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. Plenty of big names this time around, but a couple of games less known for swimming in piles of money have some nice updates as well. I’ve grabbed an assortment of them for you to take a look at while enjoying your favorite brand of chocolate-covered potato chips. 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!
MARVEL Future Fight, Free Lagging just a little behind the other Marvel apps with its Spider-Man: Far From Home update, Marvel Future Fight nevertheless brings the thunder. Three new characters have been added to the game: Hydro-Man, Molten Man, and Electro. Oh, uh, don’t worry if you haven’t seen the movie yet. Like most of the other Far From Home updates in other apps, the game is just using this as an excuse to add a bunch of Spidey stuff regardless of whether or not it’s related to the movie. Like the new bunch of costumes, which sees new movie-related uniforms for Spider-Man and Mysterio, but also has a Spider-Man 2099 costume that has zero to do with the film. A new Legendary Battle has been added based on the movie, and a new Tier-3 Doctor Strange has also been implemented. Pretty sweet update, and I suppose I will give it the coveted UMMSotW for its efforts.
Fire Emblem Heroes, Free As you would expect, there are tons of things going on in Fire Emblem Heroes that are connected to the upcoming release of Fire Emblem: Three Houses on the Switch. But the latest update itself is just doing it’s own thing, more or less. Aether Raids have been updated to add some defense rewards to earn, giving you more of a reason to care about that end of things. Four characters have also been granted new character-specific weapon skills. Luke, Roderick, Matthew, and Raigh all have some wicked new skills to try out. Finally, the Aether Resort has been upgraded, allowing you to invite up to nine heroes and place up to 22 structures.
Bloons TD 6, $3.99 This is a pretty big update for the hit tower defense game. It adds a four-player co-op mode, if you can believe it. There’s also an anniversary beginner map called Park Path, a new advanced map called Cargo, a new hero skin named Benjammin’, and a whole lot of balance adjustments, bug fixes, performance improvements, and all that hoo-haw. It’s really impressive how the developers keep on adding to this game. It’s even more impressive when you realize they also keep updating Bloons TD 5 along with it. Yes, that game got an update as well, but there’s only so much I can fit in one feature.
Respawnables - Special Forces, Free Wow, remember not that long ago when it was the 20th anniversary of Ghostbusters? And then it was the 25th anniversary a couple of days after that, and a mere week or two after that, the 30th anniversary? How does time even work, am I right? Well, it’s apparently the 35th anniversary of the one good Ghostbusters movie that got made, and Respawnables has a big event going on to celebrate it. Become a Ghostbuster, chase down the ghosts, fire your Proton Guns and use your traps to suck in Slimer and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, and collect lots of ectoplasm for Egon to poke at. Who are you going to use your telephone to communicate with in an effort to resolve your outstanding issues?
Clash Royale, Free This update gives you the opportunity to spend more money on the game. Okay, yes, I know. Honestly, if you play this game a ton, the Pass Royale might be a reasonable purchase. You get a unique tower skin, a special emote, nice perks like automatic chest opening and unlimited special challenge entries, and extra rewards. Each season brings new goodies for Pass Royale holders, so it’s basically a similar deal to the whole Fortnite set-up. Do what you must. Oh, and there’s a new card. The Fisherman is a Legendary troop who can grapple enemies with his fishing rod, and I think that’s actually kind of awesome? Well, there you go.
Merge Dragons!, Free Yes, it’s Merge Dragons! again. What can I say? It’s still pretty popular. And the latest event will probably keep that train rolling along the tracks. In the Dessert Nights event, you can meet some new dragons in the form of the Seth and Anubis Dragons. They sound like nice folks. The location of this event is a desert filled with desserts, which is like, finally. Finally some awesome deity made that happen. You also get ten new levels in this update that take place in the Nocturne Oasis, and some moderately improved deals from Kala. Solid one all-around for the Merge Dragons! fans, no doubt.
Hearthstone, Free Hearthstone isn’t the juggernaut that it once was, but it’s still got a pretty strong following. The latest expansion is rolling out fairly soon, on August 6th if we’re going to be really precise about it, and this update is more or less just getting things ready for that. You can now pre-purchase Saviors of Uldum in a couple of different bundles to get some lovely rewards. Yes, they’re pretty expensive, but you’re probably used to that by now if you’ve been playing this for a while. This new version also adds 10 new cards to the Basic and Classic sets. There are a lot of other little things, but I’ll leave the details for you to discover on your own.
Toon Blast, Free They’re watching the game, is what they’re doing this time around. That’s the narrative explanation from the update notes about this new batch of 50 levels. The animals are all huddled around their TV with bowls of buttery popcorn watching Toonville United play. Mmm. I have so many questions about how the animal kingdom manages its soccer leagues. Are the bears allowed to play with, like, the ducks? Obviously not, I’d think, but where do you draw the line? Polar bears can play with grizzlies, I guess, but can they play with those little black bears we used to chase out of our garbage shed every morning? Ah, I’m overthinking something stupid again. On to the next entry!
Gardenscapes, Free Yes, it’s time yet again to check in on Austin and company. This update brings the first event in the mansion to the game. Head to the attic for a bit of renovation work. Collect tickets and fix up the room before the event is finished and you’ll be able to visit anytime you like. This is a team event, so find some good partners and get out there to win some coins. This new version also continues the story by allowing you to complete the Theater area. There’s a gardening contest where you have to put together a winter garden in the summer, and a new character in the form of the off-beat TV host, Clarissa. She’s probably not going to explain it all, sorry. The puzzles themselves have a couple of new elements, but I’ll let you figure those out.
Mini Metro, $3.99 Ooh, a new city in Mini Metro? Yes, please. Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province in China, is one of the busiest metros in the world. You can now take a crack at it in this very game. This update also makes the difficulty curve in Saint Petersburg a little smoother, fixes a crash in Creative mode, and corrects a few other bugs and unintended quirks. This is a great game and I’m always so happy to see anything new added to it. Wonderful stuff.
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!
