Tracking down the best Windows Phone 7 apps is often akin to riffling through someone’s draws. Such is the amateur status of many of the titles on offer – amateur in terms of the person writing the code, rather than the end result – that the apps served up often come with a distinctly home grown feel.
As our summary of the best Windows Phone 7 apps on offer for March proves, however, that’s not always a bad thing. By thinking of the user instead of setting out to push a specific product, those bedroom coders often produce the goods.
Searching for them has helped put a stop to my urges to rifle through Electricpig’s bins, anyway. Take a look at our top picks this month:
I Love Katamari
from Namco Bandai Games
Katamari, in any form, is not for everyone. Some folk simply aren’t gripped by the prospect of rolling around a ball covered in clutter in order to pick up yet more clutter along the way.
What I Love Katamari does especially well, however, is deliver its simple set up with buckets of character. It’s hard not to be engrossed when Katamari’s King – floating above the earth in deepest, darkest space – barks his instructions with the kind of perverse humour that comes so easily to Japanese studios.
With four different game modes on offer, there’s gameplay aplenty on offer, too.
Link 2iN
from Route 2 Solutions
Regular readers of our countdown of the top Windows Phone 7 apps will remember that free LinkedIn client Link Me In made these pages back in December. Link 2iN is a somewhat slicker alternative, albeit coming with a 99p price tag.
No doubt looking to mop up Link Me In users who, if user reviews are to be believed, have encountered an assortment of bugs, Link 2iN integrates Windows Phone 7′s swipe-through menu system with arguably more success, enabling you to hunt for new connections and keep an eye on the movements of those you already know.
Something of a superficial upgrade, then, but one worth a few pence nonetheless.
Check out the best Windows Phone 7 handsets here
Maps Pro
from The Cube Software
As users on Maps Pro’s page on Windows Phone Marketplace have commented, it’s early days for map software on Microsoft’s platform.
Maps Pro is by no means perfect – the sheer breadth of options on offer suggests this is something of a work in progress – but it is a valid alternative to the not-universally-popular Bing Maps that comes pre-installed on all handsets.
Namely because, using its default settings, it’s akin to Google Maps’s more familiar set up. However, for those that favour the look of rival map software – Mapnik and OsmaRender flavours of OpenStreetMap on offer, as well as several aerial views – Maps Pro is the consummate Bing substitute.
XDA Wallpaper
from anheledir.NET
When you get a new phone, you want to keep it looking swish for as long as possible. XDA Wallpaper allows you to edit photos already on your phone with simple overlays to serve up slick, but simple, wallpapers.
As well as sharing any you create with other users, you can also download and save the scores of other images hosted on the app.
Burn It All
from Microsoft
Burn it All is Microsoft’s attempt to prove its games can be just as quirky as those served up by indies. Just a few minutes in, it’s clear it’s been successful. Despite the fiery action hinted at in its name, Burn It All is actually something of a brain teaser.
Faced with a series of levels decorated with various ropes, your job is to set fire to only those that block your path in order to make your way out of a volcano in quick fashion. Scores of enemies – such as pesky drips of water, and an ever ticking clock – mean this is no pushover, however.
