Tomb Raider is a media franchise consisting of action-adventure games, comic books, novels, theme park rides, and movies, centring on the adventures of the female fictional British archaeologist Lara Croft. Since the release of the original Tomb Raider in 1996, the series developed into a lucrative franchise of related media, and Lara went on to become a major icon of the video game industry. The Guinness Book of World Records has recognised Lara Croft as the "Most Successful Human Videogame Heroine" in 2006. Six games in the series were developed by Core Design, and the latest four by Crystal Dynamics. All the games were first published by Eidos Interactive, now Eidos officially became part of Square Enix on 22 April 2009, meaning Square Enix owns the rights to the Tomb Raider trademark and characters of the franchise. To date two movies, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, have been produced starring American actress Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft. A reboot was announced in 2016.
The Tomb Raider video games have together sold over 45 million units, making it one of the best-selling video game series of all time. Future Tomb Raider games will be published by Square Enix.
Overview
Video games
Main series
Other games
These games are not part of the main series as they are either handheld, mobile or spin-off games.
The Tomb Raider Trilogy
The Tomb Raider Trilogy is a collection of the three second era Tomb Raider games: Tomb Raider: Legend, Tomb Raider: Anniversary and Tomb Raider: Underworld. It was released on 22 March 2011 in North America and 25 March 2011 in Europe exclusively on PlayStation 3 as part of the Classics HD line. The games were originally developed by Crystal Dynamics, in association with Buzz Monkey Software and Nixxes Software BV, and were ported to the PS3 by Buzz Monkey Software.
The collection includes the PlayStation 2 versions of Legend and Anniversary remastered in high definition plus Underworld, which was previously released on the PS3 in 2008, all on one Blu-ray Disc. Also included is PlayStation Network Trophy support, bonus Lara Croft and Viking Thrall avatars for use in PlayStation Home, a theme pack for the XrossMediaBar and making-of videos.
The two downloadable episodes available for the Xbox 360 version of Underworld are not included, and Crystal Dynamics has no current plans to make them available on PS3. The Angel of Darkness, the first Tomb Raider game to be released on the PS2, is also not included in the collection as it was developed by Core Design rather than Crystal Dynamics and has no relation to the story told in Legend, Anniversary and Underworld.
Level Editor
The Tomb Raider Level Editor, Room Editor, is a tool released by Eidos Interactive with the video game Tomb Raider Chronicles in late 2000. Later, it was made available free to download from the Internet. Since then it has enabled players to design new levels of their own, set in locations from the original games or in new locations.
The Action Adventure
An interactive DVD was released by Bright Entertainment under license from Eidos in 2006, called Tomb Raider: The Action Adventure. The game takes advantage of standard DVD player audiovisual capabilities, and the remote control. It has puzzles and action elements, while the story is based on The Angel of Darkness.
Films
MGM and GK Films announced a reboot of the series with Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft and Roar Uthaug set to direct.
Soundtracks
There have been four releases of Tomb Raider film soundtracks, two for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and another two for The Cradle of Life, each a Various artists soundtrack compilation and an original score.
However, to date it is only the 2013 reboot that has seen a soundtrack released and sold commercially, available via the Tomb Raider Store ( http://tombraiderstore.com/media/cds/tomb-raider-soundtrack-cd.html ). The remaining game soundtracks that have been released are four promotional samplers.
References
External links
- Official website
