Skateboarding legend Rodney Mullen, the man credited with inventing the most basic of skateboarding tricks (like the ollie, the kickflip, the heelflip, the impossible, and more) is lending his name to a new augmented reality skating game. Rodney Mullen’s Skatrix is in development at Niantic, the company responsible for Pokémon Go and other AR titles.
Skatrix is also being made by developer Reality Crisis and will launch on Android and iOS devices. If that was all it wouldn’t be such a massive deal but the game is also headed to “supported mixed reality and spatial computing headsets”. That means the Apple Vision Pro, among other headsets, will have access to the extreme sports title.
Rodney Mullen’s latest trick
If you don’t know who Mullen is, we’ll explain it in terms that’ll probably make the most sense. He’s to flatland (or street) skating what Tony Hawk is to the vert ramp. Mullen has starred in various Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater titles over the years but this’ll be the first time he’s got headline billing.
Actual gameplay is slim but there’s some of it out and about. It looks to be an interesting take on classic skating titles, with the added tweak that players can skate anywhere. A bookshelf, a sink, your desk at work, and even an actual skatepark are fair game. It’ll include the sort of geolocation features that drive most of Niantic’s experiences, so if you build a skatepark in a remote location, other folks may be able to tear up your lines in a bid for the best score.
The game will map existing (and virtual) terrain, allowing your chosen skater to spine into your bathtub before grinding the handrails and, depending on how small you’ve rendered your character, possibly attempting a grind around the plug-hole. It’s not quite as bonkers as attempting to skateboard with a Vision Pro on your head but that’s hardly the dumbest thing we’ve seen happen with Apple’s new tech this week.
Rodney Mullen’s Skatrix is due for launch later this year. We’ll be checking it out, both as a mobile-only title and as an AR headset experience.