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The awesome match-3 city builder Triple Town [ Free ] from Spry Fox has received a bunch of updates since we first reviewed it this past January, including a juicy update late last month that added two brand new maps to play. One played much like a standard 6×6 grid game but with the added challenge of a body of water right in the middle that you’d need to work around, and the second new map was a smaller 5×5 grid that was devoid of the risk of bears or ninjas and played like a casual freeplay mode.

Today another new update has hit Triple Town adding yet another new map for owners of the game who have unlocked the unlimited play IAP. The game is free-to-play with a limited number of turns, which also regenerate slowly over time. You can purchase coin packs to buy additional turns with or you can pay a flat fee, currently $3.99, to unlock unlimited turns in the game.

I appreciate how the game tries to offer a lot for those who don’t want to pay any money, but I find the usage of consumable IAP kind of confusing, and I’d suggest treating the free game as a limited trial and if you like it then go for the one-time unlimited turn purchase rather than muck around with buying turns. This is especially true if future content updates are only going to come for those who have purchased that option.

Anyhoo, as for the new map it’s actually really great. It’s called Bear Attack and is a 5×6 grid that plays mostly like a normal game except for one huge change: there’s 50% more bears. This obviously requires a certain amount of new strategy to deal with but can also result in some huge scoring opportunities with trapping bears and converting them into churches. Like the 2 new maps before it, Bear Attack tweaks the core formula of Triple Town just right in order to offer a completely different take.

And speaking of tweaks, there’s also another round of tweaks and fixes in this latest update as well. If you have yet to try out Triple Town, definitely give the free download a try as it’s easily one of the most refreshing matching games to come along in a long time and it continues to improve with each new update.

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The folks at Halfbrick had been teasing their much ballyhooed Gadget update for Jetpack Joyride [ Free ]for the past couple of months, and just last week it finally landed in the App Store. And it was awesome. However, Halfbrick must have still had some gas left in the tank after that massive update because over the weekend they released yet another update for Jetpack Joyride, this time adding support for the Retina Display of the new iPad. Check out some screens from the newest build (click to enlarge):

In addition to the graphics upgrade on the new iPad, the visuals have also been improved for the previous generation iPads as well as the iPhone 4. Loading times have also been improved across the board as well as a whole bunch of minor tweaks and fixes. I was really impressed with the Gadget update that hit for Jetpack Joyride last week, and with this latest Retina Display update the entire package has really been fully fleshed out.

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It was just last Wednesday that we expected a huge update for Junk Jack [ $2.99 ] to be hitting soon, and in this case soon meant over the weekend. This massive content update gives the game long-awaited Universal support, and let me tell you it is a dream playing on the larger screen of the iPad. Unfortunately though, there’s no Retina support, but it still looks quite good with its simplistic pixel art style. Check out the new trailer showcasing the version 1.1 update features.

Universal support is just one of the many, many new things in this latest Junk Jack update though. More enemies, items, an entire farming system, tons of food recipes and a ridiculous amount of tweaks also grace the game. You can check out the exhaustive list (literally eye-tiring) in the App Store description, but all you really need to know is that Junk Jack continues to significantly improve with each new iteration and looks to continue that trend well into the future.

Note: For some reason the lite version of the game is no longer in the App Store. We’ll get to the bottom of this and update the post with a link or a reason for its disappearance as soon as we find out.

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On this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show, we battle through conversations about muscle retention and HHH’s taste in order to bring you the latest and greatest in the world of iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. We get off to a running start by discussing the hottest real-time strategy game at the moment, Total War Battles, and then quickly dive into a flurry of oral reviews courtesy Mr. Hodapp. Later, we pan Kickstarter again, talk about Rovio Mobile’s weird IAP plans, and the themes of Minecraft.

If you’d like to listen this week’s episode, please do so via the handy-dandy links just below. If you’d rather get our podcasts the second they hit the Internet, consider subscribing to us on iTunes or Zune Marketplace.

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-049.mp3, 41.9MB

Oh! And if you have interest in joining our Minecraft server, send us another e-mail, as we might end up opening our stuff to all. E-mail podcast@toucharcade.com. Thanks!

Here are your show notes:

GAMES

• Total War Battles [$6.99]
• SpellTower [$.99]
• Polymer [$.99]
• Escape from the Age of Monsters [$.99 / HD]
• Bubble Pig [$.99]
• Aby Escape [Free]
• Ballistic SE [$1.99]
• Ski Safari [$.99]
• Wormholes [Free]
• Bus Turbo Racing [$.99]
• Marvel Vs Capcom 2 [$2.99]

JARED’S KITTY KORNER

• catnapper [Free]

FRONT PAGE

• ‘Minecraft – Pocket Edition’ Now Supports Crafting
• Robert Bowling Announces His New Studio
• ‘Angry Birds Space’ / ‘Jetpack Joyride’ / ‘Sword & Sworcery’ / ‘Anomaly Warzone Earth’ Updates

Aralon: Sword and Shadow HD, $0.99 Aralon: Sword and Shadow by Crescent Moon Games is a huge open world action RPG. It has more than 30 hours of gameplay in a massive 3D world, the biggest landscape ever to grace a mobile device. A full night and day system, complex quests, crafting, swimming, fishing, pipe smoking, pick-pocketing, and much, much more. Play as an elf, troll, or human, pick various classes, and go on an epic journey through the Kingdoms of Aralon.

Aralon: Sword and Shadow is now available for the discounted price of 99 cents, over 80% off for a limited time only!

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Behind the scenes, 5 Ants‘ astoundingly gorgeous point-and-click stealth and adventure hybrid continues to grow from what we saw at GDC this year. In a recent conversation with us, a rep from the new Barcelona-based studio revealed three new levels, each of which is zanier than the last. Below, you can view what we saw: a camp, a candy store, and a robot.

One paper these things definitely don’t go together and we’re thinking that’s kind of the point. 5 Ants is embracing and expanding on the charm and absurdity of Tiny Thief, and these things are starting to get expressed in more than just character and scenario design. We couldn’t be more pumped after viewing these, but there’s still a wait ahead of us. Tiny Thief isn’t scheduled to hit iPad until later this summer.

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One of the absolute finest games available on the App Store is 11 Bit Studios’ Anomaly Warzone Earth [ $1.99 ]. Don’t believe me? Well check out our glowing 5 star review of the game from when it launched on iPad last August, and then consider that we chose it as our runner up for Game of the Year 2011. It’s not just us, either, as Anomaly has received critical praise across the gaming universe as well as plenty of award consideration, including winning a prestigious Apple Design Award for the Mac version.

So yeah, Anomaly Warzone Earth is good. And today it gets even better, as 11 Bit has just released the latest update for the game which adds high resolution Retina Display support for the new iPad. Anomaly was a gorgeous game to begin with, and it held up pretty well even on the new iPad anyway, but the difference this update makes is quite dramatic. All the text and UI elements are razor sharp and the in-game visuals are as crisp as they’ve ever been, practically popping right off the screen.

Of course, while Anomaly Warzone Earth really sings on the iPad, it can also be played just as well on the smaller screens of the iPhone and iPod touch. The original iPad version became Universal late last year, and to celebrate the new update it is currently on sale for just $1.99. If iPads aren’t your thing, the iPhone/iPod touch only version is also on sale for 99¢ [Link]. Basically what I’m getting at is that no matter how you do it, you must experience Anomaly one way or the other, and with the new update and sale now is a fantastic time to dive in.

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The highly anticipated update to Jetpack Joyride [ Free ] which Halfbrick has been teasing us with since we first checked it out at GDC has finally gone live in the App Store. Version 1.3 brings the major new addition of Gadgets to good ol’ Barry Steakries’ arsenal. There are 15 Gadgets in all which are unlocked with coins in The Stash area of the game. You can assign up to 2 different Gadgets to Barry at a time, and each one brings with it a special ability.

For example, the “Air Barrys” Gadget gives Barry a pair of sneakers that let him immediately jump into the middle of the screen, rather than waiting for the jetpack to slowly raise him to the same point. Or the Missile Jammer which will cause the missiles that target you from offscreen to come at you wobbly and slow. Or the X-ray Specs, which lets you see ahead of time what vehicle is waiting for you in the icon, as demonstrated in this latest teaser trailer.

As you can tell, these new Gadgets can dramatically change how you play the game, and if you thought you’d had your fill of Jetpack Joyride before there’s now a bunch of new items to unlock and use to reinvigorate you. There’s also new Game Center achievements and new mission types that tie into the use of the new Gadgets. And of course Jetpack Joyride is free to download and play, so if you somehow still haven’t gotten on board yet then what are you waiting for?

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Earlier this month, Foursaken Media dropped their latest iOS title Sky Gnomes [ $0.99 ] into the App Store and we thought it was pretty great in our review. You play as a gnome hurtling straight down through the sky riding a homemade rocket collecting snowflakes, coins and items in an effort to reach a landing zone as quickly as possible.

While that’s an awesome enough premise on its own, what pushed Sky Gnomes to the next level was its fantastic daily tournaments that matched you against the ghost runs of like-skilled players in competition for the best race time. Throw in a ton of upgradeable items to trick out your rocket and Sky Gnomes came together to be one of my favorite recent releases.

Today, Foursaken is sweetening the pot with the first of many planned content updates for Sky Gnomes. The big addition in this update is two brand new characters to play as: Girly the female racer and Skinny the uh, skinny racer. Each come with their own set of unique stats for their rocket, offering a change of pace from the original racer Gnomey. These new racers don’t come cheap though, as each one will set you back 10,000 coins.

Speaking of coins, this update also lowers the costs of all first tier upgrades and trinkets for your rocket, making it easier and quicker for new players to start customizing their machine. There are also a myriad of tweaks and bug fixes, as well as an empty menu screen that serves as a teaser for another major addition coming to Sky Gnomes: 1 vs 1 battles. More new characters are also in the works for future updates.

If you haven’t checked out Sky Gnomes yet, now might be the time as today’s update adds even more cool features to an already great package, with more new stuff already on the horizon.

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Near the end of one of the “slowest” weeks we’ve had in recent memory, we casted a pod for mass earhole consumption. If you’re not a fan of our off-topic weeks you might want to avoid this one. But, do note you’ll be missing out on a lot of fun discussion: at the top, we dive into the recently released Xbox Live Arcade indie title Fez and ponder what an iPad port would look like, spit a little bit of game about next-generation consoles, and orally review hot new games like Burger Cat. In our second segment, we discuss anything and everything, but eventually get to your user questions.

It was a weird week, so we’ve got a weird show for you. If you’d like to listen, please do so via those handy-dandy links below. Additionally, you could subscribe to us on Zune or iTunes to get our latest episodes the second they hit the Internet.

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-048.mp3, 34.4MB

Here are your show notes:

GAMES

• Trees of Life [$.99]
• MacGuffin’s Curse [$1.99 / Lite]
• Wawa Land [$.99]

JARED’S KITTY KORNER

• Burger Cat [$.99]

FRONT PAGE

• A ‘Battlefield 3‘ Companion App Hits
• Musical Chairs: ‘S&S‘ Hits Steam, Steam title Planned for iOS

Cutlass Cove, $0.99 / Lite – Cutlass Cove by independent developer Cheeky Mammoth is an action-packed pirate game that combines nautical combat with the strategic use of powerful spells and munitions. In Cutlass Cove you control a pirate ship, firing cannons at enemies and using voodoo spells to complete 60 challenging objectives and acquire 20 unique ranks.

Cutlass Cove is an intense pirate skirmish on the high seas where you summon whirlpools, unleash tornado storms, ignite brandy slicks, fire cannonballs imbued with destructive molten force, captain a ghost ship and feed your enemies to the sharks.

Cutlass Cove is a universal app that is available now in the App Store for $0.99.

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