Best Windows Phone 7 Apps » 3 Stars

Crazy Casino for WP7

bestwp7apps — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 04:32:28 +0000

Crazy Casino (Free)

Jake Poznanski, the developer of WP7 best sellers, incuding Solitaire, Mars Runner and Word Search, is back!

Crazy Casino is a simple casino game with Slots and Video Poker.

The gameplay is simple but entertaining just right: the chances of winning are high enough to keep you going and low enough not to get dull.

As you play, you earn tokens to unlock more slots and different poker game types. There is not too much brain to apply here, though: spin the wheel or hold the higher cards and tap again.

Graphics are super-solid (as usual), but sound could be better.

Crazy Casino is cute and fun game, but does not have a lasting appeal due to the limited modes available and its simplicity.

The author is synonym with solid games on Windows Phone 7, and the game is free, so you should definitely give it a tap.

Genre	games	Rank	24
Rating Avg.	4.5 Stars	# Reviews	305
Price	Free	Version	1.0

INRIX Traffic: avoid traffic jams with WP7

bestwp7apps — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 05:20:22 +0000

INRIX Traffic (Free)

Get There, Faster. This is the motto of INRIX traffic, recently released for Windows Phone 7 and already receiving a warm welcome from the marketplace.

The service is easy enough: watch the map of your neck of the woods and see how bad the traffic is, if there are constructions or accidents along your route and plan around it.

The nice about INRIX is that provides info for both the highways and the main roads, as well as pinning your location on the map to show around and allow you to take decisions. This is not a turn by turn navigation app like the ones we reviewed a while back, and does not provide directions, but if you know where you are going, INRIX will give you the best tips on how to avoid traffic.

We tried it for a few days and it worked really well, the information were accurate both in the case of no traffic as well as in the case of heavy traffic – our suggestion: try it, it’s free!

Genre	travel+navigation	Rank	371
Rating Avg.	4.5 Stars	# Reviews	16
Price	Free	Version	1.0

Sound fun on WP7: South Park and Portal 2

bestwp7apps — Wed, 25 May 2011 05:51:17 +0000

Two unrelated sound apps have been released in the past few days: Portal 2 Soundbox, developed by SleepyMolecule and South Park Soundboard, developed by wouter997.

These apps have in common the sounds they enable on your Windows Phone 7: they are fun! (well at least for a while).

The South Park Soundboard features some super classic lines from Cartman (screw you guys, I am going home is our all time favorite) Chef (surprisingly on the front page) and the rest of the eight year old Denver gang.

Portal 2 Soundbox has many more characters and sounds, including the amazing Cave Johnson (if you cut yourself you might notice that your blood is turned into gasoline…) Wheatley, the Turrets (are you still there?) and GlaDOS.

We are unsure how the authors can get away with the publishing rights of these apps, but while they are available on the marketplace you should check them out, especially if you played the gorgeous Portal 2 recently or are a fan of the classic South Park; both apps offer some free fun, so why not?

South Park Soundboard (Free)

Fun lines from the Rated Mature kids’ cartoon, Cartman never gets old.

Portal 2 Soundbox (Free)

Great lines from the console game of the year (so far at least).

Groupon for WP7: get your screaming deals on the go

bestwp7apps — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 02:52:10 +0000

Groupon (Free)

Groupon is joining the Windows Phone 7 world. With this fresh new fancy app you can get the deal of the moment while on the go with your WP7 – discount on!The app will work very much like groupon.com: check out the deal of the day or the others available in your area.

Deals are pretty substantial: 50% off for a haircut or for a chocolate box; 60% off a day at the gym or 50% off carpet cleaning. The catch with Groupon is that you have to buy the deal upfront. At the same time, the discounts are pretty sweet and tempting: if you can check it often, you will find a deal on something you were interested and this makes it worth.

The app UI is well integrated with Metro but is a little sluggish and sometimes will catch a swipe for a hit making navigation a little hard.

You have most of the web site features available in this mobile version: the handy Discussion is available, showing you what questions other users had on the deal. Unfortunately you cannot ask questions via the phone, only read other people ones.

The location of the deal is shown on Bing maps – handy! – but there are no directions (I guess we will have to wait Mango for this one). Another limitation is the social like on Facebook is not available on the phone, as well as FB sign-in.You can access your groupons straight from the phone, though, so you can drive to the place and get the deal right away without printing. Other independent Groupon WP7 apps (Groupon Live and Groupon Express) do not have this feature and this is an important plus.

Overall this app is ok, a few improvements here and there will make it a great one – but what matters are the deals and Groupon have some scorching hot ones – go tap them now.

Verdict (version reviewed: 1.0.0.0)

Groupon for Windows Phone will help you find some great deals in your area; technically the app can use some improvements, but the base functionality is there, so give it a tap.

[Check out the video for the Groupon App below, courtesy of Windows Phone team]

Super Monkey Ball for WP7 Review

bestwp7apps — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 04:12:42 +0000

Super Monkey Ball ($ 4.99, Trial) [New+Cool]

For this week, the Xbox Live Arcade game released on Windows Phone 7 is Super Monkey Ball.
The idea is to drive a monkey inside a ball to collect bananas and get to a goal on a floating slide-like course in between jumps and obstacles trying to avoid falling and getting in time to the goal.
We have played this game on the Wii and it was fun; on a phone the idea is to use the accelerometer and tilt the phone to drive the monkey to the goal.
The execution is good, but not great. It just takes a little while to get used to the controls: at the beginning they seem to be little responsive for a small tilt and too much for a slightly bigger ones; also it is not clear if the neutral position is completely flat or slightly tilted. Finally the graphics of the monkeys are not helping figuring out at what speed the ball is rolling. Overall, the graphic is pleasant and colorful, though; of course this is a quality production and it shows.
Like all the Xbox Live WP7 Games, there are Achievements, if you are a cheevos hunter, check the guide at TrueAchievements.com.
Overall this is a good pastime with over 100 levels that start getting challenging after the first few ones (some might even be frustrating) but with a steep learn curve – we wished you could have a sensitivity adjustment setting.
We suggest you to use the awesome try before you buy feature (Windows Phone haz it!) to check this game out, but remember that it takes a while to get used to the controls…

Genre	Games	Rank	6223
Rating Avg.	2.5 Stars	# Reviews	45
Price	$ 4.99, Trial	Version	1.0

MSN Onit: a guy’s guide on Windows Phone 7

bestwp7apps — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 05:36:35 +0000

MSN Onit (Free) [New+Cool]

What do guys want? Beautiful Women, Cars, Dollars, Sports…MSN Onit has got this and more!

This peculiar (and mundane) news app got published last week on the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace. With an approach similar to men’s magazines (Men’s Health and Esquire are part of the news sources), MSN Onit – a guy’s guide – groups web articles, news and pictures for young male audience (boys, boys!). Interesting questions like what are the measurement of Playboy’s miss February or Do blondes have more fun can be easily found in this first example of all-male Windows Phone 7 App.

Articles can be shared with your buddies on FB or email and links to the source web site allows reader to go deeper in their quest for male-centered information. You can also sign in with your Windows Live ID to synchronize your MSN Onit settings between devices.

Technically, the app is well done, with good metro integration, snappy UI and clean menus. Some comments report the app does not work outside US and that it loads slow – well we found the loading time to be a little long, but only at the start of the app, after that the app was responsive (but again we tested mostly under Wi-Fi coverage).

MSN Onit is free with contextual non-intrusive ads, so if you are interested in guys’ news check it out on your WP7.

Genre	Lifestyle	Rank	79
Rating Avg.	3.0 Stars	# Reviews	79
Price	Free	Version	1.2