Best iPhone Game Updates: ‘Zen Pinball Party’, ‘Pocket Build’, ‘Subway Surfers’, ‘AFK Arena’, and More

Time Stamp: May 23, 2022 11:10 AM

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. It’s another good mix today of Apple Arcade games, free-to-play stuff, and a paid game or two. Certainly enough to get your week started, if you’re inclined to start your week this way. I suppose there’s a certain routine to it, akin to reading the Family Circus in the morning before work. You know you aren’t going to laugh and it sure isn’t very interesting, but you just don’t feel right heading out without doing it. Oh dear, I’m rambling again. Anyway, updates. They are here. 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!

Zen Pinball Party, Zen Pinball Party got another update, and as you might expect it’s largely all about adding another table to the mix. It’s another Williams table, and it’s a pretty good one. Black Rose has a pirate theme to it, with its major distinguishing feature being the cannon ramp running down the middle. A solid if not necessarily spectacular layout that uses its theme very well, and one that should fit nicely in the overall line-up of this Apple Arcade collection. It always feels good to sink the ship. Give it a try yourself!

The Simsâ„¢ Mobile, Free Let’s check in on The Sims Mobile again and see what’s going on with it. Some kind of event, by the looks of it. The Festival Season Briny Night is what they are calling it. If you’re a pass holder you can visit Catarina Lynx’s home, and I imagine regular players will know why that is a desirable thing. The Go Glamorous Sweet Treat Showdown lets you enjoy some fancy desserts and designs, and the Camp Sunshine Treasure Hunt will give you some bright rewards. Not bad, not bad.

Pocket Build, $0.99 This update applies to both the regular paid version of Pocket Build and the Apple Arcade Pocket Build+ version. It’s all about cats. Well, cats and bug fixes. Sometimes a cat can fix a bug issue, by the way. Anyway, this latest version has cats, including tigers and lions, which are the bitiest cats around. It also does that bug fixing that I mentioned, along with the also ever-present performance improvements and UI tweaks. So yeah, if your masterpiece was only missing a tiger… congratulations, you hit the Lucky Bingo.

Jetpack Joyride, Free Yeah, Jetpack Joyride is cycling events again. We just had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles event, and now the Ghostbusters event is back. It’s a fun one, so I suppose it’s not all bad. This time there is some Afterlife content, including a Grooberson costume, a Muncher Jetpack, an Afterlife Ecto-1 vehicle, and two new backgrounds. Beyond that it’s the usual mix of goodies, like the Dr. Barry Buster costume, the Proton Pack, and so on. But hey, don’t we all want to be Grooberson?

Gear.Club Stradale, Gear.Club Stradale gets its first update following its Apple Arcade launch, and it sets the tone for what we can likely expect from the future. There’s a new feature called the Super Carta Stradale and some new cars to try to get your hands on. Apart from that, we’ve got some UI additions and improvements, with a new module to keep you up to date on the latest news and some adjustments to dealer rotations. Perhaps most importantly, even if it is somewhat invisible, is a huge number of bug fixes. Such things are often necessary after games launch and we in the general public get a chance to break them all sorts of unforeseen ways.

Temple Run: Puzzle Adventure, I would call this the obligatory free-to-play matching puzzle game update for the week, but we have another one down the list a bit that is fully free. Well, nothing in the rules says I can’t have two-ish. In fact all it says here is that a dog can’t play basketball. Wonder why that’s there? Anyway, sixty new puzzles to solve. Isn’t that nice? You also get some new tournaments, and a new feature called Mirror Stories that will give you an entertaining little adventure every month.

Subway Surfers, Free It’s official: Subway Surfers is ten danged years old. Yes, the span of time between its initial release and today is now equal to the span of time between its release date and that of Britney’s Dance Beat for PlayStation 2. Time sure flows strangely. Anyway, to celebrate this event the kids have traveled the Copenhagen of the Future. Yes, they are time travelers now, deal with it. Surf along with Super Runner Jake in the new Super Runner Staged Challenge, rock the new Super Surfer Board, and enjoy some events, gifts, offers, and more. As a special birthday present, and for reminding me of Britney’s Dance Beat, I think I shall give this game the coveted UMMSotW award for this week.

Assassin’s Creed Rebellion, Free In researching for this entry, I discovered that Assassin’s Creed Unity has apparently gotten something of a reappraisal after all of its bizarre bugs were fixed. Nice to see a happy ending I guess, but it totally ruins the joke I was going to make here. This update adds Arno Dorian, the protagonist of Unity, to the game. I was going to do a whole thing about how no one asked for him, but I cannot say that in good or even bad faith anymore. In conclusion: fans of Unity, come and get your guy.

Toy Blast, Free Okay, now here is the obligatory free-to-play matching puzzle update for the week. It’s Toy Blast, because including a Blast game is practically a meme at this point. A meme in my own mind. A meme of convenience. I’m stalling with this meme business, I hope you understand. There’s not much to say here other than that there are fifty new levels to play, with some sort of loose Barcelona setting tying them together. Alrighty, that seems like enough text. Let’s move along.

AFK Arena, Free I guess I’ll wrap things up this time by taking a look at the latest from the ever-reliable AFK Arena. It is, after all, the best RPG for Busy Me. And I am a very busy version of me at the moment, no doubt. There’s a new Hypogean Hero in the form of Vyloris – The Deceitful Demoness, and she gets the usual Bountiful Trials and test play that all new characters get. A new event has been added called Treasure Scramble where you’ll take on the role of a treasure hunter in unknown lands. Other additions include a new campaign chapter, a new Save Image option, and a couple of other events.

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!

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