One of our very favorite dual-stick shooters, Bug Heroes [Free], has just received its most significant update yet. Bug Heroes is a blend of dual-stick shooting and tower defense, and pulls the mixing of these genres off beautifully as we noted in our original review. After the 1.1 update in early February which added universal iPad support and Game Center, today Bug Heroes has been updated to version 2.0 which adds more new features than you can shake a stick at, and to celebrate the game will be free for the next few days.

You can check out the extensive log of changes in the Bug Heroes app description, which include a ton of bug fixes and balance tweaks, but the main attraction in this latest update is the addition of 6 new playable characters downloadable via IAP. These include a Fly Bandit, a Worm Demolitions Expert, a Stick Bug Wizard, a Ladybug Fencer, a Termite Builder, and a Grasshopper Monk. Each of the new characters bring their own unique style, equipment, and abilities which offer new ways to play through the game.

These new characters are available in 3 different IAP "Hero Packs" which are 99� apiece and each come with 2 playable characters, 1 new level, 6 new enemies for that level, and 1 new turret. For those that don't want to buy anything, this update has some new things for you as well. There's a brand new Picnic level for the Coliseum, piercing bullets for the Ant, an evade ability for Spider, and a boomsticks weapon for Beetle. Players will be able to choose from any 3 characters that they own to form their own style team to play through the game with, offering a ton of different combinations for different strategies.

We already really liked Bug Heroes before, and this latest update adds so much new content that it's practically a completely new game. It should be noted that whatever current game you have in progress will be reset after downloading the update, so make sure to finish things up before updating if you're interested in not losing your progress. If you haven't yet checked out Bug Heroes, it's highly recommended to pick it up while it's currently free. Even without any of the IAP packs, you are getting a ton of fun content in the base game and can choose to add more content as you go with the availability of the new character packs.