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. This week was mostly about the familiar faces. You know, the ones that are making enough money to update on the regular for months or even years. As such, I suppose it’s not the most exciting line-up of titles, but I will do my best to make something of it all. 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!
Golden Axe Classics, Free The whole Shining Force Classics thing must have gone over well for SEGA, or at least better than individual releases were. As such, the SEGA Forever re-release of Golden Axe has gotten an update that transforms it into a similar beast. It now contains Golden Axe, Golden Axe 2, and Golden Axe 3. Each can be made ad-free for $1.99, or you can unlock the trio for $4.99. I’m not the hugest fan of the last two parts of the Genesis trilogy, but hey, it’s a couple of bucks each for some decent beat-em-ups. Hopefully, SEGA will extend this treatment to the Phantasy Star 2 app. For now, I’ll give this the coveted UMMSotW award for this week. Yep, it’s gone already!
Exiled Kingdoms RPG, Free This is not a thrilling update but I really like this game and will include it whenever I have the chance. Exiled Kingdoms is a good RPG, and you should play it. It’s even better now that it has more complete localizations for other languages and a bevy of bug fixes, I tell you what. Improved stability? Yeah, I like that. Look, just give the game a go, alright? I really can’t stretch this update out any further. Good game, active developer, just do it.
Candy Crush Saga, Free Hm, I wonder what this update could be? Oh wow, it’s a handful of new levels! What a shocking development. How many levels does this game have now? 4,000? 5,000? It’s kind of unreal that Candy Crush Saga has maintained its popularity so long and continues to pull in huge money for what is honestly very minimal upkeep. Things may not look so rosy for some of Activision’s investments lately, but the King acquisition is at least not a dud by the looks of things.
Fortnite, Free Speaking of sustained popularity and profitability, Fortnite continues to hang in there at the top of the charts. This update lists two main new items to check out. The first is that a Glider Redeploy item has been added to the game, which presumably allows you to redeploy your glider. What a good name they went and picked out for it, then. Second, there are some new things to mess around with in Creative Mode. New game settings and Farmstead prefabs, apparently. I still find this mode slightly amusing when considering Fortnite‘s roots.
Homescapes, Free The Lunar New Year is incoming, and we’ll almost certainly see a bunch of app updates to celebrate it. Homescapes is the first of the big ones, I think, and it brings a festival of lights to the game in early February. It’s a usual event, so you’ll be beating levels to get tickets that earn you decorations and other prizes, including a big paper dragon. A new gameplay element has been added in the form of Cookie Stacks, which you can collect by making matches adjacent to them. And of course, the story of Austin and his weird family and friends marches on. Is it tea time? Yes, yes it is.
Angry Birds 2, Free I get the sense that Angry Birds and its creators are kind of hanging on by a feather these days, but Angry Birds 2 still seems to have some steam in it. This update brings two new chapters to the game, with an assortment of levels to challenge your skills and patience. It also does some bug-fixing and performance improvements, because that’s the sort of thing we do in these update lives of ours. Anyway, if there’s room on this planet for several thousand Candy Crush levels, there must surely also be room for some more Angry Birds levels.
Rules of Survival, Free Nom nom nom, delicious bandages. This update is stuffed full of new things, but sadly none of it is food for the hungry icon lady. There’s a new firearm called the Healer that you can use to shoot people into good health. Makes sense. Four-wheeled vehicles now have tires that can burst, the Boot Camp has been rebooted (ha), and there’s a new Bonanza game mode that is filled to the brim with goodies to play with. There are lots of other options, tweaks, fixes, and so on, so feel free to check out the update notes if you want the full details.
Subway Surfers, Free This time, the Subway Surfers are headed to Atlanta for a football-flavored update that seems like it must have been a risky bet given how volatile the sports world can be. Anyway, you’ll team up with a music star named Alicia, pick up a new Scratchy board, and get a Touchdown Outfit for free with any purchase of the E.Z. character. Oh, and Alicia even has a tracksuit outfit that shows off her sporting spirit. Collect those footballs, and good luck on getting the rewards.
Township, Free And yeah, here’s another game that just seems to go on and on forever. The latest update sees the Zoo reopening with new content to mess with. You need to collect cards to get new animals. If you complete animal families, you’ll earn some in-game cash and decorations for your town, so it’s clearly something you’re going to want to aim at. You can find cards in various ways, including chests, events, and daily orders at the Zoo, but you’ll probably want to look at this as a long-term project. Anyway, something new to poke at. Enjoy.
Cookie Jam: Match 3 Games, Free After a somewhat bland list, you may have been hoping for a good finish for this week’s article. Like, maybe Shaun was saving something cool for dessert? But no, it’s just a Cookie Jam update. Shovel 20 new levels in your mouth to keep you busy while you wait for your hearts to restore in Candy Crush or whatever. Match-3 and mobile, friends. A match made in heaven, especially for the lucky few companies that make it big with one. And that’s the lot.
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!
