The digital money printing machine known as The Simpsons: Tapped Out [Free] has received a new update themed after the most important fake holiday known to man: Whacking Day. Ok, maybe it's the second most important right behind Festivus, and let's not forget about Love Day, but Whacking Day is definitely up there.

Despite being your typical freemium Farmville-ish city building game, The Simpsons: Tapped Out does incorporate a ton of excellent fan service. Basing an update on the iconic show's fictional snake-clubbing holiday is further proof of that.

Whacking Day is officially on May 10th and in this new update there are all sorts of new ways to celebrate this special day. Take place in a time-limited event to whack snakes and earn special rewards, expand your city with new buildings and decorations, and complete new quests. You can also play with a handful of new characters including "washboard abs" Willie. Just don't be playin' with him between 4 and 5. That's Willie's time!

If you've been dutifully building up your own virtual Springfield in The Simpsons: Tapped Out then you should be pretty stoked to check out the new Whacking Day update content. If you're a Simpsons fan but haven't dabbled in this city-building adventure then it's a free download if you want to give it a look firsthand.

When Ubisoft and Pastagames hooked up last year to make a mobile iteration of the hit console platformer Rayman Origins, they really hit the nail on the head. Rayman Jungle Run [$2.99] distilled the fun of the full-blown title into a mobile-friendly auto-runner with brilliantly designed levels and a simple two-button touchscreen control scheme.

We loved Rayman Jungle Run in our own review, but Apple seemed to be partial to the title as well, as they actually named it their pick for Game of the Year last year.

The Rayman Jungle Run experience was extended this past December with a batch of new levels, and today an even bigger update has been released which adds even more new levels to the mix. Two new worlds – one pirate themed and one, err, weird plant-themed – each add ten new levels of running, jumping, punching, hair-as-a-helicopter floating, and more. Update: here's a trailer of the new stuff:

So if you've been enjoying Rayman Jungle Run on your device for the past half a year or so, and have beaten all the goals to death, time to dust off that app icon and give these twenty new levels a go. There really isn't a better example than Rayman Jungle Run of cramming all the presentation and personality of a hit console game into a mobile package.

Last week we told you that a new update was heading to Real Racing 3 [Free] which added two new vehicles from Chevrolet, a new "Hunter" mode, and more than 100 new events to play through. Today that update has gone live in the App Store.

If you hang around TouchArcade with any kind of regularity then you should be familiar with Real Racing 3. It's the third entry in the popular racing sim series that has made hugely positive waves with its jaw-dropping visuals and presentation, but has also made waves in the opposite direction with its decision to be free-to-play rather than a premium title.

Where you fall on the whole pay model drama largely depends on your own personal preference and gaming habits. If you just want to jump in and take part in a few races throughout your day then Real Racing 3 is an impressive experience on your phone that you'll likely never feel the need to throw any money at at all. If you want to sit down and spend hours with the game at a time, well, you pretty much can't without doling out premium currency in some way.

Anyway, if you're among those who have been enjoying Real Racing 3 since its launch last February then you'll want to give this new update a look for the new vehicles and events. If you don't enjoy Real Racing 3 then there's nothing here that's going to change your mind, but at the very least if you haven't given the game a try it's worth the free download to check it out.

NimbleBit's Nimble Quest [$0.99] has become my go-to iOS game for when I've got a few minutes to spare, and while I'm nowhere near good enough to unlock all the different dudes you get, it's awesome to see there's new content on the horizon. In a teaser video posted to the Nimble Quest Steam Greenlight page the Brothers Marsh revealed Bolas, who is "an elemental monk from the eastern planes." He's rocking light armor and shoots a spinning disc-like affair that explodes on impact.

Here's Bolas in action:

Bolas is "coming soon" which basically means as soon as NimbleBit can get an update through the giant Apple approval automatron. If you haven't tried Nimble Quest, now's a good time to do so, especially with NimbleBit exhibiting that they're committing to adding new content to the game. In our TA Plays video we get in depth, and describe it as "like Snake, but way cooler."

Seriously, check it out.

Heads up: there's now more new stuff to do in Middle Manager of Justice [Free], if you're still up for it. A recent update has added some new mechanics, as well as a new character into the whimsical free-to-play simulation.

One of these new things is called "Most Wanted Thugs." That's a fancy phrase that seems to mean "harder thugs," specifically made for pro-level players who are tearing through the game's basic enemies like no-scope e-sports athletes. The encounters are randomized and these dudes drop rare loot, too. The update also adds in meteorites which are drops that can be equipped to "give your hero special bonuses." When combined, you get more powerful ones.

Lastly, a new hero has introduced: Gloomerang. According to the patch notes, which are available on AppShopper and more succinctly on the Double Fine message board, notes that she's got a lot of group-oriented attacks.

Middle Manager of Justice is a pretty neat game if you can get beyond the free-to-play part or deal with it. You can check out our review here, or hey, download the game for the generous price of zero bucks.

Zen Studios has been pinballing back and forth (see what I did there?) with their recent pinball game updates and releases. First, we saw Zen Pinball [Free] proper updated with the three new Star Wars themed tables that we'd been hearing about for the month prior.

The new Star Wars tables were awesome, but Zen Pinball hadn't yet been updated for the iPhone 5 or iPod touch widescreen (tallscreen?) so owners of those devices were left with a letterboxed experience.

Then a few weeks later, as Zen had hinted it was going to do, a standalone version of the new Star Wars tables was released as Star Wars Pinball [$1.99]. The initial purchase of Star Wars Pinball gave you the Episode V table with the additional two tables available as in-app purchases, similar to how buying new tables works in Zen Pinball.

The kicker, though, was that the standalone Star Wars Pinball did include widescreen support, so if you were dying for that you might have been quick to purchase that version and maybe even double dip if you'd already bought the tables in Zen Pinball previously (that is exactly what I did, by the way).

So just about a week after all that we again bounce back to the regular Zen Pinball, which at long last was updated with full widescreen support for the iPhone 5 and 5th generation iPod touch. Not only that, but four brand new Marvel tables have been added to the available in-game catalog, including an Iron Man table which you can see embedded below.

Zen Studios may have been a bit sporadic in how their latest stuff has been released on the App Store, and I'd imagine that has a lot to do with Apple approval shenanigans and whatnot. The important thing is that Zen Pinball, one of the finest pinball collections on iOS, now looks and plays great on my pinball device of choice, my iPhone 5.

If you've been anxious for that as well or are interested in some new Marvel tables, give the new update to Zen Pinball a look.

Just last week we posted a new trailer for the Phase 3 update for the futuristic racer Repulze [$2.99], and it seems the Apple approval process went rather smoothly as the update popped up in the App Store today.

To quickly summarize, Repulze is a racing game with a focus on speed and a futuristic look, something akin to the Wipeout series. We enjoyed the original game as well as the Phase 2 update earlier in the year, but the action was focused on single car time-trial style racing rather than actually racing against opponents or battling with weaponry like in the Wipeout games.

Not a bad thing by any means, because Repulze did what it intended to do very well, but it wasn't exactly what some fans were looking for from the game. Today's update takes Repulze closer in the direction of what those fans were asking for with the introduction of AI opponents and a new weapon system to use during races.

I've been saying this for a while, but Repulze is one of my favorite racing games to come along in a while. I enjoyed its original iteration, the Phase 2 update, and I'm looking forward to spending some time with the new Phase 3. Check out our forums for some more impressions of the new update and be sure to give Repulze a look if you're looking to quench your need for speed (and vehicular combat).

Behold Studio's Knights of Pen & Paper [$1.99] is one of the best tabletop roleplaying-style experiences on iOS, and it's about to get much better. Paradox Interactive has teamed up with the studio to bring the game to PC, Mac and Linux, and in the process the whole game will be seeing a big improvement on mobile with the +1 Edition update. We had a chance to check out the upcoming update, which is going to bring a lot of big changes to the already substantial game.

First up is the Tavern, a much requested feature. Currently, when you hit the party cap of five players you're done—there's no opportunity to change your party around. The Tavern fixes this little problem, letting you move characters in and out of your party. You can experiment with different player and class combinations, particularly nice when you unlock new character classes and want to actually use them.

The second big upgrade is the addition of dungeons. No longer will dungeon crawls be limited to single-room jaunts into caverns. You start out with a map of unexplored rooms. As you visit each one, the dice rolls and the result lets you know what you get: treasure, for the particularly lucky, traps for the unlucky and combat and the like in between.

Each dungeon has a boss battle locked behind a door, and a key hidden randomly in one of the rooms. Boss fights are intense, and running away means starting the whole dungeon over fresh. There are three dungeons in so far—fire, ice and sewer-themed—and likely more to come. Dungeon crawler fans will also enjoy one other new addition: random loot affixes.

Some of the other changes are a bit further under the hood. The game will be playable in landscape mode, and the team has put a ton of work into adding that visual content for the new view—more pixel art, more visual humour. You'll also be able to save a few clicks - tapping the end point of a journey will take you there without extra stops along the route. There will still be rolls on the way, but it streamlines the whole thing a bunch.

The +1 Edition update is still under development, so features could still change. It will be arriving at about the time Knights of Pen & Paper launches on other platforms—possibly as soon as early summer.

One of my favorite things about iOS is that there's such a wide breadth of game types, and at such low prices, that I'm more inclined to try something in a genre that I might not typically be interested in. That was the case with Cook, Serve, Delicious! [$4.99 (HD)], a time management and cooking simulation from Vertigo Gaming.

Now, as I alluded to I'm not really into time management games. They stress me out, you know? And that's true of Cook, Serve, Delicous! too, but having worked in and even managed a restaurant for several years I can safely say that this game really nails the pressures of running a busy food establishment.

Yes, it gets me stressed out, but that also kicks me into "the zone" where your fingers are flying and you become laser-focused on each task at hand, and when the rush is over your left feeling very satisfied if you're able to do a good job. It's actually very rewarding, and we really liked Cook, Serve, Delicious! in our review for those reasons and more.

So, with Cook, Serve, Delicious! being one of my recent surprise favorites, I'm excited to report that a brand new update has gone live which adds a bunch of cool new food items to prepare. First up are Stacked Enchiladas, which are apparently a twist on traditional enchiladas that originated in West Texas. Next is Bananas Foster, which once upgraded you can actually light on fire to flambé. Shish Kabobs require you to skewer your food items and is a difficult dish to cook perfectly. Finally, no restaurant worth its salt would be complete without a fancy Lobster dish on the menu.

In addition to the new food items, Game Center has been made more easily accessible from the main management menu, and he options for removing the text that flashes across the screen during Rush Hour and your end of day have been tweaked. There's a bunch of other fixes, as well as a new $2.99 IAP if you wish to "tip the dev." There's nothing hidden behind this IAP, nor does it unlock any content. It's literally just there to tip the developer if you enjoy the game and want to throw a few extra bucks their way. However, it appears to be a bit bugged at the moment so if you do want to buy the tip IAP then you might want to wait for the next patch which is already in the pipeline.

If you are like me and aren't really into this sort of game normally, and you have an iPad 2 or later, I urge you to try out Cook, Serve, Delicious! as you might just be pleasantly surprised. It's easily one of my favorite games now, and I'm excited to give these new food items a spin.

Neat: one of those massive, game-changing kind of updates is coming to Pixel People [Free] at some point during this week, if plans stick. A total of 55 new jobs and nine new genes are being added, allowing you to discover and create a bunch of new pixel people. More than a dozen new missions and a solid dozen animals are being added, too.

Around 40 missions are coming as well, giving users a solid goal to shoot for as they build, clone more dudes, and then build some more. From what we understand, a good bit of these missions will lean on your animals, which by the way, are being re-tooled for ease of play. Starting with this update, you'll be able to adopt an animal whenever if you've got the coin to spare and you'll be able to keep track of them all through their respective cards.

Interestingly, some balance tweaks and core play changes are coming along, too. Build times will "reduced," coin exchange and rewards will now scale, and the gene pool is getting a face lift (in addition to some other, smaller stuff and "bug fixes).

Pixel People is a pretty rad game, so consider giving it a look. We've got some hot screens above of some of the new stuff you'll be seeing pretty shortly, if you've got your finger on the update trigger.

Late last month a crazy new game called Towelfight 2: The Monocle of Destiny [$0.99] hit the ol' App Store from a developer called Butterscotch Shenanigans. You could tell by the title of the game and the name of the studio that this isn't a game that takes itself too seriously, and that's one of the big reasons we were drawn to Towelfight 2 – it's jam packed with wackiness. You can read all about the crazy antics in store for you in our review of Towelfight 2 or see it in action in our TA Plays video.

While there was a ton to enjoy about Towelfight 2 and we loved its humor, what we didn't love as much were the controls, and that seemed the consensus among other players as well. Something about them just felt "off" compared to other dual-stick shooters, and there was a lack of options for customizing them – something that's important for a touchscreen game.

Today the Butterscotch folks look to address this with a new update to Towelfight 2, and I think they nailed it. You can now position the controls in the lower corners of the screen, which feels a lot more natural to me. The visual d-pads have also been made slightly larger and you can toggle whether you want them to be "floating" or "fixed."

Besides the tweaked controls, there's a lot of other new stuff in this latest Towelfight 2 update. The Arena has seen adjustments to enemies and challenges, and there's two brand new modes: the Endless Arena and the Insane Arena. There are also three new 'Jectiles which cannot be bought in the in-game store, but rather must be earned by defeating the boss in each of the Marsh, Forest and Nightmare zones. Finally, a new NPC named The Bagician can offer you powerful 5-minute enchantments when you need a little extra something something.

There are lots of other little tweaks and fixes in this update, but the bottom line is that if you tried Towelfight 2 before and thought it controlled kinda weird, give it another shot after this update. It's made a big difference for me, and the folks in our forums seem to be quite pleased with it as well. More is in the pipeline for Towelfight 2 too, including Game Center integration, so definitely give this unique and funny game a look.

Update: The developers have dropped the price to 99¢, go go go!

It was nearly a year ago that we first heard about Deepworld [Free], a 2D Minecraft-like building and crafting game set in a very cool steampunk world. Deepworld launched on the iPad this past December, and although there are tons of these sandbox-style games all vying for your gaming attention, we thought that Deepworld was one of the better ones and worth your time to check out, especially since it's a free download.

That recommendation was limited to iPad owners though, so if you're rocking an iPhone or iPod touch only then you were out of luck. Until last week that is, when Deepworld was updated to be Universal. Now smaller-screened iOS gamers can finally explore the interesting worlds of Deepworld.

That's not all, though, as since we last talked about Deepworld in December the game has been updated numerous times, adding all sorts of new functionality and content as well as tweaking and smoothing out the entire experience. You can get all the nitty gritty details in the App Store update descriptions, but if you tried Deepworld initially and it didn't click with you then, it's worth giving another look now. Also, join in with the community at the official Deepworld forums or the game discussion thread in our very own forums.

Last week, we detailed a massive update for Majic Jungle's Minecraft-y world building simulation The Blockheads [Free] which would fundamentally change the way the game and its free-to-play model worked. Like many free-to-play games, The Blockheads is outfitted with various cooldown timers and a premium currency system which you can use to speed them up.

The thing which was different about The Blockheads compared to similar titles is that the timers would only count down while the game was open and running, which was inconvenient to say the least. Initially this was to encourage players to warp in a second character, and while one was busy with timer-based tasks you could use the other to continue on with your progress.

That's not really the way it worked out, though, as Majic Jungle looked at their data and realized the majority of players were never getting to the point of introducing additional characters, and in fact were hitting game-stopping timer walls where they were left with nothing to do but sit there and stare at the game until the counters finished.

This wasn't how the game was intended to be, so with today's update you can now queue up your tasks and exit the game and they will continue to count down while you're gone. It's also cheaper to warp in another character to help out with your various endeavors, and the maximum number of total characters available in a single world has been increased from 3 to 4.

While the change in timer behavior is the big news in this update, version 1.2 of The Blockheads is chock full of tons of other new stuff too. Sharks and fish have invaded the oceans, and you can build yourself a fishing pole to get out there and catch some of them. You can also craft your Blockhead a tin foil hat, which will give him or her their own free will, meaning they'll run around your world collecting resources, mining or exploring while you're away.

There are plenty more details on what's new in this update in the App Store description, but if you tried out The Blockheads initially and were turned off by how the timer system worked, then now is the time to give it another chance. Or if you're like me and just plain put up with the waiting because you enjoyed the game so much, today's update should make for a much more enjoyable experience all around. Be sure to check it out.

The iPhone 5 and 5th generation iPod touch have been out for a while now, and slowly but surely many of my favorite games have since been updated with widescreen support. I still maintain a short list of ones that haven't, though, and a small part of me wakes up each day with a glimmer of hope that I'll be surprised with an update waiting for me in the App Store for one of them. Today was one of those days as Simogo's brilliant Bumpy Road [$2.99] had the red notification badge lit up on my App Store app this morning, and there was much rejoicing.

I guess it's not totally accurate to say this update was a surprise, as Simogo had mentioned recently on Twitter that it was in the works. But I wasn't any less excited. I know, I know, it seems silly making a big deal about such a tiny thing, but owners of the widescreen devices know how frustrating it can be to run unsupported games in the old aspect ratio with borders. It can sometimes mess up your control as your finger moves off the edge of the playable screen, and it just makes a game feel "out of date" with your current device.

That's no longer an issue in Bumpy Road, but actually this goes even beyond simple aesthetics. Bumpy Road itself is now wider, meaning you have a better chance to see what's approaching, or a bit more room in the terrain behind your car to capture a missed item. The game being wider actually makes it an even better playing experience. I've already broken my previous high scores, in fact. Here's a few widescreens of the game for you to check out.

Bumpy Road launched way back in May of 2011, and is arguably the game that really put Simogo on the map in the iOS world. We loved it in our original review and have recently been reminiscing about it with a TA Plays Rewind of the game. It's just flat out one of my favorite video games of all time, so I'm glad to see it refreshed and ready for my iPhone 5. And, not to sound greedy, but I am also holding out hope that Simogo's other previous titles, Kosmo Spin [$0.99] and Beat Sneak Bandit [$2.99], can get a similar treatment at some point down the line, too. (Yes, that is an official not-so-subtle request, Simogo.)

If there were some sort of award for "game I've spent the most time playing since release" then I'm almost positive True Skate [$1.99] would be the winner. Since its release last October, and our subsequent review, I believe I've played True Skate every single day in at least some capacity. It's just the kind of game that I can't help but jump into whenever I have a free moment.

Last month we detailed a new skatepark that developer True Axis had in the works for True Skate, and as of today that update has gone live in the App Store. The new park is called Inbound and is available as a 99¢ in-app purchase. It's an indoor skatepark and it's absolutely massive, filled with all manner of different ramps, ledges and rails. The possibilities seem endless, and Inbound should keep True Skate'rs busy for a very, very long time.

The other big feature in this new update is the ability to customize your board. You can dive into your device's photo collection and choose a picture to apply to the bottom of the board and even to the grip tape on the top. It's great to finally be able to see something other than the default board, but my one gripe is that the system is very basic.

There doesn't seem to be a way to adjust the size or position of the images you use, so you're stuck with however the game ends up placing it on the board. I've been able to find images that look cool anyway, so it's not a huge deal, but it would be a nice option to have. Also, the customization uses a similar system to the Slow Motion mode that was introduced in a previous update where customizing your board will cost you the True Credits that you earn through playing or by buying as IAP packs. Otherwise, if you wish, you can purchase unlimited customization for a one-time 99¢ IAP.

There are a bunch of other welcome new options in this update too. Setting a respawn point is now much easier to do right from the main game screen, and the physics engine now recognizes and locks into blunt slides on ledges much better. You now have the option to change the opacity of the HUD as well as turn off all the trick and scoring text that pops up on the screen for a much cleaner interface. I love that change a lot. There are also new missions and a new leaderboard for the new park, among many other tiny tweaks and fixes that make True Skate a better overall game.

You can join in on some discussion in our forums, and if you're a massive True Skate fan like I am then you'll want to check out this new update right away. True Axis says more updates are planned too, and I can't wait to see what's next.