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. It’s a nice mix of popular free-to-play games and some cool paid titles this time around, so hopefully everyone can find at least one game in the mix that they enjoy. I even skipped on including a boring puzzle game update this week! How monumental! Of course, you can keep an eye out for updates yourself using AppShopper or 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!
Photographs - Puzzle Stories, $3.99 I’m on a bit of a break from doing iOS game reviews. But if I was currently doing them, and if Photographs was one of them, I’d probably say that it’s a really interesting puzzle game with a lot of interesting stories to tell, not all of which exactly pan out. I really recommend it, though. And I recommend it even more now that it has been updated with developer’s commentary from Luca Redwood, the game’s creator. This kind of thing is still relatively uncommon in video games, and I find it utterly fascinating. Make sure to check it out.
SEGA Heroes: RPG Match 3 Games, Free There isn’t a whole ton to the latest update to SEGA Heroes, but it did add in the fourth and final Valkyria Chronicles character. Largo Potter wasn’t my first or even my third pick to fill that slot, but it does make sense in that the trio released before didn’t have a heavy-hitting tank among them. Anyway, if you didn’t already get him, you’ve largely missed your window for now. He’s still available in the gem chests, but good luck with those in general, right? The question is now which game will see representation next. In the meantime, you can join the event kicking off today that allows you to score Agent G from House of the Dead.
Pocket Build, $0.99 Hey look, it’s Pocket Build. Sometimes the updates to this are big, and sometimes they are not. This new version sees the addition of Ultimate Sandbox mode, which can be activated from the settings screen. I’m not totally sure what that means, but if I had to guess I’d think it was a mode that allows you to build as you like without restrictions. But I have not in any way, shape, or form verified that, so don’t come back here and yell at me if it just activates a Big Head mode or something, okay?
Lords Mobile: Kingdom Wars, Free I guess it’s the publisher’s 13th birthday or something, so that means some nice little bonuses for all the people playing Lords Mobile. There are login gifts, a new event called Fantasy Cirque, some extra sparkles in the rivers and oceans, and special Loyalty Rewards for consecutive subscriptions of the Turf Club and 7-Day Dash Bundle. This update also adds a new language, Latin American Spanish, and makes a number of adjustments to the UI. Happy birthday, IGG. I’ve never really heard of you but you make at least one game that makes a lot of money, and that’s certainly a measure of success in this business.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Free What an absurd name for a game. Oh well, the biggest game company in the world built its brand on a game called Donkey Kong, so I guess I shouldn’t be too critical. The latest update for this game-on-the-rise adds a new hero named Terizla, an improvement to Zhask, some adjusted hero skins in the fragment shop, and a new Gift Hero feature. Mirror Mode is open for a short time, and the MSC Tournament Pass event has been added as well. Add in some optimizations on the credit system, and that’ll about do it.
Merge Dragons!, Free Yes, it’s Merge Dragons! again. What can I say? It’s still pretty popular. And the latest event will probably keep that train rolling along the tracks. In the Merge 5 event, you can get some sweet rewards by merging objects in sets of five. Well, that even name is certainly descriptive, isn’t it? The next event lined up is the Purrfect Paws event, which I’m going to go out on a limb and say has something to do with cats. Finally, everyone now has access to the Royal Egg Bank. Fill all of the egg slots and you’ll get something nice. Maybe.
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Free I’ve seen some people talking about this update on the Twitters, and they are apparently aghast at one of the situations that the game asks you to pay your way out of. All I can say is, welcome to your first game from this developer. They really know how to squeeze the players until they get tired of it all and leave. At the very least, they used to have some really good writers on staff, but the best ones have all parted ways with the company. So enjoy your Dementor and Patronus and new Friend Hagrid while they last. Eventually this too will perish as its forebearers did. I miss Avengers Academy.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Free Why hello there, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. What’s that? Why don’t I return your calls anymore? Er, well, that is… look, it’s not you, it’s me. So yeah, I don’t play this one at all anymore. That’s just how it goes. But if you are still playing, this new version has some neat stuff in it for you. There are some new normal classes in the Happy Homeroom, and the Shovelstrike Quarry has gotten a few little renovations. You can now sell seasonal event items, so be careful about that, and the maximum number of clothing and furniture items you can carry has been increased. There were also a couple of tiny tweaks to the UI.
MARVEL Future Fight, Free Hey, look at that. More of Marvel’s merry mutants have arrived for the future fight! A few fan favorites make the scene in conjunction with the Uncanny X-Men comic. Iceman, Jubilee, and Bishop are all obtainable in the game now, nicely filling out the mutant roster of the game. In addition, there are some new uniforms for existing X-Men. Jean Grey, Storm, Psylocke, and Beast all get their duds from the X-Men: Disassembled comics. As for Jean, she gets a big boost as she can now rank up to Tier-3. Yeah, Tier-3 Phoenix. I bet she’s real fun. There are a few other bits and bobs in here, but I think that covers the important stuff.
Star Traders: Frontiers, $6.99 It’s a Trese Brothers update. Move it, folks. Make room, we’ve got a big update coming through here. We start with some improvements to Luxury Cabins and Suites. After that, some improved enemy AI. Eight new stories of legendary captains have been added to Storyteller Trait, and a ton of small adjustments have been made to make for a generally more fun and varied experience. It’s a great game that keeps on getting hammered and polished into even finer shape, and that’s always worth a coveted UMMSotW award around these parts.
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!
