Best iPhone Game Updates: ‘Hot Lava’, ‘Mini Metro’, ‘Disney Magic Kingdoms’, ‘Spire Blast’, and More

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. Uh oh, I finished this and realized I forgot to include the obligatory free-to-play matching puzzle game update. Hm, just imagine I wrote about Toon Blast‘s fifty new levels or something. 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!

Jetpack Joyride, Free Ah, let’s start things off on a less-than-thrilling note. A rerun of a previous event in Jetpack Joyride should fit the bill for that purpose. Hey, it’s the Star Trek event again! Another chance to get all those Trek-related goodies like the Starfleet Mech, the Starship jetpack, a whole bunch of guest characters, and much more. It’s a limited event, but it’s very likely to come back around again in the future. Still, get what you want to while you can, I suppose.

Disney Magic Kingdoms, Free Just in time for the general release of Cruella on Disney Plus, Disney Magic Kingdoms gets a 101 Dalmatians-themed update. There are lots of characters from the famous film series, including Pongo, Perdita, Patch, Penny, Lucky, Rolly, and of course Cruella De Vil. There are some new attractions based on the movie, and some new Dalmatian-themed concessions to add to your park. I’m sure the other 95 Dalmatians will be added to the game in future updates.

MARVEL Realm of Champions, Free Hey, it’s Skaar. He’s back, in Rargh Form. Put together your team and head into battle against the Baron of the Gamma Horde. Just to keep it fair, it’s three on one. Each week, a new Featured Champion is available to take against Skaar. Beyond that there are a number of improvements to various aspects of the game, including the Alliance and Partying features. Toss in some bug fixes and other improvements and that’s the lot.

Beach Buggy Racing 2, Free The popular racer Beach Buggy Racing 2 got a rather hefty update in the last week. It includes a new track called Drytopia, set in a wasteland of sorts. To go with it, there are two new wasteland-themed cars to get your hands on and drive. The level cap has been raised to level 20, a Time Trial has been added to the Daily Challenges, and some tweaks have been made to make the game smoother to get into. The monetization on this one kind of bugs me at times, but the game itself is neat. If you also think it is neat, and think wastelands are neat, do check out this new version.

Cookie Run: OvenBreak, Free Cookies are always running. They know we will devour them; it is this they fear the most. Though it is their purpose to be consumed, they rage and kick against their grim destiny, yearning solely for the freedom that so many of us take for granted. Uh, right. This update. Wow, the Hydrangea Cookie and Floral Froglet Pet have been released! Cute and colorful! Episode 6 of the main story has been added, some new Hard Mode Cookie Trials have been put in, and some new costumes and treasures are here and ready to be unlocked. A new costume for Matcha Cookie? Right on. That makes me want to eat it even more. Oh no!

Patterned, With games like this, it’s all about getting those new puzzles in there for people to play with. This update adds some new patterns based on Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific. Some improvements have been made to the Daily Streak feature to remove the requirement to play on consecutive days. You can add to your streak by simply playing a puzzle on a day, and some new achievements have been added probably to account for the likely longer streaks some players will be running now. Some bug fixes and other improvements serve as the finishing touches.

Spire Blast, The dragon in the icon looks like it’s yakking up a bunch of gummi candies. Well, I suppose this could count as the obligatory free-to-play matching puzzle update of the week, but this isn’t really free-to-play is it? Oh well. This new version adds in the Weekly Blast, a new mode that pits you against the scores of other players in a weekly event. The sets of levels change every week, so there’s always something a little different to check out. This new update also makes some big changes to the UI and fixes some bugs.

Hot Lava, Hot Lava: it’s a game, and it’s also the weather around here for the last week. Yeesh. This August update adds some good stuff like a Klei-curated Community Map called Journey that takes you through six different locations. Give it a go and see if you can score some new items. Every Klei-curated map now has a bunch of new challenges you can clear to get some rewards, and you can now recycle your doubles or other unwanted items to earn new ones. Other improvements include native support for Apple Silicon and the 2nd Generation Siri Remote, fixes to the Intro Level, memory optimizations to reduce how much space the game takes, and some adjustments to the alternate control schemes. If the weather is burning up, maybe your games should do? I don’t know. Hot Lava is pretty fun, though.

lumen., I don’t know if this is a trend or something, but there are a lot of updates dealing with Daily and/or Weekly Challenges this time. Lumen gets the Daily variety, with four new levels per day to try out. You’ll have to beat level twenty-five to unlock this new mode, so don’t panic if you don’t see it right off the hop. The main story gets a new chapter with thirty-five new levels to play, and the existing levels have gotten some adjustments for balance purposes.

Mini Metro, $3.99 Let’s roll this article into the terminal so we can call it a day, friends. Mini Metro has a hot new update, and given how much I like this game it’s an easy win for the coveted UMMSotW award this week. A new map based on the oldest metro system in continental Europe has been added: Budapest. Try your hand at recreating Budapest’s impressive metro system. Some other bits of this update include audio quality improvements, better night mode color options, and improved visuals for maps that have rivers and coastlines. Cool. I’ll take it, and I will like it.

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!