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. You know it’s one of those weeks when Shaun has to throw more than one free-to-play matching puzzle game update in the list. Don’t worry, we have some cool stuff in the mix too. And you get to see Shaun kick King Robert, an activity we all enjoy. 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!

Peglin, Free

I know it’s somewhat rare for me to do this, but I’m giving out the coveted UMMSotW award to the first game in the list this week. Peglin‘s 1.0 update allows you to challenge up to level 20 in Cruciball, battle a new Slime Hive mini-boss, and take advantage of a whole ton of tweaks, bug fixes, balance adjustments, and other improvements. This game didn’t really need much in the way of updating, but I’ll take it anyway.

Brawl Stars, Free

Brawl time! Stars time! Dare we say… Brawl Stars time?! Yes, we dare. SpongeBob. SpongeBob is here in a new event, and that is cool. A couple new Brawlers coming in the form of Moe (Mythic) and Kenji (Legendary), and a handful of new Hypercharges for various characters. All of this will roll out over the course of the next couple of months in the usual Brawl Stars fashion, but the SpongeBob stuff should be kicking off rather soon if it hasn’t already by the time you read this.

stitch.,

What more would one expect from an update to the soothing and satisfying stitch but more Hoops to play? That’s just what you get here, this time with a bit of a martial arts theme. Sort of, anyway. Like with any good puzzle game, it doesn’t really matter as much what the theme of the puzzles are so long as you get more of them. So yes, update your app and go do some Hoops. You’ll feel better.

Genshin Impact, Free

I guess this game is called Genshin Impact: Natlan Launch now. Nothing to be done about it. You’ve got a new region, Natlan, and three new characters to go with it: Mualani, Kinich, and Kachina. New weapons as well, of course. Plenty of new events and stories to take on, and some new artifacts too. Regular players likely know by now what to expect from Genshin Impact updates, and while this one is a little bigger than the usual one, it’s very much in line with previous ones in the broad strokes.

Temple Run: Puzzle Adventure,

Alright, here we go. At least this one is on Apple Arcade, so it’s not completely free-to-play. It sure is a matching puzzle game update, though. There are one hundred new levels to play in this Temple Run spin-off, which is quite a lot as these things go. The tournaments have also been refreshed, as usual. That’s about all, but I’m sure it will keep many players busy for a bit. Maybe even until the next update? I’ve seen how people who play games like these chew through levels, so I’m not super-confident about that!

Jetpack Joyride 2,

In this very special update to the Apple Arcade sequel to Halfbrick’s mega-hit auto-runner: Barry Steakfries escapes to the one place that hasn’t been corrupted by capitalism – SPACE! It’s a shame that leaving that be would ruin the formatting for the article. Really best as a mic-drop reference, but if I do that things will look very messy, so I have to stand here and ramble a bit so that everything stays properly in its place. Tim Curry, folks. He’s a treasure. We were graced by his many performances, big and small. Much love to Mr. Curry, who I am 99% sure is reading this.

Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop,

Moving right along, it’s another matching puzzle game. But to be fair, this is one the all-timer matching puzzle games. At least in it’s original form, anyway. As for this particular version, there are new character episodes for Sig, Carbuncle, and Rafisol in the Adventure Mode. Meena has been added as a playable character, minus an episode of her own. An additional seven music tracks are available in the shop, all arrangements of fan favorite tunes from previous entries. Add in some bug fixes and that’s that.

Hearthstone, Free

Hearthstone time! This one is usually pretty good with its update notes, so let’s open the ol’ paperwork and see what’s in front of us. Hm. Well, we’ll make do. Battlegrounds Season 8, Trinkets & Travels, is incoming. All the kinds of new stuff we’ve seen in previous seasons, which is nice. The Trinket Shop is here, with Buddies taking a hike. Two times per game you can buy Trinkets with Gold, which will affect the rest of the match. That seems troublesome for balancing, but I suppose that is where Hearthstone is at by this point.

Toon Blast, Free

The first of the two actual obligatory free-to-play matching puzzle game updates for this article is Toon Blast. There’s a whole new episode here, giving you fifty new levels to play. Some business involving bees, or happiness, or the combination thereof. Bees are pretty cool, even if I am a little scared of them sometimes. They’re cool little buddies that help the ecosystem, and I’d give them tiny hugs if not for the pointy ouchy bit. Hang in there, my bug friends. We’ll get through it all together.

Royal Match, Free

I don’t know which is more preferable to me: King Robert perishing permanently and never appearing again, or King Robert continually perishing and returning to perish again, in a perpetual and heckish cycle of pain. One hundred new levels. A new jousting arena. That seems to have some potential. I love that one ad where they have swapped King Robert in for the freezing pregnant lady and her child, like we’re supposed to care about this garishly garbed monarch who’s a little chilly. Burn your velvet robes to warm your flesh, you decadent old ogre.

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!