Top 5 Xbox franchises we want to see on Windows Phone 7 Series

There are plenty of reasons to get excited about Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 Series. From stringent hardware guidelines promising top notch handsets to tight quality control hopefully leading to a store devoid of garbage, its a very exciting platform.

But if you're a gamer, the most important features are more likely to be Xbox Live integration, high powered handsets, and a veteran game publisher like Microsoft getting in on the action.

No offence, Apple, but you're hardly known for your gaming prowess (well, not since Oregon Trail).

In the same way that the DS got to cherry pick from Nintendo's best franchises for portable conversions, and everyone's favourite PlayStation heroes made their way to the PSP, here's hoping that we'll see the best brands on Xbox make their way to the 7 series.

In fact, here are the top five series in particular that we'd like to see make the portable leap.

Halo

Bungie's FPS juggernaut has snared more than a couple of fans in its five iterations (so far) with a deeply engrossing world, huge planets to explore, and high octane, fast paced combat.

Gameloft's N.O.V.A. on iPhone has proven that sci-fi shooters can work great on the touchscreen, but the Xbox 360's real time strategy game Halo Wars made the statement that people gravitate towards Master Chief for more than guns and plasma swords.

Just make sure that the portable game is dripping in nerdy Halo lore and the fans will flock to it no matter what they're tasked to do. Be it a shooter, a kart racer, or a match-three puzzle game, as long as it has the words 'Forerunner', 'Covenant', and 'Spartan' in there, it'll sell.

Forza: Motorsport or Project Gotham Racing Every new handheld needs a jaw dropping visual treat to flex the device's graphics chip, and nothing impresses more than tightly rendered vehicles, shiny body work, and sprawling raceways. Microsoft has the pick of the litter with both geeky car simulator Forza and slick street racer Project Gotham under its belt. The latter has already impressed on Zune HD and, with similar tech specs, the 7 Series could do worse than pumping out a beautiful racer on day one.

Crackdown This nutty superhero romp from Realtime Worlds had thousands of Xbox gamers addicted in 2007 as they hunted the comic book world of Pacific City for glowing green agility orbs. Gamers were seeing the damn things in their sleep and hearing their ethereal, pulsating chirp wherever they went. A Phone 7 Series edition of Crackdown doesn't even need any of the game's open world exploration, frantic co-op action, building leaping, or monster car driving. Just chuck some agility orbs in there and you'll have gamers hooked.

Or, you could emulate the iPhone's Canabalt with a skyline hopping platformer or take Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars's lead and present the entire open world with a retro top-down camera. It's your choice, Microsoft.

Gears of War Microsoft's latest blockbuster franchise has three things that sell the brand. Make sure the phone version has guns with chainsaws stuck to them, big ugly brutes emerging from holes, and embarrassingly stereotyped black character Cole Train, and you're onto a winner. In fact, its about time that Augustus 'Cole Train' Cole got his own spin-off adventure and cashed in on his pre-locust-invasion career of defensive linesman in American football styled 'thrashball'. Alpha Squad COG Soldiers versus Locusts - hike! Or whatever they say in that sport. I haven't got a clue. Viva Pinata Super fast paced action games and speedy racers are all well and good, but how about something a little more relaxed? Viva Pinata from veteran developer Rareware features a whimsical garden crammed with cute paper mache critters.

You have to tend to the plant life, shoo off nuisance meanies, and tempt new animals into your garden by fixing the environment to their liking. It can get a little hairy when your Choclodocus kicks the bucket and explodes into a shower of confectionery, but for the most part its a slow paced, relaxing micro-managing sim perfect for phones.