When I was younger, I was always convinced that the first Tomb Raider game got a sort of remake on the Game Boy Color. It makes a lot of sense in my mind, since the title of the game was Tomb Raider. And in the same time period, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine also got a port to the Game Boy Color. That game was an interesting remake in 2D. Now, we are not here to discuss an Indiana Jones game, so let us focus on the Tomb Raider games.

I do not always do research before I start playing a game. This game is one perfect example. I just started the game up, expecting the story starting with a rendition of the Ice Caves. But, to my surprise, the game started up different. 

The actual subtitle of the game is The Nightmare Stone. On the box-art, we just got Tomb Raider as a title. On the box-art, we see that Lara is running away from an erupting volcano and behind her, you see several skeleton enemies. The bottom section is reserved for company logo’s like Eidos, Core Dynamics, the licensor Nintendo, and the publisher THQ. We also got the “Only on Game Boy Color” triangle in the left corner.

The game was released in June 2000. On June 7th, North America, Europe got it on June 28th and the UK two days later. Only Australia got the game a little bit later. Their version got released on July 18th. Nowhere on the box-art, the game got the subtitle The Nightmare Stone. The game just released as “Tomb Raider” in North America and released as “Tomb Raider: starring Lara Croft” in all other regions. This is a practice also done with the other Tomb Raider games. It would have been easier if they just added the subtitle, to make conversation easier.

The critics gave Lara Croft is first entry on the Game Boy Color very high praise. Various gaming magazines and websites gave this title 8 or 9 out of ten. The average score of this title is 79% on the aggregator GameRankings. One of the lowest scores I could find was by a German magazine named 64 Power in their June issue, giving it a three out of 5 or 60%.

Since Core Design developed this game, it will not be a surprise that you find a lot of developers on this game also worked on the main Tomb Raider games. This game was developed by people who knew how a Tomb Raider game should play. In this title, Lara is hunting after the Nightmare Stone. This stone is in possession of a treasure hunting group who wants to use it to release the evil god Quaxet, a factious god in the Mayan mythology.

Playing through this game, you really want to play through a Tomb Raider game. Of course, there are some big differences since the game got released on a handheld. The most obvious difference is that the game is in 2D. There were only a handful of 3D Game Boy games, and most of them did not involve jumping. 

Another significant difference with the main line Tomb Raider games is that this game plays a lot slower. The controls are more limited on the Game Boy Color, and more action-packed gameplay could not really be implemented, per se without it becoming really clunky. 

Speaking about the controls, it takes some time to get used to. I mostly played platformers or adventure games on the Game Boy, and I was so used to push the A button to make my character jump. But Lara jumps with the up arrow in this game. Not only that, if you want to climb up ledges, you need to hold B. Which is the button you use to run. If you are moving left or right and press B, Lara starts running. When Lara is running, and you press the jump button, Lara jumps in the direction she is running. This gives you a hint how to jump a gap when standing still. You have to press B first before the jump button to jump over a gap.

This control scheme is quite ambitious since there is no real tutorial in game explaining the controls. You do not have a training or testing level in Lara’s home. The manual explains these things quite well, but if you bought your copy today from a garage sale without the manual, I would advise you to look for it online. The control scheme is something that you will not really expect from a Game Boy game. 

Earlier, I mentioned that this game has a slower pace compared to the main line Tomb Raider games. That was intentional. If you start running everywhere, you will find that this game will be quite harsh and brutal. There are several pits and gaps that either eat a good chunk of your health or kills you right away. Enemies are also hidden everywhere, and their damage can be unforgiving. 

You cannot save where you want in this game, since the save crystals from early Tomb Raider console games return in this game. Learning where the save crystals are important. It is the only way you can save, and it is you respawn spot when Lara losses all her health. The save crystals are not close to each other, either, so I was always happy to find one. 

If you do not really know the controls, it can feel a bit like trial and error. For example, I did not know that when you are running and jump, Lara will land further than from a standing jump. I did not expect this mechanic to be in the Game Boy Color games as well. Other things like dynamite being able to use to explode walls, which is something I’d have loved to get explained to me.

Overall, visually, this game is extremely impressive. Once everything starts clicking together, and you get used to the controls, this game is a hidden gem on the Game Boy Color. When you know what you are doing, this game takes around 4 hours to play through. For a first playthrough, I would say that you can finish this game in roughly 15 hours. 

The game must have been quite successful since a year later we got a new adventure in the same engine and style. Eidos tried to get this game released around the time the first Tomb Raider movie released. Tomb Raider – Curse of the Sword, released in late June in North America and in August in Europe. 

This time, the game was not released by THQ, but by Activision. Most of the team who worked on the first Game Boy game also worked on this title. Because this game got a shorter development time, this game is shorter compared to the first Game Boy Color game. If you know what you are doing, this game can be beaten in two and a half hours. For a first playthrough, I estimate that it will take 8 to 10 hours. 

The sequel got the same reception from critics when it released. This game still shows off impressive visuals for the Game Boy Color. Remember that the Game Boy Color is an 8-bit system, and these two Tomb Raider games had such fluid animations that it looked next-generation. Did you know that there are over two thousand animation frames per game to make the animation work? Lara’s model is also forty-eight pixels, making her one of the most detailed characters on the Game Boy Color. 

Personally, I feel like both games are amazing entries into the Tomb Raider series. While they play quite different from their console and PC counterparts, both are an amazing adventure through various locations. You still must solve various puzzles and platform your way around. In Curse of the Sword, you even have a chase sequence on the rooftops. 

When I look with a critical eye at these two games in 2024, I would say that the lack of a tutorial for the controls really hurts the game. Also, some people might be put off from the difficulty level of this game. These games have some really difficult sections. Use the save crystals well! Otherwise, you might lose a lot of progress. And if I am really nitpicky, I could say that some areas would benefit from a map screen. But the levels are a bit too complex for those and with the small Game Boy Color screen, the map might not be even readable. Thankfully, there are various sources online, like Stella’s Tomb Raider site (tombraiders.net) that have amazingly drawn maps. 

When you read this, you might think that beating these games without a walkthrough is almost impossible. But do not worry. These games are quite linear and straight forward. I rarely got stuck in these games by not knowing what to do next. Most of the time, I did not know I was able to perform a certain action or how to solve a certain puzzle. 

The streak of releasing a new game every year continues in November 2002. The Game Boy Color was on its way out, and the next title was released on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. For this title, Ubisoft Milan was tasked with creating a new game. That is because the main team was working on the sixth main title, Angel of Darkness. Tomb Raider – The Prophecy was released to mixed reviews. It released in early December in Japan.

This game played quite different compared to the Game Boy Color titles and played more as a top-down isometric puzzle platformer. If I am very honest, this is the gameplay style I expected more of the Tomb Raider series on the Game Boy. It is mainly because I associate Tomb Raider more as a top-down game on handhelds than it being a 2D side view game. The Game Boy Color version of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine showed me it was possible to have a game like that on Game Boy Color. 

The story of this title is about the Tome of Ezekiel. In this tome, a story is told about three magical stones that bring great power. She faces a big cult by the name of Teg-du-Bhorez. The game takes about 6 hours to complete on a first playthrough. If you really know what you are doing, this game can be beaten in 2 hours and a half. 

Honestly, for a portable Tomb Raider adventure, I really enjoyed this one. It is a rather underrated gem in my opinion and really can be quite exciting to play. Especially since the formula really works this way on the Game Boy Advance. The big issue is that reviewers compared it too much to the mainline series, which is quite unfair to do. What I can agree with, is that this game can feel a bit repetitive at times in terms of puzzles and level mechanics. But it is way less repetitive compared to the Game Boy Color titles, since a lot more puzzle solving like statue placing is used. 

The final Tomb Raider title on the Game Boy line of platforms came in 2006. After the very mixed reception to Angel of Darkness, the IP was given to Crystal Dynamics and Tomb Raider Legend was born. Talking about that, can be an entire article in itself. But, to close off this article, I want to quickly focus on Tomb Raider Legend on the Game Boy Advance. I know there is a port to the Nintendo DS, but I do not have any nostalgic memories for that one. I do have nostalgic memories for the Game Boy Advance port.

Now, let me tell you, the Game Boy Advance port was rough. The game went back to the style in like the Game Boy Color games. Yet, it also tried to do intractable doors. I can totally understand why reviewers back in the day were extremely negative about this game. Especially, since the console and PC versions of this game were such a blast of fresh air in the series. 

Still, why did I beat this title 100% three times? Because, it had a certain charm. You could find various secrets in the game to unlock secrets like concept art or even cheat codes. But you were not able to see if you got all treasures in a level. The jumping and swinging controls were a bit awkward, yet you had very forgiving checkpoints. 

There are a few things that stick with me to this day, the fact that the final boss is rendered a joke in this version. Just mash the attack button and you easily win. No matter the difficulty. Also, the mini-games and exploring Lara’s home were fun distractions as well. Moreover, I want to thank all the pizza boys who delivered me pizza during the writing of this article, like in the credits of this game.

And with that, I want to wrap up this brief nostalgic look into the 4 Tomb Raider titles on the Game Boy Color and Advance. My name is NekoJonez and if you enjoyed my writing and want to read more of my work, you can find me over at: https://arpegi.wordpress.com. I want to thank you all for reading my article, and I hope you enjoy the work of the other writers in this magazine. But for now, I am out! I hope to welcome you in another article but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care!

Editorial note: This article has been written for a gaming magazine. Did you find this article interesting? Then you should read the other articles right here. Thank you so much Dominus for letting me publish an article. There are various articles about Ultimate Underworld Retrospective – Sin God – The Making of the Wipeout logo design – …

Steam store page

One of my favorite activities in Minecraft is going deep inside the caves and just exploring them. A few years ago, the developers behind Cave Digger reached out to me and asked me to review their game. Not too long after, the sequel got released and looked like it would be a VR exclusive. Until I noticed that it appeared on the Nintendo Switch eShop. So, I thought, maybe it also released on Steam, since after playing the Switch version, I felt like this game was better played with keyboard and mouse. Now, a non VR version is on Steam now… But is it worth it? Well, after playing the first sections of this game, I want to talk about it. The latest update was on May 28th, 2024 when writing this article. Now, before we dive right into it, I want to invite to you leave a comment in the comment section with your thoughts and/or opinions on this game and/or the content of this article.

Risk of Staleness

In this game, we play as an unnamed miner who is throwing into the deep end, when his digger broke. You arrive at a mysterious valley. In this valley, a hardy explorer once did his research. But why? Which secrets are in these valleys and the accompanying mines? That’s for our miner to figure out. Now, the story is being told by various comic book pages you can uncover and, according to the Steam store page, has multiple endings. I’m quite curious where it’s going to go.

So far, I haven’t gotten too deep into the story. But, from what I can read on the Steam store page, I think it has potential. I have my doubts on how the multiple endings will work. Since comic books mostly have one ending, right? Unless, it all depends on which page(s) you find or in which order or where. That’s something I’ll discover when I’m deeper into the game.

If this game is like the original game, the story overall will take a backseat for the gameplay. And after 5 hours in, that’s the case. The original game didn’t have a lot of story to begin with, but more story in a game like this can be interesting.

There is one voice actor in this game. He does a pretty fine job and brings some life to the atmosphere. I replayed a bit of the first game and I have to be honest, I appreciate the small voice lines during the exploration. Even when you quickly hear every different line, it’s a nice break since they aren’t spammed and don’t appear that often.

One of the biggest changes in this game is that the cave this time around is randomly generated each time you enter. So, this game becomes a rouge like to a degree. But, you can always exit via the lifts to safety. Since, dying in the caves means that at least half of your obtained loot is dropped. The atmosphere this time around is very cohesive. This game presents itself as a sci-fi western game, and it really feels like that. Something I really like in this game is that it doesn’t go overboard in the sci-fi genre and stays grounded. The technology could realistically exist today, apart from the unique enemies in the cave, that is.

With the story taking more of a backseat, it’s quite important that the gameplay loop is enjoyable. The gameplay loop is simple, you have to explore the caves with 4 chosen tools. The three slots above the entrance give you a hint on which tools you will need to bring to gather the most loot. You take the lift down and gather loot, while fighting enemies and avoiding pitfalls to survive. The goal is also to find the other elevator that takes you down to the next level to gather even more valuable ores to bring to the top. You have to fill in the ores you gathered into the grinder to buy upgrades to your tools and environment to progress.

The big risk with this kind of gameplay loop is that this is just a different numbers game. What I mean by that is that, apart from maybe the visuals changing, the core concept is always the same. This risks that the game becomes stale and repetitive. It’s possible that it is just a “me thing”, but I enjoy games like this more when there are some variations on the gameplay or some different puzzles. Thankfully, this game has that. There are a lot of things you can upgrade and improve to make each run feel rewarding, and each type of cave you can visit has different enemies types and unique lay-outs to keep you on your toes. In a way, I dare to compare the idea a bit to Cult of the Lamb in a degree.

The music in this game is also a blast. It fits the atmosphere of each area like a glove. My favorite track is the track that plays in the lake caves. It sounds like you image a typical track like that to sound. And it gets more intense while you are fighting enemies down there. Now, the silent moments when the music doesn’t play feel a bit long, but I always know that there is more music coming and that it fits the atmosphere perfectly and draws me more into the game. Sadly enough, this isn’t the only problem with this game, and I’d like to talk about them.

No feedback

This game has an addictive gameplay loop, and I’m really curious how the multiplayer works. I haven’t tested the multiplayer in this game, but it looks like fun. Now, this game can be played solo perfectly fine.

Now, I don’t know if VRKiwi took the VR version as a base for the non VR version, since I have the impression, that is the case. I especially notice that with the controls in this game. It feels a bit floaty, like you aren’t really connected to the ground. It also feels a bit stiff, like you have to move your mouse like you would a VR headset. You really have to play with the settings until you hit that sweetspot that feels right for you. For me, I had to lower the sensitivity to 80, amongst other things. I highly recommend that you tweak the settings to your liking, since on the Nintendo Switch version, I had to lower the sensitivity to 40 before it felt right.

Still, the character control doesn’t feel right. At first, I thought it was because the controls felt floaty… But, after some testing, I think I found a few other problems with the character control that might cause it to not feel quite right. First, the jump in this game is just silly. You can’t really rely on it, since it doesn’t always trigger when you hit the spacebar, and it’s just a pathetic jump. You can’t even jump out of ankle high water sometimes.

Secondly, there are no sound effects for walking on most floors. You feel like you are floating, and it’s jarring when you suddenly hear a sound effect when you walk over a table or a railway. Thirdly, climbing on ropes amongst other things is just insanely picky. There is also no real feedback or sound to show you grabbed the rope. Fourthly, the scroll order between tools is extremely weird. You get numbers on the wheel counter clock wise. But you go down, right, left, up. Which still confuses me after 6 hours of playing this game.

And finally, some things are extremely picky. For example, there are safe riddles you can solve down in the caves. But to rotate the letter wheels to make pick the right letter is more difficult to do. All of these things give you a feeling that you aren’t always in control of your character and that you don’t get the feedback as a player on what’s happening. Making you unsure what’s happening and doubt if you are doing the right thing.

Prompts like “Use W/S to use the crank” should be “Hold W/S to use the crank”. Since, you need to hold the key instead of pressing it. Small things like that could also improve this game and it’s controls quite a lot. Overall, the controls are good, but they lack feedback to the player sometimes. Either with sound effects or with some visual effects. Like with the hammer, you barely have any sound effects when you use it, and it has some wind up animation, making you unsure if you are using it or not.

That is one of the biggest flaws in this game. The lack of feedback on your actions. Things like not knowing how many bullets are still left in your revolver or a sound effect when you hit an actual enemy. I think if there is one thing I’d use the built-in feedback tool is to report various cases/moments when I expect feedback from the game, like a sound effect or visual effect. Maybe they appear in the form of rumble effects… But, I’m not playing this game with a controller.

When you read this section of the article, I wouldn’t blame you if you think that this game isn’t good. Small bugs like the text of “Press R to reload” when your gun isn’t equipped or the bullets not leaving from the gun but from the player model don’t improve things either. Yet, I find myself looking past these problems since the core gameplay still works. I find myself getting used to the jank in this game and finding a very rough diamond. If the developers keep up with their promise of improving this game, I think that more action feedback will bring a lot to the game and maybe fixing the small bugs like in this paragraph as well.

Things like the animation of the shovel looking weird sometimes. The animation looks like the arms go through each other after a dig. Speaking of the shovel, the last dig is annoying since you have to move a pixel or two for it to count and give you your goodies. But the bug I’d love to see fixed most is the freeze for several seconds when you pick up something new or get a new codec entry. The game locks up like it’s about the crash, but it doesn’t.

What’s next for us?

Usually, I’m not really picky when it comes to the visuals of a game. As long as a game looks consistent, I’m quite happy. It needs to have a certain style so that you can quickly identify what’s what and enjoy the game.

Yet, for this game, I do have some things that I not really like in terms of the visuals. Firstly, the contrast of some ores and the floor isn’t clear enough. Sometimes I was passing up on ores since I wasn’t able to notice them on the ground.

There are also a lot of objects to give more details to the cave, but you can barely interact with them. I’d love to see lilly pads in lakes to move a bit when you walk past them or something more than just being able to clip through them. As well, a sound effect when you hit a wall you can’t mine. You get shouted at when you use the wrong or a too weak tool on something, so when not for the rest?

I think the biggest mistake that the visuals make is that it has an identity crisis. What I mean by that is that it isn’t a cohesive style. There is a lot of shell shading going on, but there is also a lot of details that give off a more realistic vibe. Some textures aren’t detailed enough and strechted too wide giving wrong impression the rest of the visuals that look more modern. The floor textures sometimes suffer most from this issue.

Looking back at this article, I think I’m being very critical for this game. I have played a lot worse and broken games for 15€. But, in this game you even have customisation options for your character and thee developers are extremely open for feedback. This game has a lot going for it. Fun achievements to hunt for, bosses at the end of runs and an amazing auto save system.

Apart from improving the character controls and adding some feedback on actions, I think this game is pretty decent. Yes, there is some polish missing like not having a tooltip with the lever at the cave entrance on what that lever does. I personally feel less conflicted about this game compared to the original. The growth in this title is immense and brings me a lot of hope for either some amazing updates, DLC or a new entry in the series.

The basis of for an amazing title is here and if you look past it’s short comings, this game is a blast to play. Maybe it’s a bit too repetitive for some and can be more fun in short bursts. But, when this game sinks it’s hooks into you, it really clicks. There is some polishing left to do and for a rather new VR focused developer, this is amazing. It’s their second non VR game and it shows a lot of promise.

The game is a perfect relaxing game to wind down, since it isn’t too difficult. The game is rather forgiving. I wouldn’t be surprised that I play this game after work to wind down and try and finish it slowly. Then again, while I’m writing this, I have summer holidays and I wouldn’t be surprised that I finish most of this game during my summer break.

Like I said earlier, I feel less conflicted about this game compared to the previous title. This game has a lot more going for it compared to the original. It’s less repetitive and it has a lot more going for it. It has it’s problems, yes. But, if you enjoy games like Minecraft, Steamworld Dig or Cave Digger, give the demo of this game a chance. The demo gives a very good idea on what you can expect from this game and if you enjoy it, buy the game. I’m enjoying myself quite a lot with this game and I’m happy that I have chosen the PC version over the Switch version since I feel like it just plays better. But maybe, if I get used to the Switch controls, I might enjoy it on Switch as well.

With that said, I have said everything I wanted to say about this game for now. Maybe when I finish this game, I might write a full review with the final thoughts and opinions on this game. But for now, I think the best conclusion for this game is that it’s an amazing step up from the original and besides some unpolished things… It’s a great game and comes recommend from me.

So, it’s time to wrap up this article with my usual outro. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article, but until then have a great rest of your day and take care.