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 getting well into the month now, which means we’ll be seeing more holiday-themed updates this time. Only a couple of weeks away now! I hope everyone has finished their shopping. Or at least started. At any rate, I have a list of interesting updates for you to digest along with your morning pizza or what-have-you. 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!
Teeny Tiny Town, Free
We’ve got a couple of games that were in last week’s article making another appearance this week, which suggests to me that the developers need to take a nice vacation over the holidays. Don’t work too hard! Anyway, this update allows you to bring back the original view and rendering style if you prefer. The rotation button is also back. Another update rolled in earlier today, but as near as I can tell it is just a general bug fix and improvements affair. Well, that’s fine. It’s always good to see a developer with its ear open to the community.
Junkworld TD,
This week has a couple items of good news for tower defense game fans. First up, the Apple Arcade Junkworld TD has received its Underground update. That translates to some new trap-filled stages, some new missions to clear, a couple of highly familiar new enemy types, and a new hero. A rat hero. Could it work? Some experts say it is so, but this reporter believes the public will never accept a heroic rodent! Not unless he’s wearing white gloves or is some kind of awesome ninja rat, at least.
Marvel Contest of Champions, Free
The season is shifting for a few Marvel apps, and I want to look at Contest of Champions first. The Event Quest this time is called Party Foul, and it sees Kitty Pryde and Bobby Drake inviting the Summoner over for a nice private holiday celebration. Unfortunately, someone spilled the beans and now all heck is breaking loose. Who decided to ruin the party? Play and find out. Aside from that, there’s a Side Quest involving Red Guardian. He’s tired of being confused for Santa, and he decides to gather up some buddies to try to put a stop to Christmas. Even the roast beast? Those are just the two headliners in this update, so be sure to check the game itself for more.
MARVEL Strike Force: Squad RPG, Free
Okay, stop the presses. This is our coveted UMMSotW award winner for this week. The actual update itself only added small things on top of the big one from a couple of weeks back, but right now there’s an event going on where you can get the J Jonah Jameson version of the Spider Slayer, complete with the screen on top showing Jonah’s face! Amazing. It takes a lot of moral courage to show that ridiculous character in this day and age, even updated and modernized, and I for one can’t help but applaud. More JJJ, less Wolverine. Trust me, the money will flow.
Disney Heroes: Battle Mode, Free
There’s no real way to frame this latest update to Disney Heroes as a holiday-themed affair, but let’s see what I can come up with. Imagine if you loved cats, but you especially liked them very large and stripey. What kind of present might you ask for? A tiger, of course! And when you think Disney tigers, you think… Tigger. Hm. But if you were to think of two Disney tigers, you would think Tigger and… Rajah. Right. But suppose you were thinking three? That third one just might be Shere Khan from The Jungle Book, and that’s exactly who has joined the Disney Heroes roster this time. Wow, what a present!
Merge Mansion, Free
Here’s the obligatory free-to-play matching puzzle game update for this week, and it’s Merge Mansion. We have to keep an eye on Grandma, after all. This is a Christmas-themed update, with a new event called Deck the Halls, Clear the Webs. I mean, half of that sounds like normal holiday fun. There’s also some business called The Fa-la-la-la Follies, and plenty of season-appropriate adornments abound. This latest version also sets up a new area that will appear in early January, the Gallery. That all sounds exciting enough for our purposes. Well, let’s move on.
Honkai Impact 3rd, Free
Another update for Honkai Impact 3rd, and it more or less follows the usual pattern for such things. There’s a new SD-type battlesuit called Cosmic Expression that uses a brush as a laser saber to put the hurt on enemies. A new Earthbound Order story chapter is incoming, a new event called Starry Voyage: Strike Back! is happening, and some new outfits and equipment have been added. A fairly robust bunch of additions, I’d say.
Mini Motorways,
Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within Mini Motorways? May I see it? Oh, I can? Nice. We get a brand new map in this version, Reykjavík, and your chances of seeing those Northern Lights in the game are pretty high even if you can’t spot them in your own kitchen. There are also some new achievements and challenges to go with that new map, plus the usual works of bug fixes and performance improvements. Yes, it’s a tired meme. I still like it. I’m old.
Bloons TD 6, $6.99
Do note that this update applies to all versions of Bloons TD 6, so feel free to fire up your Bloons TD 6 of choice and enjoy. The Colossal Holiday update adds a new hero named Corvus the Spirit Walker, some new map editor props, a new Expert map called Glacial Trail, a new Boss Challenge feature, and some new quests, achievements, and other goodies. That should keep players busy through the holidays, or at least for a couple of solid days of hiding from annoying family members.
Outlanders,
We’ll finish things up this week by peaking in at another Apple Arcade game, Outlanders. The updates don’t come too often for this one, but when they do they’re usually quite substantial. This time we’ve got a new volume of Outlanders Chronicles, giving you a whopping six new levels to play that follow the lives of four new characters. Naturally, you can play around with these levels in the Sandbox Mode if you feel like that. Is home really where the heart is? Play this new content and see what it has to say on the matter.
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!
