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. We’ve got some new Marvel game updates, a few surprises for some premium favorites, and the usual free-to-play suspects. In other words, it’s another typical non-holiday week for those of us here in the TouchArcade Update Emporium. 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!
Rise of Kingdoms, Free I don’t know, something about this game seems awfully… familiar. Oh well, probably just in my head. Anyway, it seems like it’s pretty popular, and it has an update, so here we are. It’s how these things go. New stuff includes a new event called The Karuak Ceremony, an Alliance shop, some new styles, more city decorations, and some new commander Expertise skills. There are also some adjustments and improvements to the UI, and some bug fixes. I haven’t played this one at all so I can’t speak to how significant these additions are, but it looks like a fair-sized chunk of goodies. Enjoy the chunks of goodies. Enjoy them.
Toon Blast, Free Okay, these kinds of updates are never that interesting, but I try to put in a little something for everyone in these articles, so there has to be at least one never-ending matching puzzle game that only added a bunch of new stages with little context or fanfare. This week it’s Toon Blast! You know, that game that always shows up when you watch advertisements to continue or get some extra coins in other games. While King games usually only add 15 or 20 new stages per update, Toon Blast goes all out and adds a whopping 50 new levels to play. So if you are blasting toons with wild abandon, here you go. Hopefully it keeps you busy for a couple days.
Fortnite, Free Ah, hello there, Fortnite. A good friend to this series of articles, you are. Always with the updating and the being popular and what-not. Not too much this time around, mind you. What we’ve got here is a semi-newish area with the transformation of Loot Lake into Leaky Lake, and the absurd but awesome addition of balloons as a means of sailing through the wild blue yonder. You can enjoy a nice balloon trip, but the balloons can also be popped in case you need to have a balloon fight. Do you have what it takes to be the best balloon kid around? Hello, kitty world!
Marvel Contest of Champions, Free Given the title and overall theme of this game, you wouldn’t think we’d have to wait as long as we have for The Champion to be added. Then again, The Champion isn’t all that popular, well-liked, or even frequently used in the comics, so I guess it makes sense. Anyhow, there’s a new event called The Champion’s Clash where you have to battle a series of opponents culminating in a battle against The Champion himself. Also in this update, the new Back Issues bring back classic events for players to take another crack at them. The first is none other than Ultron’s Assault, which players with long memories will recall was one of the very first Contest of Champions events. There’s more to see in this update, but I need to keep it brief, so check out the game for more info if you want it.
MARVEL Avengers Academy, Free On the one hand, I love that the Warriors Three are finally coming to Avengers Academy. Hogun, Fandral, and the Valorous Volstagg are an important part of Thor’s supporting cast, after all. Unfortunately, as is the usual case for this game of late, you’re probably not going to get any of the three new characters without either having an enormous stroke of luck or laying out some cheddar, and not a small amount, either. The returning characters are cool, though, including Angela, Odin, Valkyrie, Beta Ray Bill, Thor, and Jane Thor. Even if you already have them, you can use this as an opportunity to beef them up, I suppose.
Fire Emblem Heroes, Free Ah, if it isn’t Fire Emblem Heroes. To tell the truth, I stopped playing this a while ago, but I enjoyed it for quite a long while. It’s certainly a great example of how to translate a traditional franchise into a free-to-play model aimed at the mobile masses, and I hope all who intend such endeavors pay attention to how it did that. Part of it is through great updates that include new content and address player concerns. In this version, we’ve got a new mode called Aether Raids, as well as a new item, Heroic Grails, which allow you to summon special heroes from Grand Hero Battles and other modes. The notes also hint at the impending arrival of the Book 3 story campaign, which might be enough to bring me back, at least temporarily.
Shining Force Classics, Free Little bit of egg on my face here. When I played Shining Force Classics for our review, certain features had yet to be turned on due to the game not being out yet. When said things went live, they caused some unexpected bugs. This rather quick update fixes them. That means the game will now remember if you purchased the premium upgrade so that you don’t have to restore it every time, and Shining Force 2 will no longer lock up when anyone uses magic. That means you can safely enjoy a wonderful trio of Genesis RPGs. And you should!
PIXEL PUZZLE COLLECTION, Free Konami’s surprisingly great Picross take-off Pixel Puzzle Collection was already pretty awesome at launch, but with its latest update, there are even fewer things to complain about. First up, the zoom controls have been improved, along with how filling in multiple squares works. If you’re using directional pad controls, the cursor will now wrap around the other side, which is nice. The way you get hints has changed, and some bugs have been fixed. Now get out there, update your app, and soak in some sweet nostalgia for the days when Konami kicked butt.
Templar Battleforce Elite, $9.99 Hey, long time no see, Templar Battleforce! Or at least, it feels that way? Well, whatever, we’ve got a new version here with a bunch of changes big and small. So what does it add up to? First up, two new Requisition levels for Neptune, with two new relic weapons. There’s a new Requisition level for Engineer, as well. The Engineer gets a new gauntlet weapon called the Burning Cutter, which burns and also cuts. There’s some new Ordnance, some tweaks to the difficulty in a couple of stages, and some bug fixes. Frankly, I love this game, so anything new is very welcome. This seems like a good spot to leave this coveted UMMSotW award this week, I think.
Crashlands, $6.99 Mmm, now this is an interesting update. Looking at it one way, I doubt many players are going to be able to make use of it. That said, those who are able to enjoy it are going to have a really great experience. Crashlands now supports same-screen multiplayer. You’re going to need a friend in the same room as you, a controller, and presumably a device with a screen big enough for two people to comfortably play off of. But yeah, if you can do it, you’ll probably have a lot of fun goofing around on an alien planet with a buddy. It’s a neat addition, if nothing else.
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!
