My official most-played-iPhone-game True Skate ($1.99) just received a minor, though significant update. Backing up, True Skate is Jet Car Stunts ($1.99) developer True Axis‘ attempt to create a skateboarding simulation built for the touchscreen, and they absolutely nailed it. We loved the game in our review from back in October, and since that time True Skate game has been updated frequently with new features and customization options, and even a huge new skatepark to play around in.
More parks are planned for later this year, but today’s True Skate update includes two enhancements that actually change the fundamentals in the game. One is the ability to tilt a gyroscope-equipped device prior to doing an ollie, which will then shift which way your ollie ends up in the air depending on which direction you tilt. It’s a small change, but it helps a lot when trying to line up your board to hit a rail or ledge for a grind or slide trick.
The second and more significant change in this update relates to skating transition, a spot that True Skate has had difficulty getting right in the past. Previously, when skating transitions you’d have to stick to the larger stuff that had actual vertical surface in order to keep your board in the air and land back down in the transition. Otherwise you’d just launch yourself out of the bowl or quarter pipe and it acted more like a jump ramp.
With the updated version, you can actually flick your device towards you right before doing a trick in transition and it will ensure you stay hovered in the air above that transition, so you can land right back down in it. This totally improves skating transition in True Skate, and I have to say it feels awesome to bust a big trick in a bowl and be able to land back down and keep going. I’m not typically a huge fan of having to flick or move my device in any way, but here it feels completely natural and works incredibly well. Hats off to True Axis for finding an elegant solution to this tricky problem.
As I mentioned, True Axis has more goodies planned for True Skate in the future, but for right now they’re going hard and heavy on Jet Car Stunts 2 and as much as I love True Skate I have to say I’m more than happy for them to devote the time to that much-anticipated sequel. However, I’m also quite pleased they were able to push out this latest update and how just a couple of minor tweaks have really improved the overall experience. It’s also worth mentioning that this update improves performance on older devices, and you can now slow down by touching the ground with your finger if you feel like you’re going too fast at any time.
If you’re into skating or skating games and have yet to check out True Skate then you should get on that, and join in on the discussion in our forums too.
