Windows Mobile Marketplace has been released for a couple of days now. So how did the release go? Are the users happy thus far with the applications you can find here? One of the bigger problems so far is that users from smaller windows mobile market place ‘groups’ as Microsoft calls them have little applications available in the new shop.

For instance we have heard from people in The Netherlands that next to the applications that Microsoft themselves have to offer there is only one third party application that you can install with the marketplace.

So where does this problem come from? The issue lies with the policies Microsoft thus far has enforced on the mobile Marketplace. Application developers have been forced to have their applications translated to the country language of the sub-shop, this can be an expensive endeavor depending on the size of the application. Next to the fact that an application needs to be translated the developer also has to pay 10 dollars per submission per country. So for smaller developers it’s of course a much better idea to submit an application to the bigger countries and forget the smaller markets. This leaves the users of Windows Mobile Marketplace from smaller countries with little applications and a sour taste in their mouths.

It’s weird that Microsoft concocted such a strategy for the release of the Marketplace, because looking at the success of the Android and iPhone market, why would you change a winning formula? These shops are doing millions and millions of application downloads every day and most of the applications do not have Multilanguage support. It’s really the last thing you want to do in this world of global communication and internet-wide information streams. Nobody is interested these days in being restrained from the English language in applications and communication.

Let’s hope Microsoft listens to their customers and changes the application so you can access everything, let the user choose their destiny and live happy ever after with or without applications on their Windows Mobile Smartphone. Next to that, it’s in their own best interest. We look forward to hearing from Microsoft officials. We will keep you posted.

So we already reviewed and made you aware of a few great WVGA Games before. But some of these games you have to pay good money for to enjoy. Some are worth it some are not. Today though, we bring you free WVGA Games, or at least bring you the opportunity to find these games. As always some are good some are not, but they are all free games that work with any of your WVGA devices, weather you are running a custom ROM for Windows Mobile 6.1 or 6.5 or have an older device. Some games may require you to update the .net package on your phone but that is not hard. The following games were tested with these windows mobile devices: HTC Touch HD, HTC Touch Pro 2, HTC Diamond 2. We hope you enjoy these. If you have a WVGA games of your own or wish to request a review feel free to contact us. Now, onto the games!

Fruity
Fruity is a really fun puzzle game made by a guy named jakobdam on xda-developers.com. He has made a scalable game that works perfectly on QVGA, VGA, QWVGA and WVGA. Of course we tested the WVGA version. The goal of the game is getting 3 ‘fruities’ in a row, this rewards you with score. You really have to use your brain here because if you make swaps that don’t give points you lose draws. A little extra in the game is as you go further in to the levels you gain an option to shuffle the deck, which should be used wisely (if you think you are stuck!). The game requires flash lite which is available for windows mobile. You can find all the information you need about this amazing puzzle game in this forum thread.

Fruity looks happy!

Towers of Glennoi
This game is based on an older game that has manifested itself in a lot of different forms. So far there wasn’t a version of this game on Windows Mobile. This was the drive for the person behind this to create the game. Towers of Glennoi seems to be working on all resolutions but we tested it on WVGA. The game is simple, fun and can be addicting. The author has made quite a few updates on this game so keep checking his site for the newest information. According to his website there will be online highscores in the future, which would add quite a lot of extra ‘zing’ to this game. Find everything you need to know about this on his website.

Simple interface, but a lot of fun

Many thanks to all the developers that put their hard work into these games, we hope people enjoy them and think about the many hours someone has to put into these to get them out. Let us know what you think.

SPB released a new WVGA Windows Mobile game called SPB Quads. Quads is a puzzle game where the goal is to make squares from a field of little squares with different colors and shapes. The object of the game is the same as the mini game that is called quadratic that you can find in the SPB Brain evolution 2.0 release. This game compared to the mini game from brain games has a big happy feeling about it, instead of the more boring looking mini game. The game does this with a vibrant color and shape theme, quality sound and music. The animation used throughout the game are fast and the input to the screen feels direct- as in no lag at all. In the options menu you can choose to have sound and or music and you can get the volume swell.

The game has two modes called ‘Ever Quad’ and ‘Time Quad’. In the ever quad mode you can basically keep on playing until you battery dies. In the timed mode you have to gain a certain amount of points before the timer runs out, as you gain more points the timer gains more time. Both games look equally good on the WVGA 800×480 screens we tested it on. When you get enough points before the timer runs out you are granted a new level, and the game increases the difficulty.

The game features different kind of bonuses and some hints when you are stuck. SPB Quads is not a hard game, but it can become hard as your skill increases and you wish to challenge yourself to a higher score every time. The game can be played whenever you want to, and the ability to set the volume to zero without changing your phone profile assist in this. When you exit the game it actually remembers the state of the game and you can continue whenever you want to or tap the option menu and start a new one.

SPB Quads is a fun little game and for $9,99 it’s worth the cost (if you enjoy it). Feel free to try it out like always SPB Softwarehouse has released a 15 day trial of the game on their website. You can ask yourself if you really care so much about the graphics, and would settle for the more simple version of the game in SPB Brain Evolution 2.0 which is $10 more to buy. I would however recommend the game to be played on the newer WVGA Smartphones (HTC ones of course!), they have bigger screens and make the game more fun to play with your finger instead of cramping with your stylus.

Brain training - Progress Page

Recently (15 September) SPB released their new iteration of SPB Brain Evolution, they are now up to version 2.0. As we haven’t done a review of Brain Evolution yet, this will be a complete review of the game. As you might have guessed from the title of the game, this is a brain game which means that you have to complete all kinds of exercises and puzzles and like many other of these games your ‘brain age’ is measured and is used as a motivator to improve your scores. Let’s begin to say that this game works very well for Windows Mobile WVGA devices.

The game was tested on a Touch HD, Touch Diamond 2 and a Touch Pro 2 from Sprint. The game worked flawless on all these devices but the actually in-depth game test was performed on a Touch Pro 2 which is the current favorite at the moment.

Brain Marking
The games features two modes. The first is ‘Brain marking’ which basically is what you get as you first start the game or make a new profile. You will be tested in five different games to get a quick status of your brain. The following games are some examples of what you will face in this mode:

One of the better games in Brain Evolution, quadronica

Quadronica
Quadronica Shows you a screen with a lot of cubes on it. In these cubes you can make rectangles of the different color blocks, the bigger the blocks the more points you receive for this exercise. In the case of this game the screenshot will clearly show what you have to do.

Memory Trainer
The memory trainer shows you different objects on the screen. You then have a bit of time to remember as much as you can. When the time is up you are asked a certain question. Questions include – How many blue items were on the screen, how many items were rotating to the right – how many awesome WVGA games will HTC Smartphone review in the future? Ok we will be honest that last question is sadly not in the game.

Math
You get what you expect from the math game. There is a certain number of questions you have to answer, these answers slide down on the screen and you have to calculate them and give the correct answer as fast and correct as you can. The better the time and the better the results make the number of points you will receive.

After these tests you receive a brain index that will be used throughout the game. What is new in version 2.0 of Brain Evolution is that you can upload your results to either Twitter or the SPB website so you can compete against your friends or anyone on the web.

Brain Training
The brain training mode has twelve mini games that you can play each day and improve your brain index with. There are some great looking statics pages that look vibrant and are informative on your WVGA device. As you get better and better results in the brain training mode you unlock more games which will definitely motivate you to keep on going and improve yourself. Another fun feature is that you receive a little fact after every day of training you perform. Of course we will not spoil these for you, play the game and you will see even a little addition like this can really complete a game.

New in version 2.0
For people already familiar with this game, here is a small overview of what is actually new in version 2.0 of the game.
- Geometry (exercise)
- Full game statistics and user recommendations
- Online high scores and twitter support

One of the new features in Brain Evolution!

SPB Brain Evolution is a game that you and really your entire family can enjoy. You don’t have to sit down and play for hours and hours. It is a little similar to for instance the Nintendo Wii, often you can just sit down (or stand) and play for 30 minutes and there is nothing keeping you from turning it off. This makes the game really suitable for casual gamers, you can come back every day – but you don’t have to.

The graphics and audio of the game look equally impressive on the WVGA phones we tested this on. This really is one of those gems in the world of Windows Mobile (HTC Compatible) WVGA phones that you enjoy playing and looks great.  The screen is responsive (can be different on any device of course) and the audio is very suitable and not distracting too much, it blends in great with the game which is how it should be.
Check out this post for some more HTC Windows Mobile WVGA compatible games. We hope you have enjoyed this review, for suggestions or anything else feel free to leave a comment.

Looking for more WVGA Games? Check out the following posts:
>> Free WVGA Games you can download now
>> New HTC Compatible WVGA Windows Mobile game – SPB Quads
>> Top 5 Touch HD Games

Free Windows Mobile applications, often quality can be hard to find. But today we compiled a list of five real gems. What they have to offer? Quality, usability and good looks, all in a free package for everyone on the Windows Mobile platform.

Opera Mobile
Let’s start with what is clearly the best browser available on Windows Mobile. Opera Mobile, weather it be version 9.5 that has been available for some time now, or the newest beta of 9.7 Opera Mobile will make browsing on your Touch screen device a breeze. The bookmark system, the speed and the looks and usability make it by far the best experience we ever had while browsing the net. If you have been using Opera Mobile 9.5 for some time now (it is included in many HTC ROMs) you should give 9.7 a try. Not everyone knows this but you can run the two versions side by side, so feel free to try out this beta, and if you don’t like it just uninstall it. Find it here.

Google Maps Mobile
Need we say anything about this application for your Windows phone? Google Maps works great on any Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Android, Nokia device. Google has put quite the effort in this little application to make the experience great. The only thing I would really like to see for this app is that you can predownload some maps from Google themselves, so you can view the maps a bit faster when on a slow connection. Thanks for this great app Google! You can download it here .

Facebook
Microsoft released their own Facebook for Windows Phones application recently, I guess they finally noticed how important social networks are becoming to the mobile phone community. What can I say? The application does work, but seems a bit sluggish compared with the iPhone or Android version. Let’s hope this application will improve with time and bring a good experience to the Windows Mobile 6.5 phones that are hitting the market this October. Download it here.

Stay tuned to see more posts regarding some great freeware Windows Mobile applications getting a short review. There are many more hidden gems that few people know about and are often just as good if not better then a lot of the payed counterparts.

Looking for some quality games for Windows Mobile? Check out this post.