Straight away, there are multiple things I don’t like about Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition. I didn’t like them when I reviewed the Macintosh release in 2014, and I don’t like them now. But with the initial shock of Lara’s dark turn a decade out of the way, it’s easier to enjoy the game for what it is. (And it’s why we’re publishing a review so far behind its November 2025 release.)

Should I get my personal gripes out of the way first? This is not a Tomb Raider game, at least not in the classic sense. The series reboot from Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix removed pretty much everything that made Lara unique and made her…well, “gritty” is probably the official term, but aren’t all action gaming heroes gritty?

They also removed the tombs, mostly. The original games (most of which are now available for the Switch) were set in magnificently constructed tombs that tested your dexterity and puzzle-solving skills much like a classic Zelda dungeon. Sure, there were tigers and dinosaurs and bats to kill along the way, but the action mainly served to break up the challenging puzzles. That’s been flipped in Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, where the tombs have been relegated to sidequests. You stumble upon them in the jungle and spend a few minutes inside, but they feel like they’re getting in the way of the game instead of being the game. They’re like the shrines in Breath of the Wild.

All of this is driven by a coming-of-age story about archaeology graduate Lara and her desire to sail into the Dragon’s Triangle to search for the lost kingdom of Yamatai. This is one of those islands protected by malevolent weather patterns. They tear up Lara’s ship, scattering the survivors and forcing Lara to reunite with them and find a way off the island. I’ll leave the rest of the story to your discovery, but will say it’s all pretty hammy (and acted out accordingly) in the way that makes some of those made for Syfy Channel movies so fun to watch.

So, I’m clearly down on the development decisions. But those are all a matter of personal preference, and they don’t really affect the gameplay, which is quite thrilling when it kicks into gear.

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition is billed as an action/adventure, but the word “survival” should be included. From the very start, Lara has to hunt for food, craft her own tools, and get up from falls that, in an actual human, would break multiple bones and deliver concussions that even the NFL couldn’t ignore. In the aforementioned tombs, you often can’t locate the hidden treasures because you haven’t yet developed the right tool or skill to access them.

Docked mode screen capture adjusted for clarity.

Instead, you follow Lara through the plot points and action sequences. These are fun, and often quite intense; a solid mixture of combat, button mashing, button timing, and stealth. Everything moves along at a great clip when it’s not being slowed down by cutscenes and material grinding. And although every plot twist is met with a “well, of course,” the game still provides some segments of incredible impact. In one segment in particular (and if you’ve played the game, you know to what I’m referring), the gameplay, tension, cinematography, music and, yes, acting, are so expertly delivered that ​​it’s likely to stick with you for as long as you’re playing games. It’s moments like this that helped me look past what I wanted the game to be and to appreciate it for what it is.

Having played this game before, I already knew all of this. So, what does the Switch 2 bring to the table? Not as much as I’d hoped. The game plays at 60fps, but the visuals themselves still feel like they’re a generation behind. This is exacerbated on the original Switch, where 30fps is the best you’ll get. These benchmarks on both systems are achieved in handheld mode, too, which is fantastic. Maybe that’s why Aspyr didn’t take full advantage of the Switch 2’s hardware to give us visuals closer to the other modern console releases.

What they did take advantage of were gyro and Joy-Con mouse controls, neither of which add anything to the gameplay. The mouse functionality actually interferes with it, I’d argue. The game is much easier to play with Pro Controller, so don’t even bother taking the Joy-Con off of the system.

Docked mode screen capture adjusted for clarity.

Aspyr also made the great decision to aggressively price the game; both the Switch and Switch 2 version of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition are only $19.99. Oddly, there’s no upgrade price between the two. Considering the Switch 2 version really just offers better framerates and enhanced visuals, there’s therefore no reason to get it again if you’ve already played it on the Switch.

But it is a game worth playing if you never have (or haven’t since the original release). Lara Croft purists such as myself may be put off by this… “modern” version of the gaming icon? “Gritty?” “Vulnerable?” Pick whatever term you want from Screenwriting for Dummies, I suppose. It may define the character, but it doesn’t define the gameplay. For that, “entertaining” is an apt choice.

The post Review: Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (Switch 2) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

It feels like I’ve spent most of this week playing the game ‘avoiding the Christmas crowds’, but I did get to enjoy my own version of Thanksgiving where I just watched NFL for six hours, and didn’t have to think about turkey for another month. In terms of gaming, I’ve been playing a truckload of Octopath Traveler 0, as well as some more Tomb Raider Definitive Edition and Kirby Air Riders. Besides that, I’ve been checking out Assetto Corsa Rally, and messing with GeForce Now across a bunch of platforms to see how it performs.

First up this week, Gamoc has played Sweet Surrender for review, as well as Halls of Torment and Red Dead Redemption 2.

Bizarrely keen to try and take on the Marvel Rivals PlayStation Cup challenge next week, Ade has been practicing by polished off his review of the retro-styled scrolling beat ’em up Marvel Cosmic Invasion. The embargo for that is on Monday, so check out his review then!

Meanwhile, Jim has had a much quieter week. After flitting between a glut of new multiplayer games, he’s back to Ghost of Yotei as he focuses on finishing the main quest.

Aran has been playing Duskpunk for review, which is a mix of Citizen Sleeper meets the rough life in a town full of opportunities and misfortune. Sounds great to me!

Steve has been playing the natural pairing of Terrifier: the Artcade game and Spongebob Square pants: Titans of the Tide. This weird gaming concoction has had mixed results, with Steve telling us, “The first was unfortunately pretty rubbish but the second is a solid, albeit short, 3D platformer” He continued, “With those wrapped, I’ve moved onto an indie space horror that’s been years in the making and is wonderfully atmospheric.”

And finally, Tef has been curling himself up into a ball for an upcoming review, while also dabbling with some upcoming Warhammer 40,000: Darktide DLC, and dipping into some cheap Black Friday sale pick ups, like Loop Hero.

And what about you? Have you played anything this week? Why not tell us about it!

It’s easy to throw around the word ‘classic’ when talking about games, but 2013’s Tomb Raider stakes a solid claim to the label. This is the game that reinvented Lara Croft for a new generation, setting in motion a great trilogy of action games, while also inspiring a new cinematic outing for the British heroine.

Some 12 years later, that original title has finally raided its way onto Nintendo’s consoles for the first time, for both the Switch 2 and the original Switch. Returning to the game in 2025 reveals just what made it so special, though you may want to experience it on the Switch 2, rather than its older sibling.

With the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 release, Aspyr has ported across the Definitive Edition of the game with all of its original DLC, scrubbing the game up and enhancing it with a few Nintendo-specific bells and whistles. In 2025, it is definitely showing its PS3 and Xbox 360 origins, but that doesn’t diminish its status as one of the best action-adventure games of all time.

To be honest, just the fact that Lara is listening to wired earbuds in the opening cutscene is enough to date Tomb Raider, but her shipwreck and subsequent kidnap have lost none of their initial impact as she’s separated from her friends amidst some truly terrifying iconography.

The Nintendo Switch 2 version of the Definitive Edition is certainly crisp and sleek looking, and while the textures are showing their age, it’s still an eye-catching game, all these years later. It’s also running at a locked 60fps, making it feel as smooth and responsive as you could hope for a 12-year-old game. The original Nintendo Switch version sticks to 30fps and a lower resolution, but it’s otherwise the exact same game, just losing some of that sense of immediacy.

I’d forgotten just how brutal Tomb Raider 2013 was. Lara is impaled within the first five minutes of the game, she spends most of her time screaming, grunting, or dying, while she’s surrounded on all sides by dead bodies, walls covered in bloody smears and flickering candles.

Admittedly, most of the dead bodies here are of Lara’s making, and as a Lara Croft murder-simulator, Tomb Raider Definitive Edition is visceral, painful and without mercy. She is, of course, fending for her own life, and those of her friends, while trying to escape from a cursed island full of cultist soldiers, but at least once or twice you’ll likely wince with the impact of a few of the blows.

So much of what we think of in terms of the modern action-adventure was in place for Lara’s 2013 outing, and while some of the gameplay elements are definitely of their time – hello split-second QTEs with instant death for failure – there are other aspects, like the life-like climbing and clambering, dual-path skill tree, stealth kills and kinetic bow and arrow action, that remain as of-the-moment as anything else released this year.

The Rihanna Pratchett-penned tale also ekes out plenty of drama from the proceedings, and manages to make Lara feel both vulnerable and terrifyingly strong and single-minded. It’s been long enough since my last playthrough that I’d forgotten many of the story beats, and I was easily wrapped back up in the island of Yamatai.

Aspyr have opted to include some features that are exclusive to the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game, but… well, they’re not especially useful, or impactful. First up are motion controls. ‘Great! That’ll work really well for lining up those head shots or hunting a deer’ I hear you say, but wait! These motion controls are only for spinning around artifacts that you’ve discovered, which isn’t particularly useful.

There’s also mouse controls, which is great when a lot of developers seem to have forgotten that they exist. Unfortunately, they’re so sensitive as to be completely unusable in their current form, which makes you wonder how much testing Aspyr put into them before launching the game. Perhaps the shadow launch was also a surprise to the development team?

Sarcasm aside, both of these things can be easily fixed with a patch or two, which I hope Aspyr will be willing to put the time into, and neither is integral to the experience. With the game sitting pretty in second place on the Switch charts right now, I’d hope it’s worth their while to finish things off.

A big part of that draw will be the budget pricing, with it retailing for a very reasonable £16.39, plus a 10% launch discount to knock it down to £14.75 on both Switch 1 and Switch 2. While the Switch 2-specific features offer literally nothing as it stands, it’s a great game to return to once more, and it still holds up visually, particularly on the smaller screen.

Impressively, Aspyr have even fired up the multiplayer servers, and while many players won’t even remember that Tomb Raider had a multiplayer mode, it’s here in its entirety, letting you sneak around, finishing off other players with abandon. Thanks to the game’s popularity right now, there’s also plenty of players to face off against, so if you fancy a spot of 2013-centric Lara Croft multiplayer, you can.

Tomb Raider Definitive Edition may offer returning fans a nostalgic run through one of Lara Croft’s best adventures, but in 2025 it’s still a remarkably solid experience, especially on the Nintendo Switch 2.