Reader’s Choice: Analysis, Rants and Raves
April 30, 2013 – 2:48 PM | No Comment

The AXS Gear/Concrete Wave Readers’ Choice survey yielded a tremendous amount of information. Almost 4,000 people took the time to fill out the survey, with an average time of 14-plus minutes to complete! That represents almost 40 days’ worth of time! We produced a fully comprehensive listing of all companies in the Concrete Wave Buyer’s Guide. But here, for the purpose of space, we will address some of the key findings from the survey. We instituted two distinct changes this year. First, we changed the actual questions to reflect what brands are actually owned by readers. Rather than focusing on the word favorite,” we wanted to know what people actually had in their quiver.

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Home » Featured Stories

Finally A Downhill Longboarding Video Game!!!

Submitted by on April 23, 2012 – 1:49 PM
| 2 Comments

Downhill Xtreme is what the first game about longboarding in the mobile gaming market is called. For those who don’t dare to go downhill, or crave for racing in between sessions or rainy days, Downhill Xtreme might be the right game for you to try out. In the comfort of your smartphone, the game takes you to a whirlwind of exotic locations through tracks of volatile twists and turns simulating the downhill rush. According to the game developers Distintive Games , DHX lets you progress from amateur racer to professional longboarder by conquering new destinations and tougher races, collecting money and prizes along the way. You can even compete for international leaderboard dominance in Medal Events while going rogue in limited-time Online Events and winner-take-all, renegade style Outlaw Events.

Downhill Extreme Header
The game is free to download from the applestore and will also come to android.

Although there might be still some details to iron out, we find this video game interesting and definitely gonna give it a try and play it in our skating breaks.

Here’s a quick review By Sinan Kubba From 148 Apps

It would be exaggerating to call Downhill Xtreme the SSX of iOS, but clearly its developer has noticed the snowboarding franchise’s recent return. While this skateboarding racer is just that and no more – no tricks, no surviving, just racing – the eclectic soundtrack, customization options, and focus on online competition are immediately reminiscent of SSX‘s own Xtremeness.

Having said that, what’s most immediately noticable are the visuals. The 3D behind-the-rider approach should be a tough endeavor on iPhone, but Downhill Xtreme makes it look easy with excellent definition and a wonderfully smooth camera. The controls are elegantly simple: the skater goes forward automatically, while left-sided touch making him break and right-sided touch making him tuck for top speed. Moving left and right is achieved by tilting the iPhone or iPod touch, and it actually feels well-balanced. With such simple controls the play is relatively simple too, although a quick swerve combined with braking adds a quicker drift turn, a tricky skill to exactly master.

The main campaign can be reduced to qualifying for a race through a time trial and then placing high enough in the race to progress – rinse and repeat. While it’s again simple, it’s given some surrounding depth through a levelling system, gear and character customization for both cosmetics and attribute-raising, and most impressively ongoing online competitions very similar to the online tournaments in the new SSX. These competitions last a certain amount of time, and how well you place in them against whoever else has entered determines how much gold you win, which you can then spend on a fly board, gnarly shirt, or butter pair of sneaks. The online stuff is very impressive for a free iOS game, and on that note it’s nice to see a free game refuse to force players towards in-app purchases with all the subtlety of a guy with his four top buttons undone.

There are, unfortunately, a few negatives. For all the squeaky-clean polish on show, the visuals are so intensive that slowdown isn’t uncommon, particularly when other racers are on screen. And the other drawback to the intense visuals is intense battery drainage; don’t expect to play this game on the go for hours. Also, it does feel like there needs to be another layer to the racing. While tracks get more tricky to negotiate and the need for speed continually increases, there is more than a little repetition with not much in the way of evolution.


None of these problems are particularly trying when Downhill Xtreme is approached as a drop-in-drop-out title, and that approach will surely yield plenty of hours’ enjoyment from the game. As I said, it’s not quite the SSX equivalent that so many of us would love to see on iOS, but for now (and for free) it will certainly do. There’s plenty of good stuff going on in Downhill Xtreme to make it worth at least a try.

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2 Comments »

  • AIDAN says:

    THATS SICK DOES ANYONE KNOW WHEN IT COMES OUT FOR ANDROID PLS IM SO EXITED

  • catalog says:

    Keep out of bed the excellent work, I understand writing hardly any articles on this web site and
    I believe that your web blog is real exciting and holds lots of great information.

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