Tomb Raider Starring Lara Croft (ngage: 2003): Reviews

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Tomb Raider Starring Lara Croft


7.0

based on 16 reviews
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based on 15 votes
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What more could you ask for than the delectable Lara Croft in the palm of your hand? Classic monster-shooting, exploration, and puzzle-solving action is on offer here, as Lara seeks the Scion, a relic from Atlantis. With 15 huge levels (set in South America, Greece, Egypt and Atlantis) and, even though it runs on a handheld device, full 3D graphics, this is, simply, the best portable version of Tomb Raider ever. Factor in a downloadable Assault Course which lets you compete against a ghost image of your friend's effort, and you have a winner. [Nokia]

PUBLISHER:	Eidos Interactive
DEVELOPER:	Core Design - Ideaworks3d
GENRE(S):	Third-Person Action, Adventure
PLAYERS:	1
ESRB RATING:	T (Teen)
RELEASE DATE:	October 6, 2003

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

GameNow

It runs at a surprisingly smooth framerate, and every one of Lara's moves can be pulled off with ease. [Nov 2003, p.76]

Game Power Australia

For those looking to impress their mates with fancy 3D N-Gage graphics, the game is a must-have.

GameZone

The button layout can become confusing and be a burden during the heat of battle. After playing through a few levels it will become easier to play, but you still might have some trouble.

GameBiz

Most important is the gameplay and that is faithfully intact. You can double gun bats, bears and bad guys, back-flipping, side-flipping madness of a battle with a pack of wolves is just as irritatingly fun as it should be.

IGN

The biggest problem most people will likely have with Tomb Raider is the controls. This is an issue that harkens back to the original version of the game, but has been slightly worsened by the N-Gage's button layout.

N-Gage World

This is a piece of gaming history gone portable and should definitely not be overlooked.

GameSpot

An inconsistent frame rate, clunky controls, and even some lengthy loading times conspire to prevent the game from being much fun.

Console Gameworld

Where Tomb Raider does shine is in the graphics department. Environments are nicely textured, and Mrs Croft and her animal adversaries animate pretty fluidly.

Pocket Games

It looks OK, but the gameplay takes a bit to get used to. [Spring 2004, p.18]

Play Magazine

The N-Gage's funky aspect ratio actually hurts this game a lot, though, and when you factor in the terrible control - why the annoying automatic run? - it's just not fun having to guide the leaden Lara through her clumsy paces. [Dec 2003, p.96]

Game Informer

I will admit the game looks amazingly close to the PSone original; but some things have been edited down, and waiting for levels to load on a cartridge game is just silly. [Oct 2003, p.51]

GameSpy

Tomb Raider on the N-Gage may look great for a handheld, but it's also a single-player experience on a multiplayer-friendly console, and a dull one at that.

GMR Magazine

Frustrating controls and hard-to-see ememies could keep you from ever seeing the N-Gage exclusive levels. [Nov 2003, p.101]

Thunderbolt

In the end, if you've bought an N-Gage, try to avoid this title.

Gaming Age

There's not much to admire here except seeing PSone graphics in their glory squished into one eye-sore adventure.

GamePro

But blocky, oatmealy graphics create muddy environments that are nigh impossible to navigate... The lack of detail and depth perception poisons every aspect of play.

The average user rating for this game is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 15 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Yiu C.H. gave it a3:
The game is a bore. One down point is that the game has an auto-aim system, even for FPS. Also, the graphics is in the worst of state. It is nearly impossible to figure out the difference between a button on the wall and the wall itself. Theres almost no ingame music. It's simply a waste of money and if you are looking for lara craft, look elsewhere.

Ashley K. gave it a 9:
This is what the n-gage is all about. forget spider-man, forget the sims, forget sonic(though i am a die hard sonic fan and do own sonic-n), this was the reason i bought the n-gage.graphics-10/10 gameplay10/10 originality5/10(this is a clone of the original tomb raider). this is its biggest down fall. if this game was originally created for the n-gage i feel this would have scored big to everyone. i feel people have compared this game to many of the other more greater tomb raiders that came after the ground breaking original. upon looking back to yester-year i discover that this game had nothing bad said about it by the critics. so what makes it so different now? like i said the improvements in the newer tomb raider games. so if you are going to judge it, think of it as either the actual game itself or as a golden oldie.

Ahmet gave it a 10:
supreme. it's more suitable for tomb raider and lara's fans.

Nick M. gave it a 9:
You actually have a 3D Lara Croft game in your pocket with your phone! I love it!! -so, if N-gage (nokia) can get their thumbs out, and give us more games like this in the future...

St00 gave it an 8:
I totally agree with you Andy D, although I had to give it 8 because it isn't perfect. But there's no way that the people who gave 0/10 can be serious. The quality of this game is comparable to PS1. The game is an almost exact port of that version and as such has the same issues that people had with that game. I personally have no problem with the control, D, were you playing some un-finished beta version or something or do you have giant pad mashing fingers??? Mat C and D, if the N-Gage is so bad then why do you have one, and if you don't why are you so desperate to bad mouth them? For anyone who liked the PS1 version, you'll love being able to play this wherever you go while others sit at home playing asteroids on their Ataris!

Andy D. gave it a 10:
I can't believe that the people who have written the bad comments about this game, have actually played it. I'm not a huge tomb raider fan on PC or the Playstation, but I have dabbled, so when I got T.Raider for my n-gage I was more than pleasently surprised to find that the graphics are superb, as is the game play, yeah some of the monsters come up on you a bit quickly, but no one wants an easy win, and as for the controls, I don't know what everyone is complaining about, Lara is so easy to control. My advice to anyone who owns an N-Gage is buy this game, you'll like it, and to all others who don't have an N-Gage, stop putting it down, don't be afraid of change and new technology. rant 'n' rave over The Abductee.

NGageMeBaby gave it a 10:
Tomb Raider, originally released on the Sega Saturn, started what I like to call the gaming renaissance. Playing the new and, believe me, far improved version is like being reborn into a euphoric paradise where you are loved by all creatures and plants.