Here’s a fun fact about me: The original Touchgrind ($4.99) from Illusion Labs is the reason I bought my first iOS device. I’d wanted one since the original iPhone, but the price of the device itself coupled with the exorbitant fee I’d have to pay to switch carriers always stopped me in my tracks. Once the App Store officially hit in 2008, I was practically dying for one seeing all the neat games coming out. The one-two punch of Apple releasing the gorgeous 2nd generation iPod touch and Illusion Labs releasing their trailer for Touchgrind (which I saw on my favorite website, TouchArcade) finally tipped me over the edge in September of 2008. Now iOS devices have been my full-time job and full-time hobby for almost a decade now. I wonder what my life would be like had the original Touchgrind never existed? Anyway, I always think about that whenever I hear about a new Touchgrind game, and in this instance it’s because Illusion Labs has officially announced Touchgrind BMX 2 today with the following teaser.

The original Touchgrind was novel for its use of Apple’s excellent multi-touch support for manipulating a tiny digital skateboard. It wasn’t an easy game to play though. With its directly top-down perspective it was tricky to figure out where you were going and to line up to hit tricks on the various objects in the game’s levels. The studio took that feedback to heart for their bike-focused spinoff Touchgrind BMX (Free) in 2011. It made all the difference in the world, and we loved Touchgrind BMX in our review from back then. Of course, being more partial to skateboarding than BMX, I was hoping they’d take that new direction back to their roots, and they did in 2013 with Touchgrind Skate 2 (Free), which was also fabulous. I’m excited to see them take things back to the dirt track with Touchgrind BMX 2, and although there’s no details beyond a target release window of early 2018 we’ll keep our eye on its progress and bring you any news as it develops.