Hello everyone, and welcome to the holiday week! It’s time once again for our look back at the noteworthy updates of the last seven days. Yes, I’m here on Christmas Eve. What can you do? So what do we have this time? Some last minute Christmas updates, some long-awaited updates, and just some regular old updates that happened to hit right about now. I’ve got a handful for you to look at while you consider what exactly rests in the wrapping paper under the tree. 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!
Grimvalor, $5.99 This is one spiffy game, that much is certain. But it can be even spiffier, if you’ve got the hardware to let it be all it can. With this update, Grimvalor now supports the new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro hardware, enabling full-screen gameplay at 120 frames per second. Holy smokes, that is something to behold. But for those of us without those fancy-pants new iPads, there’s still a little something under the proverbial tree: the ability to swap the virtual buttons for jump and dodge. Some people had issues with the existing layout, so this one might work out better for them. Nice!
SpellTower Classic, $2.99 A huge update for a years-old game? It’s more believable than you’d think. SpellTower is pretty much a permanent fixture on the mobile devices of many people, so it’s nice that the developer is keeping things not only working but also adding new stuff now and then. So yes, the new thing here is a a new mode called Daily Tower. You can probably guess what that’s all about, but just in case, it’s a mode where you compete against the world to see who can get the highest score each day. There are some other nice fixes and such here, so make sure to give it a look.
Bacon – The Game, Free Well, you probably know what to expect from an update to this game by now. Yes, there are no new modes, no new characters, no new worlds. There are just more things to put bacon on. 30 more things. But what more could you want from Bacon – The Game? It is a game about tossing bacon on stuff. Now you have more stuff to toss bacon on. Complaints are not valid in the bacon zone. Those are the rules, just ask any bacon scholar.
DANDY DUNGEON Brave Yamada, Free This is the first of two sad updates I have to report this week. Dandy Dungeon is all done, unfortunately. But unlike so many other games that drift off into the night, there’s one little ray of hope here. This final update enables this previously-online game to function offline, albeit with certain features stripped out. It’s too bad, but on the other hand, it’s better than nothing. You’d better get this quickly though, as the game probably won’t be on the App Store for much longer.
SEGA Heroes: RPG Match 3 Games, Free So far, SEGA Heroes seems to be doing fairly well. Some people like it, some people don’t, that’s how this dance goes. But for those that like it, they’re probably looking for some new characters to freshen things up a little, and SEGA delivered just that with the latest update. The newest SEGA brand to be added to the game is Crazy Taxi. So far, only B.D. Joe is available, and he’s a hard-to-acquire Legendary character, but other cast members will likely follow. There’s that guy who looks like Dexter Holland, that other guy who looks like Dexter Holland, the old guy, the even older guy, and the lady. Which ones will join the game? Not sure! Wait and see, Captain Impatient.
Dungeons of Chaos REVAMPED ED., $5.99 It’s been a bit since the last update to this game, but you know, it’s been as finished as it needs to be for a long time. So everything else is just gravy, and here we have another spoonful of said delicious sauce. You’ve got four more unlocked birth feats that are geared towards melee-type brawlers, a new fixed party challenge that focuses on those feats, a special new hidden secret, and a handful of other fixes. A couple of things to tool around with for those who like to get under the hood of party-building, more or less.
MARVEL Avengers Academy, Free To be honest, I’m not even sure if this entry is going to work with our format because the game has been pulled from the App Store. But I can’t let this one go without some kind of eulogy, so here we are. Avengers Academy got an update last week, finished up its last event on schedule, and a few hours later, a message popped up saying the game would end its service on February 4th. Until then, it’s a wild jamboree where you can see what life would be like if you were a whale. Won’t do you much good if you don’t already have the game, but if you do still have it on your device, you might as well open it up and enjoy the final party. And so, I will give out the coveted UMMSotW award to Avengers Academy for finally freeing me, which may be the best update of them all.
Fortnite, Free Ah, Fortnite. You’ve been having a weird few weeks what with the Carlton and the memes suing over dances and what-not. But you’re still making money hand over fist, and I’m told that means you’re winning in this silly work-a-day world of ours. Anyway, this update has a couple of things to it. The first is holiday-themed stuff, which is more or less just on time. Yep, you can see the season everywhere in the game right about now. The other is the new creative mode, where you can claim a personal island and do all kinds of creative things on it. Color pictures with crayons? Compose music? Well, not that kind of thing. Really just building things. But that’s pretty alright.
Fate/Grand Order (English), Free Honestly, the update notes for this game are usually mysterious enough that I can’t include the game in these articles. But hey, this one has some stuff I can kind of understand, so here we go. This update adds an bit to the main scenario called Final Singularity. Beyond that, we’ve got… hm, various UI improvements and… various bug fixes. Well, not much to say there. Maybe I made a mistake here, but it’s too late to change things now. Oh well, it’s a popular game and it has new stuff. Go do your thing.
PUBG MOBILE, Free On the other hand, there may be such a thing as too many details in the update notes. Well, whatever. PUBG Mobile is also joining in on the seasonal festivities with a new snow map on the way that brings with it snowy weather, a snowmobile, and snowball fights. There are a bunch of other things too, but really, it’s all minutiae that is best left to people who probably have already updated the game and are digging through it on their own. For the rest of us, the snow is the thing. Yay, snow!
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!
