Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Prophecy – GBA – Review

This isn’t Lara Croft’s “biggest” adventure,
by any means. But even reduced to less than an inch tall, the adventurer
still looks pretty good.

Core Design, Eidos Interactive and Ubi
Soft have partnered for a new GameBoy Advance release of Lara Croft Tomb
Raider: The Prophecy. Sure, the game is very linear and rather than challenge
players to the same sort of cerebral and reflexive action-adventure that
enthralled PC users ages ago, relegates the adventure to an arcade nature.
But hey, this is Lara Croft, and that means action against a host of bad
guys.

The backstory to this game has Lara deciphering
the forgotten Tome of Ezekiel, which was penned by a mysterious medieval
scholar and details what magic supposedly is. Thus she finds herself in
the mountains of Sweden (not dressed for the occasion, but then she rarely
is), searching for the Black Stone. It lies somewhere on Wolf Fang’s Peak
and will reveal what magic was or is.

From the outset of this adventure, you
will quickly understand that this game leaves little to the imagination.
Hang from a ledge, climb up and down ladders, jump from platform to platform,
hit the switch, collect power-ups and shoot almost everything that gets
in your way ­ that’s about the extent of it.

The game’s visuals are two-dimensional
but try to emulate a three-dimensional feel by staying away from the horizontal
scrolling action popular with some arcade games. Lara can move vertically
as well as horizontally. The game boards are mazes with traps and pitfalls
that block the way.  The environments looks very good, and the animation
is also well done.

The game’s sounds are repetitive and offer
little new to the genre.

The game controls are very simple. The
d-pad pushed Lara in the direction needed, while the L button has her sprint.
The A button is to jump and the B button is the action button. The R button
either pulls out or puts away weapons. There are three weapons in the game
that Lara can use: her standard guns, an Uzi and Golden Guns (which are
the most powerful weapon in the game).

Of course the snowy landscape of a Swedish
mountain is not the only place that this adventure will take Lara. She
will also get the opportunity to explore Grecian temples and a fortress
in Romania.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Prophecy is
merely an average arcade-adventure game. Lara’s presence, her range of
athleticism missing, is really wasted here. The game does have strong graphics,
and is a reflexive outing for those who enjoy the genre.

This game is rated Teen for animated blood
and violence.

Reviewer’s Scoring Details

Gameplay: 7

The game is linear and while the map boards
are a reasonable size, this is a pure arcade adventure featuring the foibles
encountered in that format.

Graphics: 7.5

The animation and environments are well
done. The game tries to emulate the 3D look, but is merely a two-dimensional
vessel.

Sound: 6.8

Nothing new or exciting is featured in
this aspect of the program.

Difficulty: Easy

The control elements are simple to understand
and use. There is challenge in the game, but not much excitement.

Concept: 7

For what it is, this game is well-designed
and very user friendly. The player interface is simple and the control
elements take little time to get accustomed to. However, in some regards
this game is playing off the Lara Croft title for an average gaming experience.

Multiplayer: N/A

Overall: 7

While not a bad game, it certainly does
not live up to the Lara Croft legend. This is an arcade-adventure game
that is enjoyable, but rather average.