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TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Touchgrind BMX
Illusion Labs' Touchgrind was one of the first iPhone games I ever saw in action. Honestly, it wasn't very successful as a full game, but using the iPhone's multi-touch screen to control a fingerboard was fun. 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. 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. 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. But you still control the bike with two fingers, flipping the handlebars around with one, and spinning the bike's body with the other. It still takes quite a bit of getting used to, but it's much friendlier than the original Touchgrind interface. 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. There's no Game Center integration, strangely, which would have been nice for leaderboards and achievements. But if you're interested, the app is now available for US$4.99 on the iPhone.
From iPhone to iPad: Revisiting Labyrinth 2
How do old favorites hold up on the iPad? In our "From iPhone to iPad" series, TUAW revisits iPhone applications that have transitioned to the iPad. We look at their latest incarnation and see how the new measures up to the old. Today, TUAW looks at Labyrinth 2. I loved Labyrinth 2 when I first tested it for iPhone. So I was delighted when developer Carl Loodberg of Illusion Labs offered me the opportunity to try out the updated version for the iPad. As I wrote about the iPhone version, Labyrinth 2 offers a beautifully designed and fun-to-play classic wooden labyrinth with metal ball game that's fun to use, even for the manually uncoordinated like myself. Labyrinth 2 for iPad is all that -- and more. Loodberg has brought all the visual appeal that made the iPhone version a treasure and upgraded the graphics and interaction for the iPad display. Unlike many accelerometer games that are hindered by the iPad's larger form factor (that no longer quite matches the size of your hand), Labyrinth 2 HD actually benefits from the size jump. In fact, the iPad version more closely matches the real-world size of the original wooden toy. Labyrinth 2 HD hasn't sacrificed the great electronic touches that made the original stand out. You can still use magnets, shooters, ball doublers and other fancifully delightful elements to transform a simple game of balance manipulation into an arcade. I particularly love the pin-ball style bumpers and the little buttons that unlock obstacles. Labyrinth 2, in both its original iPhone ($4.99) and updated iPad HD ($7.99) form, offers a great iPhone OS game. It is priced slightly above the market but provides value for that cost. TUAW is commonly provided with not-for-resale licenses or promo codes to permit product evaluations and reviews. For more details, see our policy page. Promo code requests are not guarantees of review.
Illusion Labs shows off multitouch 'Touchgrind' gaming demo on a MacBook
One of our favorite iPhone games is Touchgrind. Sure, we're terrible at it, but at least we feel like we're accomplishing something "totally street" and "badass" with the multitouch input that the iPhone allows. Well, Illusion Labs is looking at bringing some of that magic to the Mac. They've got a demo up of the game running in a jumbo manner on a multi-finger-friendly MacBook. It looks pretty much like a straight port at this point, but hopefully the added horsepower and screen size of the Mac can make this into something a bit more magical -- and maybe even trick us into thinking we're decent fingerboardists, if only for a moment. Right now this is just a tech demo, and there are no firm plans of a release. From the noodlings of Illusion Labs' Twitter account, it looks like they also wouldn't mind porting it to an "iSlate" if the opportunity presented itself. Hear that, Cupertino? You might be able to get someone to build an app for this mythical device! Big sigh of relief, we're sure. Video is after the break.
Hands on with Labyrinth 2 for iPhone
Illusion Labs has just released Labyrinth 2 in App Store [iTunes Link]. Beautifully designed and fun to play, Labyrinth 2 transforms your iPhone into a classic wooden labyrinth/metal ball game, but it's a lot more than that. Labyrinth 2 isn't just about manual coordination and keeping the ball from treacherous holes, it offers clever tricks and twists including gates with button-based controls that limit access to certain parts of a given maze, magnets, limited-access twirling discs, bb shooters that displace your ball, and more. I am not normally a big fan of coordination-based games. I personally have the coordination of a dyspeptic llama doing heavy pharmaceuticals. I love that Labyrinth 2 offered many levels without the "avoid the hole" dynamics that I could play and enjoy. The visual and sound design for this game are superb. I loved the care that went into it, from the diagonal main menus to the clicky feedback sounds to the ability to download additional levels after buying the game. That's not saying that the GUI was perfect. I do wish that the clicky interaction was universal throughout. UI sounds for the back button and tab bars were notable in their absence. Also the tab bar buttons ("Official","Downloaded", "Faves") were way too tiny in height for practical use. Also, I have no clue what the little Pac-Mac ghost button at the top-right of the screen was for. Those quibbles aside, the game design is really tight. The simulated physics were fabulous, the game twists (like magnets, rotating wheels, and so forth) welcome, and the entire app (retailing for $4.99) a very good value for the money. Even with my limited motion control abilities, I found Labyrinth 2 to be an enjoyable game to explore -- and my kids gave it thumbs up across the board.
