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. Lots of interesting stuff this week, though I think that a certain sporting event’s overly litigious nature has kept many apps from jumping on the bandwagon of current events. 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!
Sky Force Reloaded, Free Sky Force Reloaded continues to add new content with an all-new 11th level. It’s a rough one, so you’d better get practicing. Also in this update, new upgrades for your wing cannons, real-time shadows for the bosses if your hardware can handle it, and reduced requirements for participating in the tournament stages. Keep those hot updates coming, friends. I’m still having a great time with this one!
Sailor Moon Drops, Free Ugh, finally. Er, I mean, that’s what I’d say if I were somehow roped into playing a Sailor Moon-themed Candy Crush clone which of course I am not. But hypothetically, I would probably be quite excited to see the new set of stages based on the Black Moon arc, which I also know nothing about. I might also appreciate the new trophy system that allows you to buy power-ups from an in-game shop with points earned by playing. I would probably appreciate being able to stock hearts up to a maximum of eight instead of six, but be a little annoyed that gifted hearts from friends only last three days now instead of two weeks. But that’s all moot because I’ve never even heard of Sailor Moon and certainly don’t have any thoughts about whether or not she and Mamoru are legitimately a good couple. Nope.
The Quest, $7.99 A simple update, but an important one for some of our readers. The Quest HD is awesome, but it limited its audience right of the gate by only supporting iPads on iOS 9 and up. The developer had promised to lift both of those restrictions, and the first of the two is already implemented. The game is now compatible with iOS 8 and up, so if you’re holding onto an older version of iOS for Bioshock or something, you can still play this great update. It’ll probably be a few more weeks for iPhone compatibility, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Star Warsâ„¢: Galaxy of Heroes, Free The big news in this latest version is the addition of mods for characters level 50 and up. This gives you some extra customization options with your characters, allowing you to tune them for specific challenges and purposes. With those mods come eight special mod battle stages, where you can earn and use your first mods. Master using them and you can take on some special mod challenges. I haven’t seen the word ‘mod’ appear in a paragraph this much since I needed to play imported games on my PlayStation 2.
Suicide Squad: Special Ops, Free As is the case most of the time, we in Japan have to wait to see this movie, but I’ve heard a wide range of opinions on it. On the other hand, people seem to have mostly nice things to say about this game. The new version adds an Extreme Mode, the option to turn off aim assist, and a few other little tweaks. Considering the game is free with no IAP, it’s cool to get any updates, especially ones that seem focused on appeasing the more skilled players.
Dungeon x Balls, Free One of the interesting things about Dungeon x Balls was that it was structured like a social RPG, but took on a paid model rather than a free-to-play one. I guess that wasn’t working so well for the developers, because they’ve switched to free with a paid unlock, along with some incentivized ads. This update adds a few new systems, some unlimited challenge stages, two new chapters that bring 50 new stages to the game, and a few other tweaks.
Alpha Omega, Free This update for clever word game Alpha Omega adds a second challenge pack as IAP, along with some new themes. If you have the All-Access IAP already, you can get all of these for no additional costs, of course. This version also makes some adjustments to the UI to make it easier to sort through your level packs, and puts in some new leaderboards for premium level packs. Ecelxelnt job, dveeplores!
Subway Surfers, Free The Subway Surfers are going to Brazil! Why? Well, the lawyers say that we can’t say why, but I think you could guess why they might go to Rio. I mean, the characters are collecting torches, the special unlockable outfit is called the Team Outfit, I think you can put this together. But don’t say it! We don’t want to get a cease and desist or anything.
Farm Heroes Saga, Free Ever since King switched the art on Pyramid Solitaire from the cool stylistic stuff to the usual King goggle-eyed nightmare fuel, I’ve lost interest in writing up the update notes on their games. But what the hey, it’s a light week. So, Farm Heroes has 15 new levels. What an unexpected update, yes? The new episode is called Route 66, so I presume your aim to get your kicks. I think. Why can’t anyone ever get their kicks on Yonge Street? Well, I suppose that doesn’t rhyme. Checks out. Just like I did writing this entry, hey-yo! High fives!
Pixel Boat Rush, $0.99 16 new races! 16 new boats! A smoother early difficulty curve! Replaykit support! These are the highlights of this week’s winner of the coveted Update Mondays Most Spider-Mans of the Week award! Pixel Boat Rush is an awesome game, and more content equals more awesome. As I subscribe to the moral theory of awesomosity, which states that we should maximize the good (wherein ‘the good’ refers to the amount of awesome in the world), it means I must fully endorse this new update.
Sentinels of the Multiverse, $6.99 There are some bug fixes here, but the big news with this latest version of Sentinels of the Multiverse is that the game is now universal. Yes, now all you iPad-less friends who want to play this game can dive in face-first. I feel that with all of the different sizes of iPads and iPhones in 2016, every app should be shooting for universal if possible, so this is good news in my books.
Injustice: Gods Among Us, Free It’s weird how much longevity this game has had, when you think about it. Here’s a game that launched in early 2013, well before even Man of Steel was released, and it’s now featuring content from a movie that hit in the first week of August, 2016. That’s more than three years of fairly intensive support. Well, anyway, as you can tell from the icon, this update is very Suicide Squad-dy. There are four new characters, including Suicide Squad Deadshot, Suicide Squad Harley, and two flavors of everyone’s favorite, the Jared Leto Joker. They’re available through the usual means, which means if you don’t want to wait or try to win the tournaments, you can splash out a stupid amount of money and just buy a pack with all four of them upfront.
Politaire, Free This fun little twist on solitaire has some nice new additions in its latest version. First, there’s a new Daily Objectives system that gives you an extra target to shoot for. The game now supports both portrait and landscape mode on iPad, making it easier to play on the heftier device. There are two new card faces and backs, and you can view a whole bunch of new statistics if that’s your bag. And of course, the ever-present bug fixes and performance improvements. Someone in the back of the comments section just cheered. As for the other guy, stop yelling “Free Bird", it’s not going to happen.
Angry Birds Transformers, Free This game’s App Store description includes the most disingenuous use of a Shaun Musgrave quote I’ve seen by a game publisher since the old days at IGN. Oh well. Looks like Unicron is on the way, and arriving just in time to hopefully perish like he always does is Ratchet, the Autobot medic/mechanic. I guess there are some new accessories, too. They’ve also changed one of the App Store screenshots to include the godless movie version of the red bird. Feet? Not in my Angry Birds, thank you very much. Oh, what the heck. If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me? For I must be traveling on now, there’s too many places I gotta see. If I stay here with you friends, things just couldn’t be the same, ’cause I’m as free as a bird now, and this bird you cannot change…
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!
