Best Windows apps this week
One-hundred and seventy in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps and games released for Windows 8.x and Windows 10 in the past seven days.
Several interesting games and apps were released this week including this week's "app of the week" Tap Tap Legion, and Gears of War: Ultimate Edition (a Windows 10 Store exclusive).
As always, if I missed an app or game that has been released this week that you believe is particularly good, let me know in the comments below or notify me via email instead.
Discounts This Week
The following discounts are provided by Red Stripe Deals, a weekly changing list of offers, and the Deals Hub application.
The following is this week's selection:
- Leo's Fortune, a platform adventure game for $1.99
- The Last Door: Collector's Edition,a point and click horror adventure game for $1.49
- Sparkle Unleashed, an arcade game for $2.99
- Gro Garden, organic gardening edutainment game for $1.49
- The Great Unknown: Houdini's Castle (Full), an adventure game for $1.49
- Color by Numbers: Animals, a painting app for children for $0.99
- Weather Radar Pro for $1.49
- KnowledgeBase Builder for $0.99
- Sticky Notes Pro for $3.99
- Token2Shell/MD, SSH client for $2.99
App of the week
Tap Tap Legions is a free to play game in which you summon troops that battle it out with onrushing enemy hordes.
The goal of the game is to beat the enemy troops and destroy their defenses to proceed to the next level.
You earn gold while playing the game, get access to new troops, and can purchase upgrades to make your army more powerful.
A random selection of cards, depicting the available unit types and special effects, are available in battles. Unit cards summon the depicted units to battle, while special effects have positive or negative effects such as bombing the enemy or yourself.
You can summon a limited number of cards per battle stage, and need to do so before time runs out as you won't be able to throw more troops or use special effects afterwards.
The upgrade system allows you to improve specific types of units, for instance by improving their attacks, health or defense, changing the odds that negative effect cards appear in battles, or improve the health of your king.
Other apps
The new universal weather application for Windows 10 displays the current weather, and a 9-day weather forecast for the selected location.
Information that it provides includes a detailed forecast for the day, sunset, sunrise, moonrise and moonset time, information about wind, pressure and day length, and more.
It features landscape templates and live tile support to display weather information on the operating system's start page.
Cover as much distance as possible with your raccoon by carefully accelerating downhill, switching lanes, avoiding other animals that block the way, and collecting extras.
The game features an upgrade system that is linked to in-app purchases. You pay with berries that you collect throughout the game or purchase in the store to speed things up.
The Games Database offers information about upcoming, current and classic video games.
You can use the search to find games of interest, or browse the coming soon listing instead.
Each game is listed with a release data, a description, screenshots and video footage (if available).
The game requires an Xbox Live account and Xbox Controller. It is a crowdsourced, retro-style team-based sports game in which both teams try to score goals.
The game features online and local play, a single player campaign, and a hashbomb system that, when sent via Twitch or Twitter, will change the game dynamically.
Kodi.Remote ($2.49, free trial)
Browse, view, play and stream Kodi media from any Windows 10 device using Kodi.Remote.
It enables you to control your Kodi/XBMC systems, sync playlists and data, and stream media to Windows 10 devices, Microsoft Play-To devices, Miracast receivers, and connected Kodi devices.
Please note that some functionality, offline access for instance, are available as in-app purchases.
Patchwork ($2.99, no free trial)
Patchwork is an adaption of the boardgame by Uwe Rosenberg in which players try to create the best quilt to win the game.
It is a two-player game featuring local and online play, and games against computer opponents.
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition for Windows 10 ($29.99)
One of the first games released exclusively on Windows Store for PC. It is a remastered edition of the original Gears of War game that supports 4K resolutions and new content including new campaigns, bonus multiplayer characters and a "deluxe" weapon skin pack.
The game supports gamepads and keyboard controls, and requires a video card that is DirectX 12 compatible.
Notable updates
Music streaming app Deezer has been released as a universal application for Windows 10.
A King of Thieves update introduces a new character, unique gems and costumes to the game.
Sage Reader, a popular 4chan/8chan image boards browser, now supports thread monitoring, live tiles and Continuum support for Windows 10 Mobile.
Trakter, a TV show tracker, it is no longer available for Windows 8.x. It is only available as a universal application.