For Xbox fans, the best part of the weekly Red Stripe Deals promotion is undoubtedly the Xbox Red Stripe Deal. Each week, one game with juicy Achievements drops its price - often as low as 99 cents. The sale price depends on the starting price though.
Case in point: Puzzle Quest 2 from Namco Bandai usually sells for a crazy $6.99, but this week it costs only $2.99. The puzzle RPG previously went on sale for five bucks way back in March 2012. Three dollars might not be as sweet as 99 cents, but it’s certainly an improvement.
Also on sale this week are Drift Mania Championship 2 (only for Windows Phone 8), the indie racing game and a musical app called Synthpling. We’ve got descriptions, screenshots and Store links after the break.
Puzzle Quest 2 (Windows Phone 7 or 8)
Regular price: $6.99 Sale price: $2.99 Download size: 218 MB Store Link
Puzzle Quest 2 is a puzzle role-playing game. Players explore large dungeons, take on quests, and collect plenty of loot. Whenever a battle occurs, the fighting is done via Bejeweled-like match-3 gameplay. It’s an extremely long game with decent-good art, multiple playable characters, and several clever minigames.
A few problems like poorly-thought out Achievements, lengthy loading times, and annoying lack of Fast App Switching keep Puzzle Quest 2 from greatness. Still, the gameplay is just super addicting. If you like Bejeweled and RPGs, you really can’t do any better. Check out our exhaustively-researched (seriously!) review for more details.
If you'd rather play Puzzle Quest 2 on your big screen, the XBLA version is on sale to Xbox Live Gold members for 600 MS Points ($7.50) through May 27th.
Drift Mania Championship 2 (Windows Phone 8)
Regular price: $1.99 Sale price: 99 cents Download size: 216 MB Store Link
You’ll recognize this title as the first Windows Phone game made with the Unity engine, as well as the first game to support the MOGA controller. The only problem with that controller support: the game hasn’t been patched to work with it yet! Yeah, the version we played at GDC supported it, but the public version seems to be one update behind.
Hopefully Ratrod Studio and MOGA get that sorted out quickly. Ratrod should add some line breaks to the game’s store description while they’re at it.
Anyway, Drift Mania 2 is an arcade-style racing game with fairly good 3D graphics (not as pretty as Asphalt 7 though). Career mode spans 13 circuits and allows players to purchase licensed upgrades and other customizations for their cars. You can engage in multiplayer drift battles both online and with local Wi-Fi too.
Synthpling (Windows Phone 7 or 8)
Regular price: $2.99 Sale price: $1.49 Download size: 23 MB Store Link
Want to make music on your phone for some reason? Synthpling lets you do just that. It comes from Phonolab, the developer of audio recording and editing app Ringcorder.
Synthpling’s synthesizer offers a keyboard in multiple layouts and ranges. The sampler feature allows users to record voice samples, modify them, and map them to the piano keys. If I was musically inclined, I’d totally give this one a swing.
Have any of you guys created your own tunes with Synthpling? If so, share a video with us!
