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. Another unusual list of updates this week, with a rare appearance of a premium Square Enix game. A few of the usual suspects are here as well, giving us a nice melange of surprise and the expected that should keep your nervous system on the edge of its metaphorical seat. 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!
FINAL FANTASY III (3D REMAKE), $14.99 It’s pretty rare for a Final Fantasy game to get an update significant enough to appear in this feature, but here we are. This update adds full-screen support for all the different screen sizes that have been introduced since the last big update. It also adds the opening cutscene that had previously been cut for memory space considerations. A gallery mode has been added that lets you look at various bits of art and listen to the soundtrack. Also, an auto-battle function has been added that allows you to get through battles quicker. I don’t get to do this very often, so I’m giving this Final Fantasy update the coveted UMMSotW award this time around.
SEGA Heroes: RPG Match 3 Games, Free Well, I suppose I’ll start by complaining. SEGA Heroes has a few new things going on, and I’m not happy with all of them. On the positive side, Akira Yuki from Virtua Fighter has joined the game as the second Captain-class character. On the neutral front, the way character power levels are calculated has been changed, making it seem like your team is a lot weaker even if it isn’t. And on the bad front, the new Arena makes it a lot harder to rank, which in turn reduces the amount of free premium currency you can earn. Yeah, as expected.
Mortal Kombat, Free Time for another update to the mobile version of Mortal Kombat, and as is usually the case these days that means a new Diamond-class character has been added to the roster. Diamond Black Dragon Tremor makes the scene, joining Kabal and Kano. He’s another powerful character, able to boost his fellow Black Dragons, shrug off debuffs, and deal damage to tagged-out foes. I’d imagine he’s not an easy character to earn, so good luck to all those who want to round out their Black Dragon team.
ANOTHER EDEN, Free Another Eden gets updated almost weekly, so I could probably include it in every one of these if I was that-way inclined. I like to keep things fair, but I also like to look in on this one now and then to see what new adventures await. In this case, we’ve got a new episode, Ida School Part 3. In addition, new character Hismena has been added along with a new encounter with Mariel (Another Style). A couple of other encounters were added, and the usual bug fixes and corrections to the text have been done.
Star Traders: Frontiers, $6.99 Speaking of games that update often enough to be included almost every time if I wanted, it’s Star Traders: Frontiers. This update is a nice one. It includes a new job in the form of the Blade Dancer, who are skilled at contact manipulation, spice hall activity, and deadly crew combat. With the new job comes 15 new talents for said job, giving you some new strategic elements to chew on. There are several other little tweaks and additions, but most of them are involved with the new job. Very cool to see significant content added like this.
Toon Blast, Free I’m a unique sort of tired today, friends. I’m the usual tired, which means I’m including a free-to-play matching puzzle game to fill out the list. But I’m also too tired to crack many funnies, which makes the inclusion of one of these dull Blast games even less interesting than usual. Apologies, I’ll try to make two funnies next week to compensate. Anyway, 50 new levels, something about a music festival or a parade or some such. The notes mention “chili friends", which may or may not be a typo. Some solid material here for cracking wise, but instead I’ll take a power nap.
Hearthstone, Free Sure, why not check in on Hearthstone? It’s not the juggernaut it once was, but it’s still receiving fairly regular content drops to keep people engaged. As the notes tout, dragons are entering the battlegrounds. There are seven new heroes and eighteen new minions that include a number of dragons in their ranks. This update also brings the Spirit of Competition Anniversary Event, which runs from March 4th to the 17th. Celebrate six years of Hearthstone with some new quests that earn you cool rewards, including ten Year of the Dragon card packs.
Magic: ManaStrike, Free Magic: ManaStrike is certainly a game that exists in our present reality, and I for one commend it for that. It got its very first content update this last week, so let’s give it a little applause. Not too much, we don’t want to over-praise. This update adds two new Planeswalkers, Koth of the Hammer and Angrath, which are frankly incredible names that I’m going to reuse for pets one day. This new version also adds five new cards and a new Ajani skin. Some business in here about Casual Matches, and some welcome adjustments to the UI. Also, bug fixes. Who can argue with those? No one. No one except low-down, dirty bugs. Are you a bug? ARE YOU?
Stardew Valley, $4.99 Whoa, Stardew Valley got a really big update. Maybe I should take that coveted UMMSotW award back from Final Fantasy? Ah, too late, Tokita’s halfway to Vegas by now. Oh well. Let’s just enjoy the new late-game building upgrade, 14 new heart events, new farm fish ponds, more than 60 new items, an additional 24 hairstyles, tons of new clothes, tailoring, upgradeable sheds, and lots of other new stuff. There’s even 14 new music tracks! And in less flashy but very useful news, you can once again transfer saves from PC to mobile. Yeah, that’s a great update all around.
Plants vs. Zombiesâ„¢ 2, Free The next game in the series is apparently coming and will likely double-down on the nonsense in this one, but people seem to enjoy it so who am I to say nay? Shaun, that’s who. NAY. NAY. NEEEEEEIIIGH. That one wasn’t me, it was my horse. NAY. That one was me. Okay, this update. The all-new Penny’s Pursuit mode. Pursue Penny, get rewards. Roman zombies are now in the game, because the sun never sets on Rome. Wait, isn’t that bad for zombies? Or is it just vampires? I don’t know. Some new plants, including the deadly Dartichoke. Ha, that’s a solid name. Some fixes and improvements to round things out, of course. Okay, that’ll do.
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!
