New iPad Games of the Week

The 3D puzzle adventure, The Room: Old Sins is now available for pre-order. Old Sins is the follow-up to Apple's 2010 iPad Game of the Year.

"The sudden disappearance of an ambitious engineer and his high-society wife provokes the hunt for a precious artefact. The trail leads to the attic of their home, and the discovery of an old, peculiar dollhouse… Explore unsettling locations, follow obscure clues and manipulate bizarre contraptions as you uncover the mysteries within Waldegrave Manor."

Nintendo rolled out updates to both Fire Emblem Heroes and Animal Crossing. Fire Emblem received 3 new heroes, Micaiah, Sothe and Zelgiu, a new story called called Guided by a Dream, a new Hero Merit limit, new maps and the ability to check the battle map before battle.

Rover's Garden Safari is a new event running in Animal Crossing until January 22nd. Players can plant and grow special flowers in Rover's garden to attract butterflies and collect special items until the end of the event.

As expected, not many new titles have been released since our last post highlighting the first new releases of 2018. Pathfinder Duels is a new collectible card game "inspired" by the Pathfinder universe. In the game, players can summon heroes and dragons to do simultaneous battle. This means instead of a turn-based battle system like most CCG, players deal their cards at the same time so there is no waiting. Players can also earn various equipment to upgrade their heroes and combine different materials to create new powerful cards. Pathfinder Duels is available for free on the App Store.

Aspyr Media has raised the bar and price of premium App Store titles by releasing a full port of the PC strategy game Sid Meier's Civilization VI for the iPad. The game and first 60 turns are free, but it is a whopping $60 ($30 until January 4th) to unlock the full game. This is not a mobile version or some kind of sequel, but the full PC title on your iPad. You can download Civilization VI now for the iPad Air 2, iPad 2017, or any iPad Pro.

The holiday rush to submit apps before the iTunes Connect holiday shutdown has begun. Several big titles such as Fez Pocket Edition, Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty and Ace Attorney INVESTIGATIONS were all released to the App Store this week.

WWE released yet another free-to-play fighting game to the App Store. WWE Mayhem is a lot like WWE Immortals but with more realistic characters from the WWE roster. Instead of over-the-top wrestlers who resemble superheroes, each wrestler has his own "superstar" class like brawler or high-flyer. Players can participate in tag-team and weekly events, and unlock different WWE Legends and Superstars like John Cena, The Rock, Andre the Giant, Triple H, Xavier Woods, AJ Styles, Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Apple on Thursday announced its Best of 2017 on the App Store. The photo editing tool Affinity Photo and The Witness were selected as the best iPad app and game of the year. The meditation app Calm and the puzzle game Splitter Critters won best iPhone app and game of the year. Nintendo's Super Mario Run and Facetune were the most downloaded game and app of 2017.

You can see all of Apple's picks for best games, apps, trends, stickers and more in the Today section of the App Store.

The wait is over as Nintendo's third iOS title landed on the App Store this week. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is a building title where players can design their own campsite while interacting with various animal characters. In the game players must help the animals by visiting recreation sites and completing tasks like picking fruit, fishing and catching bugs. After completing these tasks players will then earn materials to craft furniture and other amenities for their campground. Players can also host animals at their campsite by building the correct attractions, visit other's campsites and customize their very own camper. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is free on the App Store.

South Park: Phone Destroyer is now available on the Apple App Store. Phone Destroyer is a free-to-play card collecting title where you design your own character to compete in 1v1 battles. Players use different cards to summon characters from the show and cast spells to attack their opponent. The game features a single player campaign written in collaboration with South Park Digital Studios, real-time PvP battles, the ability to design your own character, and tons of characters and references to the show.

Oh Square Enix, why can't any of your sequels ever make any sense? Final Fantasy Dimensions 2 landed on the App Store this week, but it has nothing to do with the original Final Fantasy Dimensions. Final Fantasy Dimensions 2 is actually a US remake of the Japanese social RPG called Final Fantasy Legends. But FFD2 is a premium title, unlike FFD which is free. I'm going to guess this is why FFD2 has a 3-star rating, while FFD has manged a overall rating of 4-stars. If you want to check out Final Fantasy Dimensions 2 and don't care it is now a direct sequel, then it is available for $14.99 on the App Store.

It's Halloween weekend and plenty of horror themed games have hit the App Store this week, but before we look at the newest Halloween titles, here are some other noteworthy games now available for the iPad.

Slitherine released the nation building strategy game Afghanistan '11 to the iPad. Unlike other war simulations where the goal is typically to crush your enemy, your mission in Afghanistan '11 is to win the trust of local villagers by providing security and keeping up morale at home. Afghanistan '11 is available for the iPad for $19.99.