New Apps of the Week

It was a slow week for App Store releases since Apple's iTunes Connect was shutdown from December 22-29, but there were a few noteworthy jailbreak tweaks released to Cydia over the holidays. Here's a quick look at some of the tweaks and the few apps released to Cydia and the App Store from 12/29/14 to 01/04/15. The App Store should start filling up again with new apps and games now that it has been open for one full week.

Apple's Free App of the Week is Icycle: On Thin Ice. The game will be free on the Apple App Store until 01/09/14. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook so you never miss a new App Store or Cydia release.

This is the last week for developers to submit their apps and app updates before the App Store is closed down for the winter holidays through December 22-29. It is kind of shocking that more apps weren't released this week, and makes one wonder if we will see an influx of apps released next Thursday. This also means there will be no App Store Recap on Saturday, December 27th.

The biggest App Store news of the week revolved around the newly released iPad version of Papers, Please and nudity. The hit PC game was initially rejected by Apple for containing "pornographic content" due to it offering a "nudity option". In the game players take on the role of a border patrol agent for the fictional state of Arstozka and can choose to submit people to invasive procedures such as full body scans. Developer Lucas Pope told Ars Technica that his "main concern with creating an iOS version of Papers, Please was that Apple would decide the game was strongly political and reject it outright," not that it would be rejected for its pixelated nudity. Apple "censoring" the political game sent the internet into a tizzy which made Pope rethink his own position and contact the company. Yesterday Pope announced that Apple said its "initial rejection for porn was a misunderstanding on their part," and suggested he resubmit the app with the nudity option.

It was a busy week for App Store news and releases so let's jump right in... Hearthstone fans can get a sneak peek of the new "Goblins vs. Gnomes" expansion by logging in to Arena mode this weekend. Players will then be able to buy packs of the new cards on Monday, December 8 using real world money or in-game gold.

The creators of the popular Freemium title Clash of Clans have soft launched a new title called Spooky Pop in Canada. The game looks to be a match-three puzzler with a Ghostbusters-like theme. You can check out two screenshots below. A U.S. release date is unknown, but you can download the game now if you have a Canada App Store account.

We previously mentioned that the real-time strategy game Chain Chronicle is coming to the U.S. on December 8th, but the trailer for the game was mysteriously pulled from YouTube. A new trailer has been release and you can see it below in the Trailers / Previews section.

Nitrome announced two new titles: Platform Panic and Roller Polar. You can watch the trailers for both games below.

All you need to know this week is that Five Nights at Freddy's 2 and Kingdom Rush Origins are both now available on the App Store. Five Nights and Origins are currently the top two games on Apple's Top Paid Apps Chart and followups to two of our favorite games of the year. You can read our review of the original Five Nights at Freddy's here, and why Kingdom Rush is currently our favorite tower defense series here.

In other news, Apple ditched the "Free" button in the App Store, Disney Interactive announced Disney Infinity 2.0 would be available for both the iPhone and iPad this December and Telltale unveiled House Forrester -- the banner clan who will be the focus of the new Game of Thrones episodic video game series.

The jokes about the Robertson family releasing a Duck Dynasty tower defense game for iOS devices write themselves, but what's really weird is that the game, which has been available for a couple of days now, only has one review on the App Store. This is kind of shocking for a popular television show that's been surrounded in so much controversy lately. If you like religious bigots and tower defense games then you may want to check it out. Duck Commander: Duck Defense is now available on the App Store for for $1.99.

Ironhide Game Studio announced this week that Kingdom Rush Origins will be released to mobile devices on November 20, 2014, and SEGA is releasing the real-time strategy game Chain Chronicle worldwide on December 8th. You can see trailers for both upcoming games in the trailer section at the bottom of this post.