Released in 1996, the original Tomb Raider for PS1 (or, more accurately, the Sega Saturn, THEN the PS1) was a cultural phenomenon – offering a strong female protagonist inspired by the likes of Martin & Hewlett’s Tank Girl (albeit with fewer random acts of sex and violence). We were treated to an exciting combination of puzzle-solving and action, all rolled into a delicious mythological burrito; many sequels later, the series has earned cult status, even receiving more than one reboot trilogy, an astounding animated series, and a bunch of mediocre action movies.
As 2007 rolled around, we were treated to a remake of the original game in the form of Tomb Raider: Anniversary – taking the core story of the first game, this particular edition gave a new lease of life to the 11-year-old graphics, including more polished visuals and the removal of some of the more irritating aspects of the first game, and a complete overhaul of the controls and gameplay systems; this in itself was incredible, but as with all games, the cycle of remasters continues anew.
In 2024, we were presented with Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, which have now been updated for the Nintendo Switch 2 alongside a significant patch encompassing new challenge options and cosmetics to unlock. We will get back to those challenge options later, but it’s important to talk about the elephant (or I suppose low-poly dinosaur) in the room: why does this exist?
Despite the series’ classic status, Tomb Raider is a game that has been blurred heavily by rose-tinted glasses – its action set pieces are still marvellous despite their low-poly look, but even with a modernised control scheme to remove the pesky tank movement, jumping between platforms can be hit and miss. Combined with a combat system that hasn’t aged gracefully and more failure conditions than a Resident Evil biohazard containment unit, there is much to be desired when revisiting these games.
It’s not all negative, though – remastering the original games gives a much more polished and sleek look to the games while preserving their geometry, making environments feel more alive than the patchy textures of the originals. It even gives you the option of playing with the classic textures at the press of a button, something I heartily recommend doing once or twice in each area to get a feel for the difference; colours feel more balanced, light becomes less harsh, and the sharp edges of Lara’s head suddenly soften and give way to something resembling an actual human face.
As a feat of preservation, Tomb Raider I-III Remastered are a marvel, keeping the original feel of the games intact and giving players the option to play as close to the classic feeling as possible (short of getting the original hardware) while also allowing players to bask in an improved version of all three titles. What lets the game down is how little staying power the original Tomb Raider trilogy has – slippery inputs, unrefined gameplay and a general uphill battle to make progress leave a sour taste in the mouth, making the game frustrating in an engaging way, not in a challenging one.
At this point I wish I could speak more positively about the remaster, particularly given my own nostalgia for the series – the games in the Tomb Raider franchise have improved so much. drastically over the years that I find it difficult to go back any earlier than the PS2 era for an enjoyable experience, which is why I am also excited for the newly announced Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis to retell Lara Croft’s most famous story in a slightly more digestible format.
The Nintendo Switch 2 release of Tomb Raider I-III Remastered does at least coincide with an extensive list of new challenges to add to the games so the more hardcore fans can delve into the experience with fresh eyes. Allowing you to modify various facets of the game, these challenges create a unique “challenge rating” that not only gives you a new approach – whether that’s changing your damage output and health or increasing the number of enemies you will come across.
In a strange twist of fate, these options, which are supposed to serve as an extra challenge, also provide a degree of accessibility, allowing you to increase health, tone down the challenge or even let Lara breathe underwater. It’s a breath of fresh air (or fresh water in the latter’s case) to be able to lower the difficulty in some aspects, though it still doesn’t fix any of the gripes I have with the core game.
Fittingly, the Nintendo Switch 2 and mobile versions of the trilogy feel more satisfying to play – improved graphics and resolution are a massive upgrade, but a smaller screen does make this collection feel more at home. The mid-nineties were an era of great technological advancement, but most TVs were still under 30” in size and were often as thick and chunky as a mascot for a cookie dough company – unless you were sitting eye-burningly close to the screen, your first experience of Tomb Raider was likely on a fairly small and fuzzy view.
If you have never played the original Tomb Raider games, this is a terrible point of entry – it’s informative and will definitely provide wider context to the series, but this game is solely designed for people who already love the games in spite of their shortcomings. This might be controversial, and I would suspect even other writers at So Many Games would disagree, but game design has evolved so spectacularly in this flavour of action-adventure that it has left the original games thoroughly in the dust.
Other 1996 titles such as Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot: Warped continues to be loved because they created the gameplay foundations for what we see in modern platformers, but when even a single console generation later we are presented with vastly improved gameplay, the Tomb Raider games should be viewed as the kind of things Lara Croft thrives on relics of a time gone by and a reminder of how far we have come. Now if we could get a remaster of Tomb Raider: Underworld instead, that would be much better – especially given that 2027’s Tomb Raider: Catalyst is set to be a direct sequel.
