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. In deference to the fact that it’s the day after Christmas and that the App Store freeze slowed updates to a crawl, this one’s going to be a short one, only highlighing a handpicked few. We should be back to our normal level next week. 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!
Pinball Arcade Plus, $0.99 While this isn’t the first time FarSight has tried their hand at an original table rather than recreating an old one, Dr Who: Master of Time does have the distinction of being the first table in the Pinball Arcade line-up that has never existed in the physical world. It’s okay, especially if you like the license. Those who enjoy this app more for historical archiving can pick up the newly-added Gottlieb table, Gladiators. Originally released in 1993, this Jon Norris-designed table is probably most notable for its bizarre artwork, depicting fantasy-style barbarians adorned in futuristic armor. It is also ‘okay’.
Siralim 2 (Monster Taming RPG), $4.99 Siralim 2 has been rolling out updates pretty steadily over the last little while, so it makes sense that not even the holidays could stop it. This update adds a skin for Imps, puts some items required for accessing Artifact Realms in places where players can get them a little earlier, and optimizes the game so that it runs a little better if you’re using older hardware. There are also a number of bug fixes in this version. It’s a small update by the game’s usual standards, but I’m always happy to see Siralim pop up in my list, so here it is.
Minecraft, $6.99 Huh, so Minecraft: Pocket Edition is now at version 1.0. Must be a pretty important update. I think it is? So this update adds The End, including the Ender Dragon, End Cities, End ships, the Shulker, purpur, chorus plants, and the Elytra glider. The developers have also doubled the height of the game world, so you can now build 256 blocks high. In keeping with the season, there are now igloos and polar bears for those who enjoy the snowy areas, and a Festive Mash-Up pack has been added via IAP. That pack gives you festive skins, a festive world, and a texture pack, all for under a fiver. I guess this one time I can see fit to giving Minecraft the highly-coveted Update Mondays Most Spider-Mans of the Week award. It’s not every update that you hit a full version number with this game, after all.
LUMINES PUZZLE & MUSIC, $2.99 When I reviewed this game, I asked for more skin packs, and it looks like I’m going to be getting my wish for the foreseeable future. Hot on the heels of the Rez and SEKAI NO OWARI packs, this update adds two new IAP skins. For $1.99, you can get a skin themed on 18, Lumines creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s new puzzle RPG. Meanwhile, $0.99 will get the classic A Piece of Sine Wave, a winter-themed skin returning from Lumines games of the past. This update also makes some improvements to the UI and fixes a few bugs.
Agent A: A puzzle in disguise, Free Agent A is a really cool puzzle-adventure game, one you should definitely look at picking up while it’s on sale. Where most games of this type would have sold additional chapters as IAP, the latest update gives you Chapter 3: Ruby’s Trap at no additional cost. It includes 20 new puzzles and a bunch of hidden gadgets to uncover. Oh, and you get iMessage stickers, too. Got enough of those yet? If not, here you go!
Leap Day, Free Leap Day is such a great game. The fact that it gets so many updates packed full of new goodies makes it even better. This update includes a bunch of new winter-themed traps and enemies, as well as two frosty new locations to play around in. There are also some new characters and a new winter theme tune to enjoy. Apparently you should be checking this game on January 1st for some special festivities, too. Not going to lie: I plan on sleeping all day, but if I wake up, I might peek in on it.
HARVEST MOON: Seeds Of Memories, $9.99 To be honest, I sort of expected this game to be a fire and forget release. Natsume’s been taking care of it, though, which is quite encouraging. But this update goes beyond maintenance fixes and bug squishing. There is some actual new content here this time around. If you pop into the options, you can now check out all of the stuff you’ve discovered via the Collection. There are now Brown Cows, Cotton Sheep, and Brown Chickens, too. You can get them from Hunter’s shop. With those new animals come some new recipes, so you’d best get to the drawing board on those. If your farm is too full to take on more animals, no worries. You can talk to Hunter to send any of your animals to, er, Hunter’s friend from out of town. I don’t think I want to know what business he’s in.
Sorcery!, $4.99 I’m only including the link to the first game here, but this update concerns all of the Sorcery! games. Namely, there’s a New Game Plus mode you can enjoy now. Simply enter in a code from a completed Sorcery! 4 run and you’ll have access to new difficulty levels and some new secret content. Gosh, inkle, you folks don’t know how to take a vacation, do you? If you don’t have the Sorcery! games already, you should go ahead and buy the bundle with all of them included. As a collective experience, they really are something else.
Lost in Harmony, Free This game recently made the hop over to a free-to-play model. I’m not sure that was the best move for the game’s quality, but I also think the game wasn’t doing very well as a paid release, so something probably had to give. I hope it’s going better for the developers now, since it seems like they’re really keen to expand the game. This update adds three new playable characters, a new Electro environment, and some quality of life improvements. Of course, there are also several bug fixes, as well.
World of Tanks Blitzâ„¢, Free Let’s close things out with a look at the winter update to World of Tanks Blitz, because nothing says Christmas quite like giant mobile cannons. We’ve got the usual stability improvements here, along with some free gifts for the holiday season. This update also adds Blitz Fair, where you can find tasks to complete in exchange for tickets, which can then be exchanged for rewards. There’s a holiday auction in there, the game’s first Swedish tank, some surprise chests, and even some legendary vehicles.
That about wraps it up for our lighter-than-usual holiday edition of Update Mondays. I’m sure I’ve missed plenty, 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!
