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. As we march ever closer to Christmas and the App Store freeze, I keep expecting a deluge of updates to drop on my head. So far it hasn’t been too bad, but I expect the next week to be a little scary. Oh well, let’s just look at what’s in front of us. 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!
THE ALCHEMIST CODE, Free This is a well-built free-to-play TRPG from the people behind the successful Brave Frontier. And wouldn’t you know it, its first big collaboration event is with Brave Frontier! For a limited time, you can get your hands on units and weapons from that game, as well as play through special events covering the cross-over. And it is a real cross-over, as Brave Frontier is playing host to an event of its own based on The Alchemist Code right now, too. Synergy!
Dan The Man Platformer, Free It’s that time of the year, and Dan the Man does so love to celebrate those times. Survival mode gets some new snowy environs and a new enemy, the Snow Soldier. You can unlock the Snow Soldier costume by winning it from the prize machine, and if you missed last year’s holiday goodies, they’re now on sale. Plus, you get a nifty little icon that suits Dan up in a Santa suit. With presents! Doesn’t get more Christmas than that!
Demon's Rise, $7.99 There are plenty of cool things in this new update for Demon’s Rise. One feature that has been frequently requested is the ability to cancel movement, and that’s now in. Provided you haven’t taken an action yet, you can take back your last movement and plot a new strategy. There’s a new button for confirming that you want to end your turn to avoid accidental passes, and heavily improved camera controls. If you’re on newer hardware, you can enjoy some new graphical flourishes, and you’re even able to choose your preferred resolution on certain devices. If you’d prefer to conserve your battery, there’s a low-power option that uses simpler graphics to let you play longer when you’re away from an electrical outlet. I like all of this, so this game gets the coveted UMMSotW award this time.
Tiny Wings, $1.99 Woohoo, a Tiny Wings update! As you would expect, this update brings iPhone X support to this cherished mobile classic. But that’s not all, friends. Oh no, not at all. The app is now finally universal, and if you’re playing on your iPad, you can enjoy a new split-screen multiplayer mode. That… is kind of cool. Props to the developer on that one. All that, plus the ever important bug fixes. And now I’m playing Tiny Wings again.
Minion Rush: Running game, Free There’s no stopping the Minions, I’m afraid. One hundred years from now, Gameloft will still exist, but the catch is that they will only live to create updates to a now-sentient Minion Rush. Anyway, it’s Christmas. Minions really like Christmas, I think. It’s hard to tell, they seem to be in favor of most things. There’s a new ugly Christmas Sweater costume, a special Christmas event, some nice decorations for the lab, and some season-appropriate collectibles like stockings, bells, and gingerbread men.
Pokémon GO, Free It feels like just yesterday that we got the Johto Pokemon added to the game, and now we’ve got a bunch more Hoenn Pokemon to catch, too. 50 new ones, to be exact. A weather system has been enabled, causing your real-life weather to be reflected in the game. The kinds of Pokemon you’re more likely to catch will be affected by your local weather. Interesting. There are a few other new things too, but those are the two biggies. Catch responsibly!
Crusaders Quest, Free This popular title gets regular updates, but this one is special. You see, this update kicks off Season 2 by adding its first episode and some associated goodies. Yes, Season 2. Did you even know you were only playing the first season? Well, you were. Some new gameplay systems, a new gameplay mode, and some new Soulbound weapons round things out. Oh, and UI improvements. Well, if you’re still playing, there’s lots of new things to do here. Enjoy.
Hearthstone, Free Oh boy. Um, so as regular readers know, I’m pretty much the only TouchArcade staff member that doesn’t play Hearthstone. So I guess what I’ll do here is advise you to check out any and all stories written by Taso about this update for more details. The short version is that the new expansion is here. It’s called Kobolds and Catacombs, and it’s packed with new content and cards for you to dig into. There’s a huge list of additions, tweaks, and changes, more than I could even hope to fit into a single paragraph even if I knew what I was writing about. Go check some update notes or Taso’s Touchstone Temple if you want more info.
CATS: Crash Arena Turbo Stars, Free The CATS came back the very next day, the CATS came back, you thought he was a goner, but the CATS came back, it just wouldn’t stay away! This is a big update for the game, adding in new Ultimate Machines, new weapons, updated competitions, and more prestige levels. It’s rounded out by bug fixes, balance adjustments, and some other little tweaks and additions. Not convinced? One of the new weapons is a Flamethrower. Come on! That’s perfect for robot battling!
Agent A: A puzzle in disguise, Free If you’ve been waiting for the latest chapter of Agent A, your time has come. Chapter 4: A Narrow Escape is here, with 10 new environments to sneak your way through. There are new gizmos, gadgets, and puzzles to encounter, along with a good chunk of progress in the story itself. If you haven’t given this game a try yet, a new chapter makes for a pretty good excuse to crack, I’d think.
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!
