- Thursday, July 30, 2015 5:44 PM
- PeterPanFan
Today LINE released an Tsum Tsum app update (at least for iOS). It included various changes, some of which hint at future changes, but it also breaks gameplay on iPads.
The biggest noticeable change (that also probably results in the broken gameplay) is on iPads (and likely various other tablets) where the game has added borders to the left and right side of the screen (as seen in the image above). This is probably have the same game area "aspect ratio" across all devices. I can see why they would want to do this (it probably reduces testing time); however, it seems to have the side effect of basically breaking gameplay on any device with the borders. When you go to play the game and try to select Tsums to form chains the selection is off by a half a Tsum or so... this means when you press on a Tsum you are likely to actually select the one next to it and as you drag to form a chain you have the same problem. As you can imagine this causes a lot of issues.
If you have had downloaded this update yet and you play on a tablet I would highly recommend *NOT* downloading it until you are either forced to or they release a fix.
If you have downloaded the update and are experiencing the problem I would encourage you to contact LINE and let them know... the more complaints they get, hopefully the quicker they will fix it. You can contact them in the game by:
1) Opening the game app
2) Selecting the gear icon
3) Hitting the "Help” button
4) Tapping "Inquiries" at the next screen
Beyond the new borders there are a few other updates including adding Game Center support on iOS. This means that your achievements in the game will be tracked in your Game Center account. There are various achievements around getting high scores, clearing total numbers of Tsums, completing Bingo cards, and gaining levels. Honestly it isn't that big a deal overall but I guess nice. What is interesting are some of the achievements are not currently possible... meaning they hint at (hopefully soon) future updates. These include Bingo Card 5 and reaching Level 100.
In addition to these changes there were a few other new translations added for Tsums that haven't been released yet but not the supporting graphics... it seems likely that either Sorcerer Mickey or the newer Stitch Tsums will be the next release (probably within the next week if the past is any indication)... hopefully they will also have the events around the Tsums like they did in Japan when they were released.
In the next bit of (more exciting) game news, the Arcade version of the game has shown up in California for "testing". For those that don't know about it, there has been an Arcade version of Tsum Tsum in Japan for awhile. It is very similar to the mobile game but with some differences (for example you can play a versus mode where you play against someone else and the game works more like Tetris with you clearing Tsums causes more Tsums to fall in your opponents game and if your screen fills up with Tsums you lose). The most interesting part of the Arcade version is that you have two options when you play. Pay $1 and just play the game or pay $5 and get a random Tsum Tsum key chain. There are various characters (Mickey, Minnie, Stitch, etc) and each character has three possible expressions. Each expression is of varying rarity and there are two super rare "chaser" Tsums which are a pink version of Mickey and Minnie. In Japan they have actually just released a new set of characters but the US testing version has the original set. It sounds like the game has been very popular with a constant lines waiting to play so hopefully this "test" will be considered a success and they will appear across the country soon!
Finally, while we mostly focus on the International version of the game, it is good to see what is going on in the Japanese version as Tsums added there are the future of the International version and there was a new Japanese update as well.
Added was a Little Mermaid event that will starting early next month which includes three new Tsums: King Triton, a new version of Ariel, and Scuttle. It looks like Scuttle will be a prize for completing the event.
We still hope that these events will actually make their way to the International version... it is good to get the Tsums but having the events would really add something to the game. I am very glad we finally have Bingo but these events look like a lot of fun and really wish we had those too (even if they were delayed a few months like the Tsums).