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. Oh yes, we are now fully into the Halloween update season. Folks, we’ve got a ton of scary and creepy updates to look at today. 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!
Marvel Contest of Champions, Free There are a few ways you can go with a Halloween Marvel update, and Contest of Champions is going with the ever-reliable Werewolf by Night as the backbone of its spooky event. Blade, Elsa Bloodstone, and Werewolf by Night find themselves up against the machinations of Morbius, who is still nursing his burn wounds from the crater-sized bomb of his movie. There’s also some business involving Symbiotes, but isn’t there always? Peter had no way of knowing when he picked up that alien suit what he would be unleashing. Forever. Now that’s a scary story.
Genshin Impact, Free Okay, this isn’t a Halloween update. Not all of them are going to be. But this is a good one. You get a couple of new areas, a couple of new characters, some new bosses to tackle, some new quests and stories, and a few new weapons to muck around with. The Genius Invokation TCG also gets expanded with some new Character cards and Action cards, so that’s fun. Stick a pumpkin in there or something and help a guy out, HoYoverse. We’ve got a whole theme going on here.
Disney Heroes: Battle Mode, Free Oh no, this isn’t Halloween either! What is going on here? Someone has to be fired for this mess-up, and I’m all out of Carters to scapegoat. Sigh. Oh well, let’s go ahead and see what’s here. Really, it’s just a new character. That’s why I’m stalling. It’s a cool character, though: Kuzco from The Emperor’s New Groove! That’s not a Halloween thing by any stretch of the imagination, but that’s how it goes. We’ll have to recover in the second half. There are also some bug fixes in here, in case you like those the way I do.
MARVEL Future Fight, Free Okay, we’re back on pace with this one. Another Marvel game, and this one is choosing to go with another theme that has been somewhat popular of late. The Midnight Suns arrive in Marvel Future Fight, with a new playable hero in the form of Man-Thing. Doctor Strange, Doctor Voodoo, and Sister Grimm get some new uniforms to celebrate the season. Doctor Strange gets his Tier-4, and Sister Grimm gets her Tier-3. There’s also a new Team-Up Collection feature, which seems to enhance teams that carry particular themes. You know, like the Midnight Suns. Okay, not bad. Let’s see what’s next.
Subway Surfers, Free Ah, see this is a game that will never let you down when it comes to holiday-themed updates. The Subway Surfers are going to The Haunted Hood, and it is suitably Halloweeny. Apparently there is a No Floor Challenge called Plant Invasion. You can unlock a totally original new character named Thursday and her Flaming Doll Board. In actual official tie-in news, Jake has a new Future McFly outfit with a Back to the Future Board. Yes, a real one! Not a cheeky reference! Very nice Halloween update, I would say. Onward!
Zookeeper World, Oh no, here’s another one I’m going to have to stretch out a little. You see, it’s Zookeeper World, and it doesn’t believe in flowery update notes. A new Halloween 2023 event has been added to the game, giving you a bunch of puzzle stages to clear in exchange for some rewards. Halloween rewards, naturally. But that isn’t enough to fill out a paragraph, which causes formatting issues. So I have to find ways to add words here, and regular readers will know that metacommentary is one of my favorite ways to do that. And so I have.
Solitaire Stories, We’re on a hot streak and nothing is stopping this horror train now! Solitaire Stories has some sweet Halloween stories for you to play in this update. The main new story is House of Poe, and it’s backed by a new event called Raven’s Revenge. Lots of bird-related mischief, to be sure. But Halloween isn’t just about birds, is it? There’s another new event in here called Pumpkin Patch, which is admittedly a bit more sedate. But even more relaxed is the Cup of Tea event, or at least I think so. The update notes are teasing a little something-something but they might just be being playful for the sake of the season.
The Oregon Trail, Okay, unless we’re being silly about all of this, we can’t really call this a Halloween update. I mean, life on the trail was certainly terrifying in its own ways, but it had nothing to do with ghosts and candy. Nevertheless, this is a cool update so I am compelled by the code of my position to tell you about it. There are thirteen new traits that can be applied to your characters that can mix things up for better or worse. You can also evolve those traits during the journey, which can also go good or bad for you. Probably bad, it’s the Oregon Trail. There’s new dynamic weather, some reworks to how wagon damage works, and a bunch of other things. Give it a look if you haven’t peeked in for a while.
Homescapes, Free We’re probably safe for the rest of this article. Homescapes is another one that doesn’t skip on holidays too often, and it sure isn’t missing this one. Go hunting UFOs in Area 551, help Austin and Katherine play some scary pranks on their friends and capture the reactions on digital film, and maybe even make a movie? It looks like Austin’s going to have a busy time of things again, and that means Homescapes players are going to be equally tied up with stuff to do.
Pizza Hero, Free Since we haven’t given it out yet, you can guess that this game is taking home the coveted UMMSotW award for this week. In the Pizza Hero Spooky Slice update, you can venture into the new Cemetery world where the dead have risen and are hungry for ‘za. You can find and unlock a whopping ten new pets, and new Daily Challenges have been implemented to keep you coming back on the regular. Oh, and you’ll also find Vending Machines strewn about now. They’ll provide some tasty treats if you can find them. A great game, and a rather excellent update.
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!
