Plenty of athletes have iPhone apps. So unless you’re going to reinvent the genre a la Chad Ochocinco, it can be tough to make your release stand out.
Skateboarding king Tony Hawk has proven he’s good at standing out, and his entrance into the app world is no different. Unlike the Bengals’ wide receiver, his latest app isn’t an all-inclusive look at his life, but instead three separate apps all with a unique niche.
Trick Tips, Hawkize and Faceplant are all from EpicTilt, the same company responsible for the ESPN Zoom apps, as well as Be Like Lil’ Wayne and Be Like Lady Gaga. All three cost 99 cents, though that’s advertised as a special price, so it’s possible it will go up.
Trick Tips is the highlight of the trio. It doesn’t have as many features as other how-to skateboard apps, but it still does its job very well for a reasonable price.
The app includes 50-plus lessons with videos and pictures for each. The high-resolution videos (each trick offers low-resolution movies as well) are very nice quality and many show the trick in slow motion, which can be helpful.
Hawkize is similar to the “Be Like” apps, as it allows you to take a picture and add things like a skateboard helmet and pads. The idea is fun enough, and though it’s a limited app, as long as it stays at its current price, it will be popular amongst a small audience.
Like Hawkize, Faceplant is a photo-based app. The app allows you to put your face on a skateboarding photo, though in my experience with it there are some major bugs that need to be ironed out and it would be best to wait for an update before you try this one.
All three apps also include a news ticker and skate videos from ShredOrDie.com. EpicTilt is also advertising a future Tony Hawk-based release called Skate Locate, a skate park directory app.
Skaters will love Trick Tips, and I’m guessing that will be the most popular of the three. Hawkize and Faceplant would probably work better as a single app, but they are cheap enough that it’s not a huge issue. As cheesy as Hawkize seems to me, there’s clearly a market for it, and if Faceplant can ever get rid of its bugs, it should appeal to the same people.
