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. Today’s offerings include some classic favorites, some Apple Arcade hits, and some popular free-to-play titles. Hopefully everyone can find at least one game of interest in the list, but if you can’t, you can always comment with your own. 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!
Phoenix 2, Free Firi Games’ excellent shoot-em-up Phoenix 2 got a nice update in the last week that adjusts how Phoenix Revives work. The new Phoenix Revives unlock at level 10 and up, but if you had any before you’ll still have them. Anyway, you can now choose how many you want to bring with you when you head out. They will trigger automatically in the event your ship is destroyed. Beyond that, this update makes some graphical tweaks and bug fixes. Did you know that the original Phoenix is now ten years old and still kicking? Pretty cool.
Spire Blast, Here’s another content drop for Spire Blast, adding a new world called Brickbeard’s Bay that has a whopping sixty new levels to play. There’s also a new game mechanic to learn, and some new Skylands levels. Some of the existing levels have had balance adjustments made, and there are some bug fixes and other tweaks to top it all off.
LEGO® Brawls, The latest event in LEGO Brawls heads into the pages of classic fiction with the Journey to the West themed Monkie Kid set. Monkie Kid, Mei, Pigsy, and the Monkey King are available as new brawlers, and there’s a whole new level to play on set at Flower Fruit Mountain. You need to collect more peaches than everyone else to win, and you don’t need to do it alone as you can summon some allies to back you up. This update also adds six new power-ups. Wow, that’s a whole lot of Monkey action!
SP!NG, One Apple Arcade game that I find myself going back to often is SMG Studio’s SP!NG, so I’m always happy to see it pop up in the Recently Updated list. This update adds eighteen new one-chance levels to test your puzzling skills, and a brand new PAP!ER OCEAN theme with eight new creatures and some soothing sea sounds to please your ears. With all of that comes some new achievements, bug fixes, and various other little improvements. Those new levels are pretty tough, so I imagine I’ll be working on them for a bit.
Marvel Contest of Champions, Free The Eternals movie exists, and there isn’t a whole lot we can do about that. Pretty much all of the Marvel apps are running events based on the film, and there’s a good chance they’ll be more fun than sitting through the movie itself. Contest of Champions has a big event going on, and Ikaris and Sersi seem to be at the center of it. In more amusing news, Deadpoolooza makes its return, giving you another chance to experience that goofy event. There are some new UI features, adjustments to a couple of Champions, and more in the update, so hop on in if you are curious.
MARVEL Future Revolution, Free There are more Marvel apps with Eternals updates, but I’m keeping it to a trim two for this article. And why not make one of them the recent hit Marvel Future Revolution? Anyway, Eternals. There’s a special event in here where you battle alongside the Eternals to defeat the Deviants. There’s a new Event Dungeon, a new Growth System, a new Elite Ranking System, an Alliance Ranking System, a new Transmutation system, and various improvements to the UI and overall gameplay. Look on the bright side: we’re only about a month away from the Spider-Man events.
Subway Surfers, Free The Subway Surfers travel to my home country this time around, dropping into Vancouver to get up to their usual antics. New Surfer Mala is ready to paint trains and plant trees to help bring out Canada’s beautiful nature even further, and she can do it on the nifty Maple Leaf board if you’re able to add it to your collection. There’s an autumn-themed new outfit for Alicia, too. Tying it all together is a Play 2 Plant event where you plant trees in the curiously-named Subway Forest. I’m going to give the coveted UMMSotW to Subway Surfers out of sheer favoritism, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Nyeah!
Gardenscapes, Free The obligatory free-to-play matching puzzle update this week is Gardenscapes. Yes, I forgot to do one last week. Given that it is obligatory, that is pretty bad. Hopefully Jared won’t fire me. But he might! That’s the fun of working here. At any rate, it’s a usual update for this game. Some new story events, a Maine coon pet for Golden Ticket holders, and a few other bits and bobs. Austin is keeping pretty busy this month, by the looks of it. Deep sea diving, helping writers cope with writer’s block, and even raising a pirate ship from the water. What? Just another day in the Austinverse.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Free Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp has been around for four whole years now. Hard to believe. With its soft start, I honestly didn’t think it would leg out this long. But it eventually found its groove and many people seem to enjoy playing it even to this day. This update sows the seeds for several events, including ones related to the game’s anniversary celebrations.
Fire Emblem Heroes, Free Speaking of long-running Nintendo mobile apps, Fire Emblem Heroes keeps on delivering its much-loved brand of casual battling. This update adds in new skills for the Legendary Heroes Marth and Tiki, and gosh, it doesn’t get more legendary for this series than those two, does it? Exalted Falchion and Divine Mist can now be upgraded in the Weapon Refinery, and there are new character-specific weapon skills for Linus and Kaze. I suppose that’s as good a way as any to brings to a close for this week’s column.
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!
