Apple’s free app this week is Extreme Skater HD.

This is one of those games where the developers eschewed usual button style controls in favor of using the iPad’s accelerometer. You control the player by tilting the iPad left and right, and for some moves you’ll also need to swipe the screen.

Thee are 78 levels, and you can earn points to upgrade your character’s skills, equipment, and even get new skaters. You can find the app in iTunes.

So Apple has been running these free weekly app promotions for a couple months now, and a certain pattern has developed. It seems that Apple alternates a game with another useful app, week after week. While the apps have been at least somewhat useful, I wish Apple would pick better games. This one isn’t going to appeal to very many iPad owners, and some past free games like Catapult King are not so great knockoffs of famous games (Angry Birds, for example).

I still plan to get the free app each week but so far it seems to be equal parts junk and usefulness.