Hello everyone, and welcome to the year! It’s time once again for our look back at the noteworthy updates of the last seven days. The pickings were mighty slim this time around for obvious reasons, but by looking in unconventional places I’ve managed to put together a list of updates for you to digest with your morning coffee. 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!
The Greedy Cave, $0.99 The Greedy Cave is still getting updates this far into things. That’s pretty cool. This new version adds a spiffy Monster Card system, and there are some NPCs waiting in the main city that will explain how it works to you. There’s also a new Jukebox feature, and I doubt you’ll need many NPCs to describe that for you. A new pet in the form of the Adult Cat, a brass clerk skin, a new Pet Expedition map, expanded warehouse space, and an umber of UI tweaks and bug fixes round things out.
Sky: Children of the Light, Free The Season of Dreams is almost upon us in Sky: Children of the Light. It follows the story of a young skater with big dreams. There will be a whole new area to check out, and lots of new content overall. While you wait for Season of Dreams to come, the Adventure Pass is available for pre-order so that you can hit the ground running when it drops. There are also some miscellaneous bug fixes packed into this latest version, so even if you’re not interested in the new content it’s worth hitting that update button.
Temple Run 2, Free It’s a new year, but what’s happening in Temple Run 2 isn’t so much new as it is returning. Freya Coldheart and Sigur Frostbeard, the viking runners, are back for a limited time. You can upgrade to a new Frozen Festival map with the specially-outfitted Forester Freya and Lumberack Sigur, and some new Global Challenges are available with enticing prizes for those who take them on. And that’s about it, really. Still, it’s good to see the vikings return if nothing else.
AFK Arena, Free AFK Arena has updates almost every week or two, so it naturally had an update over the holiday break. It adds the new Celestial hero Alna – The Frozen Mother, with test play and Bountiful Trials to go with her. A new winter theme is available, and with it comes some new season-appropriate adventures. There’s also a new Ranger Class exclusive Artifact, some changes to the Guild Store, a bunch of balance adjustments, and some bug fixes. Plenty of new goodies to ring in 2021 with, in other words. Unless you got to it before the end of the year, in which case… wait for the next update to ring in the new year? I don’t know, I’m not a doctor.
The King of Fighters ALLSTAR, Free Coming off the back of the Seven Knights collaboration, this latest update for The King of Fighters AllStar isn’t quite as punchy. An update is an update, however, so let’s see what we’ve got here. First, a new fighter: B. Jenet in a winter holiday outfit. There are also a couple of winter holiday Battle Cards to go with the winter-themed character. Stats of existing Fest Fighters have been buffed, with XIII NESTS Style Kyo and 2003 Terry Bogard getting beefed up. It’s probably too late to check in on the Winter Holiday event now, but hey, give it a shot. There’s a neat Score Dungeon and Team Relay Dungeon associated with it. Might be over, but that’s how these post-vacation articles sometimes go.
Asphalt 8: Airborne, Free I find it odd when a publisher has two games where one is meant to be the follow-up to the other, but both still get updated with new content. Gameloft really likes to do that, but at least it gives me something to write about. This update is perhaps predictably Christmas-themed, but there’s some stuff here unrelated to the holidays. New Gauntlet Badges have been added as rewards for Gauntlet Mode, and you can trade those at a special shop for various goodies. The Winter Festival has special versions of the Iceland, Tokyo, and Alps tracks with plenty of rewards for those who progress through the event. Some new cars, of course, such as the Koenigsegg Agera RS. This new version also has Discord Connectivity built in, allowing for a number of interesting features.
Minion Rush: Running game, Free The Minions are still on the run, collecting bananas and causing a lot of mischief. As Minions do, I suppose. With it being the time of the year that it is, it’s perhaps not surprising that there are a couple of winter-themed Special Missions in this update. There are also some new costumes: the Reindeer, the Polar Explorer, and the Doctor. Well, one of those things doesn’t really fit the theme. Eh, not a big deal. It’s interesting to see Minion Rush last so long. I wonder what could have been had Spider-Man Unlimited had such a long life. That was a fun game.
Toon Blast, Free It’s the first obligatory free-to-play matching puzzle game update of 2021! Hooray! And it’s Toon Blast! Oh. I guess that’s fine. You can probably guess what this update is all about. You get 50 new levels, with a bit of background information in the update notes for context. And that context is: figure skating? Okay, whatever. The Toons are figure skating, this leads to 50 new levels, and that’s how this all works no matter how many pages we turn on the calendar.
Gangstar Vegas - Mafia action, Free Yes, I am struggling to fill out the list by this point. So I’m reaching back a little more than a week for an update or two. I’m also going back to the Gameloft well for no reason greater than that the publisher kicked out a bunch of updates while not many others were. So here we go. There’s a limited-time event called Pharoah’s Raid with some Egyptian-themed rewards, a new Battle Pass Season, new Rental Items that allow you to try before you buy, some new Armed Car Missions, and a subscription service called Royal Club that removes ads, sends you regular item packs, and gives you some extra rewards during events. You know, I would have expected this to have some Christmas stuff, so I’m pleasantly surprised that it went a different way.
Neo Monsters, $0.99 It’s weird how Neo Monsters and its kin are still the best way to get your Pokemon fix on mobile even after a bunch of Pokemon games have come out. This update isn’t too exciting, but there are some improvements to monsters sorting, some new filters, some fixes to the AI, balance tweaks, some new monsters and skills, and a handful of squished bugs. You know, just a lot of nice upkeep-type things that long-time players will certainly appreciate. And given today’s assortment, I suppose that’s good enough for a coveted UMMSotW award.
That about wraps it up for last week’s significant updates, such as they are. 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!
