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. Yes, I know last week I said I wasn’t going to do this article on Christmas. I had a chance, and I’m taking it. There are a few really cool updates that I wanted to get to as soon as I could. 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!
Tiny Wings, $1.99 Let’s give out the coveted UMMSotW award right away, shall we? After all, it’s a day of giving. And this update certainly gives, friends. There are more than one hundred new birds to unlock, fifteen new missions to complete, some revised AI for the Flight School, and a lot of visual improvements. Oh, and if you feel like giving the developer a few more bucks on top of the two bucks you paid fifteen years ago or whatever, you can buy a special bird as IAP. Yes, I will give you that three dollars, Andreas. Even if it was just a tip.
Samba de Amigo: Party-To-Go, So far, Samba de Amigo Party-to-Go‘s updates have been going the way I’d hoped they would. There’s a new mode here in the form of the World Challenge, where you compete with others worldwide on three different songs every week. There are some new songs here, too. BTS’ Dynamite, Reach for the Stars (Re-Colors) from the recent Sonic Colors remake, and World New Year – Funky Party Mix. And while you’re getting funky, why not check out the new Space Channel 5 customization items? They’re just part of the fifty new customization items you can make use of. There are a few other bits and bobs here, but those are the highlights.
Super Mario Run, Free Super Mario Run doesn’t get updates or events often, but I suppose if ever there was an occasion to do so Super Mario Bros. Wonder‘s release would be it. For a limited time, Wonder Flowers might appear while you’re playing Toad Rally. Grab one and things will get… not as wild as they do in the real game, but there will be Gold Goombas all over the place. Take them out and you’ll fill out a stamp card that will give some prizes when it’s complete. Yeah, that’s fine. That will bring me back for a little while at least.
Sneaky Sasquatch, Would you trust your health to a sasquatch? If you answered no, then you’ve got more sense than the folks in this game. The latest update adds a hospital where you can do your doctor’s duty as you see fit, plus an ambulance you can drive if you feel like doing the paramedic thing instead. You also get some new music and other little tweaks, plus one big change to the gameplay mechanics: the sasquatch can now be hurt. Be careful out there!
Temple Run: Puzzle Adventure, I’m not really keeping track of such things this week, but if one wants to count something as the obligatory free-to-play matching puzzle game update this week, one could perhaps count this despite it being in Apple Arcade. This update offers up a new Mirror Story, complete with fifty new puzzles to play. There are also some updated Tournaments to challenge. Something to do, at least.
Crossy Road Castle, Oh, this is one of those updates that adds something significant that can be described with very few words, which always leaves me in a pickle in terms of making the paragraph big enough to not mess with the site’s formatting. Usually in these cases I do a little exposition before talking about the update, and it all works out. Crossy Road Castle now has an ultra-difficult mode called Rainbow Rift, and it absolutely is not fooling around. Kind of nice to see such a zesty new challenge to tackle.
The Oregon Trail, This is a robust update for The Oregon Trail, and I’m always happy to see new stuff in this game. We get full-on party customization in this version, which means that whenever you start a new Journey you can set up your party exactly the way you like. You can even name them. That’s fun. You can also choose traits, and those can have a wide array of consequences. So, you know, be careful which ones you go for. There are also some improvements to the UI with regards to food consumption. I’d imagine some bug fixes and other adjustments are in here too, as they always tend to be.
Goat Simulator+, This Christmas update to the Apple Arcade version of Goat Simulator is functionally fairly similar to the Halloween update. You get a level from one of the many spin-off games, this time the Winter level from MMO, and can go looking for some special collectibles in it to unlock a new goat. Cool Goat, in this case. And that’s probably fine, as Goat Simulator is more or less a finished game at this point. Anything along the lines of these limited events are purely a bonus.
Brawl Stars, Free Okay, this might be older than a week. I’m using it anyway. This update seeds events from now until February, so not all of it will be available from the hop. There are new Brawlers, new Hypercharges, a fresh Brawl Pass, and a whole lot more. Lots of free goodies to score if you keep checking in, but that’s how the free-to-play thing usually goes. Still, it’s a fun game and if you’re enjoying it anyway you might as well score the freebies.
Genshin Impact, Free And we’ll end things today with a look at the latest update for Genshin Impact. The Roses and Muskets update adds two new characters in the form of Navia and Chevreuse, some new events to take part in, a new Story Quest to complete, and of course some new weapons to play around with. There’s also a new Domain, the Crumbling Assembly. I do wonder how some of the recent changes in Chinese law are going to hit this game, but I suppose that’s beyond the scope of this article so I will leave it there.
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!
