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Lara Croft on a handheld console but in 3D – who would have thought that we'll live to see this.
Tomb Raider for N-Gage is a port of Miss Croft's first adventure that we saw so many years ago on PC and Playstation. This is perhaps the one title that among the available titles showed best what the N-Gage is capable of. 3D levels full of jumping, climbing, fighting and swimming, show that on the N-Gage things are possible that you can’t think of on any other handheld.
All-in-all the graphics are quite good, although some details in the landscape like steps and other obstacles are sometimes not recognizable from a distance, and you have to get closer.
The playability and therefore the controls are quiet good too, except for something which likely was intended to be a feature, but will turn out to be quite annoying for some players. Once you press up on you controller. Ms. Croft will start running into the direction she is facing but if you let go of this directional button she will keep running into this direction. Only once you press the back button will she stop. This feature was likely thought to reduce the stress to your fingers which would have to press this button most of the time. but it makes accurate running at times quite hard, and you often run against a wall because you “forget” to stop the marathon lady first. You wouldn’t like it either if your car kept accelerating although you are not on the gas pedal anymore – no?
Online & Multiplayer features
Similar to Pandemonium we have different sorts of hints and walkthroughs available online, but most of the walkthroughs are not linked yet. Shadow Racing is available too, but because of the more complex controls and levels I personally don’t like it as much as the Pandemonium! one. Unique on the other hand is the possibility to post clips of moments you think worth remembering. A built-in recorder can store short videos of you playing the game, and if you want others to see them, you can put the online. Nothing breathtaking, but it is an interesting feature.
