Tomb Raider |
N-Gage |
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Review by Matt Paprocki |
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Adventure |
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Graphics: 8 |
Sound: 5 |
Gameplay: 4 |
Overall: 4 |
![]() Back in 1996, this was a new experience, and the clunky, slow control scheme was easy to dismiss as a minor problem. Now as better games have eclipsed it, there's no excuse. Jumping onto a three-foot high ledge should never be a problem, but since there's a separate jump and grab button, no camera control, unresponsive automatic running (which cannot be turned off), and aggravatingly boring walking, traversing this tough obstacle becomes more challenging than escaping the clutches of a bear. It should be obvious already that this Core-developed title can't hold up. The N-Gage brings a few new problems along with it. Without shoulder buttons, strafing is an impossible thumb exercise. Every face button is used, making this overly convoluted and entirely unnecessary. N-Gage Arena fans can challenge a ghost racer and nothing more. If you're experiencing Tomb Raider for the first time and somehow manage to find the controls adequate in anyway, you're in for a fair adventure. Targeting is automatic, so even when the vertically aligned screen blocks over half your viewpoint, shooting a threat doesn't pose a problem. Seeing where you're going is a severe problem now because of the screen, even though the graphics look a little cleaner than they did on the home consoles. ![]() There's a reason each edition of this franchise sold fewer copies than the one previous. It's an awful game that managed to work as a new experience. With each entry, the controls and slowly declining quality sank it. This first Tomb Raider shows how bad it really was, and there's no room for leniency because it's running on an over powered cell phone. |