Games for Windows Phone 7
A Mobile Games Roundup special.
The best of the rest
There are a whole pile of titles out there for the WP7, but most of them you'll have seen before, at prices that make you wonder what planet the publisher is on.
Top of the heap is undoubtedly Hexic Rush, which remains one of the most absorbing XBLA puzzle games ever made. Sadly, the controls are a bit too fiddly on touch screen for my liking, but for £2.49, you can't really go wrong. Another worth picking up is the simple match-three puzzle classic Flower, especially as it's free.
One title that just missed getting the full roundup treatment was Rocket Riot, a former XBLA title dusted down for WP7. As Christian noted in his review last summer, it's a hectic, crazed multiplayer-centric shooter, but one that doesn't translate especially well to a tiny touch-screen - especially at £5.49.
Glow Artisan, meanwhile, was a rather good puzzle effort on DSiWare last month, and unsurprisingly stands up well on WP7 too, but maybe not at the £3.99 they're charging for it currently. THQ's twin iOS ports, de Blob Revolution and Star Wars: Battle For Hoth, are also worth checking out, although at £2.49 they're about 50 per cent more expensive.
If money's no object, by all means pick up the likes of Tetris, Uno and Flight Control, but, again, they're vastly cheaper on iOS. The Sims 3 is also worth a look, but at £5.49 is almost double the iOS price. It's a familiar pattern.
The worst of the rest
Some folk seem to think that one-time Xbox Indie zombie slasher Twin Blades is good, dumb fun, but I found it to be repetitive sludge that bored me before the trial was even done with, so is definitely not worth the £2.49 currently being demanded.
Avoid Frogger, More Brain Exercises, Need For Speed: Undercover, and Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles, though. Not only are they not particularly good, but insanely expensive compared to the App Store price. Case in point: Assassin's Creed, which is 59p on the App Store, and an insane £5.49 on WP7. Finally, steer clear of the even more insanely priced Guitar Hero 5. Not only is one of the lamest attempts at rhythm action on a mobile, Glu wants £7.99 for it. I think not.