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. The Halloween season is coming up on us, which means plenty of spooky updates to look forward to. We’re also seeing a lot of games updating for new hardware and iOS versions, but as usual, games only get included if they add some content to go with that. 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!
Choice of Games, Free It’s time yet again for a new gamebook adventure in the Choice of Games hub. What will it be this time? Would you believe a wild casino heist full of tension and excitement? But wait, that sounds a little too pedestrian for our friends at Choice, so instead of it being a boring old Earth casino, you’re going to be pulling off a job in a casino on… Mars. The Martian Job is a hefty tale written by M. Darusha Wehm that sees you trying to make one last big score that will set you up for the rest of your life. But how will you do it? Who will you trust? And when you discover the secret behind the first Martian casino, what will you do about it? It’s a tasty one, friends, and if it sounds like your kind of thing, open up that Choice of Games app and buy the IAP.
Mines of Mars, $4.99 What is this, Mars Week? Um, maybe. I don’t check the calendar before writing these like Eli sometimes does with the new releases write-ups. Well, in any case, Mines of Mars got a nice little update this week. It brings long-awaited iPhone X support, improved MFi support, and a whole mess of bug fixes. If you haven’t played this nifty little game, consider this a solid excuse to do that little thing. Embrace the Mars. If it is not Mars Week… we shall make it Mars Week!
Monster Warlord, Free For whatever reason, there are a lot of big anniversaries going on with various apps right now. I suppose it was about a half-decade ago, plus or minus a year, that games as a service started to be a viable and desirable way to achieve success on the App Store. Such a model has allowed even a game like Monster Warlord, which is hardly the most famous game around, to survive for six years and counting. If you’re still playing or want to head back, you’ll find six new Immortal Omega Monsters, two new Divine Monsters, and a special 6th Anniversary lobby and icon. Not the worst party, I reckon.
The Simpsonsâ„¢: Tapped Out, Free The Simpsons Tapped Out never does half a job with its Halloween events, and this year’s looks like another solid one for those who are still building out their virtual Springfields. In this year’s Treehouse of Horror, classic monsters are making their return. There’s just one problem, though. It seems that the nightly news is so scary that nobody is flinching at mummies, werewolves, and vampires anymore. With their motivation drained, it’s up to the wives of the monsters to make things spooky this year. Countess Dracula, She-Wolf, and Womenhet the mummy will do their best to bring terror to the people of Springfield. Feel free to help them out.
Asphalt Legends Unite, Free After a several-month soft launch period, Asphalt 9 finally had its proper launch back in July. Since then, there haven’t been any major updates to the game. Which makes sense, as players are no doubt working their way through the fairly hefty amount of launch content. Well, there’s finally some new stuff to mess around with, as the game’s first big content update has arrived. It adds the Club Race mode to the game, allowing you to create private races to challenge your club mates. There are two new cars, the Ferrari J50 and the Lotus Elise Sprint 220, and a new career season with 20 unique challenges to tackle. There are a few other new things, but I’ll leave it to you to look into them. I think I’ll give Asphalt 9 the coveted UMMSotW award for this week. Yes, that seems fine.
Marvel Contest of Champions, Free Well, Venom is probably as hot now as he’s going to be. A number one movie that broke October records and everything. Good job, Venom! Please don’t eat my brains! Ha, don’t worry. Not only is Venom busy basking in box office success, he’s also got to deal with a Symbiomancer in Contest of Champions. It’s almost exactly what it sounds like. This new event sees Venom, Dr. Strange, and Guillotine teaming up to take on a symbiote-enhanced Sorcerer Supreme. There will be a couple of new characters coming out of this, including Venom the Duck and, yes, the Symbiote Supreme. If you love your Klyntar, you’ll want to get in on this.
Growtopia, Free The very popular Growtopia continues to, uh, grow as time goes on. The latest version has some seasonal goodies and other nice stuff to play around with. A new spooky IOTM, some new achievements, new carnival games and prizes to go with them, new role rewards, a new full body item set, and best of all, the Halloween event. Bug fixes and performance improvements? It seems very, very likely, friends. Really though, all the developers need to do is keep the collectible goodies flowing, and that’s pretty much what this update is all about.
The Secret Society: Mystery, Free We don’t usually cover many hidden object games on TouchArcade, but as these things go, The Secret Society is certainly a popular one. Most of us here probably only know it from the video ads we ignore for more coins or continues in the free-to-play games we pretend we don’t play. Anyway, this update adds a whole new hidden object scene with a spooky Halloween theme. There are new quests and collections to deal with as you try to escape a spooky labyrinth and get to the Halloween Masquerade Ball. This update also does some bug fixing, and some performance improvements because when it comes down to it, games aren’t so different from one another. Cut them, do they not bleed weird edge-case bugs that the developers could never have foreseen?
Plunder Pirates, Free See, here we have another anniversary. Plunder Pirates is four years old now! Time sure does fly. Do those things that you want to do instead of putting them off to the endless tomorrows, friends. And if one of the things you wanted to do is play Plunder Pirates, you’ll be happy to see a few modest things on offer in celebration in its milestone. There are new Platinum Outfits for all 12 Legendary Pirates, each offering some spiffy shiny buffs. Somehow, I suspect those outfits are not going to be easy to get. Well, whatever. You can also look forward to some tweaks to various systems and the now-expected bug fixes. Ahoy and booty and all that jazz.
Temple Run 2, Free Let’s finish things out this week with another game that’s been around for a minute or two. Temple Run 2 is always doing fun events and adding interesting things, and we’ve got a nice little bounty this time. The new Spirits Cove map will give you a fresh place to flee from, and festive new outfits will lend you the right mood for the season. To assist you with that, the Spooky Summit map is back, along with the Halloween characters and outfits from previous years. They’re only here for a short time, so enjoy them while you can.
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!
