

I actually think this design decision is for the best, as there is always a defined finish line to work towards and you must learn to maximize the scoring potential of every object in a level before you reach it. You still have a small range of movement within the width of each track, and you control your forward movement, but you aren’t allowed to stray off course and explore or go back to specific obstacles. There are some jagged edges in the graphics that could use a dose of anti-aliasing, but by and large Touchgrind BMX is gorgeous to look at and runs at an incredibly smooth frame rate.Īnother huge change is rather than having a sandbox environment where you’re able to move about freely, the levels in Touchgrind BMX are linear courses with deliberately placed jumps and obstacles.

The 5 courses in Touchgrind BMX are quite varied from one another, offering an assortment of terrain that runs the gamut from very realistic to borderline fantasy settings. This works beautifully, and really opens up the environments in the game and allows you to actually see where you are going, which is nice because the background visuals are beautiful in Touchgrind BMX and are a huge step up from the sterile skatepark in the first Touchgrind. Touchgrind was strictly top-down, whereas Touchgrind BMX is more of a third-person perspective. One major change from the original game is the perspective. It’s a lot of fun though, and improving my skills is what keeps drawing me back into the game. It took me a few hours to actually feel pretty comfortable and start performing some more complex tricks, but looking at the developer high score challenges I know I still have quite a ways to go. It takes fast reactions and precise finger coordination to pull off the elaborate tricks and combos that will earn you the most points. The challenge comes when actually trying to perform tricks in practice. The gesture control is really organic, and moves are pulled off just how you’d expect them to be, like flicking the handlebars to spin them around while you’re airborne.Ī simple 3 part tutorial walks you through everything you need to know about controlling your bike, and it’s all incredibly easy to understand. Using an assortment of different gestures, you can get your bike to perform just about anything you can think of. One finger controls the handlebars of the bike, and the other controls the frame. Like Touchgrind before it, Touchgrind BMX only requires two fingers to play. It’s also a ton of fun once you get the hang of things, and those who persist in the ways of Touchgrind BMX will be rewarded with a truly unique experience. Such is the cost of innovation though, and Touchgrind BMX is definitely innovative. But it’s also missing a few features that I would expect in a game like this, and the multi-touch controls come with a steep learning curve much the same way Touchgrind’s did.
#Touchgrind bmx ios free series#
Now Illusion Labs is back with a new entry in the series called Touchgrind BMX that takes the formula into the world of trick biking.Īll of the major traits that made Touchgrind so good carry over to Touchgrind BMX, and it even comes with many welcome improvements. It had fantastic 3D graphics, a great physics system, and excellent multi-touch controls that let you interact with a skateboard in a way unlike any game before it. Back in November of 2008, Illusion Labs’ Touchgrind was a remarkable display of what was possible on iOS devices.
