dead Redemption, it focuses far less on story. The handful of story missions it does have were originally added via updates to the original iOS version. The story scenes do come to life via digital comic-style animations and voice acting, at least.

What Six-Guns lacks in narrative, it makes up for in sheer abundance of missions. The game’s two large maps are dotted with glowing hotspots that trigger these missions. Missions come in several varieties, a sampling of which I’ll list now:

• Defense: Guard a location against oncoming enemies either for a set time or a specific number of waves of enemies.
• Offense: Take out all of the enemies in a location.
• Racing: There are actually two types of horse races. The first, and most fun simply pits the player against three AI racers. These racers work well when you don’t feel like engaging in combat. The second requires players to shoot a certain number of targets while also passing through checkpoints within a time limit. Unfortunately, the aiming is so bad (which we’ll get to in a bit) that it makes hitting the targets under time pressure a complete chore.
• Sniping: Requires a sniper rifle, of which there is only one non-premium option. Watch a spot and wait for a courier to deliver goods to the smuggler hiding behind a wall. Because of the bad aiming and super low windows of opportunity to hit the target(s), the sniping mission is ridiculously hard.
• Crypt killing: For some reason, Six-Guns has a lot of supernatural enemies like werewolves, From Dusk Till Dawn-style monstrous vampires, and flying witches. In this mission type, you’ll navigate a maze-like crypt and defeat all of its unholy inhabitants along the way. I actually enjoy the mash-up of Wild West and monsters, but the witches have an obnoxious habit of getting stuck inside of walls, often making them unkillable and forcing a mission failure.
• Rescue: These some in two varieties. In the more interesting one, players must locate and then escort one or more maidens safely out of a vampire’s crypt.
• Shooting gallery: Fun but hard due to aiming issues.

Complete a mission to get gold and experience. When you choose to repeat a mission, not only do the rewards increase, but the round goes up and it gets harder as well. A mission can have up to fifty rounds, which would take hours to get through. That’s the brilliance of Six-Guns’ design – the multi-round missions give it tons and tons of replay value. Oh, and there are non-repeatable collectible missions too.

Controls and aiming

Six-Guns’ generally controls intuitively, just like any of Gameloft’s non-FPS tiles. You walk with a virtual stick, use a fire button to shoot, an aim button for fine aiming, and a roll button for dodging. Tapping the gun icon at the top of the screen reloads, while swiping it changes guns.

Being a western-themed game, the hero can also ride horses! Just press the horse button to whistle for your horse and instantly mount it. Riding gets you everywhere faster and you don’t even have to worry about being thrown to your death like in real life.

While the general controls all work well, aiming is problematic. Much of the time, you’ll get by with the lock-on assist. Once you’ve locked on to an enemy, you can just plug away at them unless the lock gets broken. But fine aiming is simply horrendous. The reticle just moves way too far no matter how lightly you slide your finger.

The jumpy aiming seems to stem from the game’s low frame rate. Like all of Gameloft’s 3D Windows Phone 8 titles, Six-Guns’ frame rate is somewhere around 15-20 frames per second. That’s playable, but 30 FPS is what we consider the low end of smooth. With so many frames skipped all the time, aiming at just the right target can be a real crapshoot.

Free to play foibles

We’ve already detailed the game’s complete array of In-App Purchases and evaluated their usefulness. The question now is how much all those IAPs hurt the game.

IAPs aren’t limited to just vanity items and weapons. Enemies don’t drop ammo; you have to buy it with gold. And you can’t carry around limitless supplies of ammo, either. Each batch of bullets takes up a separate space in the player’s inventory. Additional slots cost gold. Neither of these elements really brings the game down too much. Missions and enemy kills provide more than enough gold for bullets. Bag slots will require some grinding for gold, but you’re never short for missions to grind.

Less forgivably, health refills cost premium currency. Player health recharges over time, but not during missions. To refill during a mission, you’ll need one of those costly health bottles. They can be won from the daily lottery, but unless you abuse the time changing trick you’ll seldom have any bottles on hand. Frankly, either health should recharge during missions or bottles should cost gold.

The game’s store also sells a variety of guns, clothing (armor), and horses for exorbitant quantities of premium currency. This doesn’t hurt the gameplay in and of itself (outside of multiplayer), but the prices fall pretty far on the greedy side. Gameloft has priced the best guns and outfit at $50 or higher in hopes that a few whales (big IAP spenders) will buy them. But it would be more reasonable to price those items closer to $10. Then non-insane players could justify the purchase, which would probably lead to more sales overall.

Multiplayer

Six-Guns’ online multiplayer mode is also affected by those IAPs. See, whatever guns and clothing the player purchases in single-player (premium or not) can be used in multiplayer. Buy good equipment and you’ll tear through players with lesser stuff. Obviously the publisher’s hope is that players will spend money to gain a competitive advantage, but that’s bad game design.

Still, multiplayer is pretty fun as long as you don’t run across somebody with a crazy good weapon. Multiplayer only offers one game type - capture the flag, and only two maps, which feels anemic. But at least there are tons of people playing at all hours, owing to the game being free and running on 512 MB devices.

Two annoying multiplayer bugs: sometimes you’ll repeatedly fail to connect whenever you try to create or join a game. Closing the game by exiting from the title and relaunching seems to fix the connection issues for a while.

The less severe bug involves weapon selection. For some reason, you can only select between a couple of the guns in your inventory during multiplayer. To switch to any other weapon, you’ll need to open the store and equip the gun from there.

Achievements

We’re running long here, so I’ll just touch on the game’s most challenging Achievement: ‘100% Completion.’ It requires players to not just beat every mission but also EVERY ROUND of every mission. That will pretty much take forever, which isn’t a bad thing if you enjoy the game. But it could be frustrating if you’re unable to complete certain missions like the sniping ones. Perhaps the Windows 8 version will help there…

Overall Impression

Six-Guns comes dangerously close to being unforgivably greedy thanks to the health bottles costing money and the sky-high prices of premium items. But you CAN get by without health bottles for the most part, and you don’t need those expensive weapons and clothing. Look past those things and you’ve got a vast game just overflowing with a variety of missions to complete. A player could spend nothing and get a hundred hours out of the game, easily.

If you really like the game and want to support Gameloft, I recommend buying a little gold or a permanent health upgrade since those are priced somewhat fairly. But the cool thing about free to play is that people who don’t like the game or its IAP prices don’t need to drop a cent on it.

I love Six-Guns (other than its erratic aiming) and can’t wait for the impending Windows 8 version. Thanks to cloud saving support, we should be able to hop back and forth between both platforms at our leisure.

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

We’ve poured on The Sims FreePlay coverage lately, and why not? Xbox Windows Phone games have become relatively scarce this year (though September saw plenty of new releases). It’s also a massively sized mobile entry in one of gaming’s most popular franchises… Not to mention, it’s free to play so any Windows Phone 8 user with 1 GB of RAM can get it (internet connection required).

Then again, the ‘free’ feather in a title’s cap can also be a thorn in its side from a gameplay perspective. The Sims FreePlay embodies many of the free to play trappings typically perceived as negative by users, from time-based mechanics to dual currencies. Can the joyful simulation aspects of The Sims survive all those grabs for players’ wallets? Read on for our evaluation.

Building your virtual dudes and dudettes

The first thing you’ll do in Sims FreePlay is customize your own Sim (virtual person). You don’t have to engage in the customization, per se – the game automatically generates a unique body, outfit, name, and personality during the creation process. If the result is unsatisfactory or too similar in appearance to Kristen Stewart, just reroll and you’ll get a new ransom Sim.

Playing with prefab Sims kind of misses the point of these games, though. A big chunk of the fun comes from recreating yourself, the people you know, and whomever else you can think of.

How does Sims FreePlay fare in character customization then? Well, it does have more face, hair, and clothing options than The Sims 3 for Windows Phone. But hairstyles and facial options for men are still in short supply. You can’t customize body size or age either, severely limiting the ability to recreate real people within the game. That said, I did manage passable versions of myself and fellow Windows Phone Central staffers Daniel, Rich, Sam, and Michael.

Adding one Sim at a time

Previous Windows Phone releases The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval only allowed users to play as one character at a time, directly controlling that character. Surprisingly enough, FreePlay ditches that design in favor of the mainline Sims PC games’ style of play. You start with only one Sim, but you’ll eventually have a whole town of them to play with.

Building the town itself is essentially the main goal. You’ll have to buy houses (premade or user designed) for all those Sims to live and woohoo in. The game offers a sizable assortment of homes to choose from, though the really nice ones are so expensive that you probably won’t build them until late in the game.

On top of that, the town holds a number of spaces for businesses and attractions. Players can actually visit some locations like the park, family center, nightclub, and snow resort to engage with their Sims. Shops sell: additional wardrobe choices, pets (cats, dogs, and rabbits), and new objects for Sims to interact with. Businesses such as the recording studio, firehouse, and City Hall offer jobs for up-and-coming Sims.

All of these places produce small amounts of money and XP over time.

Jobs, Hobbies, and School

Jobs keep your Sims busy as well as bring in XP and money. Each career type offer several levels for characters to progress through. The higher the level they attain, the more money and experience they bring in. Sims can gain job experience both by attending their jobs (at which point you don’t interact with them until they’re done) or by using job-specific objects like fire hydrants, soccer balls, and mirrors.

Hobbies work a lot like jobs but without the obligation of attending at certain times. Sims can fish, woodwork, swim, design fashions, and more. Progressing through the different levels of a hobby actually nets rewards like unique items, money, and XP bonuses. Hobbies have their own unique minigame aspects, too. Hunt for ghosts and the player will actually need to tap an evasive ghost three times to catch it; create a fashion and you’ll have to stop a spinner on light bulbs instead of bombs.

Preteens Sims don’t have quite the same work and hobby options as adults. Instead of going to work, they must attend school or use a study desk. This allows them to move through grade averages instead of levels – excruciatingly slowly, I might add. Preteens get two exclusive hobbies: ballet and karate. Shame that the Achievements require players to create three preteens; a third hobby would have been appreciated.

Time…

FreePlay is a lot like a regular Sims game. Players can feed, clean, and micromanage Sims to their hearts’ content. Tell your Sim to watch television, browse the internet, call a friend, watch a movie, get married, or just have a latte. You can’t do every single thing the big brother versions offer (no elderly Sims or death here), but it provides more than enough options for a mobile game.

This is a free to play game, however, so it needs a way to encourage users to spend real money and to continue playing and/or spending over time. The catch here is that every action takes specific amounts of real time to complete. Tell a Sim to take a shower and she’ll be unavailable for several minutes; send them to work and they’re gone for hours. It takes 24 hours to have a baby, and then another full day to advance it to toddler and preteen ages.

In fairness, most activities offer several variations with different time spans to choose from. Grabbing a snack from the fridge might take 20 seconds, while a meal takes six minutes. This lets you choose shorter times when you want to pay more attention to the game and longer durations when you have less time for it. You’ll eventually have so many Sims that you can jump between various shorter actions and keep far more active than many time-based games.

…and Money

Initially you’ll progress through the game quickly enough to not only keep busy but also potentially become addicted to it. Eventually though, the rug gets pulled out as things start taking longer.

In-game goals (sort of like the optional missions in Jetpack Joyride) might require you to perform an action on a specific day of the week and even within a small range of hours on that day. Until that window comes up, you can’t get a new goal and move on – unless you spent the precious Life Points earned from completing other goals and certain actions.

Similarly, new buildings cost more and more Simoleons (money) as your town grows. You’ll come to a point where it takes days or even longer to earn the money to complete those buildings and fill out your town.

In both cases, you can just keep playing and work on other aspects like earning XP, leveling up jobs and hobbies, etc. until you can move on again. But the publisher’s intent is obviously to encourage players to buy Simoleons and Life Points with real money in order to shorten the grind. The currency packs you can buy actually include more money as you level up, so waiting until later in the game to make a purchase is the way to go if you’re inclined to spend.

See our In-App Purchase Guide for more details on the game’s currency system and what IAPs it offers.

Achievements

The main Achievement that will keep GamerScore hunters coming back is for completing 1,000 goals. That will take a couple of months at minimum; hence nobody has done it yet.

Unfortunately, FreePlay suffers from some Achievement glitchiness that can prevent random Achievements from unlocking. We detail a partially effective workaround as well as Achievement requirements and strategies in our two-part guide:

• Achievement Guide Part 1
• Achievement Guide Part 2

Overall Impression

The Sims FreePlay packs an amazing amount of the Sims series’ content and fun into a free to play mobile game. There are so many things to buy; jobs, hobbies, and relationships to level; and goals to complete. You could play for months without completing it all.

The time-based mechanics could have derailed FreePlay. The game does get to a point where you’ll really feel like hurrying things up by making an In-App Purchase. EA has to profit from FreePlay somehow, so we can’t fault them too much for making it grindy. Some players will lose interest when the grind really kicks in; some will keep playing without spending; and some will buy currency to speed things along. As long as EA keeps bringing high profile games like this to Windows Phone, everybody wins.

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

Russian computer engineer and game designer Alexy Pajitnov created Tetris for PCs way back in 1984. But Tetris first caught the public eye when Nintendo packed it in with the original GameBoy portable console in 1989. Since then, a number of companies have licensed the game and put their own unique spin on it, with the versions from Nintendo (especially Tetris DS) and Sega (Sega Tetris for Dreamcast) standing above the crowd.

Publishing giant Electronic Arts has also produced several Tetris games, including the 2011 Tetris which appeared on Playstation 3 and Windows Phone 7. This year’s Tetris Blitz is EA’s latest version, marrying the time honored Tetris gameplay with the frantic pace of Bejeweled Blitz. Tetris Blitz arrived on Windows Phone 8 a respectable four months after iOS.

Does this version deserve a spot on the list of best Tetris games? Read on to find out.

Fastest Tetris ever

Some players have complained that Tetris doesn’t adapt well to touch screen controls. In truth, it adapts as well as any other console-style game like platformers, shooters, etc. You lose a bit of precision, but you gain the ability to play anywhere – any serious mobile gamer has come terms with that by now.

But Electronic Arts isn’t just targeting the people who buy Gameloft games on their phones with Tetris Blitz. They’re targeting the casual gamers who eat up games like Bejeweled and Candy Crush Saga but don’t take the time to learn more complex control schemes. Hence, EA invented a clever new control system for Tetris Blitz.

Under the new control scheme, players don’t manually rotate pieces. Instead, every time a new piece appears, the game suggests four places to drop it. Tap one of those outlines to instantly drop the piece in place. If you don’t like the suggestions, you can press the Cycle button at left to toggle four more suggestions. Or just drag your finger along the stack of blocks and then release to drop the piece in a different spot.

This shift in control schemes takes a little getting used to for experienced Tetris players, but most gamers will adapt right away. Dropping pieces instantly speeds up the gameplay quite a bit, which is the name of the game in Tetris Blitz. But you can also switch to traditional swipe controls in options if you’re not concerned with speed.

Goals

Seeing as how Tetris Blitz is modeled after Bejeweled Blitz, games last for only two minutes. Players must try to rack up as many points as they can during this time. You can do so by clearing lines, but you’ll also need to make Tetrises (clearing four lines at once) to increase your score multiplier.

The new Frenzy mode helps with scoring as well. As you clear lines, the Frenzy meter to the left of the field rises. Once the meter fills, Frenzy mode activates. Suddenly the screen starts flashing and easy to clear junk blocks appear at the bottom of the field. Points earned from clearing lines doubles. Frenzy lasts only a short time, though clearing lines during a Frenzy will extend its duration.

Once two minutes tick down and the game inevitably ends, players receive a small pile of coins and an even paltrier sum of XP. Experience contributes towards leveling up, which in turn gets you… a few coins. Yeah, leveling up has no other point than a coin bonus. Not the most compelling metagame, honestly.

Powerups and IAPs

Blitz lacks a solid long term goal (other than Achievements), but it does have a decent weekly goal. See, only a handful of the game’s 14 powerups are unlocked by default. To use an available powerup, you have to spend the coins you’ve earned or bought via In-App Purchase (IAP). Powerups are absolutely necessary to achieve high scores.

To get the rest of the powerups, you can spend money on disturbingly overpriced IAPs. We’re talking six bucks to unlock a single power-up. Doesn’t that sound great?

However, one of those premium powerups is usable on a temporary basis as the Powerup of the Week. If a player manages to use that powerup 90 times, it will unlock for good. So that’s your real goal for the week – spend coins on the Powerup of the Week and play 90 games so that it will unlock for good. I don’t personally find the game compelling enough to do that, but at least EA gives players a way around the crazy high IAP prices.

Other IAPs include coin packs, the ability to hold an extra Tetromino for later use, the ability to see the next three Tetrominos coming up instead of only one, extra spins for the lame daily spinner minigame, and disabling ads.

Facebook closed

Tetris Blitz is one of those rare Xbox Windows Phone games with Facebook integration. Even The Sims FreePlay (also from EA) had its social features stripped from the Windows Phone 8 version, but I guess EA considered them more important for Blitz.

The Facebook integration here allows players to view their Facebook friends’ high scores and send them challenges. It’s not much, but it does offer a measure of cross platform competition. This game is awfully light on content so it needs every little advantage it can get.

Sadly, the Facebook integration completely broke for me a couple of days after I started playing. When I try to log in, I get the dreaded white screen with red text that we once suffered through in Ice Age Village. It just sits on that screen, forcing me to back out and choose to play without signing in. Oh, but the game will still remind you to sign in to Facebook between games, even when Facebook no connect-y.

Fail to connect to Facebook and you can’t even see your Xbox Live friends in the Leaderboards. Why? Sure, some players are still able to connect to Facebook, but based on the negative reviews in the Store, this problem affects a fair number of users.

And more bugs

Broken Facebook connectivity isn’t the only bug afflicting Tetris Blitz. The Powerup of the Week, which should be half off as an IAP, appears at full price while the previous week’s powerup shows up at a discount. Way to encourage a purchase!

More disconcertingly, sometimes the game will just free up for several seconds and then start working again. These freezes kept happening to me over and over one night, making the game completely unplayable. Since then, it hasn’t happened to me. But again, Store reviews show the freezes are a widespread problem.

Some users report that the option to Exit from the game does not work for them. I don’t have this problem, but I sympathize. At least the Windows Phone 8 GDR3 update will allow users to close any app from the Fast App Switching screen.

Finally, I hear the game crashes quite frequently for some people.

Achievements

Okay, one more bug: the in-game counters that SHOULD show progress towards Achievements simply don’t work. The most time consuming Achievement is for clearing 100,000 lines. We should be able to see how many lines we’ve cleared, but due to the tracking bug we cannot.

Tetris Blitz also has a useless Achievement for unlocking every other Achievement. That sort of Achievement makes sense on platforms like the Playstation 3 which don’t have GamerScore. But under the Xbox ecosystem, everyone can tell you’ve got all of a game’s Achievements because you’ll have the full 200 (or whatever number) of GamerScore. Shame to waste an Achievement on the equivalent of a Platinum Trophy.

Overall Impression

I’ve always had a soft spot for Tetris, and I wanted to love Tetris Blitz. But I don’t think Electronic Arts spent enough time on the game design or UI with this one.

Leveling up is essentially meaningless instead of rewarding, and players who don’t care about leaderboard competitions (or can’t view the leaderboards, like me) or Achievements have no reason to keep coming back. Tetris Blitz feels like an extra mode you’d ignore in a more robust Tetris game.

The Facebook problems, busted IAP pricing, and other bugs don’t do this version any favors either. Hopefully EA patches things up with an update or two. Blitz is not a bad game, but it could be so much better.

• Tetris Blitz– Windows Phone 8 – 32 MB – Free – Store Link

Last month, the Windows 8 version of Rayman Jungle Run received a sizable update. Ubisoft added 20 new levels to their beautiful 2D platformer, and for free. New levels are all very well and good, but what about the Windows Phone 8 version of the game? We assumed it would receive the same update at some point, but Ubisoft couldn’t confirm it for us.

Looks like we assumed correctly! The Windows Phone 8 version of Rayman Jungle Run just got updated with 20 new levels. The update pushes the game’s download size from 49 MB to 78 MB, but that’s still not a bad size for a AAA downloadable title. Head past the break for details and screenshots of the new stages.

Less hassle, more joy

The Windows 8 version of the game required players to manually download the new levels as a free In-App Purchase after installing the title update. Not a huge hassle, but still an unnecessary step.

Thankfully the Windows Phone version dispenses with the extra downloading and simply adds the new levels automatically when the update is installed.

More levels to love

The new levels come in two sets. The first set is called Pirate Ship. You’ll see the enemy’s flying pirate ship in the background of 6-2, but you won’t face it until 6-7. At that point, the flying ship chases after our hero, 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 Rayman Origins for consoles, such as moving background pieces. Sometimes the only way to go is up, and Rayman must hurriedly jump between huge pieces of land falling from the sky.

Pirate Ship and Giant Plant 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 extra tough platforming challenges. The new Teeth of Death levels also get their own leaderboards.

One major issue with this update: music doesn't play during the new levels! The older levels are fine, but the music cuts off as soon as you start a level in the sixth or seventh world.

Easier Achievements?

As with the Windows 8 version, the new levels don’t add any new Achievements to the game. Free updates don’t play that way. But the extra levels 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. Jungle Run 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.

Running through the jungle

Rayman Jungle Run was always an excellent platforming game - see our full review for the hows and whys. The new levels make it that much sweeter, not to mention more challenging. They will have to tide us over until the sequel Rayman Fiesta Run pops up later this year... Let's hope Ubisoft fixes the sound bug introduced in this update before then though.

Thanks to WinMaverick for the tip!

• Rayman Jungle Run– Windows Phone 8 – 78 MB - $2.99 – Store Link
• Rayman Jungle Run– Windows 8 and RT – 58 MB - $2.99 – Store Link

With no new Xbox release for Windows Phone this week, gamers in search of a fix will have to look to the Xbox Red Stripe Deal for their entertainment. The latest deal game is Gameloft’s Dark Knight Rises for Windows Phone 8. It’s on sale for $2.99, as it also was back in June. If you’re looking for a long and meaty game, it should fit the bill.

Non-Xbox Red Stripe Deals include the phenomenal strategy game Armed from Sickhead Games for 99 cents, plus the popular app Weave News Reader for $3.99. We’ve got details and Store links after the break.

The Dark Knight Rises (Windows Phone 8 with 1 GB RAM)

Regular price: $6.99 Sale price: $2.99 Download size:  774 MB Store Link

Everybody knows Gameloft for their mobile clones of popular console and PC titles. But Gameloft also produces fairly high quality licensed games. This one is based on the final Chris Nolan Batman film – the one with all the plot holes like Batman surviving a nuclear explosion somehow. Me, I prefer the animated The Dark Knight Returns, which recently came out in a wonderful deluxe release on Blu-ray and DVD.

As for the game itself, it looks and plays much like Amazing Spider-Man. You can take on the story missions following the film’s plot or run around doing random missions in an open world setting. Batman doesn’t web sling, but he does get to drive vehicles.

Dark Knight Rises is a pretty good movie game, but like other 3D Gameloft titles it suffers from a lower than optimal frame rate. It also has one Achievement that is a little iffy but can be attained by a grinding workaround. Putting those concerns aside, Dark Knight Rises is a must-buy for fans of open world games and the Caped Crusader.

Armed (Windows Phone 7 and 8)

Regular price: $1.99 Sale price: $.99 Download size: 65 MB Store Link

We haven’t written about it in a while, but Armed (AKA ARMED!) used to be one of the most popular and technically impressive indie games for Windows Phone 7.

A turn-based strategy game with 3D graphics, Armed! features some seriously slick menus and UI that put many games from larger companies to shame. On top of single-player battles against the AI, the game also boasts cross-platform online multiplayer. You can battle against Windows 8, PC, iOS, Android, and Ouya players, which is pretty awesome.

Sickhead hasn’t made a new game in a while; hopefully we see something from them soon. In the meantime, don’t miss Armed if you like strategy games.

Weave News Reader (Windows Phone 7 and 8)

Regular price: $7.99 Sale price: $3.99 Download size:  3 MB Store Link

Weave is one of the best Windows Phone news readers around (neck and neck with Nextgen Reader), but it’s also pretty costly. Starting out at ten bucks, it normally sells for $8 nowadays. Luckily for people who find that too rich for their blood, it’s half off this week.

Weave is exclusive to Windows Phone and Windows 8. You can find the Windows 8 version here, or try the free ad-supported Windows Phone version here.

Features:

• The first time you open the app, pick from a few of the more popular topics. If you don't see something you like listed, don't worry - there are a lot more topics in the browsable library we've included with the app!
• We've also provided a TON of customization options - everything from different fonts, font sizes, and reading theme colors (try the "night" reading theme when you're up late reading the latest news!).
• We even let you choose what voice you want to hear when Weave speaks an article to you!
• Share articles at the touch of a button: we make it easy to share articles via Instapaper, email, SMS, and social networks (Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn).
• We almost forgot to mention the absolutely gorgeous Live Tile, which cycles through up to 9 images from your latest news articles.
• Come see why many have called Weave the best news app they've ever used!

Thanks to Marcel for the tip!

Last year Ubisoft released its first Xbox game for Windows Phone, Babel Rising 3D. Mando Productions created the original game while Advanced Mobile Applications ported it to Windows platforms. Babel Rising arrived just a month before Windows Phone 8. Once the new mobile OS launched, the game turned out to be Windows Phone 8-incompatible.

Luckily for Windows Phone gamers, Ubisoft did the right thing and brought Babel Rising 3D back as a new, separate Windows Phone 8 version earlier this month. Not only that, they also published a Windows 8 version. All three versions are content identical, with the Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 versions naturally running smoother and in higher resolutions. It’s high time for our full review.

Mankind should know its place, says God

All screenshots from Windows Phone 8 version.

In Populous, the original god game, players took on the role of a god tasked with protecting his people against those of an invading god. Babel Rising ditches the protection aspect, instead casting players as an angry god.

This particular god does stuff like killing people for cutting their hair, looking backwards, or being the children of a really pious guy. Yep, Babel Rising is about that god. Specifically, the premise comes from the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, in which the humans who dared to build history’s first skyscraper met with divine punishment.

In each level, humans will flock towards the tower base at the center. Each one who reaches the top of the current structure adds a bit of height to the structure. Once the tower is completed, you’ll get a game over. To delay or stop that from happening, you’ll call on divine powers.

Powers that be

There are four sets of powers to unlock: earth, fire, wind, and water. Each power set offers three types of powers:

• Drop: Tap the screen to drop an object on enemies’ heads. The most rapidly usable power
• Drag: Hold a finger on one side of the screen and drag with the other finger to create a line of fire, etc. that destroys multiple enemies.
  
  Drag powers don’t work all that great in practice. The path of destruction often goes through a wall of background element, partially or completely missing nearby enemies. It would be far better if the path automatically stuck to whatever pathways enemies use. Additionally, the path of destruction often cuts off instantly or much shorter than its maximum length for no good reason, wasting the power’s use.
• Ultimate: These powers slowly charge as you play and can’t be used frequently. Tap the screen with three fingers or shake the device to activate them. You’ll unleash an attack that kills large numbers of enemies, including a Bible-style flood.

The drop and drag powers take a shorter time to fill up and become usable than ultimate powers, but you still can’t just activate a single power as much as you want. The idea is to switch back and forth between both sets of powers in order to keep your offense going.

To toggle power sets, players have to select the opposite set from one of the top corners of the screen. I find jumping back and forth on the touch screen cumbersome, especially given how quickly the enemies advance on harder levels.

Some powers need to be unlocked, and all of them can be upgraded multiple times. You’ll buy them in the shop using coins earned from gameplay. Everything costs ways too much relative to how few coins you earn, almost as if Babel Rising was designed to be a free to play game. And the not-free iOS version does sell coins as In-App Purchasess, but the mobile Windows versions lack IAPs.

Campaign and Survival

The game offers both a 15-stage Campaign and an endless Survival mode, also referred to as Quick Play. Oddly, the campaign isn’t designed to be played from start to finish in a single setting. The difficulty ramps up so quickly that just a few levels in you’ll find it impossible to advance. The solution is to jump into Survival and grind for coins.

Survival mode isn’t a bad experience, but the coin payouts are beyond miserly on the default stage. You’ll play for 10 minutes without earning enough to upgrade even a single power. What the game doesn’t tell you is that higher survival stages pay better than the starting one. You can buy the highest stage and just die straight away to earn 70-100 coins with minimal effort. Do that repeatedly and you’ll amass a healthy cache of coins to spend on upgrades.

Forcing players to grind Survival before they can make any real progress in Campaign is an unfair way of artificially lengthening the game. Powers take way too long to charge and lack decent killing power until they’re fully upgraded. Even at maximum upgrade, everything takes too long to recharge for my liking. Essentially, the developers built in a lengthy period of unfun before players can get to the properly fun part of the game.

Even once you’ve upgraded everything and returned to Campaign, it’s no walk in the park. Campaign difficulty just gets too brutal. I struggled with the tenth stage repeatedly before giving up. In the past, readers claimed that the Windows Phone 7 version is impossible to beat. Well, people have beaten every version, but I can see why you’d think it was impossible. The unfriendly difficulty is another a way of lengthening the game without adding new content.

Windows 8 Controls

Between waves you can sometimes play this ship-sinking minigame.

The Windows 8 version offers the same touch controls as the phone game. It also adds two more control options: mouse and keyboard or Xbox 360 controller.

The mouse and keyboard option allows players to switch between both sets of powers instantly via the scroll wheel or CTRL key. That makes juggling powers so much easier. Clicking the left mouse button uses the ‘drop’ power, clicking and dragging activates the ‘drag’ power, and space bar unleashes the Ultimate power.

Like the mouse option, the Xbox 360 controller generally works better than touch controls. The left stick moves the cursor, while the right stick changes the camera angle. Instead of toggling between both power sets, all six powers get their own button.  A, X, and Left Trigger control one set of powers while B, Y, and Right Trigger use the other set.

Menu navigation is where both additional control styles have problems. The mouse pointer is way too small during menus and easily gets lost. But it could be worse...

Worse indeed, the Xbox 360 controller can’t control the menus at all! Press Start to pause and you can’t even return to the game without using a mouse or touch screen – Start really should unpause as well. The lack of menu navigation with the controller makes no sense because the game already has mouse cursor-style control during gameplay. It would take minimal development effort to enable menu navigation with the controller.

Achievements

All three mobile versions of Babel Rising have the same 12 Achievements. Each version has its own list however, meaning a player who owns multiple platforms can buy and run through the game on each one for more GamerScore.

The game has a grinding Achievement for killing 10,000 workers that should take several hours to get. Luckily you can track kills from the Stats screen under Help & Options.

One of the phone versions (not sure which) has a glitchy Achievement for using each passive power and scroll once. According to Arsenic 17’s Achievement Guide, users who experience trouble unlocking it will need to reinstall and go after it before completing the campaign.

Overall Impression

The concept behind Babel Rising holds a lot of promise. Playing as a god and taking down hapless homo sapiens should make for a wickedly good time. But the actual implementation here needs some work. Constantly toggling between powers and waiting for those powers to refill is none too satisfying (though better on Windows 8 with mouse or controller). I’d much prefer being able to spam the drop and drag powers as quickly as I like.

Besides, Babel Rising is too hard for its own good. A game like this should be aimed at casual audiences, making them feel powerful as they strike down hordes of weakling humans. Instead, it puts the player god at the mercy of his or her creations. How is that godlike?

Difficulty issues aside, let’s hope that Ubisoft enables Xbox controller support in the Windows 8 version’s menus soon. If I had to play only one version of the game, it’s definitely the one that works with mouse and keyboard or controller.

• Babel Rising 3D– Windows Phone 8 (No trial) – 41 MB – $2.99 – Store Link
• Babel Rising 3D– Windows 8 and RT – 130 MB – $3.49 – Store Link
• Babel Rising 3D– Windows Phone 7 – 72 MB – $2.99 – Store Link

The Sims FreePlay was a very big game when it arrived on Windows Phone 8 in September. So big that we published a two installment Achievement guide and an In-App Purchase guide on top of our usual review. But even then, our version lacked some content from the iOS version, including all social features. The iOS and Android games received a new update on October 11, pushing even farther ahead of our version.

Only one month after its initial release, The Sims FreePlay has just received a massive update. Windows Phone players now have access to the Mysterious Island area, teenage Sims, a whole new quest system, tons of new items, and much more. However, the update also makes a few Achievements much more difficult and time consuming. Head past the break for detailed descriptions and screenshots of the many changes!

Quest Chains

The largest change to how the game itself works is the revamped quest system. Prior to the update, players could only work on one quest at a time. If the quest required you to complete it at a certain time or you didn’t have the necessary building, it could take days or weeks before you could make any progress.

After the update, players can have up to three active quests at once. Each quest is now part of a quest chain. Complete one and you’ll move on to the next quest in the series. Finish all of the quests in a series and you’ll earn a reward. However, quest chains are time sensitive, so you won’t get the full reward unless you finish before the time runs out.

The good news is this system makes completing goals for ‘1000 GOALS!’ Achievement a fair bit easier. The bad news is that Goals are now far less likely to provide Life Points as rewards. You’ll still get them every now and then, but for the most part goals just pay out in Simoleons and XP now. This doesn’t stop players from earning Life Points via other methods, but it does slow the earning a bit.

Mystery Boxes

The basic quest chain (comprised of random quests) provides a new item as a completion reward: the Mystery Box key.  You can only earn one key per week, though the chain continues to produce quests even after completion. 

To visit the Mystery Boxes Store, collect at least one key, select the weekly quest chain, and touch the Mystery Box icon. Mystery Boxes cost 1-10 keys, with the more expensive ones providing better rewards. Their contents are random, but at least you can judge the reward rarity by the cost of the Box.

Money Grows on Trees (unlocks at level 13)

Story-based quest chains contain a series of non-random quests and tell a little story as part of each goal’s description. They also pay out unique rewards for completing the chain.

The first story chain you’ll work on is called ‘Money Grows on Trees?’ It consists of the following goals:

1. Ponder in a Lounge Chair
2. Grow Potatoes
3. Make a Double Shot of Coffee
4. Grow Watermelon
5. Make a Hot Snack in the microwave
6. Catch some Zs on a Couch
7. Buy a Seed From the Supermarket
8. Have a Quick Dip in the Bath
9. Negotiate with a Sim-Eating Plant
10. Bake Donuts
11. Grow a Simoleon Sprout in the Garden

The Simoleon Sprout is a new plant for your Sims to grow. Planting one instantly launches a slot-machine minigame in which all of the payouts are in Simoleons. You can plant a Simoleon Sprout for free every four hours. Planting them sooner costs 5 Life Points. Probably not a great investment.

The Mysterious Island (unlocks at level 15)

After completing the Simoleon Sprout quest chain, you’ll gain access to the Mysterious Island quest series. It contains the following goals:

1. Watch the News on TV
2. Go for a drive
3. Wash hands
4. Build bridge on the town map
5. Visit the Mysterious Island
6. Tap the Monument icon
7. Read Encyclopedia
8. Call a Friend
9. Catch a Ghost
10. Grill 'em all on a BBQ
11. Bake Pancakes
12. Bake Cookies
13. Read the Big Book of Stuff
14. Browse Internet
15. Have a Deep Sleep
16. Rest Eyes on a Couch
17. Grow Onions
18. Rich Lather in the Shower
19. Find Another Resource
20. Upgrade 'The Riches of Terra' to Level 1
21. Garden, Bake, or Work until you get a Simoleon bonus
22. Upgrade 'The Riches of Terra' to Level 2

The Mysterious Island itself is a new map that you can travel to after building The Mysterious Island Bridge. It contains a series of monuments for players to build. Each monument provides a chance to earn Simoleon or Life Point bonuses from completing tasks.

Instead of Simoleons or Life Points, monuments cost resources – a new class of item. Players will randomly earn resources by completing tasks such as gardening, hobbies, etc. The resource earned is random as well, with certain ones being much rarer than others. After you’ve upgraded the first monument, you can choose to substitute Life Points for resources at a cost of 3 Life Points per missing unit of resource.

Coming of Age (level 23), Higher Education (level 24), and the Road to Fame (level 25)

The update introduces a new NPC character: Osiris the alien. Windows Phone players will first meet him at the beginning of the ‘Coming of Age’ quest series. Once you’ve unlocked Osiris, you can go to him or call him just like other Sims - from the SimTracker.

The ‘Coming of Age’ consists of:

1. Meet Osiris
2. Be Nice To Osiris
3. Bake Donuts
4. Be Nice To Osiris
5. Read The Big Book Of Stuff
6. Watch A Movie Marathon
7. Bake Chocolate Pudding
8. Talk To Trees
9. Grow Potatoes
10. Be Inconspicuous On A Park Bench
11. Bake Birthday Cake

After completing ‘Coming of Age,’ you’ll be able to advance Preteen Sims to full Teen status! The ‘Higher Education’ series then allows you to build the High School for teens to attend.

The ‘Road to Fame’ quest allows teens to become Teen Idols. Idols can play new instruments, sign autographs, and more. You’ll also be able to build one more new building: the SimTown Sign. It gives a chance to get extra revenue when collecting Simoleons from the town map. Unlike other buildings on the main town map, building the SimTown Sign requires unique resources instead of Simoleons.

Hobby Rewards

The new quests and content have all been good news, but here’s where we get to negative territory. Prior to the update, hobbies were the best way to increase your Town value. Completing a set of ghosts via ghost hunting or crafting all of the woodworking designs more than once would net players 500,000 Town Value each time.

Sadly, the update removes the 500,000 Town value bonus from all hobby collections. Completing collections now just gets you 3 Life Points. As such, hobbies remain the best way to earn Life Points. But the change makes the Town Value Achievements so much harder. In fact, it would take the rest of your life, much of your firstborn child’s life, and an extra month for good measure to actually reach 30,000,000 Town value now. So if you haven’t updated yet, don’t do it until you get that Achievement!

Ghost Hunting and Halloween Event

Even without the allure of Town value bonuses, Ghost hunting has long been a popular method of grinding for Simoleons and Life Points. EA knows this and so they made ghost hunting a little harder. Haunted items now lose their hauntedness for 20-30 minutes after use.

If you want to continuously hunt for ghosts, you’ll need several haunted items in the same house (a good idea anyway). And if you want multiple Sims hunting for ghosts, you’ll have to buy a boatload of extra haunted goods in order to ensure they always have a haunted object to investigate.

Downer, right? On the plus side, the ghost hunting hobby can now level up to 8 instead of six. There are six new ghosts to find, which also bumps up the reward for subsequent ghost collection completions to 5 Life Points instead of 3. More exciting, each tier of ghosts offers brand new haunted items to unlock as rewards. These are all part of the special Halloween event that EA runs every year.

Complete the expanded collection of ghosts by November 1^st and you’ll unlock the Petrifying Putting Green item! It will only be available until then and never again. You’ll find it in the Outdoor Furniture section of the Home Store.

It's great to see a time-based event included in an Xbox Windows Phone game. We've missed out on similar features in past games like Ice Age Village. Maybe EA will keep The Sims Freeplay up to date right alongside the other versions.

Job Leveling

Just as ghost hunting got harder, so did leveling up careers. Before, the fastest way to level up a job was to use its related hobby item for one hour at a time. The update has changed the hobby item time to three hours, reducing the items’ effectiveness. Jobs are not as critical as hobbies in this game, but this change does make the ‘Mad Scientist’ Achievement take longer.

Limited edition Progressive items

Here’s a mostly good thing. From time to time, EA adds sponsored items to the game. Windows Phone already has Toyota cars and guitars, and the iOS game has Febreze spray. This update throws Progressive Insurance cars and TVs into the mix.

The TV is rated at 2-stars and gives players the option to watch that annoying Flo lady that I want to slap. Both the TV and car are free, so we can’t complain too much about the commercialization aspect. The Achievement for driving ‘100 miles’ just got easier, though you do still have to build the Car Dealership in order to pick up your free car.

New In-App Purchases

Naturally a giant content update like this has to add some new ways for players to spend real money. These are the ones I’ve encountered so far:

• Adopt a Preteen– $4.99
  Use a phone and choose this option to instantly add a preteen to your roster. Saves the trouble of having a baby and baking birthday cakes.
• Adopt a Teen–$4.99
  This option appears after you complete the ‘Coming of Age’ quests. “Why make a teen the old fashioned way when you can just buy them?” someone asks.
• Life Point Lotus– $.99
  Works like the Simoleon Sprout but with Life Points, and it always costs money. I won 50 Life Points when I tried it. This seems like a good deal no matter how much you win.
• Dolphin Pool Pack – $3.99
  Add a splash of dolphin-themed awesomeness to your pool area with our all-new Dolphin Pack! Contains dolphin float, pool slide, and beach towels. Found in the Specials section of the Online Store.

We’ll update our In-App Purchase Guide soon.

Miscellaneous changes

• Item prices are now displayed in the Online Store. Sweet!
• The camera can now be zoomed out much farther.
• The game now displays what type of fish you caught after your Sim gets swallowed by a giant fish.
• A DJ can no longer join in with dancing Sims if no one else is DJing.

This update revamped the user interface displayed at the bottom of the screen, including buttons. These changes are mostly for the better, but the Sims' needs meters are more scrunched up and harder to read than before.

Bigger, mostly better

Thanks to the Sims FreePlay version 1.1 update, Windows Phone now has all of the iOS content except for the social features. Sadly, the Party Boat, the ability to visit friends’ towns, and items that cost Social Points are still nowhere to be found. It looks like EA won’t be giving us those features in the future, but you never know.

Still, they did add tons of new quests and items to complete. The new quest system actually makes the game way more varied and interesting. The time-based quests series even instill a sense of urgency that wasn’t there before. Players who enjoy decorating and accessorizing their Sims will love the new items. Margaritas all around!

The only people who should NOT download this update are players who haven’t reached 30,000,000 Town Value yet. If that includes you, I suggest you max out your woodworking skill, purchase work benches for all your Sims, and put them to work until you get the Achievement. Woodworking is a faster completion than ghost hunting. After the Achievement unlocks, Town Value doesn’t matter anymore and you can enjoy the update without worry.

• The Sims FreePlay – Windows Phone 8 (1 GB of RAM) – 504 MB – Free – Store Link

Thanks to Dr. David Baptista da Silva for the tip!

Xbox Windows Phone gamers might have noticed that a Store link for Gameloft’s Kingdoms & Lords has been making the rounds today. Unfortunately, most users are finding they can’t actually download or play the game on their phones. Is it a case of the dreaded 1 GB RAM requirement? Nope, even folks with 1 or 2 GB of RAM can’t get their Kingdoms on.

Windows Phone Central checked in with our friends at Gameloft and discovered just what is happening with Kingdoms & Lords. It turns out the game has soft launched in a few territories but remains mostly inaccessible to users in other regions like the United States. Luckily it will be releasing worldwide next week, so the wait shouldn’t be too hard.

Head past the break for our hands on video, Achievement details, and more!

Romancing the kingdoms

Kingdoms & Lords is one part city building game mixed with one part strategy. Players will expand their own towns, purchasing buildings, building roads, and harvesting resources. Completing missions nets you experience and new items to use in your kingdom.

Unlike simpler games such as Gameloft’s own Ice Age Village, Kingdoms & Lords also features a strong battle component. Players can invade each others villages and defend their own villages. They’ll also do battle against AI bosses, each of which provides a tasty Achievement.

That competitive element puts Kingdoms & Lords ahead of other games in which players just check in throughout the day to collect resources and nothing more. This one also features some really nice medieval artwork. You can zoom in really close to take it in or stay zoomed out for easier kingdom management. Oh, and you'll be glad to know this game supports cloud saves, too.

Achievements

Time was we regularly learned about Xbox Windows Phone game’s Achievements well in advance of their actual release. Sadly Microsoft closed the door on the method once used for those early discoveries. But having already played the game on a developer phone, we have the full Achievement list to share with you now.

• Advancement (5): Complete the tutorial and the mission “The First Visit.”
• Friends All Over the World (10): Have more than 10 friends.
• Defense Fortress (5): Establish your defensive line.
• Draw First Blood (10): Win the first fight.
• Be First Blood (5): Lose one fight.
• Demon (10): Successfully invade friends’ kingdoms 100 times.
• Demon’s Nightmare (10): Successfully resist invasion 100 times.
• One Step, One Footprint (10): Raise the Population to 150.
• Roast Chicken Hobbyist (5): Have 10 campfires on the map.
• Money, Money (15): Own all of the Kingdoms buildings.
• I See You (10): Wipe out shadowy areas.
• Good Luck Follows You (5): Win 50 one-on-one battles.
• Barbarian General (10): Defeat Barbarian General.
• Lady of the Coast (10): Defeat Lady of the Coast.
• Duke of Cowerdon (10): Defeat Duke of Cowerdon.
• The Evil Monk (10): Defeat The Evil Monk.
• Lady Bloomdale (10): Defeat Lady Bloomdale.
• General McCallister (15): Defeat General McCallister.
• The Stygian Witches (15): Defeat The Stygian Witches.
• World Conqueror (20): Defeat all the bosses.

Looks like we’ll be doing a lot of battling with our friends, doesn’t it?

Soft launch

Previous Gameloft titles have sometimes experienced problems with their social features at launch. In order to reduce those woes, Kingdoms & Lords is soft launching in Vietnam, Romania, Indonesia, and Mexico this week. Players in those regions should be able to grab the game now (or tomorrow at the latest).

The rest of us (who don’t care to resort to region switching trickery) will have to wait till next week in order to grab the game. Gameloft expects Kingdoms & Lords to fully launch on November 11 (Monday), slightly ahead of the usual Wednesday release. We'll see! It runs on 512 MB devices and costs nothing to download, so all Windows Phone 8 owners will be able to join in the fun. As for the Windows 8 version: don't expect it next week, but it should arrive by the end of the year.

In the meantime, here’s a link you can use to view the game's Store page. Remember, you won't be able to download the game if your phone's region isn't set to the countries listed above.

• Kingdoms & Lords– Windows Phone 8 – 122 MB – Free – Store Link (keep in mind the game may not be available in your region)

Indie and mobile games go through various genres of the moment over time, sort of like how console and big-budget PC games have been stuck on First-Person Shooters for the last ten years or so. For the longest time, it seemed like every new small-scale release that came along was a tower defense game. Hardly anybody complained, due to the inherent joy of defending towers.

The new genre of the moment on mobile is definitely the endless running game. A slew of endless runners have recently flooded Windows Phone 8, including such high profile releases as Subway Surfers and Despicable Me: Minion Rush. Only one endless runner with 3D graphics sports Xbox Live features, though: Temple Run 2 from Imangi Studios (makers of Harbor Master). Does the only non-spin-off sequel to Temple Run stand tall above its competitors? Read on to find out.

Danger up high

The original Temple Run took place in a fictional South American-esque temple setting in which the player’s heroic adventurer desperately tried to outrun a horde of demonic monkeys. The sequel moves things to a more fanciful (and interesting) lost city above the clouds. This time, the adventurer must evade a single gigantic gorilla. And because the endless running genre demands it, the hero will always fail sooner or later.

Temple Run 2’s controls take very little time to learn. Dragging left and right steers your character around the track, allowing him or her to pick up coins and avoid hazards. Hard swipes left or right will safely get you through ninety degree turns.

Swipe down to slide under obstacles, or swipe up to jump over pits and the like. Not everything will kill you in this game, but slowing down proves almost as dangerous. That King Kong-wannabe is never too far behind.

Mine carts and waterslides, oh my

The change in environment has thrown some new wrinkles into Temple Run 2’s gameplay. Each run starts out with a zip-line that players must cling to in order to slide across a massive gap. Weaving left or right to grab up coins is always a fun diversion.

Other times, you’ll run into a gigantic waterslide. Splashing through one of these sections feels quite similar to the halfpipe bonus stages from the Sonic the hedgehog series, especially since you’re grabbing coins much of the time. You’ll also have to duck under obstacles and choose a direction at sudden forks in the slide, keeping you on your toes.

Mine cart areas fit perfectly with the series’ Indiana Jones-inspired theme. Cart riders will need to avoid fire and choose wisely at intersections as well. Take the wrong path and you’ll smack into a wall, ending your run. Thin parts of the track require the rider to learn in a safe direction - otherwise he or she will plummet into the abyss below.

Powers and power-ups

Even though the odds are stacked against players in this or any endless runner, a few items and abilities can stave off defeat at least temporarily. As you progress through a run, your special move meter will eventually fill up. Once it fills, double tap the screen to activate it and become invincible for a short time. You’ll run over gaps, make perfect turns, and everything. The game doesn’t actually teach us how to activate the special move, unless I missed it somewhere.

Players can also grab floating power-ups every now and again. Grab a coin magnet and unleash your special ability to turn into a coin-stealing machine. Strangely, you can’t just buy and unlock all of Temple Run 2’s power-ups like in other running games. Instead, several items can only be unlocked by purchasing characters. The game barely has any power-ups to begin with, and the character-based unlocks only make it worse.

Characters

Temple Run 2 offers several characters for players to purchase. Most cost coins, the game’s soft currency, but not all.

• Guy Dangerous: Generic explorer guy
• Scarlett Fox: A generic female explorer created for this sequel. Her voice samples are the worst I’ve heard in recent memory.
• Barry Bones: A black police officer
• Karma Lee: An Asian lady who doesn’t look very Asian an dresses really strangely
• Francisco Montoya: A Spanish conquistador
• Zack Wonder: A generic American football player
• Montana Smith: Returning character who resembles Indiana Jones
• Santa Claus: The Miracle from 34th Street costs 60 gems (approximately $7 worth of hard currency)
• Usain Bolt: A real-life Jamaican track star. He costs 99 cents in-game - cheap compared to Santa.

As with the first game, players can spend coins to upgrade their characters’ abilities. Upgrades include boosting coin value, increasing coin magnet duration, increasing score multiplier, and more. These ability upgrades are shared across all characters.

Players can opt to buy a permanent coin doubler for $4.99. Even then, you’ll need to play for quite a while (probably 10+ hours) before you can afford all of the upgrades and characters.

Missions and Leveling

The leveling system here works much like Jetpack Joyride’s. At any given time, you have three side missions to work on. Complete enough of them and you’ll level up. On top of those, the game also presents daily and weekly challenges to keep players coming back. Knock out enough of those and you’ll earn tons of coins or gems.

The missions and leveling structure are welcome, but they feel rudimentary compared to other games. Jetpack Joyride’s missions are much more diverse and quick to complete. The carrot at the end of the stick here is less appetizing and comes on an overly long string.

Pretty as you want

Left: Medium Detail. Right: High Detail

Unlike most Windows Phone games, Temple Run 2 offers graphical settings that allow users to tailor performance to their devices. On medium, the game runs perfectly smoothly on the Lumia 920. The high settings increase the character model’s detail and adds shadows, but the frame rate drops on the 920. I’m sure the more powerful Lumia 1520 could handle High without breaking a sweat, so it’s cool that the game can take advantage of it.

Run from the bugs

Temple Run 2 arrives on Windows Phone 8 with all of the same content as the iOS and Android versions, even the stuff those platforms received in a December update. Xbox games usually lag behind other platforms when they first arrive (if not forever), so it’s great to see this game keeping pace with sister versions.

That said, the Windows Phone game suffers from two nasty bugs. The first (which affects everybody) causes the game to falsely register presses of the Share button. So whenever you finish a run or move through various menus, you’ll end up at the Windows Phone Rate and Review screen. A minor relatively annoyance, but one that inspires many of us to leave negative reviews.

The far more serious bug only affects some users. These players will find the game fails to save their progress, basically making it impossible to amass coins or level up very much. For those people, Temple Run 2 won’t be much fun to play.

Finally, the friends leaderboards don't work too well. Some users have noticed they fail to update at all. My problem is the names and scores appear in a completely random order. Wouldn't it make more sense to list users by score or alphabetically?

Achievements

Nearly all of Temple Run 2’s Achievements involve completing side missions, nicely integrating them into the game’s existing structure. The odd thing is you can’t get a mission’s Achievement until that mission comes up, even if you complete the exact requirements beforehand. Still, it should only take around six hours to progress far enough to knock out all of the Achievements.

Overall Impression

It took almost a year for Temple Run 2 to make its way to Windows Phone 8. Even after all that time (and despite the graphical detail options), it still requires handsets with at least 1 GB of RAM. The memory limitation comes from Unity, the engine that makes Temple Run 2 tick. Unity’s Windows Phone support still lags behind other platforms, which also helps explain in part why the game took so long to arrive at all.

After all that time, Temple Run 2 has arguably been surpassed by other endless runners like Subway Surfers and especially Jetpack Joyride. Imangi would do well to staff up a little bit in order to compete with the scope that larger studios bring to their genre entries.

Still, Temple Run 2 is plenty of fun in short doses and should keep players interested at least until the last Achievement pops. The In-App Purchase structure is fair as well, so players won’t feel too pressured to spend. You can’t truly win at this game, but you’ll probably enjoy trying.

• Temple Run 2 – Windows Phone 8 (minimum 1 GB of RAM required) – MB – Free – Store Link

Just last Tuesday I lamented the lack of Xbox games for Windows Phone, and the hurdles that led to their scarcity. Maybe somebody up in the clouds at Microsoft heard gamers’ prayers, because today we have a new mobile Xbox game to play! Coincidence? I think not.

Throne Together from Rogue Rocket Games (who love answering emails) and Microsoft has fully launched on Windows Phone 8 with Xbox Live features at the ready. The game soft launched in certain territories in January, but without Xbox Live support. The Windows 8 version picked up Achievements about two weeks ago, and now both versions are all caught up. They’re also free to play, so they won’t break the bank. Impressions and Store links after the break!

Game of Thrones

Throne Together is a block-stacking puzzle game. Each level starts out with a partially constructed castle. The player’s job is to add various shaped pieces to the castle without causing it to fall down. Put too much weight on the lower pieces and they will develop cracks or even break, so you need to distribute the weight evenly.

To place those pieces, tap and drag them down from the top of the screen. Tapping without dragging will rotate the piece. Let go of a piece and it keeps falling on its own. The pieces come in many shapes and sizes, not just squares and rectangles. Players will also unlock special pieces like doors and windows that provide bonus points when placed in specific locations.

Initially you’ll have only one piece to choose rotate or place on the structure, but eventually you get to choose from several pieces at a time. Only pieces that touch the castle’s throne or connect to touching pieces will contribute to your score.

By completing a level’s objectives and reaching different score milestones, players will beat the level and earn up to three stars. Some of the early objectives include reaching a target size, reaching the target score, and using a specific number of blocks. You’ll need to earn three stars in all 65 levels for an Achievement, by the way.

In-app Purchases

Throne Together is monetized in a few different ways. It uses the same life system found in Frozen Free Fall and Candy Crush Saga. Failing a level makes you lose a life. Lives take time to recharge. Run out and you’ll either have to wait for more or pony up for an In-App Purchase. Thanks to Facebook integration, players can also ask their friends for extra lives.

Players can opt to purchase limited-use boosts in order to make levels easier. These take time to unlock. The first one you’ll get, cement, strengthens structures and reduces their chances of crumbling.

Also, the Windows 8 version has ads that players could pay to remove. But I haven’t seen them in the phone game yet. Maybe they show up farther into the game, or maybe they’re gone.

Facebook and cloud support

When you first start the game, you’ll be asked to sign in to Facebook. The Facebook connection allows players to send each other lives and little notes about who likes who and how mean the teacher is. Well, maybe not the notes. Unfortunately, the Facebook feature (for me at least) is broken at launch. I get an error message when I sign in, so I can’t connect to it. Shouldn't the soft launch have caught that?

On the plus side, Throne Together does support cloud saves – just like every Xbox Windows Phone game should. Even better, progress is shared between Windows Phone and Windows 8. That’s how you dual-publish a game.

• Throne Together– Windows Phone 8 – 29 MB – Free – Store Link
• Throne Together– Windows 8 and RT – 42 MB – Free – Store Link

Thanks to TNTJudbud and "John Lampard" for the tip!

Ubisoft and Pastagames’ Rayman Jungle Run was that perfect one-two punch: an excellent platformer, and a high quality mobile Xbox game. The sequel Rayman Fiesta Run had a lot to live up to, and it almost felt like Ubisoft didn’t want to share it with us. The game soft launched in limited territories, appeared to fully launch worldwide a few weeks later, and then quickly disappeared that same day.

At last, Rayman Fiesta Run is properly available with fully working Xbox Live Achievements on Windows Phone 8, Windows 8, and Windows RT. Though we had to wait a painfully long time for Fiesta Run, the wait was worth it. Even if you found Jungle Run too challenging, this one is forgiving (and beautiful) enough that it might just win you over. Read on for our full review.

From Legends to Fiesta

The shrinking levels are new to Fiesta Run and Rayman Legends.

Just as Jungle Run served as the mobile companion game to console hit Rayman Origins, so does Fiesta Run borrow features and assets from Rayman Legends (which recently graced Xbox One).

The core gameplay remains largely unchanged. Rayman and other unlockable characters automatically run forward endlessly, with players making them jump by tapping one side of the screen or punch by tapping the other. Rayman starts out only being able to jump and swim (which is new), but he’ll gain back the power to punch, hover, and wall run after reaching certain levels. Your goal is always to collect as many floating yellow Lums as possible before reaching the end of the level.

The actual game structure has changed for the better, though. Instead of selecting individual levels from separate themed sets, Fiesta Run features one large world map. As Rayman and friends complete levels and collect more Lums, the path along the map fills in, eventually revealing new levels and rewards. Those rewards include concept art (now higher resolution, thankfully), a much larger selection of unlockable characters (though still smaller than Rayman Legends’ impressive assortment), and the occasional free batch of Lums.

Fiesta Run consists of 76 total levels at launch: 36 regular levels, 36 Invasion levels, and four trips to the Land of the Livid Dead. The Invasion levels are tougher remixes of regular levels, with different enemy and item placement, visual changes, and more obstacles (a concept borrowed from Legends). The Land of the Living Dead levels are also aimed at experienced players, just as in Jungle Run. And like before, they’re the only levels to offer leaderboards – a shame that Ubisoft didn’t expand the game’s social and competitive features as they did with Legends.

Lumdog millionaire

The collectible Lums now serve as Fiesta Run’s currency. Outside of gameplay, they can be spent on new characters and concept art. At the beginning of most levels, players can also opt to spend Lums on an assortment of power-ups. These include a red heart that allow our heroes to survive one hit or a gold heart that protect from two, new gloves that allow the protagonists to fire projectile punches at enemies and obstacles; and a guide that shows the optimal path to take during the level. All are priced surprisingly affordably, and none are needed to actually beat a level. They sure help with Invasion levels though!

Because the game gives us things to spend Lums on this time, you can now acquire a lot of them. Each time you complete a level, the Lums collected will be added to your total – another cool element introduced in Rayman Legends. This really adds to the replay value since we now have incentive to beat levels again, even after perfecting them. Impatient players can also opt to buy Lums as an In-App Purchase, but that’s unnecessary since you earn so many while playing.

Beautiful, demanding, and slightly buggy

Jungle Run was always easy on the eyes, and Fiesta Run takes that artistic beauty even further. Besides gorgeous new character art and background themes, Ubisoft and Pastagames have also added 3D platforms into the mix. These don’t appear in every single level, but they add a great sense of depth whenever they show up. Bouncing between background layers whenever you touch a blue mushroom also instils extra depth.

The extra visual flash comes at a price, though: performance. On my Lumia 1520, the frame rate occasionally drops slightly when things get hectic. The frame rate drops a lot more on weaker devices like the Lumia 520, but the game remains playable.

Another little issue I’ve run into happens when my character gets turned around and starts running in the wrong direction. This always results from a mistaken or missed jump, and it nearly always leads to death. I don’t remember getting turned around in Jungle Run; the developers need to improve Fiesta Run’s direction-switching algorithm.

Finally, it often takes multiple presses of the “Return” button to reach the title screen from the world map. Not a huge deal, but annoying nonetheless. This affects both the Windows Phone and Windows 8 versions, oddly enough.

Party on Windows 8

Although Fiesta Run is available on both Windows Phone and Windows 8, neither version uses cloud saving. Windows players can’t jump between phone and tablet on the same save file. That’s a shame considering the iOS version does have cloud saves and even shares Lums between Jungle Run and Fiesta Run.

The Windows 8 and RT versions of Fiesta Run are even more susceptible to performance issues than the phone game, presumably due to their use of higher resolution assets. On the original Surface Pro, the frame rate regularly dips below 30 FPS. Luckily, it does run perfectly on my gaming notebook.

One problem unique to the PC and tablet versions of Fiesta Run: no keyboard support! Jungle Run allowed players to jump and attack by pressing the CTRL and Spacebar keys. The only way to perform those actions without a touch screen in Fiesta Run is by clicking the mouse buttons – not the ideal way to play. Neither Fiesta Run nor Jungle Run supports controllers, sadly.

Achievements

The most common complaint about Jungle Run was that a couple of its Achievements were almost impossibly difficult. You had to beat approximately 45 levels in a row without dying in order to unlock the final Achievement, argh.

Ubisoft and Pastagames took user feedback to heart and made Fiesta Run’s Achievements obtainable to normal human beings. You don’t need to perfect every single level in Fiesta Run, nor do you have to beat multiple levels in one attempt. The hardest one here (if you can call it that) is for collecting 20,000 Lums. It might take a little grinding (everyone recommends replaying level 9), but certainly won’t cause undue frustration.

Overall Impression

Fiesta Run is the perfect mobile companion to Rayman Legends. It captures the delightful look and feel of the console game, all while providing unique levels and a game design crafted specifically for playing on the go. It launches with more levels than Jungle Run ever featured, to boot.

Jungle Run’s one obvious flaw has been fixed. Reasonable Achievements and the ability to buy power-ups make it so that less skilled players can fully enjoy the game from start to finish. If you have joy in your heart and/or a love of platformers, Rayman Fiesta Run is a must-buy. Console gamers shouldn’t miss Rayman Legends, either.

• Rayman Fiesta Run – Windows Phone 8 – 81 MB – $2.99 – Store Link
• Rayman Fiesta Run – Windows 8 and RT – 97 MB – $2.99 – Store Link

The first Xbox-enabled version of Fruit Ninja launched shortly after Windows Phone 7 itself way back in December 2010. As the months rolled by, the iOS and Android versions received a number of updates while the Windows Phone game did not. Developer Halfbrick released a Kinect-enabled Xbox 360 version in 2011, and an Xbox Windows 8 version in 2012 – but still no update to the original Windows Phone game.

Things finally took a turn for the better this month when a Windows Phone 8-specific version of Fruit Ninjafinally showed up to the party. The decrepit Windows Phone 7 version simultaneously got partially delisted from the Store, though Windows Phone 7 users can apparently still download it. The new Windows Phone 8 Fruit Ninja is identical in features to the Windows 8 version, so we’ll review them both and point out the improvements to the original game.

Slicing and dicing

All screenshots from Windows Phone 8 version

Fruit Ninja’s concept is so approachable that even non-gamers can grasp it in seconds. An off-screen sensei throws fruit onto the screen, which the player ninja must quickly swipe into oblivion. The specific rules and challenges vary by mode, but your goal is always to slice as much fruit as you can in pursuit of high scores.

This is a simple game – almost to a fault. But a few extra mechanics do add some spice to the slicing. Players will randomly perform critical hits as they slash fruit to pieces, gaining ten extra points for the attack. Hit three or more fruits in a single fast and continuous swipe to get a combo bonus. Wait too long to go for the combo and a fruit might fall off the screen, adding an element of risk for score-minded players.

New to the mobile Windows Fruit Ninjas is the pomegranate, which also shows up in Fruit Ninja Kinect. When this fruit appears in Classic or Arcade mode, time slows down and players can slash it multiple times. After a few seconds, the pomegranate explodes and destroys any other fruit on screen. Pomegranates are a good score booster, but I could take or leave them.

Game modes

After all this time, Fruit Ninja still offers of the same three modes it had in 2010.

• Classic: The main game type and the only one with no time limit. The game continues until the ninja either misses three fruits or hits a bomb. Man do I hate those bombs.
• Zen: This 90-second mode lacks the threat of bombs, but neither does it have special fruits or even critical hits. Zen is designed to be laid back, but that also makes it the least exciting way to play.
• Arcade: A 60-second mode with several unique items to its name. Three special bananas: Fruit Frenzy, Freeze, and Double Points all provide benefits for a few seconds after you slice them, adding a fun helping of chaos to the game. Bombs still show up here, but hitting one only adds a score penalty instead of ending the game. A pomegranate always appears when the Arcade timer runs out.

Sensei’s Swag: Blades and backgrounds

With any version of Fruit Ninja, the metagame has always been to unlock as many blades (colorful swiping effects) and backgrounds as possible. Players can check the requirements for unlocking a particular item and equip whatever they have unlocked from the Sensei’s Swag menu. Unlocking requirements tend to be for hitting certain fruit milestones or completing games with specific scores.

The Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 versions of Fruit Ninja include a few backgrounds that weren’t in the original version, such as ‘Gutsu & Truffles’ and ‘King Dragon.’ They offer a few new blades too. However, the ‘Cloud Kicker’ and ‘Sakura Slicer’ blades and the ‘Cloudy Skies’ and ‘Cherry Blossom’ backgrounds from the iOS version did not make the cut. They were added to iOS in December 2012, so there is no excuse for their omission here.

Buying boosts

These versions feature In-App Purchases in the form of Gutsu’s Cart. Gutsu, a new character sells three power-ups in various quantities:

• Bomb Deflects: A deflect nullifies one bomb strike, allowing players to survive longer in Classic Mode or Get a higher score in Arcade. However many deflects you purchase, only three can be used in a single game. These are by far the most useful item since they can potentially triple the length of a Classic game.
• Berry Blasts: These cause strawberries to explode when hit, providing a score bonus. They affect all three modes.
• Peachy Times: Hitting a peach in Arcade and Zen modes will add extra time to the game.

You’ll use Starfruit as currency in Gutsu’s shop. Starfruit can be bought with real money, but you also earn some every time you play. Because Fruit Ninja doesn’t have any unlocks associated with high scores, I doubt many players will feel the need to spend real money on boosts.

The loneliest number

These versions’ missing blades and backgrounds sting a bit, especially given how easy it would be for Halfbrick to add them. But the absent feature that hurts the most is undoubtedly Online Versus mode.

iOS has had the 2-player Online mode since September 2010. Why wouldn’t the Windows 8 game, released in June 2012 and this year’s Windows Phone 8 version include multiplayer as well? Well, we do know that Microsoft has yet to provide online multiplayer tools for either Windows Phone or Windows 8 Xbox games. If developers want to add online features, they must produce the multiplayer code entirely on their own. Gameloft is pretty much the only developer to regularly do so.

Microsoft should get over its aversion towards real-time online multiplayer on Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 and start providing developers all the support they need in order to include those features in their games.

Achievements

Fruit Ninja has always been an easy game for Achievement completionists, and the Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 versions are no different. Arcade and Zen each have a single Achievement, with the rest specific to Classic or cumulative across all modes.

The two that will take the longest are ‘Year of the Dragon’ and ‘Fruit Annihilation.’ The first requires players to slice the very rare Dragonfruit in Classic mode. Its appearance is random, so you’ll just need to keep playing until you get lucky and see one. As for ‘Fruit Annihilation,’ it’s the usual 10,000-fruit Achievement and will take a couple of hours to get. See Arsenic17’s Achievement guide for more details.

Note that the Windows Phone 8 version and Windows 8 version each have their own Achievements list, separate from every other version. You can beat these two versions for a total of 400 GamerScore. That’s on top of the 200 GamerScore the Windows Phone 7 version provided, not to mention the XBLA game’s 350 GamerScore.

Overall Impression

The Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 Fruit Ninja games are slightly disappointing due to their missing features. Fruit Ninja does not exactly overflow with content, so more unlockables and online multiplayer would have significantly improved these games. The Windows 8 version suffers some crashing issues and doesn't seem to play nicely with the Windows 8.1 preview either.

Still, at least Windows Phone 8 users now have a better Fruit Ninja to play. Fruit Ninja is the quintessential casual mobile game. It’s meant to be played for minutes at a time and offers little in the way of long term goals or complexity. That’s what many gamers want from a phone or tablet game. Even if you’re looking for more serious and lengthy gaming titles, the low price and easy GamerScore make Fruit Ninja worth a look.

• Fruit Ninja– Windows Phone 8 – 26 MB – $.99 – Store Link
• Fruit Ninja– Windows 8 and RT – 81 MB – $1.99 – Store Link

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 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.

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

This week, the massive open world Grand Theft Auto 5 launched on consoles. Sadly, Rockstar has yet to port any of its excellent mobile Grand Theft Auto titles to Windows Phone. But thanks to Gameloft, we do have one open world game on Windows Phone 8: Six-Guns. Of course, Six-Guns takes its inspiration from the Wild West-themed Read Dead Redemption, but it’s still the closest thing to GTA in the mobile Xbox lineup.

Six-Guns is a free to play game – a payment model that can be a blessing or a curse. Is this one of Gameloft’s free to play successes like UNO & Friends or a greedy failure like Real Soccer 2013? Read on for our verdict…

Wild Wild West

While Six-Guns is obviously based on Read Dead Redemption, it focuses far less on story. The handful of story missions it does have were originally added via updates to the original iOS version. The story scenes do come to life via digital comic-style animations and voice acting, at least.

What Six-Guns lacks in narrative, it makes up for in sheer abundance of missions. The game’s two large maps are dotted with glowing hotspots that trigger these missions. Missions come in several varieties, a sampling of which I’ll list now:

• Defense: Guard a location against oncoming enemies either for a set time or a specific number of waves of enemies.
• Offense: Take out all of the enemies in a location.
• Racing: There are actually two types of horse races. The first, and most fun simply pits the player against three AI racers. These racers work well when you don’t feel like engaging in combat. The second requires players to shoot a certain number of targets while also passing through checkpoints within a time limit. Unfortunately, the aiming is so bad (which we’ll get to in a bit) that it makes hitting the targets under time pressure a complete chore.
• Sniping: Requires a sniper rifle, of which there is only one non-premium option. Watch a spot and wait for a courier to deliver goods to the smuggler hiding behind a wall. Because of the bad aiming and super low windows of opportunity to hit the target(s), the sniping mission is ridiculously hard.
• Crypt killing: For some reason, Six-Guns has a lot of supernatural enemies like werewolves, From Dusk Till Dawn-style monstrous vampires, and flying witches. In this mission type, you’ll navigate a maze-like crypt and defeat all of its unholy inhabitants along the way. I actually enjoy the mash-up of Wild West and monsters, but the witches have an obnoxious habit of getting stuck inside of walls, often making them unkillable and forcing a mission failure.
• Rescue: These some in two varieties. In the more interesting one, players must locate and then escort one or more maidens safely out of a vampire’s crypt.
• Shooting gallery: Fun but hard due to aiming issues.

Complete a mission to get gold and experience. When you choose to repeat a mission, not only do the rewards increase, but the round goes up and it gets harder as well. A mission can have up to fifty rounds, which would take hours to get through. That’s the brilliance of Six-Guns’ design – the multi-round missions give it tons and tons of replay value. Oh, and there are non-repeatable collectible missions too.

Controls and aiming

Six-Guns’ generally controls intuitively, just like any of Gameloft’s non-FPS tiles. You walk with a virtual stick, use a fire button to shoot, an aim button for fine aiming, and a roll button for dodging. Tapping the gun icon at the top of the screen reloads, while swiping it changes guns.

Being a western-themed game, the hero can also ride horses! Just press the horse button to whistle for your horse and instantly mount it. Riding gets you everywhere faster and you don’t even have to worry about being thrown to your death like in real life.

While the general controls all work well, aiming is problematic. Much of the time, you’ll get by with the lock-on assist. Once you’ve locked on to an enemy, you can just plug away at them unless the lock gets broken. But fine aiming is simply horrendous. The reticle just moves way too far no matter how lightly you slide your finger.

The jumpy aiming seems to stem from the game’s low frame rate. Like all of Gameloft’s 3D Windows Phone 8 titles, Six-Guns’ frame rate is somewhere around 15-20 frames per second. That’s playable, but 30 FPS is what we consider the low end of smooth. With so many frames skipped all the time, aiming at just the right target can be a real crapshoot.

Free to play foibles

We’ve already detailed the game’s complete array of In-App Purchases and evaluated their usefulness. The question now is how much all those IAPs hurt the game.

IAPs aren’t limited to just vanity items and weapons. Enemies don’t drop ammo; you have to buy it with gold. And you can’t carry around limitless supplies of ammo, either. Each batch of bullets takes up a separate space in the player’s inventory. Additional slots cost gold. Neither of these elements really brings the game down too much. Missions and enemy kills provide more than enough gold for bullets. Bag slots will require some grinding for gold, but you’re never short for missions to grind.

Less forgivably, health refills cost premium currency. Player health recharges over time, but not during missions. To refill during a mission, you’ll need one of those costly health bottles. They can be won from the daily lottery, but unless you abuse the time changing trick you’ll seldom have any bottles on hand. Frankly, either health should recharge during missions or bottles should cost gold.

The game’s store also sells a variety of guns, clothing (armor), and horses for exorbitant quantities of premium currency. This doesn’t hurt the gameplay in and of itself (outside of multiplayer), but the prices fall pretty far on the greedy side. Gameloft has priced the best guns and outfit at $50 or higher in hopes that a few whales (big IAP spenders) will buy them. But it would be more reasonable to price those items closer to $10. Then non-insane players could justify the purchase, which would probably lead to more sales overall.

Multiplayer

Six-Guns’ online multiplayer mode is also affected by those IAPs. See, whatever guns and clothing the player purchases in single-player (premium or not) can be used in multiplayer. Buy good equipment and you’ll tear through players with lesser stuff. Obviously the publisher’s hope is that players will spend money to gain a competitive advantage, but that’s bad game design.

Still, multiplayer is pretty fun as long as you don’t run across somebody with a crazy good weapon. Multiplayer only offers one game type - capture the flag, and only two maps, which feels anemic. But at least there are tons of people playing at all hours, owing to the game being free and running on 512 MB devices.

Two annoying multiplayer bugs: sometimes you’ll repeatedly fail to connect whenever you try to create or join a game. Closing the game by exiting from the title and relaunching seems to fix the connection issues for a while.

The less severe bug involves weapon selection. For some reason, you can only select between a couple of the guns in your inventory during multiplayer. To switch to any other weapon, you’ll need to open the store and equip the gun from there.

Achievements

We’re running long here, so I’ll just touch on the game’s most challenging Achievement: ‘100% Completion.’ It requires players to not just beat every mission but also EVERY ROUND of every mission. That will pretty much take forever, which isn’t a bad thing if you enjoy the game. But it could be frustrating if you’re unable to complete certain missions like the sniping ones. Perhaps the Windows 8 version will help there…

Overall Impression

Six-Guns comes dangerously close to being unforgivably greedy thanks to the health bottles costing money and the sky-high prices of premium items. But you CAN get by without health bottles for the most part, and you don’t need those expensive weapons and clothing. Look past those things and you’ve got a vast game just overflowing with a variety of missions to complete. A player could spend nothing and get a hundred hours out of the game, easily.

If you really like the game and want to support Gameloft, I recommend buying a little gold or a permanent health upgrade since those are priced somewhat fairly. But the cool thing about free to play is that people who don’t like the game or its IAP prices don’t need to drop a cent on it.

I love Six-Guns (other than its erratic aiming) and can’t wait for the impending Windows 8 version. Thanks to cloud saving support, we should be able to hop back and forth between both platforms at our leisure.

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

We’ve poured on The Sims FreePlay coverage lately, and why not? Xbox Windows Phone games have become relatively scarce this year (though September saw plenty of new releases). It’s also a massively sized mobile entry in one of gaming’s most popular franchises… Not to mention, it’s free to play so any Windows Phone 8 user with 1 GB of RAM can get it (internet connection required).

Then again, the ‘free’ feather in a title’s cap can also be a thorn in its side from a gameplay perspective. The Sims FreePlay embodies many of the free to play trappings typically perceived as negative by users, from time-based mechanics to dual currencies. Can the joyful simulation aspects of The Sims survive all those grabs for players’ wallets? Read on for our evaluation.

Building your virtual dudes and dudettes

The first thing you’ll do in Sims FreePlay is customize your own Sim (virtual person). You don’t have to engage in the customization, per se – the game automatically generates a unique body, outfit, name, and personality during the creation process. If the result is unsatisfactory or too similar in appearance to Kristen Stewart, just reroll and you’ll get a new ransom Sim.

Playing with prefab Sims kind of misses the point of these games, though. A big chunk of the fun comes from recreating yourself, the people you know, and whomever else you can think of.

How does Sims FreePlay fare in character customization then? Well, it does have more face, hair, and clothing options than The Sims 3 for Windows Phone. But hairstyles and facial options for men are still in short supply. You can’t customize body size or age either, severely limiting the ability to recreate real people within the game. That said, I did manage passable versions of myself and fellow Windows Phone Central staffers Daniel, Rich, Sam, and Michael.

Adding one Sim at a time

Previous Windows Phone releases The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval only allowed users to play as one character at a time, directly controlling that character. Surprisingly enough, FreePlay ditches that design in favor of the mainline Sims PC games’ style of play. You start with only one Sim, but you’ll eventually have a whole town of them to play with.

Building the town itself is essentially the main goal. You’ll have to buy houses (premade or user designed) for all those Sims to live and woohoo in. The game offers a sizable assortment of homes to choose from, though the really nice ones are so expensive that you probably won’t build them until late in the game.

On top of that, the town holds a number of spaces for businesses and attractions. Players can actually visit some locations like the park, family center, nightclub, and snow resort to engage with their Sims. Shops sell: additional wardrobe choices, pets (cats, dogs, and rabbits), and new objects for Sims to interact with. Businesses such as the recording studio, firehouse, and City Hall offer jobs for up-and-coming Sims.

All of these places produce small amounts of money and XP over time.

Jobs, Hobbies, and School

Jobs keep your Sims busy as well as bring in XP and money. Each career type offer several levels for characters to progress through. The higher the level they attain, the more money and experience they bring in. Sims can gain job experience both by attending their jobs (at which point you don’t interact with them until they’re done) or by using job-specific objects like fire hydrants, soccer balls, and mirrors.

Hobbies work a lot like jobs but without the obligation of attending at certain times. Sims can fish, woodwork, swim, design fashions, and more. Progressing through the different levels of a hobby actually nets rewards like unique items, money, and XP bonuses. Hobbies have their own unique minigame aspects, too. Hunt for ghosts and the player will actually need to tap an evasive ghost three times to catch it; create a fashion and you’ll have to stop a spinner on light bulbs instead of bombs.

Preteens Sims don’t have quite the same work and hobby options as adults. Instead of going to work, they must attend school or use a study desk. This allows them to move through grade averages instead of levels – excruciatingly slowly, I might add. Preteens get two exclusive hobbies: ballet and karate. Shame that the Achievements require players to create three preteens; a third hobby would have been appreciated.

Time…

FreePlay is a lot like a regular Sims game. Players can feed, clean, and micromanage Sims to their hearts’ content. Tell your Sim to watch television, browse the internet, call a friend, watch a movie, get married, or just have a latte. You can’t do every single thing the big brother versions offer (no elderly Sims or death here), but it provides more than enough options for a mobile game.

This is a free to play game, however, so it needs a way to encourage users to spend real money and to continue playing and/or spending over time. The catch here is that every action takes specific amounts of real time to complete. Tell a Sim to take a shower and she’ll be unavailable for several minutes; send them to work and they’re gone for hours. It takes 24 hours to have a baby, and then another full day to advance it to toddler and preteen ages.

In fairness, most activities offer several variations with different time spans to choose from. Grabbing a snack from the fridge might take 20 seconds, while a meal takes six minutes. This lets you choose shorter times when you want to pay more attention to the game and longer durations when you have less time for it. You’ll eventually have so many Sims that you can jump between various shorter actions and keep far more active than many time-based games.

…and Money

Initially you’ll progress through the game quickly enough to not only keep busy but also potentially become addicted to it. Eventually though, the rug gets pulled out as things start taking longer.

In-game goals (sort of like the optional missions in Jetpack Joyride) might require you to perform an action on a specific day of the week and even within a small range of hours on that day. Until that window comes up, you can’t get a new goal and move on – unless you spent the precious Life Points earned from completing other goals and certain actions.

Similarly, new buildings cost more and more Simoleons (money) as your town grows. You’ll come to a point where it takes days or even longer to earn the money to complete those buildings and fill out your town.

In both cases, you can just keep playing and work on other aspects like earning XP, leveling up jobs and hobbies, etc. until you can move on again. But the publisher’s intent is obviously to encourage players to buy Simoleons and Life Points with real money in order to shorten the grind. The currency packs you can buy actually include more money as you level up, so waiting until later in the game to make a purchase is the way to go if you’re inclined to spend.

See our In-App Purchase Guide for more details on the game’s currency system and what IAPs it offers.

Achievements

The main Achievement that will keep GamerScore hunters coming back is for completing 1,000 goals. That will take a couple of months at minimum; hence nobody has done it yet.

Unfortunately, FreePlay suffers from some Achievement glitchiness that can prevent random Achievements from unlocking. We detail a partially effective workaround as well as Achievement requirements and strategies in our two-part guide:

• Achievement Guide Part 1
• Achievement Guide Part 2

Overall Impression

The Sims FreePlay packs an amazing amount of the Sims series’ content and fun into a free to play mobile game. There are so many things to buy; jobs, hobbies, and relationships to level; and goals to complete. You could play for months without completing it all.

The time-based mechanics could have derailed FreePlay. The game does get to a point where you’ll really feel like hurrying things up by making an In-App Purchase. EA has to profit from FreePlay somehow, so we can’t fault them too much for making it grindy. Some players will lose interest when the grind really kicks in; some will keep playing without spending; and some will buy currency to speed things along. As long as EA keeps bringing high profile games like this to Windows Phone, everybody wins.

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

Russian computer engineer and game designer Alexy Pajitnov created Tetris for PCs way back in 1984. But Tetris first caught the public eye when Nintendo packed it in with the original GameBoy portable console in 1989. Since then, a number of companies have licensed the game and put their own unique spin on it, with the versions from Nintendo (especially Tetris DS) and Sega (Sega Tetris for Dreamcast) standing above the crowd.

Publishing giant Electronic Arts has also produced several Tetris games, including the 2011 Tetris which appeared on Playstation 3 and Windows Phone 7. This year’s Tetris Blitz is EA’s latest version, marrying the time honored Tetris gameplay with the frantic pace of Bejeweled Blitz. Tetris Blitz arrived on Windows Phone 8 a respectable four months after iOS.

Does this version deserve a spot on the list of best Tetris games? Read on to find out.

Fastest Tetris ever

Some players have complained that Tetris doesn’t adapt well to touch screen controls. In truth, it adapts as well as any other console-style game like platformers, shooters, etc. You lose a bit of precision, but you gain the ability to play anywhere – any serious mobile gamer has come terms with that by now.

But Electronic Arts isn’t just targeting the people who buy Gameloft games on their phones with Tetris Blitz. They’re targeting the casual gamers who eat up games like Bejeweled and Candy Crush Saga but don’t take the time to learn more complex control schemes. Hence, EA invented a clever new control system for Tetris Blitz.

Under the new control scheme, players don’t manually rotate pieces. Instead, every time a new piece appears, the game suggests four places to drop it. Tap one of those outlines to instantly drop the piece in place. If you don’t like the suggestions, you can press the Cycle button at left to toggle four more suggestions. Or just drag your finger along the stack of blocks and then release to drop the piece in a different spot.

This shift in control schemes takes a little getting used to for experienced Tetris players, but most gamers will adapt right away. Dropping pieces instantly speeds up the gameplay quite a bit, which is the name of the game in Tetris Blitz. But you can also switch to traditional swipe controls in options if you’re not concerned with speed.

Goals

Seeing as how Tetris Blitz is modeled after Bejeweled Blitz, games last for only two minutes. Players must try to rack up as many points as they can during this time. You can do so by clearing lines, but you’ll also need to make Tetrises (clearing four lines at once) to increase your score multiplier.

The new Frenzy mode helps with scoring as well. As you clear lines, the Frenzy meter to the left of the field rises. Once the meter fills, Frenzy mode activates. Suddenly the screen starts flashing and easy to clear junk blocks appear at the bottom of the field. Points earned from clearing lines doubles. Frenzy lasts only a short time, though clearing lines during a Frenzy will extend its duration.

Once two minutes tick down and the game inevitably ends, players receive a small pile of coins and an even paltrier sum of XP. Experience contributes towards leveling up, which in turn gets you… a few coins. Yeah, leveling up has no other point than a coin bonus. Not the most compelling metagame, honestly.

Powerups and IAPs

Blitz lacks a solid long term goal (other than Achievements), but it does have a decent weekly goal. See, only a handful of the game’s 14 powerups are unlocked by default. To use an available powerup, you have to spend the coins you’ve earned or bought via In-App Purchase (IAP). Powerups are absolutely necessary to achieve high scores.

To get the rest of the powerups, you can spend money on disturbingly overpriced IAPs. We’re talking six bucks to unlock a single power-up. Doesn’t that sound great?

However, one of those premium powerups is usable on a temporary basis as the Powerup of the Week. If a player manages to use that powerup 90 times, it will unlock for good. So that’s your real goal for the week – spend coins on the Powerup of the Week and play 90 games so that it will unlock for good. I don’t personally find the game compelling enough to do that, but at least EA gives players a way around the crazy high IAP prices.

Other IAPs include coin packs, the ability to hold an extra Tetromino for later use, the ability to see the next three Tetrominos coming up instead of only one, extra spins for the lame daily spinner minigame, and disabling ads.

Facebook closed

Tetris Blitz is one of those rare Xbox Windows Phone games with Facebook integration. Even The Sims FreePlay (also from EA) had its social features stripped from the Windows Phone 8 version, but I guess EA considered them more important for Blitz.

The Facebook integration here allows players to view their Facebook friends’ high scores and send them challenges. It’s not much, but it does offer a measure of cross platform competition. This game is awfully light on content so it needs every little advantage it can get.

Sadly, the Facebook integration completely broke for me a couple of days after I started playing. When I try to log in, I get the dreaded white screen with red text that we once suffered through in Ice Age Village. It just sits on that screen, forcing me to back out and choose to play without signing in. Oh, but the game will still remind you to sign in to Facebook between games, even when Facebook no connect-y.

Fail to connect to Facebook and you can’t even see your Xbox Live friends in the Leaderboards. Why? Sure, some players are still able to connect to Facebook, but based on the negative reviews in the Store, this problem affects a fair number of users.

And more bugs

Broken Facebook connectivity isn’t the only bug afflicting Tetris Blitz. The Powerup of the Week, which should be half off as an IAP, appears at full price while the previous week’s powerup shows up at a discount. Way to encourage a purchase!

More disconcertingly, sometimes the game will just free up for several seconds and then start working again. These freezes kept happening to me over and over one night, making the game completely unplayable. Since then, it hasn’t happened to me. But again, Store reviews show the freezes are a widespread problem.

Some users report that the option to Exit from the game does not work for them. I don’t have this problem, but I sympathize. At least the Windows Phone 8 GDR3 update will allow users to close any app from the Fast App Switching screen.

Finally, I hear the game crashes quite frequently for some people.

Achievements

Okay, one more bug: the in-game counters that SHOULD show progress towards Achievements simply don’t work. The most time consuming Achievement is for clearing 100,000 lines. We should be able to see how many lines we’ve cleared, but due to the tracking bug we cannot.

Tetris Blitz also has a useless Achievement for unlocking every other Achievement. That sort of Achievement makes sense on platforms like the Playstation 3 which don’t have GamerScore. But under the Xbox ecosystem, everyone can tell you’ve got all of a game’s Achievements because you’ll have the full 200 (or whatever number) of GamerScore. Shame to waste an Achievement on the equivalent of a Platinum Trophy.

Overall Impression

I’ve always had a soft spot for Tetris, and I wanted to love Tetris Blitz. But I don’t think Electronic Arts spent enough time on the game design or UI with this one.

Leveling up is essentially meaningless instead of rewarding, and players who don’t care about leaderboard competitions (or can’t view the leaderboards, like me) or Achievements have no reason to keep coming back. Tetris Blitz feels like an extra mode you’d ignore in a more robust Tetris game.

The Facebook problems, busted IAP pricing, and other bugs don’t do this version any favors either. Hopefully EA patches things up with an update or two. Blitz is not a bad game, but it could be so much better.

• Tetris Blitz– Windows Phone 8 – 32 MB – Free – Store Link

Last month, the Windows 8 version of Rayman Jungle Run received a sizable update. Ubisoft added 20 new levels to their beautiful 2D platformer, and for free. New levels are all very well and good, but what about the Windows Phone 8 version of the game? We assumed it would receive the same update at some point, but Ubisoft couldn’t confirm it for us.

Looks like we assumed correctly! The Windows Phone 8 version of Rayman Jungle Run just got updated with 20 new levels. The update pushes the game’s download size from 49 MB to 78 MB, but that’s still not a bad size for a AAA downloadable title. Head past the break for details and screenshots of the new stages.

Less hassle, more joy

The Windows 8 version of the game required players to manually download the new levels as a free In-App Purchase after installing the title update. Not a huge hassle, but still an unnecessary step.

Thankfully the Windows Phone version dispenses with the extra downloading and simply adds the new levels automatically when the update is installed.

More levels to love

The new levels come in two sets. The first set is called Pirate Ship. You’ll see the enemy’s flying pirate ship in the background of 6-2, but you won’t face it until 6-7. At that point, the flying ship chases after our hero, 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 Rayman Origins for consoles, such as moving background pieces. Sometimes the only way to go is up, and Rayman must hurriedly jump between huge pieces of land falling from the sky.

Pirate Ship and Giant Plant 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 extra tough platforming challenges. The new Teeth of Death levels also get their own leaderboards.

One major issue with this update: music doesn't play during the new levels! The older levels are fine, but the music cuts off as soon as you start a level in the sixth or seventh world.

Easier Achievements?

As with the Windows 8 version, the new levels don’t add any new Achievements to the game. Free updates don’t play that way. But the extra levels 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. Jungle Run 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.

Running through the jungle

Rayman Jungle Run was always an excellent platforming game - see our full review for the hows and whys. The new levels make it that much sweeter, not to mention more challenging. They will have to tide us over until the sequel Rayman Fiesta Run pops up later this year... Let's hope Ubisoft fixes the sound bug introduced in this update before then though.

Thanks to WinMaverick for the tip!

• Rayman Jungle Run– Windows Phone 8 – 78 MB - $2.99 – Store Link
• Rayman Jungle Run– Windows 8 and RT – 58 MB - $2.99 – Store Link

With no new Xbox release for Windows Phone this week, gamers in search of a fix will have to look to the Xbox Red Stripe Deal for their entertainment. The latest deal game is Gameloft’s Dark Knight Rises for Windows Phone 8. It’s on sale for $2.99, as it also was back in June. If you’re looking for a long and meaty game, it should fit the bill.

Non-Xbox Red Stripe Deals include the phenomenal strategy game Armed from Sickhead Games for 99 cents, plus the popular app Weave News Reader for $3.99. We’ve got details and Store links after the break.

The Dark Knight Rises (Windows Phone 8 with 1 GB RAM)

Regular price: $6.99 Sale price: $2.99 Download size:  774 MB Store Link

Everybody knows Gameloft for their mobile clones of popular console and PC titles. But Gameloft also produces fairly high quality licensed games. This one is based on the final Chris Nolan Batman film – the one with all the plot holes like Batman surviving a nuclear explosion somehow. Me, I prefer the animated The Dark Knight Returns, which recently came out in a wonderful deluxe release on Blu-ray and DVD.

As for the game itself, it looks and plays much like Amazing Spider-Man. You can take on the story missions following the film’s plot or run around doing random missions in an open world setting. Batman doesn’t web sling, but he does get to drive vehicles.

Dark Knight Rises is a pretty good movie game, but like other 3D Gameloft titles it suffers from a lower than optimal frame rate. It also has one Achievement that is a little iffy but can be attained by a grinding workaround. Putting those concerns aside, Dark Knight Rises is a must-buy for fans of open world games and the Caped Crusader.

Armed (Windows Phone 7 and 8)

Regular price: $1.99 Sale price: $.99 Download size: 65 MB Store Link

We haven’t written about it in a while, but Armed (AKA ARMED!) used to be one of the most popular and technically impressive indie games for Windows Phone 7.

A turn-based strategy game with 3D graphics, Armed! features some seriously slick menus and UI that put many games from larger companies to shame. On top of single-player battles against the AI, the game also boasts cross-platform online multiplayer. You can battle against Windows 8, PC, iOS, Android, and Ouya players, which is pretty awesome.

Sickhead hasn’t made a new game in a while; hopefully we see something from them soon. In the meantime, don’t miss Armed if you like strategy games.

Weave News Reader (Windows Phone 7 and 8)

Regular price: $7.99 Sale price: $3.99 Download size:  3 MB Store Link

Weave is one of the best Windows Phone news readers around (neck and neck with Nextgen Reader), but it’s also pretty costly. Starting out at ten bucks, it normally sells for $8 nowadays. Luckily for people who find that too rich for their blood, it’s half off this week.

Weave is exclusive to Windows Phone and Windows 8. You can find the Windows 8 version here, or try the free ad-supported Windows Phone version here.

Features:

• The first time you open the app, pick from a few of the more popular topics. If you don't see something you like listed, don't worry - there are a lot more topics in the browsable library we've included with the app!
• We've also provided a TON of customization options - everything from different fonts, font sizes, and reading theme colors (try the "night" reading theme when you're up late reading the latest news!).
• We even let you choose what voice you want to hear when Weave speaks an article to you!
• Share articles at the touch of a button: we make it easy to share articles via Instapaper, email, SMS, and social networks (Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn).
• We almost forgot to mention the absolutely gorgeous Live Tile, which cycles through up to 9 images from your latest news articles.
• Come see why many have called Weave the best news app they've ever used!

Thanks to Marcel for the tip!