Hello everyone, and welcome to the week! It’s time once again for our look back at the noteworthy updates of the last seven days. Some big names in this week’s list of updates, with most of the regulars apparently taking a week off. Of course, you can keep an eye out for updates yourself using AppShopper Social (Free), the watchlist in the TouchArcade App (Free), or by participating in the TouchArcade forums, but this weekly summary is here to fill in the things you might have missed. Let’s dig in!
Bullet Hell Monday, Free It’s always a good Monday when I can talk about Bullet Hell Monday. This is a great shoot-em-up, one that should be in the library of any self-respecting fan of the genre. Its latest update adds a bunch of cool new things. First, there are three new ships available after clearing the third chapter. Those who have cleared the second chapter can enjoy the new endless stage. You can now acquire AP by playing the challenge mode, and there’s a new Music Box for those who just want to listen to the tunes. You can now use locked ships by spending some AP, as well. Oh, and the challenge mode now offers a grade higher than S, so it’s time to get back to work and see if you can reach some new levels. While it might feel weird to hand it out this early, I can’t think of a better choice this week for the coveted Update Mondays Most Spider-Mans of the Week award.
Sky Force Reloaded, Free Speaking of great free-to-play shoot-em-ups, Sky Force Reloaded also got a nice update this week. There’s a new bonus level to play, and some new upgrade levels added for the power-up items. Take your lasers, shields, and megabombs to a whole new level of destruction. Well, the lasers and the megabombs, anyway. I guess for the shield I should say something like “raise your defenses like never before" or “boost your ability to survive in hot situations". Look, I’m doing my best over here.
Arcane Quest 3, Free Hero Quest homage Arcane Quest 3 gets a lot of things right about the formula, but there was one big thing missing up until now: the multiplayer! That’s the long and short of the new update to the game, which adds an online multiplayer mode that you can play with strangers and friends alike. The developer also sneaked in a few bug fixes and tweaks while they had the hood open, so to speak. But seriously, multiplayer. Very good stuff.
MEGA MAN MOBILE, $1.99 Perhaps it’s not the case that a Boss Rush mode was what players were hoping for in an update to Capcom’s recent Mega Man ports, but it at least shows that the games are just going to be left alone. Perhaps they’ll be whipped into proper shape one day. For now, you can enjoy a Boss Rush mode against the Robot Masters of each game. How far can you go without any weapon energy refills? The answer is probably a higher number the further you go in the series!
Super Mario Run, Free Having trouble making it through Mario’s mobile debut? Then you’ll be happy to hear that there’s a new Easy Mode. Activating it removes the timer and gives you unlimited bubbles. Now, none of the special coins you collect will be counted, nor will your final score go towards any records, but if you just want to see the game or get in some practice on tricky sections, you might enjoy what Easy Mode has to offer. You’ll now lose fewer Toads when you lose in Toad Rally, and gain more, making it easier to progress your kingdom. Finally, compatibility was added for events, the first of which is a Gold Goomba event where you can grind the little fellows to earn a swank Gold Goomba statue for your kingdom in two different sizes.
Imbroglio, $3.99 Some cool new goodies in this update to Michael Brough’s latest roguelite. I’m not going to list everything, but there are tons of tweaks to various items such as the Arcane Hourglass now displaying the number of turns until an enemy reappears, the Whetstone only affecting adjacent weapons in the same row, and the Forged Sigil taking a slight hit in damage in exchange for an extra rune per level. Some of the characters have gotten adjustments as well. Naturally, there are also bug fixes and some slight UI adjustments.
Pinball Arcade Plus, $0.99 Well now, this is an obscure one. Though Pinball Arcade has generally stuck to tables from Stern, Midway, Data East, and Gottlieb, there’s nothing saying that they have to only do tables from the big dogs. With that in mind, here’s Al’s Garage Band goes on a World Tour, the first and most successful pinball table from manufacturer Alvin G. & Co. Released in 1992, this Jerry Armstrong-designed table is about as evocative of the period as you can get. Frankly, it looks like Chip and Pepper barfed all over the table. Add it to your collection via IAP for $4.99, if that sounds appealing to you.
Exiled Kingdoms RPG, Free Hey, here’s another really awesome update. Exiled Kingdoms is a work in progress, and this last week, a lot of progress was made. You can now explore the Holy Kingdom of Ilmara and its twelve new areas. There are five dungeons to dig around in, five new quests, and some endings for a couple of old quests. Plenty of new items and some new monsters round out this sweet addition to one of my favorite RPGs of last year.
Goat Simulator Waste of Space, $2.99 Well, yeah, it’s this silly thing again. An early Valentine’s update means you can now have romancing goats in space, which is so damned close to a Platonic ideal that I’ve half a mind to pack this whole thing in right now, because how is it going to get any better? Four new goats to unlock, the mysteries of love explored, and the realities of love and marriage explained. What more could you ask for from a game about jerk goats?
Zen Pinball, Free Loving the tit for tat this week, I tell you. Just as Pinball Arcade adds an obscure table to its line-up, so too does Zen Pinball. Oh wait, no, Zen Pinball added a new Star Wars table. Well, that’s pretty much the opposite of obscure, isn’t it? Anyway, whether you do it here or in the Star Wars Pinball app, you can now enjoy a table based around Star Wars: Rogue One. I’m sure it features plenty of oddly lifeless 3D models, poor voice acting, and about a billion fewer bugs than Pinball Arcade. May the force be with you.
Fallout Shelter, Free A few new things in the latest version of Fallout Shelter. You can now turn a Dweller into a Secret Agent to sniff out and put a stop to various plots against your Vault. There’s also some kind of business involving what the update notes refer to as the Horsemen of the Post-Apocalypse. Finally, with Valentine’s Day around the corner, your Dwellers can go out and seek that special someone. I’m not sure if finding that person or dying alone in the wasteland would be more symbolic of the holiday, but either way, it’s art, friends.
Temple Run 2, Free Let’s close things out with another Valentine’s Day update, this time for the long-running (HA!) hit Temple Run 2. This new version adds a Romeo costume for Zack Wonder, and an unlockable Valentine hat that you can get by collecting romance-themed artifacts. And hey, why not join in on some new Global Challenges while you’re busy with all of that?
That about wraps it up for last week’s significant updates. I’m sure I’ve missed some, though, so please feel free to comment below and let everyone know if you think something should be mentioned. As usual, major updates will likely get their own news stories throughout this week, and I’ll be back next Monday to summarize and fill in the blanks. Have a great week!
