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 odd assortment this week, friends. I had to dig around a bit in the bag to find the necessary updates to fill out the list. Some very popular games making their first appearances in this column, but I’m not sure how much our usual readership likes them. Well, it is what it is. 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!
Pokémon GO, Free Sometimes, Shaun gets very tired. He tries to find the good updates, but every once in a while he must settle for an adequate update. This is one of those times. Truthfully, I would not really call this a notable update at all. But it’s a popular game and the new version does sport some improvements to the UI, so whatever. It’s fine. You can now swipe more easily through your friends in the Friend Detail screen, and some updates have been made to Niantic Social to try to make the social experience of playing the game better.
The Battle Cats, Free Quietly one of the most popular games of the last decade in Japan, The Battle Cats keeps on delivering its well-liked and quirky take on real-time strategy. The latest version unlocks Level 30 upgrades for some base developments, adds some 3rd forms and new talents for some Cats, tosses in some new legend maps and a higher difficulty setting for existing maps, and makes a whole lot of other little adjustments and tweaks to improve the overall experience. Also, bug fixes. Because why not?
Toy Blast, Free Well, I guess I’ll put this one here this week. Our obligatory free-to-play matching puzzle game update this time around is Toy Blast, and as usual there’s some nonsense in the update notes that has nothing to do with the game. The main point is, as usual, 50 brand new levels of colorful matching pleasure. As for the story behind it all? Some kind of a Robin Hood thing. They didn’t even do a pun thing with anyone’s names, which you would think would be low-hanging fruit. I suppose it doesn’t really matter, though. I’m the only one reading these notes. Thank you for your effort, kindly What’s New writer.
Subway Surfers, Free Looks like that kind of nasty Walmart advertisement update is behind us now, as the Subway Surfers kids head on over to Bali. They’ll surf the rails through ancient temples and lush jungles, collecting plastic bottle tokens to try to earn some cool new prizes and rewards. Mei steps up with her new Bumi Outfit, and the brand-new Coral Board will help you grind through the gorgeous environs in style.
Rules of Survival, Free NetEase has probably been pumping its fist at all this drama with Fortnite and Epic, as it clears the path for its handful of Battle Royale games to fill the void. Rules of Survival is one of the more popular ones in its catalog, and the latest update adds even more content to the game. The Train is back, and you’ll have a chance to enter Train Mode by playing Ghillie Island – Ranked Match. It includes the Gear Pod, which offers a selection of firearms and combat items. You can also use train seats as cover in a firefight. Sounds like fun. But will it be fun enough to pull in some of the Fortnite audience?
hocus., $1.99 Hey, it’s good old hocus.. Yes, I will respect the odd capitalization and punctuation. I’m keen that way. At any rate, this is not a free-to-play service game, which means updates are a rarity. But this is a nice one, and let me tell you why. It adds a spiffy new endless mode to the game, so even if you’ve completed all of the puzzles you can keep on playing forever. Well, theoretically. Your body will decay one day, and then there’s the heat death of the universe to consider. But it will keep you playing for a good long while, at least. With that new mode comes an endless leaderboard, which also adds a bit of replay value. Cool, cool.
Bloons TD 5, $2.99 Bloons TD 5 is still alive and thriving, which is pretty neat if you think about it. You don’t have to think about it, though. There will not be a quiz. Unless I am lying! You didn’t consider that, did you? This update brings a whole new map, the Parking Lot. It’s a beginner map with lots of room to build your towers, and is an awful lot of fun to play in co-op mode. That seems to be it for this update, but really, a new map is more or less what players are most interested in seeing in a new version of a game like this.
Klondike Adventures: Farm Game, Free If you’ve played any game that uses incentivized ads on iOS, you’ve probably seen some of the incredibly misleading ads for this game. That appears to be how things are these days. The thing is, this is a pretty decent game for what it is: a free-to-play builder. I don’t see why they have to fib. Anyway, this update celebrates the developer’s birthday with some nice surprises, brings back mazes that you can solve for rewards, some trading involving a new cart, and a new adventure called Stone Haven. Plenty to keep players busy until the next update, no doubt.
RAID: Shadow Legends, Free Let me interrupt this article to let you know about a game called Raid: Shadow Legends. Nah, just kidding. I’m not a YouTuber. I’ll tell you about this game without being paid, because I am a smart guy who is very good at accumulating wealth. Uh… we’ve gone a little bit off-track, but there is a new version here with a number of changes. Some new Fragments have been added to the Bazaar, and some adjustments have been made to curb abuse of certain gameplay elements. The matchmaking logic in the Tag Team Arena has been improved, and the AI has been adjusted to make it harder to bait them into going after weak Champions.
Pascal's Wager, $4.99 I’ve saved the best for last today, as I sometimes do. Yes, this is the winner of the coveted UMMSotW award for the week. Pascal’s Wager is a really solid game, and I think we can all agree that more of a good thing is usually desirable. Of course, if you want to get the full flavor of this update, you’ll have to buy a $2.99 IAP. That buys “The Tides of Oblivion", an expansion with a new story, new maps, and a whole new playable character. If you don’t feel like spending money, you can still benefit from an enhanced final boss in “Into the Dark Mist", some beefed up damage for certain abilities for Terrence and Norwood, and some improvements to the game’s stability. But seriously, if you enjoyed the base content, you’ll be happy with the expansion. Go for it.
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!
