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. Hey, did you know? Halloween is coming! Even if you don’t keep a calendar or pay attention to shop decorations, you’d be able to tell just by looking at recent app updates. 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!
Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector, Free Those into building their own personal kitty zen gardens got a nice treat last week with this update to Neko Atsume. The latest version adds some new cats to visit your yard, and some new toys to attract them with. I hope you all appreciate that I could have made a tacky but topical joke here, but instead have chosen to take the high road.
Rush Rally 2, $1.99 This game is nothing short of a miracle. Even in its launch form, Rush Rally 2 was absolutely incredible, but each update has only made it better. Now, this racing game from an indie developer has real, honest-to-gosh multiplayer support through Game Center. It even allows voice chat while you’re racing. You can also play cross-platform using a LAN, and there’s a full online ranking system so you can track how you’re doing. The AI has been re-balanced in Rally Cross mode, and there’s now an auto-accel option if you don’t want to hold down a virtual button all the time. Wait, am I giving away the coveted Update Mondays Most Spider-Mans of the Week award this early in the article? I guess so!
The Greedy Cave, $0.99 This update is no slouch, either. The Greedy Cave is an enjoyable, if sometimes grindy, crawl through the depths of a wicked cave, but the fun mostly lasts as long as the floors of the cave do. This update adds 20 more floors, complete with new monsters, bosses, and armor sets to encounter. Get at it, my hungry adventurers!
Jetpack Joyride, Free Halloween update alert! Halloween update alert! There’s a Halloween event going on in Jetpack Joyride right now, featuring new costumes to collect and a new vehicle skin, the Bone Dragon. Yes, now you can ride on something that looks like it flew out of a Castlevania game, which is probably the closest we’re going to get to any Castlevania content this year. And now I am sad!
TIME LOCKER - Shooter, Free The quirky shooter Time Locker has gotten a number of updates since its launch, and this one runs in a similar vein to what we’ve seen before. There are new characters to unlock, new weapons to use, a new Game Center leaderboard to challenge, and some balance adjustments and bug fixes. Keep on locking in the free world, everyone.
Vainglory, Free Gwens are so hot recently. Marvel’s juggling something like three or four of them, and now Vainglory has a Gwen of its very own. Yes, your new hero is Gwen, and she isn’t fooling around. Wielding two guns like she just wandered out of a John Woo flick, Gwen is a speedster who is hard to slow down. This update also adds new skins, including some Halloween-inspired threads, a new spooky map skin, and a bunch of balance adjustments and fixes.
The Sandbox Evolution, Free People who play sandbox-style games usually enjoy engaging in two kinds of activities: building and destroying. Odd, that. Anyway, there are four cool new ways to destroy things in The Sandbox Evolution, and they are decidedly old-school, for the most part. Toss out tornadoes, earthquakes, bolts of lightning, and yes, even nuclear bombs. This update also includes new famous buildings like the Sydney Opera House and the Parthenon, and new types of people including New Yorkers, Mexicans, Russians, and more. All of this is rolled up in the new $1.99 Disasters campaign, which packs in 10 levels based on real historical events. Phew!
Pokémon GO, Free If you’re like me, your adventures in Pokemon Go usually result in 5-10 new Pidgeys and Rattatas for your collection. With this latest update, you can finally profit from catching a billion and a half of a particular Pokemon type. The new Catch Bonus will make it easier to catch Pokemon if you’ve already caught a lot of that type. Gym training has also been adjusted so that you can bring a full party of Pokemon to battles at friendly gyms. This new version also fixes some audio issues and makes improvements to the UI.
Respawnables - Special Forces, Free Respawnables has been dropping tons of great updates this year, and you know they’re not going to let you down for Halloween. The Halloween event has you collecting coins, but every so often a werewolf will appear, offering you the chance to earn some big points. There are also two new sets of gear you can pick up. The Impaler’s Set gives you a bunch of vampire-themed gear, while the Ghost Pack goes quite nicely with those Ghostbusters sets from a while back. They’ll probably both cost you some real money, but that’s how things go these days, I suppose.
Subway Surfers, Free Visiting fictionalized versions of real-world locations is pretty much the bread and butter of Subway Surfers, but this time, the fictionalization was done by someone else. Yes, the Subway Surfers are on their way to Transylvania to celebrate Halloween the only way they know how: by being a public nuisance to commuters! There are new duds to earn for Mike the Friendly Werewolf, and you can upgrade the Phantom Board that you might have picked up in previous Halloween events. Naturally, there’s also plenty of cool set dressing to gawk at.
Bitcoin Billionaire, Free You may not be able to get ye flask, but you’ll surely be swimming in gold pieces after a little while in Bitcoin Billionaire‘s new era, Dungeons & Bitcoins. Tap, tap, tap your way through all of your favorite fantasy tropes and enjoy the goofy dialogue that the developers put in to distract you from the fact that you are just tap, tap, tapping! Another cool addition is that you can now travel to different eras without having to unlock them first. See the world, friends! Oh, and there are stickers now, too. Only for iOS 10 people, you understand.
Trials Frontier, Free Are you burnt out on Halloween updates yet? I sure hope not, we’ve got two more weeks of these things! Not counting the inevitable stragglers, either. Anyway, if you were looking for some Halloween in your post-apocalyptic dirt-bike stunt game, you are some kind of lucky, friend. The Midnight Circuit is here, bringing with it new outfits, tracks, and more, all in the spirit of the season. Skeletons, everywhere! Maybe even in you?
Mortal Kombat, Free My favorite movie monster, Jason Voorhees, is now available in a special Relentless form in the mobile Mortal Kombat X. The only snag is that this version of him is only available for a limited time in a special pack, and you’ll need a bunch of souls and a fair bit of luck to get him. A special Day of the Dead version of Kitana is also up for grabs through a limited challenge mode event. The scariest fatality this Halloween might just be your wallet, my frightening friends.
Asphalt 8: Airborne, Free C-C-C-C-Combo Breaker! No Halloween detected here! Instead, you get some multiplayer seasons and leagues, ReplayKit support for broadcasting your races, some new events, and some new cars. Those new cars include the Falcon F7, Mercedes-Benz CLA 45 AMG Racing Series, GT by Citroen, and the Icona Vulcano V12 Hybrid. It’ll probably take some doing to get your hands on those new cars, but hey, if you didn’t have free time, you probably wouldn’t be reading this, would you?
Into the Dead, Free All I’m saying is that if the zombie apocalypse ever actually happened, I could think of worse pets to have by your side than a freaking tiger. You can add Sabre the tiger to your game via IAP, and you don’t even have to feel bad doing it. You see, half of the proceeds from sales of Sabre will go to TigerTime, a charity campaign run by the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation. It’s a good cause, so go and get your tiger on to save some real tigers.
Order & Chaos Online, Free Even with the sequel out, this game keeps on plugging away. The latest version adds some new game areas, the Petrified Forest and the Sacrificial Altar. There are new spells, new equipment sets, and special high-grade gems to earn, and the level cap has been raised to 75. A new dungeon, Reptilia’s Trove, promises some new adventures, and of course, you can expect some Halloween events to pop up over the next couple of week, as well. There are a few other new things in this update, so make sure to peek your head in and have a look.
This War of Mine, $13.99 In case you didn’t find the original game heart-breaking enough, the mobile version of This War of Mine now has the expansion available for purchase for $3.99. It’s called The Little Ones, and it allows you to experience war through the eyes of a child. Probably the only actually scary thing in this entire list of games, to be honest.
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!
