Tomb Raider: Anniversary for PSP Reviews & Ratings by IGN

Few reviews I've written have garnered as much hate mail and as many death threats as Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary on the PlayStation 2. Preachers, homemakers and dozens more posted their outrage over my scathing review. I gave it a 7.8. Literally, that means the game was "good" in my opinion. Now, the title has crossed over to the PSP as a near-perfect port of the console outing. If you missed the review that launched a thousand comments, Anniversary is Lara's original 1996 adventure re-imagined with the Tomb Raider: Legend engine. That means you're chasing the Scion of Atlantis through Peru, Greece and Egypt like in the original game but you have access to Lara's grappling hook, 45-degree jumps and shimmy abilities like in Legend. It's an excellent mix. I distinctly remember trudging through the original Tomb Raider on my PC at a snail's pace and cursing the tank controls for our voluptuous heroine as she fell to her death for the umpteenth time. Now, Lara moves swiftly and nimbly across ancient temples, which are updated versions of the original levels, and sprawls out to grasp at whatever ledge she can while airborne. Even when you fail -- and you will -- most of the time you feel like Lara's trying just as hard as you are. You're a team this time as opposed to when you were just guiding Lara's brain-dead body in '96. She'll grab edges with her fingertips, and you'll need to tap a button to help her regain her composure, and improvements like that -- taken from Legend -- make moving through Anniversary much easier than the original. There's a variety of levels (snow, water, jungle, etc.), the gameplay is solid (jump here, pull this, etc.), and the puzzles are as challenging as ever (I'm down here, but I need to get up there. Oops. I'm dead). However, the biggest accomplishment the PSP version pulls off is the accuracy at which the PS2 game has been transferred to UMD; it's spot on. We're talking the exact same levels, enemies, extras and options. That might not sound out of this world, but it's rare to see a PSP counterpart not suffer major drawbacks on the flip. This is the PS2 game in your pocket. However, that's not to say there aren't any drawbacks -- both to the port and the game overall. On the port side, my major gripe is its camera. If ever there was a title that screamed for a second analog stick, it's a Lara Croft game. Twisting the camera left or right on the PSP falls to the corresponding shoulder buttons, but they're a bit sluggish. You can center the camera with triangle, but it's a bit jarring and once freaked out and started spinning around me. Engage an enemy, and the viewpoint can get sticky.

Of course, engaging an enemy with a perfect camera isn't that much fun either. Just as in the console version, I found myself bored with Lara's battles. Anniversary sticks with the original's few enemies and has you capping mummies, wolves and raptors as you uncover new areas. It was a fun throwback to go toe-to-toe with the T-Rex again, but the animal kingdom is just as stupid and easy as its 11-year-old counterparts. The bear comes at you, you climb up the stairs, bears can't climb stairs, and you shoot Smokey to death. Repeat for any other savage beast that comes at you. There is one nice touch to the otherwise mundane battles. When an opponent charges at Lara, you can press a button prompt on-screen, Lara will jump to the side and a Matrix-style slowdown will begin. Eventually, a red target will appear on the baddie, and Lara can pull the trigger for some serious damage. Still, that's just one cool tidbit of a boring battle system that has you spend the majority of your time standing on a summit shooting dumbfounded animals below you -- if you can get the camera to pan in that direction. Graphically, Anniversary on the PSP seems a bit sharper than the PS2 version, but the earth-tone temple visuals are still drab and sometimes bleed when you spin the camera.

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