In Touchgrind 2 it felt like a huge accomplishment when I finally pulled it off, and I watched the replay endlessly from different camera angles before proudly exporting my simple five second creation to YouTube. In Tony Hawk that would be about four or five easy button taps. I spent about eight minutes trying to kickflip into a crooked grind with a pop shuvit out. True Skate also has a great physics system, of course, but it can feel like you’re skating on the moon when you ollie twelve feet into the air and do a quadruple heelflip with ease. The fantastic physics system is back, leading to one of the most realistic renditions of skateboarding on iOS or any other platform (though be warned: it’s still a very, very steep learning curve if you’re not comfortable with the first game). Simple replay system to watch your last few moves and no way to save? Now you can export your replays to YouTube, Facebook, email, or your camera roll, and there are five camera views you can choose from. Bare-bones local two player skating only in the iPad version? Now there’s a slick online S.K.A.T.E mode so you can compete with anyone you want, and it works beautifully across all devices. Two flat parks that look nearly identical? Now there are three huge parks that each have their own look and personality (with one more on the way). Top-down view? Now it’s third-person so you can see where you’re going. The best way I can think of conveying this without writing a book is to just start listing differences. There are two words that come to mind when playing: massive improvement. It gets very, very different once you dive into the actual game, though. The spinning menu wheel from the first game is back, along with roughly the same overall visual sense: bright colors and cute, punky designs. The first thing you might notice when loading the game is that things look very familiar. #Touchgrind series#And now that it’s here, it’s time to see if the series has learned anything from its competition and further evolved the sport for iOS devices. With that game’s more forgiving third-person view and far more interesting level design, it was no surprise that Illusion Labs quickly announced a followup to their classic, called Touchgrind Skate 2 ( out now, $4.99). Several years later True Axis came out with True Skate, which felt like yet another re-invention of the genre (and yet another instant favorite for me). It was easily one of my favorite games when it came out, despite being incredibly hard to control (partly due to a steep learning curve, and partly due to the overhead view keeping you from seeing what was around you). In this regard, Illusion Labs’ original Touchgrind was like a revelation. There’s just something more immediate and satisfying about swiping your fingers directly on the deck that makes you feel one step closer to actually flipping and grinding in real life. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some THPS and Skate, but I’d take a touchscreen over tapping buttons and flicking sticks any day. But if you're interested, the app is now available for US$4.99 on the iPhone.Controversial statement time: iOS devices are the best way to play skateboarding games, period. There's no Game Center integration, strangely, which would have been nice for leaderboards and achievements. There are plenty of extras to find and explore, including goals and scoring medals and challenges, along with a nice replay mode that even lets you send videos off to YouTube and Facebook. It still takes quite a bit of getting used to, but it's much friendlier than the original Touchgrind interface. But you still control the bike with two fingers, flipping the handlebars around with one, and spinning the bike's body with the other. Illusion has fixed this in Touchgrind BMX by moving to a more from-behind view, and setting the bike along a path rather than letting you freely explore. One of the big issues with Touchgrind was that, because the camera was top down, you had a hard time seeing exactly where you were going. Now, Illusion Labs is bringing the brand back with Touchgrind BMX, a game that changes your mode of transportation to BMX bikes, and opens up the view a bit. #Touchgrind full#Honestly, it wasn't very successful as a full game, but using the iPhone's multi-touch screen to control a fingerboard was fun. Illusion Labs' Touchgrind was one of the first iPhone games I ever saw in action.
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