It’s been a while since we’ve talked about Junk Jack ($4.99) around these parts, which is a shame because it’s one of the best sandbox adventures on the App Store. So seeing as it received an update this week, I figured that’s as good a time as any to sing the praises of Junk Jack both for existing fans and those who might never have heard of this title. It may surprise many of you, but there was a time when the likes of Terraria and Minecraft weren’t readily available on the App Store. Developer Pixbits took it upon themselves to rectify that with an expansive crafting sandbox adventure game called Junk Jack way back in 2011.

Junk Jack offered an expansive world to explore and a very Minecraft-like experience but presented as a 2D platformer with designed-for-touchscreen controls. It also wasn’t just Minecraft in different clothing, as Junk Jack did a lot of unique things that set itself apart and created its own identity. Pixbits supported the game for years and years, even spawning a follow-up which was more ambitious and designed for the more advanced iOS devices that were coming out. Nowadays the original Junk Jack is known as Junk Jack Retro, and that follow-up which was originally called Junk Jack X is now known simply as Junk Jack, and is the version that just received an update. It’s not as complicated as it sounds, I promise!

So yeah, Junk Jack’s first update in more than nine months brings with it some great new features, and as always dozens and dozens of smaller but very welcome fixes, tweaks and optimizations. First off the game now supports haptic feedback which can be toggled on and off to your liking, and it also supports the larger screens of the iPhone XR and iPhone XS Max. Then there are numerous bug fixes and quality of life enhancements to the game itself, and you know what? There’s so many of those you’re probably better off checking the update notes in the App Store rather than me boring you to death rattling them all off here. More than anything I just love Junk Jack and feel it’s my civic duty to bring more eyeballs to this game, so if you’re new to the series it’s very much worth hitting up the App Store to check it out.