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. There are lots of updates going on in these hot summer (Northern Hemisphere)/cold winter (Southern Hemisphere) days. I’ve gathered up a nice varied batch of them for you to ponder over as you kick off this week. Of course, you can keep an eye out for updates yourself 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!
Honkai: Star Rail, Free Here’s a fresh content drop for Honkai Star Rail, adding a bunch of new goodies for players to enjoy. There are three new characters: Blade, Kafka, and Luka. Those all seem like fine names. There are some new Light Cones, including The Unreachable Side and Patience is All You Need. A couple of new areas in the form of the Alchemy Commission and Scalegorge Waterscape, a new stories via an update to Companion Mission, and a couple of new events round things out.
Squiggle Drop, Sometimes an update doesn’t have a whole lot to talk about on the whole, and I have to find a way to fill out the paragraph so as not to break the formatting of the article. One handy method to do so is to break the proverbial fourth wall and talk about this struggle in text form, which typically does the job of helping me write a few sentences to pad out the simple message that this enjoyable puzzle game now has twenty new levels to play.
Garden Tails: Match and Grow, Hey, I’m not here to make a contest out of this, but Garden Tails has one hundred and twenty new levels to play in this latest version. With these levels comes the introduction of the Persian garden, which is apparently home to a white peacock. Neat. That’s a whopping number of new levels, though. You have to pace yourself, Garden Tails. You probably could have won this thing with half as many new ones added. Although I can’t be sure of that until we reach the end. Foreshadowing, or just Shaun being weird? If none of my old teachers could figure it out, what hope do any of you have?
MasterChef: Learn to Cook!, Okay, let’s see what’s going on with this update to the Apple Arcade cooking game. There’s a new game mode called Cooking Corner that is considerably more relaxed, allowing you to learn recipes and play at your own pace. All recipes are now unlocked for all players, so you can cook what you want when you want. There are also some new achievements and challenges to take on, and some new gameplay variations to dig into. No, I’m not making the joke. I have some self-discipline. Only a little. But enough.
Royal Match, Free Oh heck, King Robert in from out of nowhere with the steel chair! A whopping one hundred new levels in what I can only describe as our obligatory free-to-play matching puzzle game update of the week! His Royal Highness has a new beach house, and he wants everyone to know about it. So yes, as it turns out, Garden Tails did indeed need to push one hundred and twenty new levels to win. But it did, and that means it still wins even after that nasty chair shot. Nice try, King Robert.
Mortal Kombat, Free The update notes are calling this one the summer update, so it might be all we get for the next couple of months. Good thing it’s a full one, then. There’s a new game mode called The Krypt where you fight your way through maps to earn Krypt Hearts that you can spend in the new Krypt Store to get some Diamond fighters. Klassic Movie Sonya Blade joins the roster as a Diamond fighter, and she looks just like you remember her looking in 1995. Quan Chi gets a new Brutality, and Shang Tsung gets a new Friendship. You have to have the right equipment, of course. Throw in new seasons, new challenges, and some bug fixes, and that’s the lot.
Minion Rush: Running game, Free Ten dang years, hunh? I guess that’s about right. This was one of my earlier reviews for TouchArcade, and I did indeed mark my ten year anniversary at the site a couple of months back. I celebrated with an extra cookie in my lunch; the Minions are celebrating by going to the Moon. Rich people sure are different. But don’t worry, they still have their feet on the ground to some extent. Gru’s daughters have entered a tournament involving a few popular sports. Can they make a good showing, and how will the Minions mess things up? You can also find a few new costumes in this update, including Layup Stuart, Sweet Bob, and Anniversary Phil. B-bananas?
Real Racing 3, Free Getting away from puzzles and small creatures for a second, here’s an update to Real Racing 3, another game that just keeps on going. What’s new this time? The electric Porsche Mission R, the Morgan Plus Six, the Ferrari LaFerrari, the BMW M4, and others are available via various events and series. That’s cool. You can also win the Nissan 370Z (Z34) R3 Spec by joining in Round 8 and collecting VP from events in the Round Hub. Well, there’s a lot of other stuff here, and if I’m going to be real about it, I don’t think anyone who doesn’t play the game will get much from it. So let’s leave it there.
League of Legends: Wild Rift, Free What I like about the notes for this update is that they refer to it as a ‘patch’. Ha, I love it. Classic terminology. Anyway, some new champs are available now. Nilha, Vladimir, and Hecarim are ready to jump into the fray. Janna and Annie have seen some tweaks, and the Rune system has been overhauled. Apparently there is a new Wild Pass if you’re looking to spend some cash, and there’s some business called Soul Fighter with new skins, a new story mode, a new game mode, and a new minigame. Not too shabby on the whole, I would say.
Teeny Tiny Town, Free Here’s our winner of the coveted UMMSotW award for the week. This great puzzle game has a fresh update that adds more maps, more buildings, a new power-up in the form of the Crane, and some revamped mechanics. We also get a new Night Mode and stylus support, which are also quite nice. New players will benefit from an improved tutorial and onboarding process, too. If you haven’t dug into this game before, this feels like as good an opportunity as ever.
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!
