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. Battle royale games are the hottest thing around right now, and mobile certainly hasn’t escaped that trend. We’ve got lots of those games in this week’s round-up, along with a few games to please antiques like me. 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!
Heroes of Steel RPG Elite, $3.99 Hey, another fine update from the Trese Brothers! As usual, this new version is packed full of changes big and small, so I’m only going to hit the highlights. More Bloodstones have been added into the first two episodes, two new dungeons and a final town have been added to episode four, some new loot, weapons, and armor can be found near the end of episode four, and some conversations have been fleshed out a little bit with new dialogue. There are also a lot of bug fixes and tweaks that the developers have been kind enough to detail in the update notes. Feel free to indulge!
PUBG MOBILE, Free Hm, this may be the Battlest Royalest update in this week’s article. I’ll have to check my notes for the others and get back to you. PUBG Mobile gets a big update with a new arcade mode which supports 28 players and six variations of rules to play under. This new version also contains the new training grounds where you can test out weapons and practice for heading into a real make-believe fire fight. And hey, 3D Touch firing options! That’s a feature people probably use, right? Other stuff in this update includes a new dusk setting, a follow function, automatic door opening, performance improvements, and several other tasty bits. Mmm, definitely feels Battlest Royalest. We’ll see.
Nimian Legends: BrightRidge HD, $3.99 Here’s another update with a really hefty changelog. The biggest news seems to be the addition of controller support, so if you’ve got the means, make sure to check that out. Other than that, it seems to be a whole lot of UI adjustments, compatibility fixes, performance optimizations, and bug-squashing. Which is certainly nothing to complain about, mind you. Nimian Legends is already quite the experience, and it only seems to get better with time. I’ll give it this week’s coveted UMMSotW award just because I’m tired of holding onto this trophy.
Shadow Fight 3 - RPG Fighting, Free Shadow Fight 3 seems to have a little trouble timing its events, but hey, whatever. Well after the blossoms have fallen from the trees, the game is now having a Cherry Blossom event where you battle through a new game mode to take on the latest boss, the Steel Sakura. This of course leads to some new unique gear and trophies for those who pass muster. I suppose I can deal with seeing cherry blossoms out of season. They are awfully pretty, after all.
Shadowmatic, $3.99 Shadows are all the rage this week as Shadowmatic also sees a fairly substantial update. This one adds a new IAP expansion called Other Worlds. For just $1.99, you can enjoy 33 new levels with three new themes. Get your shadow on in the Ancient Worlds, the Music theme, and Space. Yes, that space. No, not the one under your bed. The one that’s up, waaaaay up. And that just reminded me of The Friendly Giant. Wonder how Rusty the Rooster is getting on these days? I really ought to call him up.
Rules of Survival, Free Or maybe this is our Battlest Royalest game this week? Let’s have a look. Here’s what’s hot in Rules of Survival. It’s a new first-person mode! Yes, if you want to play as a bobbing gun instead of a person, you are now all set. Just download the first-person resources and you can switch around as you like. This version also adds in country-based rankings, the World Arena mode that sees players joining their fellow country-persons against others, and a live broadcast function. For the ESPORTS, you see.
Knives Out, Free A new map! Surely this, then, is the Battlest Royalest game of the week! Maybe? Whoops, I already blew the main thing in the update and now will have to prattle on more to fill out the paragraph. Uh, the new map has a castle on top of a snowy mountain, apparently. That’s neat. I guess the developers also improved the visuals, added underwater battles and new climbing mechanics, and like their stablemate Rules of Survival, put in a first-person mode. All that, plus new weapons and vehicles, too. You know what? This is definitely the Battlest Royalest update this week. Good job, developers! Head over to the next cubicle and taunt your Rules of Survival-making co-workers for losing to you!
Vainglory, Free Alas, poor Vainglory. It was chasing the whole MOBA thing but by the time it really got going, poof, MOBAs went a little ca-ca. Now we’re in a Battle Royale world and Vainglory has, what? Ten people? Well, we all have to play the hand we’re dealt, and while the universe may no longer be infatuated with MOBAs, Vainglory is still pretty darned good. New hero named Malene this time around. She can change forms like some sort of organic Transformer. Ew, I just pictured a Transformer made of flesh and bone transforming. Ew. Some new hero skins, and some balance changes too. Ew. Gotta go brain-bleach now. Back in a second.
Golden Axe Classics, Free Golden Axe is a classic beat-em-up that had a pretty nifty theme that carried it along even though the gameplay was a little on the repetitive side. The iOS version of the game is one of the better SEGA Forever releases in the technical sense, but it suffered greatly from not having any way to make use of the original game’s two-player feature. This update fixes that, allowing you to play local multiplayer with a friend or roped-in family member. Let the fighting over who gets to use Gilius commence!
Zen Pinball, Free Let’s close out this week’s article with a little silver ball. All this time, you know what’s been missing from Zen Pinball? That’s right: porgs. Well, don’t worry. All you have to do is pick up the new Star Wars tables that are now available via IAP and you can get them and other slightly less-memorable things in your pinball today. The two new tables are Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: Ahch-To Island, both inspired by the latest film in the series. The latter one is the one you want for the porgs, but you can buy them both if you want. I’m sure it’ll help porgs either way.
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!
