Our friends at Xbox360Achievements.org often discover Achievements lists for games before release, and sometimes even before a game’s announcement. Actually, much of the credit goes to French gamer Zebrasqual, who one site called ‘the best Windows Phone gamer in the world.’ Mr. Squal (as I like to call him) makes it his business not just to have the most mobile Xbox Live Achievements of anybody; he’s also great at finding Achievement lists and making them public.
The latest batch of Achievement lists ousted by Zebra and Xbox360Achievements.org include: Battleship and Mirror’s Edge from Electronic Arts and Fling from Miniclip. The two EA games are expected to be timed Nokia exclusives, so don’t let’s get excited about them just yet, non-Nokia owners.
Head past the break for previews of each upcoming Xbox Live game!
Battleship
In this videogame adaptation of the classic board game, two sides take turns blindly firing at each other, trying to find and destroy the other’s ships. In addition to the Classic mode many of us enjoyed as children, Battleship features two new game types: Salvo and Superweapon. Salvo matches move faster than traditional ones because you’re allowed to fire as many shots per turn as you have remaining ships; the number of shots decrease when your ships sink. Superweapon introduces a variety of new weapons, making for much different dynamics than normal games. Plus, new weapons unlock based on ships sunk across all game modes, so it doubles as an addictive metagame.
Battleship is obviously more fun as a multiplayer game, and the Windows Phone version does indeed have a multiplayer mode. We don’t know yet if online play is supported – my gut tells me multiplayer will be limited to local multiplayer on the same device or Wi-Fi, same as the iPhone version. Lack of online play would be a missed opportunity, but Windows Phone games rarely have significant features that their iOS counterparts lack. Whatever the case, 10 of Battleship’s 20 Achievements are multiplayer-specific, so expect to put in plenty of multiplayer time if you want them all.
Mirror’s Edge
iPhone screens shown
The mobile version of Mirror’s Edge adapts 2010’s fairly-successful console 3D platformer into a 2D platformer with 3D graphics. Take on the role of Faith as she runs, jumps, and performs all kinds of crazy stunts while avoiding the corrupt authorities. All maneuvers, whether jumping or combat, are performed by naturalistic swipes.
In addition to the main game, Mirror’s Edge includes a socially-oriented mode called Speed Run. Basically, players run through stages and then post their times online – think of it as a leaderboard challenge. The iOS version posts Speed Run times to Facebook. We’ll be interesting in seeing if that integration survives the trip to Windows Phone. At any rate, three Xbox Live Achievements will encourage players to spend time going after better times in Speed Run.
Fling
Miniclip is fast becoming one of the most prolific Xbox Live publishers on Windows Phone. Unlike their last title, Monster Island, Fling isn’t a physics puzzler – it’s just a plain old puzzle game. In each level, players must flick furballs into each other, the goal being to leave only one monster on the board. Furballs can only travel horizontally or vertically and they only stop when they hit another furball, so you’ll need to experiment and/or think a few moves in advance to win.
Not only does Fling pack thousands of different puzzles (yeesh!), it has four different game modes as well. Free-play lets you play at a relaxed pace without time constraints; Arcade challenges players to solve as many puzzles as possible before time runs out; Challenge breaks groups of levels up into timed sets; and Frenzy is a never-ending survival mode. Arcade and Frenzy each have several specific Achievements, while the other modes do not.
The nice thing about Miniclip titles is they’re always available to play free online as Flash games. Just head over to Miniclip.com right now to check out Fling’s puzzling gameplay.
Source (for Achievement lists): Xbox360Achievements.org; via Windows Phone Daily
Reader comments
Battleship, Mirror's Edge, and Fling coming soon to Xbox Live on Windows Phone
I want a lumia 900 so badly. The polycarbonate frame and gorilla glass makes it amazing :D
Awesome stuff. I don't have the Lumia, I would if ATT had excellent service in my area, but I will be happy to see the above titles once the exclusive is over. The mirrors edge is fun, I have it on my ipad2. Battleship would be AWESOME if it had more than wifi multiplayer.
I am happy that someone, Nokia, is putting substantial amount of their money into advertising, getting other developers to work on the OS, getting the apps listed above on the marketplace, etc. Nokia will make WP successful, not HTC, Samsung, etc. At least until one or all of them step up like Nokia
I'd like to see battle stations midway. I think it could work for a mobile platform.
Need more RPGiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis
Agreed!
Wow. Nice. Happy user here. Positive vibe. Nice games coming our way!
Have a nice week, WPers!
+1 on that.. Good to get some more big name titles..(skipped passed all the negative comments as per usual)
I'm happy about Battleship. I used to play this game (over Bluetooth) with my ipod against friends. It'd be nice if they included that in this version, but I doubt it since the ipod has a newer version of bluetooth than WP does.
Maybe it will be able to be done over WiFi like Pac-Man Kart Rally
Yeah it would be cool but that would be super lame if there was no online multiplayer.
It will almost certainly have local Wi-Fi multiplayer (not as nice as Bluetooth, but close), as I say in the article.
Why not make everything Nokia Exclusive. How many Apps and Games can one OEM have before its defragmentation? This might seem like a small issue, specially if you live in U.S.
But fact is a lot of people aint got Lumias in E.U. and we dont have full Zune support, and we dont have all apps U.S. have, and we dont have Nokia apps, and have no voice service, and next to non Bing support..... there
Im not sure, but im getting frustrated here, i might be alone and that is fine. But why sell a product outside U.S. if its half? I like my Titan, but the region, and now app specific OEM things leaves pretty much all previous buyer out in the cold, ESPECIALLY if you don't live in U.S.
My friends joke around and tell me i should become a "Microsoft Refugee", and it's kind of fun to call it like that,"-if you want full Microsoft experience, flee to America". But somehow, this news just killed off the fun for me. Im rapidly losing my faith in WP ever succeed in reaching healthy levels or the joy of reading WP news, in the end, its all in U.S and Canada and the scraps for the rest. I still dont like Apple products, but when they go in...they go all in.
Sorry, but im feeling disappointed, and i feel like i needed to remind the exellent WPCentral (i do love these guys) that the defragmentation is on so many levels, and its not getting any better.
Sure, Nokia have to have Exclusives, i understand and support that. But who are they competing with? We are such a small market in the world that the only ones suffering is Windows Phone and the Owners who bought stuff before Nokia got to the table, and still havent coverd (no Lumia 900 in Sweden, or dare i say, Scandinavia?)
The issuess are larger then it seems, at least according to me.
WP in Canada is no picnic either. No Local Scout, no Bing Vision, etc.
Local scout and Bing vision works in Canada if you change your browser and search language to US
I'm in little Sweden.
First time I started marketplace on my Lumia 800 I chose United States as region.
Problem solved.
I got a Zune Music Pass, access to all US apps/games, Bing Vision etc...
And that kids is how you do it ( without the whining as well ).
It's a solution, and it works alright but we (outside of US) shouldn't really have to go to that length just to have access to some features that ought to be available to everyone.
I can understand some problems with Zune Music Pass in other countries, because of licensing fees or whatever, but Bing Audio and Podcast Marketplace? Really?
This doesn't work if your running a legit Xbox, its bound to Sweden as well as MS Points etc, if it was only a phone...but Microsoft have more products you know.
What en cojos are you talking about? Isn't Nokia bigger in Europe and Asia than the rest of the world? You guys got Nokia music, would I like to have it? Sure it woulda given me more of an incentive to leave HTC for Nokia but I'm not constantly whining about it in every article. You guys also like to talk about us Americans being whiny people, maybe you should look in the mirror first.
Im not whining, im more prone to call it "giving up" in the face of absurdity. And Nokia might be well known and all, but folks use iPhones and Androids in Sweden, so called smarphones, and Windows Phone is not in focus, nor Nokia.
Wait, what? Nokia is overwhelmingly the biggest Windows Phone OEM in Europe. The Lumia 800 has been incredibly popular in Sweden (for a Windows Phone) placing well on all kinds of Top10 lists and the ads are still running on TV last time I checked. In fact, WP marketshare was hovering around 0.5% in Europe before the Lumia series launched, which brought it up to 2.5%.
I don't necessarily disagree with your point, but lot of people in Europe actually DO carry a Lumia. People who don't should fall in the minority, based on statistics.
I'm also with you on Bing and Zune support (or the lack of...), it's a travesty. It blows my mind that the Podcast marketplace is US-exclusive.
Incredible popular? Thats why it was in the spotligt for 2 weeks, commersials about a month and since a long time, forgotten. Not many knows of what Lumia is (if you talk to "normal" people). I know as many Titan as Lumia owners amongst my friends (in the small number we are) and then there is the first gen devices still active. Lumia proved a point, but most who bought em is old Nokia customers who is swayed away in the end since they never wanted a smartphone and just took a chance (one guy in a cafe didnt know how to answer his Lumia phone and hated it!), and when people ask for "BankID" or "Sparbanken" and other critical apps (BankID is VERY importent to people apperently), i have to tell them no. Like when Wordfued made its release....people bought phones just because of that app, and at that time, one of my closest friend bought a iPhone because of it.
I have tryed to sway people from Apple, but its kind of hard when what people need is not on WP. Most of the times i have to answer no, and its dissheartning, for me and potential buyers. Is Lumia 800 a hit? Sure, if you look at a low-stock-and-sold-every one point, its a hit. But truth is that even the carriers had no hope for the phone, they expected it to make little impact, if non at all.
But, yes people have bought Lumia 800, but compared to other WP? It still dont justifies a mini war of no significance amongst a OS nobody (in the hole pie, plz roll with me =) uses. It's a thing Nokia is driving forward yes, but there is little interest from competitors, and it will stay that way for a long time (autum will not cut it).
Like I said, I don't really disagree with your general sentiment, I just found your statement about Europe and Nokia Lumia to be somewhat off.
Totally agree... It's especially crap for English speaking countries that don't get all the same features and apps as the US. For example why can't I scan product barcodes, even if it just shows results in Amazon.com? Why can't I scan text in another language and translate it to English (even if misspelled US English)? Why are other apps US only, when I can access the website content just fine? It's definitely frustrating being treated like second-class citizens
Awesome
This is great news! I love reading about new WP7 apps. I do wish we weren't always getting ports though. It will be nice when the platform is big enough to get big exclusives.
Sorry if I seem negative; I'm really not. I came from webOS to WP7, so I'm a little anxious about when this platform will reach its critical mass. Like webOS, WP7 is superior to the alternatives, and I really want it to explode in popularity sooner rather than later.
I came over from WebOS too. I'm tired feeling like the "underdog" but I hope it's all worth it in the end. On a side note, I had Battleship on my Palm Pre, it was a good game. I still find it odd that WebOS still has more in apps than WP7, not in quantity but quality. Battleship, Pandora, etc. I know it's developer's who control this, but if they recognized WebOS why not give WP7 a chance? I bet more than half of them use a windows computer.
I too was a WebOS user (had a Pre 2, have a Touchpad, and was one of the lucky few to have a Pre 3), and have been using Windows Phone since day 1 and love it. MS is taking the marathon approach. It reminds me of the Xbox days, before it became a household name. I fully expect Windows Phone to succeed. MS won't pull an HP (which HP should never have purchased Palm), and will continue to improve it. Plus, Nokia will push it's boundaries.
I saw fling and thought it was the dating site. I am a little disappoint.
Maybe your new girlfriend will like the game! ;)
Oh cool
I'm glad Nokia is sticking its money where its mouth is.
Mirror's Edge was shown at a Nokia announcement when they were talking about exclusive apps. I wonder how this'll work...
Yeah, I hope it's not going to be an exclusive to Lumia devices.
It says it's a timed exclusive, so it is for a few months.
Free for Nokia owners ?
In their marketplace I hope..... any idea when ?
I'd love to try mirrors edge. I hope its not some crappy version
Mirrors Edge on iOS is fantastic. I expect it'll just be a straight port of that.
Yeah, but with a £3.99 price tag ;)
It IS a straight port. Even the achievements are the same. Can't imagine us seeing any new features just like with games such as Assassin's Creed.