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 still seeing the App Store slowly get the gears turning again after many developers took a holiday break, but there are some interesting updates to dig into even with that in consideration. 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!
Sky: Children of the Light, Free Let’s kick things off by checking out this latest update to Sky: Children of the Light. In the Season of the Nine-Colored Deer, you’ll find the story of a fantastic creature who is the sworn guardian of its realm and all who dwell in it. Meanwhile, the Days of Fortune event sees you gathering the light of a certain visitor. This update also sets up the Valentine’s Day event which will be arriving at the appropriate time next month.
Marvel Contest of Champions, Free Time for the first update of the year for the successful Marvel Contest of Champions. The Make It There event sees Hell’s Kitchen reappear in the Battlerealm courtesy of the new World Tree, signaling the return of Manhattan at large. Bullseye has been quick to lay claim to the city, however, and he’s got some mysterious forces backing him that enable him to twist the minds of anyone who visits the new Big Apple. The Summoner will have to team up with White Tiger to put a stop to this chicanery. That’s the thrust of it but there is also a new side quest to play, plus a few balance updates and bug fixes.
Disney Magic Kingdoms, Free We’ve got quite the potpourri for the latest update to Gameloft’s Disney Magic Kingdoms. While most updates focus on a single Disney IP, this one is a grab bag of content from three different ones: Aladdin, Frozen, and The Sword in the Stone. Hm. One of these things is not like the other, but let’s move on. From Aladdin, Prince Achmed arrives in the park. He’s the guy whose pants Rajah bit. The Sword in the Stone provides us with Sir Ector, Sir Kay’s father. Finally, from Frozen we have Marshmallow. Who is Marshmallow? Give me a second. Oh, he’s that snow monster Elsa made to guard her ice palace. Alright, fair. You can add all three of these folks to your park by playing the latest storyline.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure, Yes, this is the winner of the coveted UMMSotW award for this week. The Luck & Lanterns Celebration gets the Year of the Dragon into gear with a new event that sees you collecting dragon pearls that were scattered all over the islands by a passing dragon. You’ll get special rewards for scooping them up. You know they’re made from its sh… never mind, actually. Pompompurin’s family are visiting this time, with Mama and Papa along with friend Macaron heading to the islands. Other things you’ll find in this latest version: new story content, some improvements in how certain items work, new UI features, and a way remove empty treasure chests if that’s your druthers. Kitty Time!
Jetpack Joyride 2, The original Jetpack Joyride is just doing the Bling event for the millionth time, so let’s instead look in on its sequel to see what’s new. Well, there’s a new vehicle, and it’s a Hamster Ball, so that’s awesome. The Water Jetpack is now available, and you can equip a new Camouflage skin if you want Barry to be the most militant li’l hamster man you ever did see. There’s a new volume in the Sticker Album, and a variety of tweaks, bug fixes, and improvements have been made as usual. Hamster ball! Humanity had a choice between giant hamster balls and automobiles, and this writer believes we made the wrong one.
stitch., One theme you’ll notice cropping up in today’s list is the Lunar New Year, which indeed is almost upon us. That’s the main part of this new update to stitch, which adds some thematically-appropriate content to play for a limited time. There are new Hoops unrelated to that across various categories, and a small bit of UI tweaking was done by flipping the Zoom and Reset buttons. Yes, you don’t want to accidentally hit the wrong one in that pair.
TMNT Splintered Fate, If you enjoy the general gameplay and aesthetics of TMNT Splintered Fate but are finding the game a bit too difficult for your liking, this update is for you. It adds a new Story Mode that cranks down the difficulty and allows you to cruise your way through. It’s only available as a single-player mode, though. This new version also makes a couple of adjustments to the dragon upgrade balancing, making it a little easier early on. Finally, an unintended behavior that saw overlapping pools of acid dealing double damage has been corrected. You will now just take regular acid damage, not twice that. Just as it is with real acid pools, I assume.
June’s Journey: Hidden Objects, Free June is still journeying, as Junes are wont to. I have no evidence to back that up, actually. But if I were a June, I would certainly journey more often. Maybe buy a jetpack so I could be Journeyin’ Jetpack June. Right, the update. There’s a new set to collect, this one with Mexican decorations. Collect them all and you’ll unlock the Red-Roofed Hacienda. Who doesn’t want a hacienda? Actually, I’d imagine the upkeep is a lot of work. Well, it’s not like you get a real one anyway. Just one in the game, and that doesn’t require you to do any maintenance. You can also play a new album whose topic centers on ancient civilizations, so that’s nice. Wait, none of this involves journeying! June, you let me down! Bah, on to the next game.
Gardenscapes, Free Here’s our obligatory free-to-play matching puzzle game update for the week, with a little peek in on the world of Austin the Butler. So yes, this is another one doing a Lunar New Year/Year of the Dragon event, which in this case means a dance performance? Nifty. Also in this update: Austin ventures into a world of magic to search for Katherine, a villain seeks the power of the Heart of the Desert in Egypt, and an archaeological expedition to a mysterious island reveals the motivations of a certain director. Intriguing!
ANOTHER EDEN, Free Not the most monumental of ways to finish out an article, but it’s been a little while since we looked in on Another Eden, so let’s do that. Some new Astral Archives Books have been added, and Round 8 of character quests have been implemented in the Replay Story mode. In terms of new Encounters, we’ve got Epoch Maker Alma’s Another Style up, with some Fateful Encounters tossed in as usual. They are, as usual, paid affairs. Nothing too exciting here, but I guess you can consider this the denouement of the article or something.
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!
