New Xbox LIVE features in WP7 Mango revealed

We’ve all been keeping a tab on Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 (WP7) Mango release and we’ve been fed small morsels of the new features for the past couple of months. Today, we have more details regarding the new Xbox LIVE features and a bunch of upcoming games for the WP7 handsets. Microsoft previewed these titles and features during the Gamescom conference in Cologne, Germany.

Xbox LIVE

The new features include ‘Avatar Awardable’, which is something like achievements except for the fact that your avatar can wear it on his/her wardrobe as a badge. ‘Chikens Can’t Fly’ will be the first game to feature this. Next up is ‘Game Add-ons’ which lets you use Microsoft points to buy additional weapons, items or even unlock levels. ‘Parental Control’ is another feature being added which lets parents set the age limit to what sort of games a child is allowed to access on the phone. ‘Fast Async’ is a new Xbox LIVE service which is said to improve multiplayer and turn-by-turn gameplay. There are also a bunch of new games that will launch for this platform that will incorporate many of the above features. Some which you can look forward to are -

• Beards & Beaks: Cave Area

• Bug Village

• Burn the Rope

• Chickens Can’t Fly

• Collapse!

• Gravity Guy

• Farm Frenzy 2

• Fight Game Rivals

• IonballEX

• Kinectimals Mobile

• Mush

• Orbital

• TextTwist 2

• Toy Soldiers Boot Camp

Mango will be coming sometime in fall which is when Nokia will most probably launch their WP7 series as well. Let’s hope all this wait has been worth it if it hopes to stand a chance against iOS 5 and Ice Cream Sandwich.