The Windows App Store may not be on par with the iOS and Android App stores as yet, but that doesn’t mean there are no quality apps and games available for you to download and enjoy. In fact, we recently covered twenty of the best Windows Phone apps that are a must have on any Windows device. And if you are someone who loves to play games on your phone, here are the best Windows Phone games that you simply mustn’t do without.

Crossy Road

Why did the chicken cross the road? The answer to that question probably lies in this endless jumping game. You play a chicken who must try to reach his home without dying. Dangerous hazards and obstacles are lined up along the way that can cause immediate death. And if you stay too long in one place, an eagle might swoop down on you and carry you away. Life’s tough in this endless arcade game, but then there’s so much fun attempting to beat the odds as well.

Monument Valley

Monument Valley is an isometric puzzle game that will have you leading a princess through mazes and optical illusions by moving platforms and creating bridges with the hope of reaching the final destination. The game’s hand-crafted artwork is breathtaking and is a feast for the senses. The sound effects are another high point in the game and is best experienced with headphones. If you love puzzle games, you’ll enjoy exploring the fascinating worlds in Monument Valley. Price: $3.99

Geometry Dash

If you love rhythm-based running games, Geometry dash is one for the collection. There are plenty of levels with unique soundtracks for each one and the game gets progressively difficult as you hit the higher levels. Thankfully there are checkpoints for respawning, should you die before completing a level. Other highlights of the game include practice levels, user created levels, customizations and a wide variety of game modes and icons. Achievements and rewards will make you coming back for more. Price: $1.99

Asphalt 8: Airborne

This top arcade racer game for Windows Phone is powered by an all new physics engine making it possible to perform high-speed aerial stunts, barrel rolls and wild 360 degree jumps in the coolest cars on the planet. 13 unique locations, 95 high performance cars, 9 seasons and more than 300 events in the Career mode means you’ll be spending many hours enjoying the thrills and spills of the game. Asphalt 8 also offers multiplayer support, so you can enjoy racing against up to 12 opponents. Do you have what it takes to top the leaderboards. Only one way to find out!

Phoenix Force

The Earth has been burned to ashes and monsters and evil creatures roam the lands. The Phoenix has risen from the ashes but must now work towards restoring the planet by bringing essential gems to the Tree of Life. This highly challenging strategy game with over a hundred boss battles will keep you on your toes and smash all your boredom away.

Major Mayhem WP

Enjoy 48 levels of non stop run and gun as you attempt to rescue your girlfriend from the Forces of Evil. The game has picturesque 3D environments filled with plenty of bad guys and the only way to stop them is to use guns, grenades and other deadly weapons at your disposal. Major Mayhem has over 150 mission objectives and 100 achievements to earn and collect. It is a game that can quickly turn addictive. You have been warned!

Pako

Pako is a simple, straightforward game that’s completely fun to play. You are stuck in an enclosed area and the cops are chasing you. Your car has no breaks so you’ll be dodging incoming vehicles while attempting to overrun the cops. The game’s primary challenge is how long you can hold out. Do you have what it takes to be in the Top 10. Download Pako and find out!

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Rail Rush

Rail Rush is a fun endless runner where you hit the rail cart and head into the mines to collect gold nuggets, gems and other precious stones. The game has 10 worlds including the Amazon jungle, the terrific Undersea World, Horror Land, and the wonderful Snow Land, apart from many other secret levels. You can switch between 18 different characters, pick up cool powerups and collect in-game achievements while tilting and swiping your way around and there’s never a dull moment in this addictive runner.

Think

As the title suggests, this one’s a brain teaser set in a minimalistic environment. The game is designed to be played with friends and family as you work together to solve the visual clues. For instance, you’ll need to look at a bunch of images and decipher what it is trying to tell you. The game’s hint system involves communicating with an AI and this interaction in itself offers a whole new level of manipulation. Think has over 360 puzzles spread across 30 chapters and it’s a fun game to play with a group of friends.

Royal Revolt!

In Royal Revolt, you play a prince who has been sent to Bogsmarts to study magic. When you return home, you find that your greedy relatives have usurped your father’s throne. Its time to pull together a few trusted knights and heroes and employ magic and spells to kick your wicked relatives out of the castle. Royal Revolt proves that magic and combat action can never go stale!

Age of Sorcery

Age of Sorcery is a fantastic massively multiplayer online (MMO) that has you building an empire and developing its cities while undertaking several dangerous adventures. You must hunt down legendary monsters, conquer palaces abandoned by the Gods, form alliances and fight many wars. The game looks gorgeous with awesome animations and the extensive world map offers plenty of game time. You can invite your friends, form alliances, and conquer and raid other players in real time, if you have a good stable network connection, that is.

Imperia Online: The Great People

Another must-play for MMO fans is Imperia Online: The Great People. The game has you recruiting soldiers, commandeering armies into epic battles and conquering neighboring lands in order to become Lord of the Medieval Realm. The game is highly addictive with a good level of depth and you are sure to have fun inviting friends, forming alliances, battling foes, and earning in-game achievements to prove your awesomeness.

Despicable Me: Minion Rush

Enjoy the company of the cutest creatures on the planet – the Minions (from the movie Despicable Me of course!) as they jump, roll, dodge and chatter their way through exotic worlds to complete fun missions. The game has plenty of unpredictable moments and hilarity, and you will encounter secret areas, pick up unbelievable power ups and take on the boss boss Gru himself apart from many new villains. Custom animations, cute voiceovers, 3D graphics and dynamic camera angles make this a must-play game on your Windows phone.

Dragon’s Blade II FX

This is a classic turn-based RPG that you can play online at your own pace. You build a team from 11 unique classes and begin your adventures across various continents by battling hundreds of monsters and big bosses. Your rewards are treasures that will help you strengthen your team. Online play allows you to chat with other players, join guilds, play mini games and fight PvP battles and guild wars. There are over 40 hours of story based gameplay, so if you have plenty of time on your hands, make sure you pick up Dragon’s Blade II FX.

SongArc

If you loved Guitar hero, you will love SongArc even more. This highly addictive game has some groundbreaking music and innovative game play that lets you decide which part of the song you want to emphasize – the guitar, the vocals, or the drums. Tap shapes to the beat of the music to reach the arc and in the process add your own unique touch to the music. That’s what thousands of SongArc players around the world are doing, having created over 40K custom music sheets in the process. Love music? Love mobile games? Hit the link below.

Doors

Doors is another example of how you can make a simple straightforward game so challenging and addictive. Here, you solve hidden mysteries to open the door and escape the room. You need to collect items by finding them hidden in places of special interest and open the door using them. The game has plenty of variation and the puzzles are not so easy to crack. If you still haven’t tried the game, better late than never.

Century City

Century City is a tapping game that requires tapping a gold mine to pile up the money needed to build your city. Beautiful artwork, plenty of mini games and a social aspect (you can invite friends, compete with them, visit their city and collect rare rewards) make this a fun game to download and enjoy.

Nightmares From The Deep: The Cursed Heart

One of my favorite games in this list comes from Artifex Mundi, developers of the best hidden object adventure games on the planet. In this adventure, you play a museum owner who must trace an undead pirate who has kidnapped your daughter to sacrifice her in order to resurrect his dead mistress. The game takes you through haunted territories and chilling locations where you must confront the past and solve mysteries before its too late.

Township

Township is a fun city building game that also involves a bit of farming. You run your farm, harvest crops, run processing facilities, sell goods and build your city with the revenue generated. There are plenty of activities to indulge in – from exploring mines to sailing off to far off lands and if you had a dream to create your own perfect city, you can bring it to life on your Windows Phone with Township.

War Inc – Modern World Combat

We finish off this mega list with yet another awesome MMO/ RTS game set in a futuristic world – War Inc – Modern World Combat. The year is 2085 and the world as we know it is gone, ruled as it is, by the ruthless War Corp. Your job is to build powerful towers, form armies, and conquer your foes in intensive battles. This is a comprehensive battle game with an amazing battle play, in depth strategies and a deep upgrade system. You can join and fight with and against millions of players online for glory and worldwide domination. Enjoy!

Windows Phone users, do you have the best, most useful and entertaining Windows apps on your phone? Not sure? With thousands of apps in-store and more and more new ones being added everyday, you can get bogged down trying to find the ones that really matter. Don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. Just check out this list of the 20 best Windows Phone apps and download them at your leisure because it doesn’t get better than this.

Wikipedia

If you need an encyclopedia in your pocket Wikipedia is a must have. The app has plenty of great features including Cortana support, multiple language search support, options to read articles in offline mode, search by location, and Pocket integration for reading later. Other notable aspects of the app include a quick summary view, options to save as favorites, view previous versions, add live tiles for quick access and share via Facebook, Twitter, mail or by generating a QR Code.

My Piano Phone

Playing games and watching video clips is great fun, but you can do something more constructive with your Windows Phone too, such as learning to play a musical instrument. Thanks to My Piano Phone, you can choose to learn how to play an acoustic piano, electric piano, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, trumpet, drum kit or violin. My Piano Phone is a great time killer as you have plenty of songs to learn and I’ll bet you’ll have lots of fun doing it as well.

#1 ToolKit

Do you have a torch on your Windows Phone? Or a magnifier, or a recorder, or a stop watch. No? Well you don’t have to download all these essentials as individual apps. Just grab #1 Toolkit from the Windows Store and you’ll get 16 tools in one go. You’ll get a Ruler, Compass, Protractor, Flashlight, Mirror, Magnifier, One Tap, Unit and Currency converter, Noise meter, Recorder, Timer, Stop Watch, World Clock, and Speed Meter. Cool, isn’t it?

Movie Maker 8.1

Movie Maker 8.1 is a powerful video editing app that allows you to bring out your creative movie making skills on the Windows phone. You can use videos, pictures and music to create your movie with no time constraints holding you back. Custom camera features, editing tools, customizable MP4 and MP3 compressor, and the MP3 Studio and MP3 Recorder tools lets you make the most of your media resources and when you’ve created magic you can share it on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook or save it on OneDrive. The only way to experience all the rich features of the app is to download and try it.

DubStep Pad

You don’t have to be the world’s great Dubstep fan to create some cool tunes. Just download the app on your Windows Phone and enjoy mixing different beats to create your own sounds. You can also record the tunes and enjoy listening to them at your leisure. Download the app right away and dubstep your blues away.

Flixster

Nothing can be more entertaining than checking out all the latest movie trailers and catching up on all the critical reviews of the latest releases. Your access to all this is Flixster. Not only do you get to check out the top box office hits, upcoming movies, and new DVD releases, you can look up show times in a theatre near you, and find nearby restaurants using Yelp. Plus, you can search for movies by title, create a list of movies you want to see, rate movies you’ve seen and set movie posters as your lock screen background. Add a live tile on your Start screen to access all this info even without opening the app. And the best part, if you have an UltraViolet Collection, you can stream the movies you own or rent and watch them on the app.

CamScanner

Named as one of the 50 best mobile apps by TIME magazine, CamScanner is your go-to app for scanning, storing, syncing and collaborating on documents while on the go. The app is packed with plenty of powerful features including using unlimited annotations, copying, exporting and reading recognized texts to other apps, converting to PDF or JPEG files, batch scanning multiple pages and merging documents. CamScanner is a must have productivity app for your Windows Phone and it costs you nothing to download and use. So go for it!

Das Image

Pictures tell a thousand words. Sometimes all you need to do to unwind is head over to a picture gallery, scroll through hundreds of topical images and get lost in the beauty of it all. Das Image makes this job easier for you by giving you access to endless HD images from Bing, Flickr, Picasa, 500px, FFFFound and Instagram. You can also search for images using keywords such as super models, celebrities, cars, cats, and more, save these images to use as wallpapers or share them with your friends.

Dictionary

It never hurts to have a dictionary on your person and if you agree with me, this one should do nicely. Just as you expect with any other dictionary, you can search over 150,000 words and definitions, find synonyms and antonyms, learn a new word every day, and play word games to improve your crossword solving skills.

Runtastic

No app collection is complete without a fitness tracker and the one that we recommend for Windows Phone is Runtastic. It tracks all your fitness activities, records the duration, distance, speed, calories burned and a whole lot of other stats. You can also manually add workout entries for indoor workouts, show off your live stats to family and friends (if they are impressive) and get some live cheers from them as well for your efforts. This fitness app isn’t just work work work, you can have fun with it too!

PhotoFunia

Photounia is a cloud-based photo editing tool that lets you add amazing effects to your photos and create photo montages for sharing with others. There are over 300 effects to choose them and all that you need to do is select your photo to start applying them. If you want to have some fun with your photos, this one’s definitely going to bring a smile to your face. So hit that download button now.

Office Lens

Another brilliant productivity app that you simply must pick up from the Windows Store is Office Lens. The app lets you convert images to PDF, Word and PowerPoint files, digitalize notes on whiteboards and blackboards, sketch ideas and take snapshots of them, and save all your captures to OneDrive. It’s a fantastic scanner from Microsoft and it’s a must have for every professional who works on the go. So go get it!

Media Explorer

If you’ve got your files and documents in multiple cloud solutions such as Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive, pick up Media Explorer and you’ll be able to manage your storage, move, copy, browse, upload and download files easily.

Currency Converter

If you’re a travelling man or work with world currencies all the time, pick up this handy app that can do the conversions for over 160 countries. The app keeps all the rates updated regularly and offers even offline support. Ka-ching!

AccuWeather – Weather for Life

There isn’t a day that goes by when you don’t wonder about the weather. Whether you need to check it for your daily commute or for your travels, you cannot go without a weather app. For your Windows phone, we recommend the beautiful AccuWeather. The app offers minute-by-minute weather forecasts, hourly forecasts for the next 72 hours, and extended forecasts for the next 15 days that you can instantly check out on your lock screen. If you live in select countries, you’ll also get severe weather alerts and warnings. The app offers 3 customizable live tiles that will update automatically to keep your abreast of any changes.

Picture Perfect

Another great app for photo enthusiasts is Picture Perfect. Powered by Aviary, the app lets you use the one tap feature to enhance your photos. The app’s cosmetic tools help you remove blemishes and redeye, and create cool memes using stickers and tons of effects. Once you’ve cleaned up your pictures and added the right touches to it, you can add captions and share them with the world.

Wunderlist: To-Do List & Tasks

Every smartphone needs a to-do app to help you organize your daily activities and the extensive features in Wunderlist: To-Do List & Tasks makes it our choice for the Windows Phone. You can create lists and to-dos on your tablet or PC and access it on your phone as the app instantly syncs all of your data. You can just as easily share lists with friends and contacts, have conversations about your tasks, attach photos, PDFs and presentations to your to-dos and even share and delegate tasks right from within the app. With Wunderlist, you’ll never forget a task or miss a deadline. A happy life is one that is well organized and Wunderlist is an app that can certainly do that.

Allrecipes

Become the chef of the house with a spin of this app on your Windows Phone. There are over 50,000 thousand recipes to inspire your meal of the day and there are instructions, picture guides and videos to help you serve up a yummy meal for your loved ones. The app’s notable features include pinning for daily recipe suggestions, Cortana support, step by step videos, and accessing your favorites in the digital Recipe Box.

Password Padlock

No app list is complete without a password manager. After all its simply impossible to keep all your passwords at your fingertips. With Password Padlock, all you need to do is remember one master password, which is used to encrypt all the other passwords in your collection. You can backup and restore your encrypted passwords to OneDrive, backup on one computer, tablet, or Windows Phone and restore it on another and create passwords in a language of your choice.

Adobe Photoshop Express

The Windows Store has a great collection of photo editing apps and it would be a shame to finish off this list without this one. Adobe Photoshop Express has a handy Auto Fix option for one touch enhancements, slider controls for exposure, contrast, and clarity, one touch filters to apply stunning effects, and plenty of cool IAP packs where you can enhance your photo editing capabilities. This free app will make a nice addition to your photo app collection for sure.

Do you use an app that you think needs to be part of this list? Let us know in the comments.

Twitter is a brilliant social media platform that lights up our world with news, views, humor, and trending topics on just about everything that’s happening under the sun. The official Twitter app can be found on every mobile operating system, but there are many who prefer to use third party apps to do their bit of tweeting.

The Windows Store has a rich collection of such third party apps. Each of these apps bring their own unique features and characteristics to the board, catering to the needs of a wide selection of people who have their own preferences when it comes to using them. For instance, Tweetium for Windows Phone is a cool app that has a flexible design with smart streaming features that even lets you mute the noise. Tweet it! is another third party app that supports inline images and the ability to post a song you are listening to. glƏƏk! lets you open videos directly in your apps and check out random tweets from users around the world.

Mehdoh, and Peregrine are some of the popular Twitter apps for Windows Phone. We’re currently leaning to the official app but we’d like to know which Twitter app you consider to be the best Twitter app for Windows Phone and why.

Mehdoh

Tweet It!

MeTweets

Peregrine

One of the biggest advantages of the smartphone era is that you can be in any part of the world and still stay in touch with global events and happenings. You don’t necessarily need an Android smartphone or an iPhone to get your daily fix of the news. The Windows Store has a good collection of news apps that can bring you the latest headlines and stories, as well as offer you enough options to customize the app to suit your reading tastes. In this article, we showcase some of the best news apps for Windows Phone.

Bing News

Bing News for Windows is a photo-rich app that brings you news and events from a variety of trusted sources. Simple swipe actions will let you quickly glance through the headlines, but you can also get in-depth coverage on topics that matter most to you. A handy Search feature lets you find the story you want to follow and you can customize the app to track topics, categories or news sources that interest you.

Nextgen Reader

Nextgen Reader is a beautiful RSS reader for Windows phone. Its intuitive interface shows your subscriptions on the left hand side of the screen only when you need it. Being powered by Readabiity, the app offers a comfortable reading experience, especially when you want to read a story in detail. The app also lets you watch YouTube videos and share stories that you like with your Facebook and Twitter contacts. If you wish to follow up on a story later, just save them to Instapaper, Pocket & Readability. Nextgen Reader is an app that’s definitely worth downloading, if you like to keep up with all your favorite news sources from around the world.

Weave

Read news stories from the most trusted sources right on your Windows phone with Weave. This news reader pulls stories from just about any category you want; technology, world events, gaming and more. You can customize the app with the right fonts, font sizes, theme colors, night reading mode, and even a voice character choice, if you want to hear an article read out loud. Live tiles and Pocket support are the additional features you’ll enjoy should you choose to download the app.

Newser

Newser brings you the top news in an attractive visual news grid format. The top stories on the grid are handpicked by editors and presented in a short snappy format perfect for grabbing the gist of the story in as little time as possible. There are also other attractive features such as live tile support, lock screen integration, voice commands and text to speech options. If you want a snappy news reader to bring you the news roundup in a jiffy, Newser is the one you’ll want to check out.

Phonly

Phonly is a Feedly app for Windows Phone. The developer of the app received permission from the popular news aggregator to build an app for Windows Phone using their APIs. Since the Windows platform doesn’t have an official Feedly app yet, Phonly is the next best thing you could have. It lets you access your Feedly stories and subscriptions, offers live tiles and lock screen support as well as options to save on Pocket and Instapaper for reading later. You can even mark stories as read and download articles without opening Internet Explorer or mobilizer.

Drudge Report

Want to know all the latest from the Drudge Report website that covers the latest breaking news and world events? The Drudge Report app is what you need. Just like the website, the app keeps things simple and straightforward. You’ll notice the familiar three column layout, options to read a story without pictures, and live tile updates to fill you in on news stories as they happen.

The Onion

The Onion is not your conventional news source, but if you love a humorous spin on your daily news, sports, and political stories, The Onion is where you’ll find it. And if you want it on the go, The Onion is the app to get. The app has plenty of great features including in-app videos, social sharing, saving for reading later, live tile support, profanity filter and more. A must have if you’re a fan of the site.

NBC News

If you like to be more exclusive in how you get your news and NBC is your preferred news source, then there’s no question about the best app for you – NBC News. The app comes with text to speech, category tile support, lock screen integration, and voice commands. Enjoy all the latest shows such as Nightly News, Dateline and TODAY apart from accessing topics such as technology, politics, and entertainment from your trusted NBC News brands.

NYTimes

NYTimes is an app that is worth downloading if you’re ready to pay for a subscription service. Else you will get access to just three articles every day. NYTimes offers the best journalistic stories on a wide range of topics from food, and travel, to science, and medicine. You can pin sections that you like on the live tiles and save your favorite stories to the cloud so that you can access them on multiple devices. You can also share stories on Twitter, Facebook and via email. NYTimes is a must have app if you care for powerful opinionated stories.