Even so, once you've done the treasure hunt style challenges like wall-ride 5 fire alarms or collect the letters S-K-A-T-E, you’ll find you rarely play the entire 2 minutes, due to instinctively reaching for the pause/restart sequence of button presses to try for a better run. If you’re good, you can theoretically keep skating for another minute or more after the buzzer. This structure means you can always enjoy a quick session, but, cleverly, the game keeps running even after the clock expires so long as you’re performing a trick or combo. The game mostly plays out in timed, two-minute chunks. Vicarious Visions has wisely stopped short of introducing the dismount and climbing features from Tony Hawk’s Underground. There’s an optional tutorial at the start of the game, and it’s worth playing even if you’re a Tony Hawk’s veteran, just so you’re aware of the systems used here that are borrowed from later games. Naturally, the goals have been elevated to fit, but this control uniformity does remove the little variety between the two games, so they don’t really feel that different any more.
These make for a much more enjoyable and flowing game, with far higher scoring potential. The main change is the introduction of THPS2’s manual and THPS3’s revert flatland tricks into the package-the latter at the request of Tony Hawk himself. (Image credit: Activision) Revert to save
