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. An odd bunch this week, but one update I am especially excited about. Well, there’s plenty here for all to enjoy, even if you don’t play the games in question. 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!
Subway Surfers Tag, Subway Surfers turns up in these articles on the regular, but it’s far rarer for us to see its Apple Arcade follow-up. Well, it just doesn’t update that often. This one seems to be more of a gameplay overhaul than a content drop, but maybe that is needed. There is a new mode called Tag Site which should add some spice to the game. There’s a new shooting mechanic, some new enemies, a reworked wave system, a better onboarding experience for new players, and various other improvements and tweaks. Might be worth giving it a shot if you bounced off it before just to see if it goes over better for you now.
Jetpack Joyride 2, Speaking of Apple Arcade follow-ups to long-running App Store hits, here’s Jetpack Joyride 2. This update brings a new Beach Getaway event where Barry can catch some rays and enjoy the waves. There are also some new missions to add some variety to the minute-to-minute gameplay, and some balance adjustments, bug fixes, and performance improvements to round things out. Not as immediately thrilling as some of the updates for the main game, but any new content is welcome as far as this series goes.
Squiggle Drop, This is a cute Apple Arcade puzzle game that is worth giving a try if you haven’t already. It gives you a fair bit of space to come up with your own puzzle solutions, and that’s almost always a good time in my books. This latest version of the game adds twenty new levels to play, bringing the total over one hundred. So yes, get squiggling. What does ‘squiggle’ mean? “A short line that curls and loops in an irregular way"? Okay, that makes sense. I just thought it was a character from Laverne & Shirley. Learning is fun, so is this game.
Kimono Cats, One of the things about living in Japan is that you can probably say you have seen a real cat in a kimono. They don’t care much for it, but some people really like to dress up their pets. Anyway, the cats in this game don’t seem to mind. And you probably won’t mind this update, which adds a new level, a new NPC stall, a new ramen cart riding minigame, some new items, and a whole lot more. If you want to see all of the new stuff, you’ll have to go check on your own by downloading this game right… meow. NO APOLOGIES. NO APOLOGIES EVER.
Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!, Okay, I’m starting to get the rhythm of how the updates for this game are going to go. New horsies, mainly. But we all like horsies, so it’s all good. And indeed, that’s exactly what we have here. A new horsie. I am dragging it out because the name of a new horsie isn’t going to fill a paragraph, and that will break my formatting. We’re looking good now, so I can reveal that the horsie’s name is Blazing Kid. It will be available to you in the Loaners tab after you enter the Royal Derby, just like all the others. There are also a few bug fixes in here, so it isn’t just a horsie. But mainly a horsie. Horsie.
Toon Blast, Free Time for the obligatory free-to-play matching puzzle game update of the week, and I’ve done the lazy thing and fallen back on Toon Blast. I was checking it and the update hit pretty much at the exact time I was looking, which means this is piping hot news. Spicy, piping hot. I hope everyone is excited. I know I am. You get fifty new levels that supposedly involve a Drive-In Theater, which… do the people playing this even know what that is? Have they ever seen one in their lives? Like, I’m old enough that if I died in my sleep tonight people would just go “hunh, well that happens" and I barely remember drive-in theaters. Well, I suppose it’s not the wildest thing this game has done.
Honkai: Star Rail, Free Is it time for the first big post-launch update for Honkai Star Rail? Looks like it! I do wonder if this game is hitting the same way Genshin Impact did. It’s hard to tell at this point, but it’s at least not flopping like a Magikarp that is being tremendously underestimated by an absolute fool. Right, the update. Three new characters: Silver Wolf, Luocha, and Yukong. Three new Light Cones. A new map, taking you to the History and Culture Museum. And naturally some new stories and events to take you to and through all of that stuff I just mentioned. Not bad at all.
Bloons TD 6, $6.99 Oh, this is a neat one. Bloons TD 6 is celebrating an anniversary of some sort. This is, therefore, its anniversary update. That makes it a special one, and it sure seems that way. We’ve got a Wizard Monkey Paragon called Magus Perfectus, a new Sauda skin to make them look like a Jiangshi, a bunch of new Quests including a Birthday one that will offer up a special anniversary banner, and a new Advanced map to challenge. There are other things here, but those are the main points. There was a follow-up update a couple of days ago that fixed a bunch of bugs this one introduced, so jump in without fear. Probably.
Marvel Contest of Champions, Free I’m going to say this much for Contest of Champions: its longevity and update frequency means it is going into the weeds in a way no other Marvel fighter ever has or likely ever will. For example, it’s sure looking like Lady Deathstrike and Dani Moonstar are joining the roster. Imagine jumping back into the past and telling someone Dani Moonstar is going to be in a Marvel fighting game one day. I’m happy to see her here. As you might expect, the big new event here is New Mutants flavored, but there are also some Spidey shenanigans going on in another event called Attack of the Spider-Bots. Cool. As always, pop into the game if you want more granular notes because there are a lot of little tweaks here that I can’t go over in a single paragraph.
MARVEL SNAP, Free Spider-Versus! It’s a Spider-Man event! It’s a Spider-Verse event! People, you know what that means. This game is getting the coveted UMMSotW award for this week, and it is the most utterly deserving game to receive that honor in quite some time. Ghost Spider! Spider-Man 2099! Spider-Ham! Silk! They’re all here! I’ve got all hands on deck coming up with builds using these new cards, so wish me luck or come and kill me. Also, some new Conquest mode coming up soon. But Spiders! So many Spiders!
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!
