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. If I had to sum up the bulk of the updates from last week, it would only take three words: iPhone, X, compatibility. But I’ve sifted through the lists, found some games that went above and beyond the call, and presented them here for your Monday morning reading pleasure. Of course, you can keep an eye out for updates yourself using AppShopper or by participating in the TouchArcade forums. This weekly summary is just here to fill you in on the things you might have missed. Let’s dig in!
MARVEL Avengers Academy, Free After the frankly horrible Hallowe’en event, Avengers Academy could really use a fun event to bounce back. Thor: Ragnarok makes for good source material for such an event, but I’m a little hesitant as to whether TinyCo has it in them to make good on it. Anyway, you can collect new characters Valkyrie, Korg, Miek, Heimdall, and the Grandmaster, along with returning characters like Odin, Sif, Frigga, and others. If you play your cards and shards right, you might just be able to get your hands on the mighty Thor himself. I say thee PAY.
Glyph Quest Chronicles, Free Glyph Quest Chronicles had a really rough launch, to say the least. Discussion of the particulars of the game aside, the biggest problem was a nasty bug that had a tendency to eat save files. That is generally not seen as a good thing. The developer finally found the cause of it, and you no longer need to worry about any tragedies of that sort. To pop the cork of the champagne on sniffing that bug out, the game’s Patron Pack IAP has been slashed to half its original price, allowing you to greatly reduce the free-to-play monetization elements of the game for a very reasonable value.
Solomon's Boneyard, Free Solomon’s Boneyard needed some rescuing from the boneyard itself when iOS 11 removed support for 32-bit apps. Its developer delivered that and then some. Not only does the game now work on the latest devices, it also received some new content and adjustments to the way it plays. The game is now ad supported, but includes an IAP to remove those ads. There are new perks, and the way those perks work is a little different. There are also some new spells along with some adjustments to the UI. The only downside is that the update will wipe any previous progress you made in the game with regards to unlocks and such.
Temple Run 2, Free This update is a somewhat light one, but you know, I’m not going to pass up a chance to mention Temple Run 2 when I can. Anyway, with Hallowe’en over and in the books, the next holiday for our American friends is Thanksgiving. Temple Run 2 isn’t going all in on that, but you can collect Thanksgiving Pie coins for a limited time. What are they for? You’ll have to find that one out yourselves, friends. This is also your last chance to play on the special Fall map before the frost settles in. Just like real life!
Motorsport Manager Mobile 2, $1.99 Free updates with awesome new content are basically the best kind of update. This one adds three new modes of play to this excellent sim. The New Game Plus mode adds tougher AI and reverse grids to give you a whole new challenge to tackle. Elimination Race cuts the racer in last place with each lap. Rise of the Robot has you training and developing an AI to win it all for your team. Other changes include the ability to skip qualifying heats, improved pit strategies for your opponents, and new weather patterns. I don’t have a checkered flag handy to reward this update, so a coveted UMMSotW award will have to do instead.
Noblemen: 1896, Free If I had two awards to give out, this would be getting one, too. New support units! New equipment! 15 new campaign levels! The ability to reset your skirmish rank! Options for Force Touch controls! Exclamation points! Improved look speed while aiming! Increased tech point regeneration from IAPs! More exclamation points! Your Nobleman now only gets one life per battle in hard mode! Optimizations! TWEAKS! BUG FIXES! PERFORMANCE! EN! HANCE! MENTS! And other stuff. Sorry, I buy exclamation points in bulk and they spoil quickly.
Neon Chrome, $6.99 Neon Chrome is a really cool shooter with style to burn. The game got some new content this week in the form of a survival-based Arena mode. You can unlock it by purchasing an IAP for $1.99, and I’m afraid I don’t have much else to add to that. Fun Fact: Both neon and chrome were frequently used by marketers in the 1990s to try to attract the attention of customers to items they might have otherwise overlooked. The heavy reliance on both ultimately had the result of making them seem quite ordinary, thus defeating the purpose. Until nostalgia, that is!
Marvel Contest of Champions, Free There’s a lot of details in this update, but the main thing you need to know is Thor. And also, Ragnarok. I guess. Some kind of event called Gods of the Arena, a new solo event called Vanquishing Blow where you need to finish opponents with certain kinds of moves, new Bounty Missions where you can earn Crystal Shards, some UI improvements, and of course, bug fixes. Thor doth curse the very name of yon vile, treacherous bugs. Such knavery shant be allowed in the Nine Kingdoms while Thor yet draws breath!
Minion Rush: Running game, Free Well, we’re between movies again, and that means mining every possible idea from the last flick to keep the banana wagon rolling. So, prison break! Silly Minions, always doing… doing stuff. In the new Minion Break special mission, you’ll need to collect toilets, prison uniforms, and batteries while you explore the new prison location from Despicable Me 3. There’s a new prisoner costume to add to your wardrobe, and you can naturally still keep on collecting those cards to unlock Mel. What will the little not-Rabbids be up to next?
Ninja Turtles: Legends, Free Collectathons like this one tend to only be as good as their ever-expanding roster, so it’s always good to see some new characters make the scene. The latest batch includes 12 new characters to collect, including the Super Shredder, the Space Turtles, and Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo, Miyamoto Usagi. There are some new bosses in the form of Undead Shredder and the Technodrome, and what I think is a new ranking system. I’m not completely sure, though, since I don’t actively play this one. Seeing Usagi in there does tempt me, however.
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!
