Tomb Raider Preview

I guess it is fair to say that pretty much everyone is sick of Lara Coft by now, but Core Design are still pumping out Tomb Raider after Tomb Raider, oh well. Anyway, this time it's the Gameboy Color fans who get to taste some of the action whilst playing with Lara, (ooh err missus!). The story is set in a Peruvian jungle, where there is this magical rock known as 'The Nightmare Stone' that is hidden in a lost temple. Lara has to basicaly go and get it, because if it falls into the wrong hands.... well you can guess it's the usual, "if the baddie gets it then we're all in the sh*t", type of senario.

Here's how the makers set the scene:

Lara has been contacted by her good friend Professor Igor Bowmane, who works in the Ancient Artefact department of the university of Moscow. He has told her of an old manuscript which recounts the last few years of the reign of Moctezuma II, found by a captain under the leadership of Cortez, the Spanish Conquistador.

In the manuscript it tells the legend of THE NIGHTMARE STONE, one of the few religious icons the Spanish failed to plunder. The manuscript also tells of an evil god named Quaxet, that ruled the Aztec, Mayan and Inca lands.

To stop the evil force, all three cultures joined together. Three High Priests battled and defeated Quaxet and entombed his spirit into a crystal orb. From that day the crystal orb was named THE NIGHTMARE STONE. The stone was then sealed into a vast Obelisk forever.

The Obelisk was then sealed inside a vast temple built by the Priests, to prevent anyone ever unleashing Quaxet again.

Professor Bowmane tells Lara that he has been in contact with his friend Illiat, a fellow curator in Peru, who warns him that there have been 'interested parties' enquiring about the whereabouts of the manuscript. Illiat, unsure of their motives, told them nothing.

Bowmane wants Lara to find the stone before anyone else. Lara immediately embarks for Peru to meet Illiat at the temple entrance, where the stone was kept.

On arrival at the camp besides the temple, Lara finds nobody waiting for her; the only thing she does find is the remnants of a struggle, and Illiats broken glasses.

She follows some footsteps that lead all the way up to the edge of the temple which just stop. Lara looks all around this area, pulling and pushing at rocks, until an opening appears before her, being Lara she casually strolls in the temple and watches the opening close behind her.

Hummm, well anyway, it seems like there packing a fair bit into this the first Tomb Raider for the GBC, one thing which I will be looking out for is the audible speach which should be available in the game, if this is true this will be the first game I know of for the GBC which has this, and should be a great step forward for GBC games. Any fans of the originals will not be dissapointed as it looks like you will be able to do pretty much everything your could do in the original Tomb Raiders, the only main difference is that it will be played as a platform game. There's all the usual jumping, swimming, climbing, puzzle solving, baddie killing, all in the usual Tomb Raider style. This is managed by specifically rendering the original Tomb Raider animations for the Gameboy Colour version. They even say that the game will look 16-bit with similar graphical quality to the SNES or Megadrive (wow!). Personally I'm waiting to see if they include into Lara's moves, the funky dive (into water).

Tomb Raider is set to be released in March this year. Over all this might just prove to be the first Tomb Raider game that is worth getting. Of course the best thing to do will be to check out the games xtreme review :) just as soon as it is written. Watch this space.

Thanks to the kind guys and gals @ Core Design Ltd, who gave us this info.