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. I suppose with September heading into its back half, we’ll be seeing more and more Halloween updates in this column over the next few weeks. Not a big theme today, but something to keep in mind. 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!
Subway Surfers, Free I’m pretty sure these updates are planned really far in advance, but despite it almost certainly being a coincidence it is nice to see Subway Surfers tipping its hat to Hawaii after the recent situation there. Surf past the beaches and tiki huts, meet the third rival as Hali from Hawaii goes up against Fresh, pick up a new Tropi outfit for Taha, and take part in a new marathon challenge. A pretty usual update, by the looks of it. But that’s really what players of this game are probably looking for at this point, so it’s fine.
Tiny Tower: Tap Idle Evolution, Free Oh, that’s quite the fancy new icon Tiny Tower has there (that unfortunately doesn’t show up here on our page due to how our CMS works, but you can click through to the App Store to check it out – Ed.) I think that’s the first time I’ve seen them ditch the whole Bitizens motif. The developers must be aiming for an image change. Besides the icon, there’s a new Harvest Event going on in this latest version, plus some new daily rewards and various little bug fixes and tweaks. By and large, business as usual for this long-running time-waster.
Royal Match, Free And here’s our obligatory free-to-play matching puzzle update for the week, once again going to Royal Match. The usual business, with one hundred new levels to play and a new area to explore. It’s a shipyard, and I have to believe King Robert will find seven or eight ways to get into trouble there. Bare minimum. Apparently there’s some kind of Magic Cauldron event going on, too. Okay, that’s that checked off.
Disney Magic Kingdoms, Free Today is the day that I come clean and admit that I don’t like The Aristocats. Some good music, but otherwise I think it’s a really boring movie. The characters certainly seem to move the merch though. Anyway, the latest event in this game is based on The Aristocats, with new characters Duchess, Thomas O’Malley, Marie, Toulouse, and Belioz available. There are also two new attractions, Madame’s Mansion and O’Malley’s Pad. Finally, two new concessions: the Marie Hat Stand and the Vanilla Creme Stand. Oh, and I guess there’s also the new themed Parade Float. Enjoy, people who like The Aristocats! I will be over here being a grump!
Disney SpellStruck, Some games are easier to make additions to than others, and games like Disney Spellstruck tend to feel pretty complete almost from launch. There is one great mode that could be added, however, and this update does that. Blank’s Blitz is a never-ending game mode for those who have already finished the main story. Play as long as you can and see what kinds of rewards you can turn up. Other than that, it’s a bug fix thing. But an endless mode is no small thing for something like this, so I think that’s sufficient.
Gear.Club Stradale, Let’s check in on a couple of racing games and see what’s what this week, shall we? Let’s start with Gear.Club Stradale, which has one new car for you to enjoy in Super Carta Stradale plus some new races. There are four new races to dig into in the Overtaking Mode, plus four new Grand Prix to tackle. Other than that, there are a couple of new features here involved with car upgrades, plus the requisite bug fixes and performance improvements. Zoom zoom.
JellyCar Worlds, A crowd-pleaser update, eh? I’m certainly not opposed to those. Yes, most of what is included here is addressing player requests, and that’s cool. Cool enough to get the coveted UMMSotW award for this week, I’d say. First, the Classic JellyCar 1 levels now have challenges for you to try and complete. You can delete more than one replay or custom level at a time rather than having to do it one by one. The level editor gets a couple of tweaks, allowing you create out of bounds objects and use pins to connect objects. You can also change custom objects into cheese blocks, and screen effects can be added to create some visual variety. Keep up the good work, kind developer.
Asphalt 8: Airborne+, Just upfront, this update only applies to the Apple Arcade version of the game. The two are well apart from each other by this point anyway. Anyway, on with the show. The classic Venice track has been remastered and added to the game, giving it a fresh look. There are some new cars in the game, including the Dodge Dart X Edition, Techrules AT96 Track Version, McLaren M14A, Bugatti Chiron, and Chevy 2016 Camaro SS. There are some new decals to collect and use, and that previously mentioned McLaren will be given to all players to celebrate this update. I sure wouldn’t mind a free McLaren. A real one, in case any super rich readers are reading this. Okay, I’d probably sell it and use the money to buy Game Boy cartridges, but the thought! The thought matters!
Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat, I’ve been watching Samba de Amigo like a hawk hoping some songs would be added, but so far there hasn’t been anything other than some bug fixes. Luckily, Taiko no Tatsujin: Pop Tap Beat is here to scratch our itch for some new tunes. There are seven new songs to tap your fingers to, and those are: Edison, TT -Japanese ver.-, Sakuranbo, Get Wild, Night of Knights/Knight of Nights, The Lovely Lively Danube, and Heaven’s Rider. Some series classics in there, plus a couple of popular newcomers. Update your game and check ’em out!
Honkai Impact 3rd, Free The other Honkai updated this week, adding yet another new Battlesuit to the game. Miracle Magical Girl is an S-rank suit that can transform her chakram into scissors and unleash Fire damage on her foes. A new chapter in the Seven Karma Phala story is incoming, and there’s a new event called After the Blood Moon Fades where you take control of chibi characters and explore some new maps. There’s also a collaboration event with PROMARE that introduces some new outfits and and stigmas related to the popular movie. Toss in some extra weapons and that’s the lot.
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!
