I have to admit that I’ve never been a big fan of the Lara Croft series (Angelina Jolie on the other hand – wah wah wah!) as I only really played two Tomb Raider games on the Dreamcast. And while those were great games, the graphics of the PS2 (all those dark caves and first person running) put me off a bit. So I wasn’t expecting much from the mobile version, but boy was I wrong! The graphics are really nicely done. There’s a well drawn title page to greet you. The main character is fairly small but detailed enough (sorry boys, the pixels aren’t that large) on the phone and the traditional outfit and hairstyle are great. Also, when you get alerts, a still shot of Lara appears in the bottom left hand corner which looks exactly like the console version. The graphics in game are very well put together, they are bright but retain the air of being inside a pyramid and a really nice touch is that the windows in the background have the sky and another pyramid outside and the view changes as you progress downwards! The animation is smoothly done and doesn’t feel jerky at all. There are some cool animations with the running, shooting, climbing and hand gliding down ropes. The sound is passable. There is no music to the game at all, not when you load the game up or when you play in-game. There are some small sounds when you are dragging boulders around. There is vibration when you die or get hit which is a nice touch. The controls are really simple and very easy to use. There is a training mode which is excellent at teaching you all the things you can do. The directional or key pad will control the character. Up will jump up or climb, down will crouch. Without your gun, the action button (5 or the centre button) will jump across. Use 0 to draw and holster your gun and the action button to fire. The action button will also pull levers etc. There are things to pick up as well which is achieved by pressing down over an item. You can run by double tapping a direction and holding on the second tap, ie to run left tap 4, hold 4 or tap left, hold left. Lastly you can pull and move blocks. Use the action button to grab it and then push or pull. What I really like about the controls is that they are really responsive (except when you want to run, that takes a second to register) and you can’t jump without pressing the action button. That means that you can wander around happily without the fear of falling off ledges or ladders. To jump you have to press the action button. The playability is great. The training mode itself is a lot of fun to play and will show you exactly what you can do in the game. There are three other modes once you have completed this, Adventure, Arcade and Time trial. Adventure has the storyline associated with it, arcade doesn’t. Time trial is self-explanatory. There are 12 levels and you can only play each mode up to the level you are currently on in adventure. It’s a one player game but there are plenty of traps, obstacles and puzzles to keep you entertained. You can also replay levels but if you do this in adventure mode you will start again at that level and have to continue from there (ie the levels you unlocked won’t be available). One really nice touch is the fact that if you complete a level without collecting all the items you need to finish the game, you get a message saying so and the chance to restart the level. I really enjoyed this game a lot and basically didn’t put it down for a week until I had finished it. I am definitely checking out the next two versions!! The durability of the game is also pretty good as there are 12 levels to play. The initial levels don’t take that long to play although I spent a while figuring out level 4. There are 3 modes to keep you entertained and overall the game itself is just fun to play. I think that even now, after clocking the game I would keep it for a while to keep myself entertained.
