Panel Panic! is a puzzle game for your Windows Phone that has a little bit of a Bejeweled flavor to it with a touch of Tetris. You have colored squares that you are trying to shuffle about to create a combo of three or more of the same color. As you play the game, the columns rise from the bottom adding more squares to the mix. As you create the combos, the squares dissolve and you earn...
![The Oregon Trail returns to Windows Phone 8 just as Shoot 1UP leaves [Updated]](https://www.windowscentral.com/sites/wpcentral.com/files/styles/w250h188crop/public/field/image/2012/12/Shoot1upDysentery.jpg)
Windows Phone 8 hasn’t exactly been kind to the mobile lineup of Xbox games. To say nothing of the disheartening scarcity of WP8-specific games, more than 20 Xbox WP7 games simply aren’t available on WP8 due to incompatibility. In my opinion, Microsoft has handled these incompatibility issues quite poorly. Still, in my original article about the mass delisting of WP8-incompatible games...
It seems like the shackles are off and the app updates are seemingly never ending, mostly these concern bringing existing titles fixes and tweaks for Windows Phone 8. The Xbox Live game Bullet Asylum today received an update to fix the issues with gameplay running at almost double speed on Windows Phone 8. The game was always heaps of fun and I have to say, more than manic enough for...
Push notifications (also called toast notifications) are those pop-up messages you get from certain apps – the ones that say you’ve got a game invite, a weather alert, a new tweet, etc. Even if you don’t have an app that supports them, you’ve probably seen them appear whenever you get a text message or voice mail. Windows Phone 7 always had issues with push notifications though. Not the...
One of the key differentiators for Windows Phone the past few years has been on the go access to the Xbox service and Xbox enabled games. We’ve had some popular ports like iStunt 2 (Dan's favorite) and Plants vs. Zombies. Windows Phone has also had its fair share of original and exclusive titles, fun games like Chicken Can’t Fly and Mush. Over on the Xbox website, we can see the first...
AE Skee Ball brings all the fun of the popular arcade game to your Windows Phone. You play for tickets which can be exchanged for tokens that are needed to play the game. Game play is not unlike the real world game in that you have nine balls that you roll up the ramp to jump them into various points rings. There are some opportunities for bonus points and the more points you score, the...
Two weeks ago on November 28, AlphaJax missed its intended launch date. As such, there was no Xbox Windows Phone release that week. We sort of understood that the game had hit a last minute road bump, and then it popped up the next week, so little harm was done. I’m afraid I have similar news to report: there will be no Xbox release this week. Perhaps the sting is lessened since nobody...
New Zealish developer Marker Metro hopped onboard the WP7 bandwagon prior to that platform’s launch; their indie project AlphaJax followed the platform’s debut a few months later. We’ve long considered it one of the most polished crossword games available, despite the lack of cross-platform support. Perhaps that polish and Windows Phone exclusivity are what caused Microsoft to pick up...
When Angry Birds Star Wars appeared on Windows Phone 8 back at the beginning of November, early adopters of the new mobile OS had reason to celebrate. The latest installment in Rovio’s hugely popular franchise launched simultaneously on WP8, iOS, and Android, whereas most Windows Phone Xbox games appear months or even years after debuting on the other mobile platforms. However, another...
The Xbox Windows Phone lineup has a spotty track record with time management games. Sally’s Salon was fantastic, but then it was followed up by the less impressive (and more bug-filled) Sally’s Spa. Both titles wore their feminine themes on their sleeves, making them less appealing to certain insecure male gamers. The only male-targeted genre entry, Star Wars Cantina got itself delisted...
File this Xbox Windows Phone game release under "better late than never." Yes, the highly anticipated Xbox-enabled version of AlphaJax is now available at last. AlphaJax is a Windows Phone-exclusive online Scrabble clone that has made quite a name for itself since its debut in December 2010. The New Zealand-based developer Marker Metro got excited about the platform prior to its release...
Pirate's Plunder is Flight Control styled game where you direct trade ships to the appropriate port, avoid high seas collisions, pirates, sea monsters and other dangers along the way. Along with the main objective of docking your ships, there are a handful of side games with Pirate's Plunder that crop up to keep things interesting. Animations are nice, game play challenging, but the...
Ultra Fill is a simple, fun little game for your Windows Phone that is an interesting way to pass the time. The game is nicely drawn up and animated and while there's not much to Ultra Fill, it does have a bit of challenge to it. The goal is to fill up a percentage of the screen with your characters in a set number of moves. All while avoiding enemy bouncy balls that will cost you a...
Windows Phone Central's Roundup of Family Games With Windows Phone 8, you get the Kids Corner and in this weeks roundup, we are focusing on a selection of Family Games from the Windows Phone Store. These games can be installed and added to your Windows Phone Kid's Corner to offer your kids a little entertainment to pass the time with. While these games are "family friendly" that doesn'...
Tile Path is a simple yet enjoyable puzzle game for your Windows Phone. It has a bit of a Tetris feel to it but unique enough not to feel like Tetris. The goal is to place colored blocks on the gaming board and create a path between similarly colored markers. When you connect the two points, the blocks disappear, you earn points and new markers are generated. There are a few gaming...
Yesterday’s delisting of Turn N Run – literally the night before our review went live, and only six days after the game’s release – highlights a large and ongoing problem in the world of Xbox Windows Phone games. Since the debut of Windows Phone 8, incompatibility with the new OS has been discovered among a number of Xbox WP7 titles. Each of these games has been completely delisted from...
Last week’s Xbox Windows Phone Black Friday sale was the largest sale the platform has ever seen, with no less than six Xbox titles discounted. And in fact, the Windows Phone Store hasn’t updated yet, so you can still get those games on sale as of this writing. I have to bear some bad news though… Microsoft has revealed to us that the popular Xbox Deal of the Week program will be taking...
Russian developer MaxNick really impressed us with its Xbox Windows Phone release of Spider Jack. For a year, it was the closest thing on our platform to Cut the Rope, and remains a quality game. MaxNick has also released a handful of indie titles such as Doodle Invasion, a quirky little game about evil aliens attacking the Earth. Now the developer returns to Xbox Live with Turn N Run,...
In case you hadn’t noticed, your friendly neighborhood Windows Phone Central gaming editor is a big fan of SEGA. While the publisher only operates at a fraction of the size it once did, it continues to produce numerous quality digital titles, plus a fair quantity of worthwhile retail releases. Last week, we gave the Xbox Windows Phone version of Sonic CD a well-deserved glowing review....
Elems is a Tetris styled game for your Windows Phone where you try to form groups of fuzzy little creatures, Elems. Line up four Elems of the same color and they disappear from the game board. Elems has three game modes to keep things interesting. Game controls will take a little time to get used to but overall, Elems is a decent little game for your Windows Phone. The main menu for...