Touchgrind Review: Skate with Your Fingers

Skateboarding has been a very popular sport, and a lot of people play skateboarding video games like Tony Hawk and Skate. Illusion Labs has successfully created a skateboarding game for the iPhone by going in a different direction. They decided to create a game that is like a fingerboard: Touchgrind.

When you launch the app you start on the main menu. In the top right is a skateboard wheel. You spin this to access the different menu options. You can view the tutorials, warm up, have a jam session, play in a competition, or change the options. In Touchgrind you view the skateboard top-down, and you can easily control everything with just two fingers. To move forward, you place two fingers toward the back end of the board. You can slide your fingers to the sides of the board to turn. Performing an Ollie is easy too; just lift up your front finger first and then your back finger. Tricks are a bit harder at first. When you lift up your fingers to perform an Ollie you need to swipe your fingers in different directions to perform different tricks. It is pretty hard to see the skate park in Touchgrind, but if you tap the magnifying glass you can zoom out to see the park. You also have small arrows around the screen that point you toward different elements, like a ramp or grind rail.

Touchgrind has three main modes: Warm-up, Jam Session, and Competition. In Warm-up you can practice in a small park with no time limit. Once you are ready for the big park you can try out Jam Session. Here you can practice in the larger park and master your trick combos. Finally, you can play in a competition. You have 100 seconds to get the highest score you can. If you get a nice score you can unlock more skateboards to play with.

Touchgrind has some other cool features too. If you ever pull a sweet combo and want to show your friends, you can pause the game and view an instant replay. On the side you can control the speed to fast forward or play it in slow motion. When you are watching a reply you will see two white dots where your fingers were. You can also set markers on the park which you will see when you zoom out. These can help you remember where to start a good combo.

There are a few issues with the game, though. When you’re playing it is hard to see what is in front of you. The arrows on the side do help a little, but you never know if you are going to hit the ramp perfectly. The replay function is also limited. You cannot end the replay and get back to playing; you have to wait until it ends. You also can’t save replays, which would be a really cool feature. Finally, there is only one park. It would be great to see a new park with some different objects.

Touchgrind is a very unique iPhone game. It uses the multi-touch screen of the iPhone in such a great way that it will impress your friends and keep you entertained for a long time. This game does have a few problems, but this is one polished game you don’t want to miss. You can get it on iTunes for $4.99.

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