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. We’re rolling into a season with plenty of holidays and events that are popular with mobile game updates. Lunar New Year, Valentine’s, the Super Bowl, and general spring seasonal events are in the air. Not all of today’s featured games are connected with those events, but a lot of them are. 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!
Subway Surfers, Free Subway Surfers subverts expectations yet again. You might traditionally think of journeys as going in a westward direction. But not this time, friends. This time it’s a Journey to the East! There are no Monkeys to be found here, but you can celebrate the Lunar New Year with new characters Rat and Ox. They look pretty cool, actually. Travel decorated streets and gorgeous temples on some new mythical boards, and win special rewards by collecting tokens. There will also be some sales to go along with the event for those who want to splash out some green.
Mortal Kombat, Free Mortal Kombat gets a lot more Noob-friendly with its latest update… Noob Saibot, that is! Sorry. Sorry, I’m trying to delete it. Anyway, this update adds Gold Klassic Noob Saibot to the game as a playable fighter. His moves are based on his incarnation from Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy, which means you get to enjoy a bit of the ol’ Tele-Slam. Aside from the new character, this update also delivers a bevy of beneficial bug fixes. Kool, kool.
Sonic Forces PvP Racing Battle, Free In the grand battle between Lunar New Year and The Big Game, Sonic Forces has opted for the latter with its latest event. Up for grabs is none other than Sonic Lost World villain Zavok in his new Quarterback Zavok form. His abilities include Savage Throw, which lobs a football at high speeds, Brutal Blitz, a dash move that sends opponents spinning, and Lava Bomb, which isn’t football-themed but does drop a mine in front of any runners ahead of you. Neat. Earn cards to unlock Quarterback Zavok by completing missions, and participate in the latest battle event to get some extra rewards on top.
Disney Magic Kingdoms, Free I workshopped a statement about IP and free-to-play games in a manner analogous to the main moral of Ratatouille, but it didn’t work out. I don’t have time to come up with another one, so we’re just going to go ahead and lay the news on you. Remy, Alfredo Linguini, and Colette from Disney and Pixar’s Ratatouille have joined the Magic Kingdoms in a new permanent addition to the story. Imagine doing a Ratatouille thing and not including the best characters, Skinner and Emile. Oh well. Maybe next time.
Hearthstone, Free Hearthstone‘s very first Mini-Set is now available. It’s called Darkmoon Races, and it includes 35 completely new cards that revisit a variety of things from the Year of the Phoenix. Duels is also getting a mid-season update, and not a small one either. 10 new Hero Powers, 31 new Treasures, and the addition of the new Mini-Set to the eligible cards list. I’m going to go ahead and give Hearthstone the UMMSotW award for this week to commemorate this newly-added stuff.
The Simsâ„¢ FreePlay, Free The Sims Freeplay, perhaps understandably given the nature of the game, is angling towards the Valentine’s Day holiday for its latest event. Your Sims can fall in love and enjoy a wonderful outdoor wedding this Valentine’s Day. There are new wedding hairstyles, bridal dresses, and outfits for flower girls and ring bearers. There’s also some rustic decorations, wedding-related goodies, and plenty of flowery items to get your hands on. With two separate wedding events to tackle, you’ll be so busy that you’ll forget you’re playing a heckin’ Sims game on Valentine’s.
Homescapes, Free Homescapes is also choosing to zig this particular zag, which isn’t unexpected from this game. The ‘Scapes games love their love events, after all. This time around it’s Katherine enjoying a bit of the old romance, having the Valentine’s Day of her dreams with a Paris-themed garden party. Aside from that, there’s also an event involving renovating a studio and solving a clock mystery. Renovate half of the studio and it’s yours forever. The new puzzle element is the suitcase, which contain hats you can get by opening them with power-ups.
AFK Arena, Free A nice selection of new stuff in the latest version of AFK Arena, enough to keep people playing at any rate. There’s the new Heroes of Esperia event, which is available after clearing stages 11-40, the new adventure Dreamscape, part of the Voyage of Wonders feature, and another new adventure named The Frosted Expanse for the Trials of God feature. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, however. I recommend checking the game itself if you’re curious in order to find out about all the new stuff in the latest update. It’s quite a bit.
The King of Fighters ALLSTAR, Free I feel like the lack of a space or hyphen in ‘Allstar‘ is a stylistic choice, as if it were a mistake they’d surely have corrected it by now. I can’t say I care for it much. Is it ‘alls tar’? ‘Allst ar’? I mean, obviously I know what it’s supposed to be, but still. Uh oh, says the regular reader. Shaun’s padding again. This must be a light update. Busted, I am. Here’s what’s new: XI Elisabeth has been added into the game, a new event Guild Raid dungeon has been added, Valentine’s Day Kula has been put in the Fighter Roulette, and some new difficulty levels have been added to a couple of dungeons. A couple of bug fixes and you’re three quarters of the way home.
Rise of Kingdoms, Free It’s been a minute since we’ve looked in on Rise of Kingdoms, so let’s check out its latest version. There are a bunch of new events connected to the season, including the Year of the Ox celebration, the Lanterns of Togetherness Spring Festival, Arms Training, and more. Have a look at the in-game Event Calendar to get all of the details on those. The Ark of Osiris and Lost Kingdom features have gotten some improvements, hopefully making both of them more enjoyable to play with. I’ve heavily summarized here but it’s actually a very substantial 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!
