After the disaster of "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5," one can understand the apprehension about such remakes. After all, the latter of the two games offered in "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2" is one of the best games ever. It starts off so teasingly, with the right fonts, the right music, and the right menu style. Then, when you break through the first wall and enter the iconic warehouse level, the last barrier between what you expect and what you believe is literally shattered. It looks and plays great.

THPS1 looks like an expansion pack for THPS3, with significant improvements in terms of fluidity, visuals, and trick systems. Above all, modern elements are completely eliminated, such as fitting into grind rails regardless of approach angle and using digital button combos to perform tricks instead of swinging the analog stick. Some might say the moves are rudimentary and outdated, but they still offer the best risk-reward play ever, chaining trick combos, wrestling with the balance meter, and risking losing everything with a single mistake. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 feels just like the series in its prime, if not exactly the same game as the original.

The main change is the packaging of the THPS2 manual and THPS3 flatland tricks. This makes the game more fun and fluid, and the scoring is much better. Naturally, the goals have been raised accordingly, but this uniformity of operation has eliminated the slight variety between the two games and they no longer feel so different. Both feel great now. An optional tutorial is provided at the start of the game, but it is worth playing even if you are a Tony Hawk veteran; Vicarious Visions wisely stopped short of introducing a climb down feature from Tony Hawk's Underground. This feels pure and right.

The game unfolds in mostly two-minute increments. This structure allows for quick sessions at any time, but cleverly, the game continues to progress as long as you are making tricks and combos as time passes. If you're good, you can theoretically continue skating for another minute or more after the buzzer sounds. However, once you get into the treasure hunt challenges, such as wall-riding five fire alarms or collecting the letters S-K-A-T-E, you will instinctively reach for the pause/restart button to skate better, and you will rarely play for the full two minutes. If I have any criticism of the game, it would be that the slight delay in the transition screen should have been eliminated. Sure it is still fast, but it should definitely be instantaneous.

There are plenty of levels to explore and enjoy, but even if you forget where all the collectible icons and secret tapes are, you won't be playing career mode for hours until the veterans run out of things to do. Perhaps a day or two. Everything is cleverly designed, and the constant drip-drip-drip of unlocks and checkmarks makes for a very satisfying campaign while it lasts. (Come to think of it, unlocking "mods" like perfect rail balance basically breaks the finely tuned skating, so it's best to avoid it.)

For those who want to squeeze every last drop out of the package, there are plenty of challenges available. Winning the challenges, which appear on the right side of the screen each time you return to the main menu, unlocks new clothing, decks, and videos. Strange that "Find the Secret Tape" alone doesn't unlock the Secret Tape, but oh well. (No, don't do that. That also means that the motor head will not appear. But if this works out, there may be a THPS3 remaster. I'm hopeful. )

And there are numerous gaps to jump, special tricks to learn, and statuses to upgrade. The game is simple enough for anyone to enjoy on their first try (because even screwing up big time on the school stairs is fun), yet deep enough to keep you playing for weeks on end. There are hidden areas to open to discover, fun set pieces to see, and sometimes "judgment" sessions where bailing can make or break your score.

Besides the career mode, there is a skatepark builder mode with several levels designed by Vicarious Visions themselves, and an online leaderboard as a separate pillar from the career mode. Sadly, it seems that some of these entries have already been hacked, but it is still clear which times are real, so doing well still makes sense.

Then there is online play with an event-type round robin, where you can thankfully turn off collisions while watching other boarders around you. While we expected to lose miserably to master players, we did not encounter any technical problems during play.

Local multiplayer is also exemplary, with a wide variety of game types available, including a split-screen mode that runs smoothly and "H-O-R-S-E," where you are awarded a letter each time you lose to a fellow player in a one-shot combo test. Each time you lose to a buddy in a one-shot combo test, you are awarded a letter, which you can change to anything you want. This is one of the best local multiplayer modes ever, and "Trick Greed" turned out to be a great leveler.

There is nothing phenomenal in terms of graphics, but the basic geometry of the old levels has been strongly remastered. The detail on vehicles and skaters is much improved, there are no obvious pop-ins, and there are many standout moments in the lighting and texture work. My Nvidia RTX 2070 ran the game almost flawlessly at 1080p auto max settings, but stuttered a bit on the long downhill style levels. When the server connection would drop out, the game would freeze a few times in a row trying to reconnect, sometimes ruining the combo I was trying to get going. Other than that, everything else is as expected. The soundtrack is censored (as usual), but there's nothing like listening to Rage Against The Machine's Guerrilla Radio while cannonballing. Make that xxx big.

With a great scoring system, impeccable level design, improved visuals, an exemplary online mode, and local multiplayer, there's nothing to complain about; even veterans who would clear the game in a day will continue to play competitively. This is everything you need and feels amazingly fresh. A great piece of work.