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. It’s an interesting mix of titles this week, with a few popular paid games, some major free-to-play hits, and a few other curiosities in the mix. I’ve gathered up a group of them for you to browse through while you’re enjoying your morning caffeine. 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 go for it!
SEGA Heroes: RPG Match 3 Games, Free As we’ve seen with most recent updates to SEGA Heroes, this new version on its surface is all about further integrating another SEGA franchise. The popular Valkyria Chronicles character Selvaria Bles joins the playable roster if you’re lucky enough to get her, and some of the enemies from the series are now showing up in Survival Mode as well. Guilds are finally up and running, sort of, and at least one event has offered up prizes based on your guild’s ranking. Throw in a few bug fixes, and that’s the lot. I suspect we’ll be seeing some Valkyria Chronicles 4 characters turn up next.
Clean Road, Free Sometimes I go poking around to see what I can find in the horrifying dimension that is the Free App Rankings and pull something out just to see what happens. And that’s why Clean Road is on here. Having grown up in Northwestern Ontario, I can certainly relate to the snow-plowing theme. Is the game good? Well, I suppose it could be, but it’s a bit too ad-ridden for my liking. Nevertheless, it has an update that adds some new cars and a desert setting where you’re using your trusty plow to move sand instead of snow. I… I don’t think real life works that way, but hey, why not?
Mortal Kombat, Free With Mortal Kombat 11 out on consoles, there are all kinds of new assets and designs that the mobile version of the game can make use of. Here is the latest fruit of that: MK11 Sub-Zero. He’s a Diamond card that can only be obtained through the MK11 Diamond Pack or as a prize in some upcoming Faction War seasons. He’s naturally a pretty powerful fellow with his own special set of moves and useful synergy with other MK11 characters. I expect we’ll be seeing a lot of updates for this game going forward, at least for a little while.
The Greedy Cave, $0.99 Even with a sequel out, the original The Greedy Cave keeps on getting little tweaks here and there. This update adds some new cave events, which are obviously always welcome. There’s a new chapter available in the Mysterious Princess comics that are unlocked in city events. There are also some new events in the Cave Fishing series as well, plus some new proportional bonuses. Aside from that, there are some bug fixes and balance adjustments. Still, not bad for a game of this vintage.
Star Traders: Frontiers, $6.99 The Brothers Trese are at it again, packing up a gigantic update full of stuff to keep their customers happy well after the point of purchase. As usual, there’s way too much to go into here, but the highlights include two new character faces, a new Bounty Hunter story vignette, a new Talent Manifest for quick look-ups, four new relic gear types, a ton of improvements to the UI, a bevy of bug fixes, more tweaks than you can shake a stick at, and oh-so-much more. Is it any wonder that when an update for this developer’s game shows up in my inbox, I know exactly which game is winning the coveted UMMSotW award for the week? Congratulations, Star Traders: Frontiers. And if you haven’t picked this game up yet, what are you waiting for?
Game of Thrones: Conquest â„¢, Free Um. Well, however you feel about how the TV show has gone, this game based on Game of Thrones seems to be holding its popularity well enough. And of course, this update is centered around the Battle of Winterfell, with special event monsters spawning all around Westeros. You’ll have to craft special relics to take on the walking dead. Well, you know. It’s that sort of affair. You probably won’t be doing anything substantially different from what you normally do in this game, but the tie-in is nice. This update also makes some stability improvements and improves some combat visual effects.
Matchington Mansion, Free Yikes, this game updates like a fiend. I’m starting to get a feel for what constitutes a normal update for Matchington Mansion, and it’s kind of wild. So there are more than 60 new levels to play, a new room in the form of the Coffee Shop, and a new Lakehouse event. There are a couple of new sales, one commemorating Mother’s Day, and some bug fixes to round it all out with. This game is catching up to a lot of other older, more well-establishing matching puzzle games thanks to its ridiculously substantial updates. But are the levels any good, I wonder? I don’t know. My heart belongs only to Austin, and I shall never waver.
Toy Blast, Free But you know, don’t think Toy Blast is going to take that competition lying down, either. Its latest update packs in 50 new levels centered around a vineyard retreat of some kind? I don’t know how much of the story is actually packed into these levels and how much is just the fancy of the person writing the update notes, but if it’s actually in the game itself you can enjoy seeing the toys sip on grape juice and eat some tasty cheese. Once you reach those levels, anyway. But I bet there’s nothing actually there and it’s just a bunch of new levels with zero context.
Stardew Valley, $4.99 And then there are games that include so few details in their update notes that I really don’t know what to write to fill out a paragraph. I mean, I want to let people know about the update, but there isn’t a lot to work with here. In this latest version of the game, you can now transfer files using the Files App. Linus also returns to town, and slimes can be farmed outside. There are also some bug fixes. And what else? I don’t know! You’ll have to poke around and see. But it’s okay, because poking around is kind of what Stardew Valley is all about.
The Simsâ„¢ FreePlay, Free Yes, The Sims FreePlay is somehow still trundling along merrily. I don’t know anyone who actually plays it, but lots of people must be. Anyway, this update preps the game for the summer season, adding some new in-ground spas, swimming pools, and bungalows. Join in the SimChase challenge to earn special rewards, and check out an improved Build Mode that gives you more options for outdoor building. Given that they’re putting this stuff in now, there may not be another major update for a few months, but I suppose we’ll see.
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!
