It looks like Lara Croft is making a comeback. The classic Tomb Raider video game trilogy is getting a remastered release for the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo announced during this week’s Nintendo Direct Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft. The special game compilation release is going to be available exclusively for the Nintendo Switch starting on Feb. 14, 2024.
The game compilation of the classic Tomb Raider game trilogy is now available for pre-order on Nintendo’s website. You can also check out the announcement trailer for the remastered game trilogy revealed during this week’s Nintendo Direct in the player below:
THE REMASTERED TOMB RAIDER TRILOGY IS COMING TO THE NINTENDO SWITCH
The upcoming game release will feature updated visuals and graphics. However, old-school gamers will still have the option to switch from the new graphical visuals to the original polygon visual look and graphics from when the games were first released in the 1990s. The compilation also includes all the expansions and hidden levels for the games.
The original games may seem a bit archaic and dated these days, but they were fairly prolific for their times. The very first game with Lara Croft was originally released for the SEGA Saturn in 1996 before being released on MS-DOS and Sony PlayStation. It was a fairly revolutionary game for its time, not only because it was a 3D adventure, exploration, and puzzle game, but it also had a female protagonist and playable character in Lara Croft, who became a pop cultural icon, spawning decades of media, films, games, comics, and more. New games and media are still being made and developed for the franchise to this very day.
The original game in the trilogy was such a huge hit, that it sold over seven million copies worldwide. Tomb Raider II has sold about as many copies as well. The third game, The Adventures of Lara Croft, was also highly successful, selling about six million copies worldwide.
It’s also impressive that these games were so successful when 3D platform adventure games were still a relatively new and developing concept. There were plenty of imitators and failures in the second half of the 1990s, but the Tomb Raider series emerged as one of the true success stories, and the series became a global phenomenon.
The games were so successful, that they also became a hit film franchise, with two films starring Angelina Jolie. The first movie starring the Oscar winner grossed $131 million at the domestic box office and $274 million worldwide. The role of Lara Croft drew another Oscar winner for the 2018 reboot, simply titled Tomb Raider. The film did not do as well domestically, making only $58 million domestically, but it did better overseas, making $274 million worldwide.
Currently, Amazon Games announced a partnership with Crystal Dynamics to develop a new multiplatform Tomb Raider title. The game project was announced in December 2022. Per Amazon, the new game is set to continue Lara Croft’s adventures in the game series.
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In addition to the new game, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny star Phoebe Waller-Bridge is also developing a new series for the franchise for Amazon Studios. Amazon Studios also acquired the rights to a new live-action feature for the franchise that’s currently in the works.
Interestingly enough, the 2010s Tomb Raider reboot game trilogy developed by Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal has never been released for the Nintendo consoles. They’ve been released on many other platforms but never a Nintendo one. The first game in the franchise released on Nintendo Switch was The Lara Croft Collection.
Gamers can pre-order the Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft game trilogy right now on Nintendo’s website for $26.99, marked down from its regular price of $29.99. So, it’s currently available for a 10% discount. The new game from Amazon and Crystal Dynamics is also still in the works, but it does not have an official release date.
What are your thoughts about the news? Are you happy to see the classic Tomb Raider games getting remastered releases on the Nintendo Switch? Would you plan on buying the trilogy for the Switch? What are your thoughts on the other Tomb Raider media in development? Do you think these games are underrated gems, and are you a fan of the classic Tomb Raider games? Let us know your thoughts on The Illuminerdi’s social media.
SOURCE: Nintendo of America
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