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. With Halloween coming up really soon, the spooky updates continue to flow. This last week also saw a few paid titles get some updates, resulting in a pretty nice balance of games to look at. 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!
Photographs - Puzzle Stories, $3.99 Well, this isn’t exactly a major update, but whatever. I just wanted an excuse to put Photographs in here again, and there’s probably not going to be a better chance. This update does add a couple of very useful features to the game, especially if you found yourself getting stuck on one of the many puzzles. There are now hints to help you solve the puzzle at hand, as well as skips if you absolutely can’t figure things out. There are also a bunch of bug fixes included in this new version, which is a good thing. I never ran into anything big in that regard, but I’m sure some people did.
SEGA Heroes: RPG Match 3 Games, Free The main thing in this new version of SEGA Heroes is the KapuKapu Guild Boss Fight, where you battle the feline nemesis of the Chu Chu Rocket gang. For this boss, you’ll build the stagger meter by matching star tiles. Matching four or more pieces at once has a chance of generating star tiles, so you can get some pretty neat chains going. The prizes lean more towards upgrade materials for this battle. I’m sure there are some seeds planted for future characters in this update as well, but SEGA isn’t talking about them yet. Don’t worry about that, just go on and kick that cat.
MARVEL Strike Force: Squad RPG, Free This week’s Marvel update is for Marvel Strike Force, and it’s a doozy. You can create monster squads using Ghost Rider, Elsa Bloodstone, Hela, Stryfe, and Mister Sinister, who are all joining the playable roster. Some limited-time traits are here in the forms of Trick or Treat and Los Muertos, and a new permanent raid called Ultimus VII has been added. The Highway to Halloween event offers up lots of cool rewards for playing and logging in, and there is a Jack-O’-Lantern Orb you can carve up. Throw in some bug fixes and that’s basically the lot. But hey, five new playable characters is nothing to sneeze at.
Oceanhorn â„¢, $6.99 No matter when you play it, Oceanhorn is a darned impressive-looking game. Part of that comes from the good art design, but a lot of it comes down to the fact that the developer keeps on updating it to take advantage of the latest hardware. That’s what this update is all about, using the finest of 2019 tech to make sure the game looks and runs its absolute best on your latest iOS device. Honestly, with the sequel out I’m kind of surprised they’re keeping up with this one. I’m glad they are, of course.
PUBG MOBILE, Free Fortnite made the biggest splash last week with its interesting marketing stunt, but PUBG Mobile wasn’t standing still either. In its latest update, it plants the seeds for the soon-to-arrive Payload Mode that adds tons of new heavy weapons, a recall system, a helicopter, air strikes, and more. A new move has been added, the ledge grab, which does exactly what it says. Lots of other adjustments were made to the UI, balance, graphics, controls, and overall performance. Like, the gun-holding pose now changes based on the gun type that you’re using, for one thing. Unfortunately, Darkest Night mode has been taken offline due to a number of issues, but it should return after it has been fixed up.
Mario Kart Tour, Free Mario Kart Tour seems to be doing very well for itself so far, which is perhaps to be expected of one of Nintendo’s most popular brands. New characters have been added since launch, with more like Waluigi apparently on the way soon. This week’s updates, however, had little to do with new characters. Instead, a couple of nice UI features were added to the game based on player feedback. First, you can now view a list of the badges that you have obtained. In addition, you can also check how many points are required to get Grand Stars, the number of Grand Stars, and your current best score on the courses and bonus challenges screen. Some bugs were definitely fixed in the making of this update.
Subway Surfers, Free We’re coming up not just on Halloween but also on the Day of the Dead, which makes it as good a time as any for the Subway Surfers kids to head to Mexico. Surf through the night along haunted tracks and through spooky graveyards, pick up three season-appropriate new outfits, and collect colorful sugar skulls to score some nice rewards. Scarlett, Manny, and Jake all get some really awesome new duds in this update, but I somehow doubt they’ll just be handed to you. Well, good luck with all of that.
Mortal Kombat, Free It’s been a bit since the last big update to Mortal Kombat, but you won’t be disappointed with how much you get in this one. First up, new characters. MK11 Skarlet joins as a Diamond card that can be earned through new packs starting tomorrow. Black Dragon Kabal is another Diamond card character that can be won through the limited-time Tower of Horror event. Cutthroat Kano isn’t new, but he’s been upgraded to Diamond status and will be available in new packs coming soon. Best of all, if you already have him, you get that upgraded version free. The Tower of Horror event has other rewards aside from Black Dragon Kabal, including some special equipment and Gold character cards. Nothing else is tickling my fancy, so I suppose I’ll give this game the coveted UMMSotW award for this week.
Injustice 2, Free Going with that Mortal Kombat update is this new version of WB’s other mobile brawler, Injustice 2. There’s one new character here, Black Manta, a Legendary character who deals more damage with each consecutive hit he lands. There’s a new Versus Challenge that pits the Batman Ninja characters against Brainiac with some nice rewards on the line, and a lowered bar for entering the Champions Arena, which should inject some fresh blood into the mix. There’s also a little Daily Objective event going on for Halloween where you can earn some Gold Enraged Bane shards. Honestly, it feels like this game really underperformed WB’s expectations, but it’s still hanging in there, so that’s something.
Fortnite, Free I’ll give the team behind Fortnite one thing: that was an excellent little marketing stunt they pulled. Ending the game, keeping it offline for two days, then introducing the new Chapter 2 content? Chef’s kiss, seriously. Beyond that? Well, Fortnite is back. It has a new map among many other changes, and from what I’ve heard it’s even more of a grind than it was before. That’s a shame, but something tells me people aren’t going to stop playing anytime soon.
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!
