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. Valentine’s Day is this week, and the Lunar New Year was two days ago. Basically, all aboard that’s coming aboard for updates related to these two popular holidays. Many of today’s updates are wrapped up in that business, but there are a few others that are doing their own thing too. 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!
Hello Kitty Island Adventure, Another update for the excellent Hello Kitty Island Adventure has arrived, albeit one not quite as stuffed full of things as the last few. This one mainly brings in a new seasonal event, the Hugs & Hearts Festival, which tasks players with searching for lovebugs that are roaming around the islands. You’ll get rewards for catching certain amounts of them, but be quick about it because they won’t be around for very long. Seems like a fun distraction, if nothing else.
Disney Heroes: Battle Mode, Free Both of the main Disney games I keep an eye on updated this week, and since I want to get home while my dinner is hot, I am including both of them. First up is Disney Heroes: Battle Mode, which adds yet another new hero to its roster. Luz Noceda from The Owl House is ready to fight, and she’s brought a bunch of bug fixes and game improvements with her. Will Amity be far behind her? I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.
Disney Magic Kingdoms, Free Over to Disney Magic Kingdoms, and this one is a little more holiday-themed. Mulan is back in the spotlight, with new characters Yao, Ling, and Chien-Po available. The Tung-Shao Toboggans attraction is back, and the Lunar New Year Costumes make their return from previous years. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Daisy can all dress up to celebrate the Year of the Dragon.
MARVEL SNAP, Free The Black Order season arrives in Marvel Snap with this latest update. Members of Thanos’ elite squad are joining the game with some powerful new abilities. This new season also brings in some spiffy Variant cards and other treats, plus some balance updates and a bevy of bug fixes and improvements. But not even one Spider-Man, so no coveted award for you, Marvel Snap! It should be so easy!
Jetpack Joyride, Free It was really just a matter of which holiday Jetpack Joyride would pick, wasn’t it? And it has opted for the Lunar New Year, which is handy because it has all this stuff around from last time. Collect red envelopes to unlock some Lunar New Year rewards, including things like the Taoist Master, the Red Lantern Jetpack, and the Profit Dragon. Sure, it’s a thing to do. You might have already gotten your hands on a lot of these goodies in previous years, though.
Royal Match, Free Obligatory free-to-play matching puzzle game update time, folks. To be honest, as new locations to throw King Robert into go, a baseball field seems like a relatively safe one. I’m sure he’ll find a way to get himself murdered anyway. One hundred new levels to play, as is the usual style with this one. That’s a lot! Enough to keep one busy for two to four weeks, surely. And that’s all they really need to do, when it comes right down to it.
Honkai: Star Rail, Free Oh, here’s a pretty big one. Not holiday-related, either. The update is called If One Dreams At Midnight, and it gives the game a big two-point-oh version number. There are several new and returning characters, some new Light Cones, a bunch of new maps, some new stories and events, a handful of new enemies to fight, and more. It really is a significant bag of new goodies to play with, one large enough that I think I’ll give it the coveted UMMSotW award for this week. Well, that’s off my shoulders now. Let’s head to the next one.
Retro Bowl, Free Note that this update applies to both the standard version of the game linked here and its Apple Arcade + counterpart. With that said, on to the update. There’s a new Interrupt SIM feature that lets you take over during a SIM game or turn on SIM mode during an ongoing game. The default team strengths have been updated for new careers and exhibition mode, and the bug involving benched players somehow getting injured has been fixed. Okay, it’s mostly leaning on that first bit, but not a bad update all around.
Prune, $4.99 In the nine years since this game launched, it has never gotten any significant content updates. Heck, its last regular update was six years ago. So it’s quite a surprise to see this game (and its Apple Arcade + counterpart) get updated here in 2024 with twelve brand new levels to play. You’ll have to complete the main game first, but I’m sure many of us did that a long time ago. Wow, how about that? New Prune levels! Go! Enjoy!
Marvel Contest of Champions, Free A couple of new Champions is always cause for some celebration, and they’re pretty cool ones this time. Dust and Ironheart are the new fighters, and they both offer their own unique styles and moves. There are a bunch of new events, as you would expect, and they tie in to these new Champions. One of them even sneaks in a Valentine’s Day tie-in. But no Spider-Mans! So no coveted award for you either, Contest of Champions!
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!
