Coordinates	37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N
Title	Tomb Raider
Caption	The original Tomb Raider logo (top) the 2003-2010 logo (middle) and the latest 2012 logo (bottom).
Publisher	Eidos Interactive (1996–2009)Square Enix (2010–present)
Developer	Core Design (1996–2006)Crystal Dynamics (2006–present)
Genre	Action Adventure
Website	Tomb Raider franchise website
First release version	Tomb Raider
First release date	October 1996
Latest release version	Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Latest release date	18 August 2010

Tomb Raider is a media franchise consisting of video games, comic books, novels, theme park rides, and movies, centring around the adventures of the 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 virtual gaming industry. The Guinness Book of World Records has recognised Lara Croft as the "Most Successful Human Virtual Game Heroine" in 2006. The first six games in the series were developed by Core Design, whilst Crystal Dynamics developed the latest four; their fifth game is currently in production. Two movies - and - have been produced starring American actress Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, the first of which is still the highest-grossing film adaptation of a video game ever released in U.S., and second worldwide behind .

Lara Croft

A map indicating places visited by Lara Croft during the video games: {| style="float: center;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="1" "position: center" |- | |}

, the 6th and final of the official Lara Croft models (2008-2010)]]

The central character in Tomb Raider is the British archaeologist Lara Croft, a female adventurer in search of ancient relics used by Thor, the God of Thunder, King Arthur and many others. Lara was created by one-time Core designer Toby Gard, and grew out of a number of ideas discarded in early concepts. She appears almost invariably with brown shorts, boots and small backpack, a dark green or blue sleeveless top, holsters on both sides of her hip for dual wielded pistols which carry around 30 bullets together. Over the course of the series, her 3D model has undergone gradual graphical improvements, as well as enlarged (and later reduced) breast size.

Over the course of time, the Tomb Raider series' canon has undergone various changes or retcons. These changes correspond to the series entering a new medium, such as comic books or film, or being taken over by another game developer. For example, in the first Tomb Raider game manual, Lara Croft is said to have survived a plane crash in the Himalayas at the age of twenty one, and was later disowned by her parents, who are still living. However, in the comics, Lara lost both her parents and her fiancé in the crash. The films make no mention of a plane crash, Lara's mother died when she was too young to remember, and her father died under different circumstances. When development of Tomb Raider was transferred from Core Design to Crystal Dynamics, Lara's biography, only ever mentioned in instruction manuals, was contradicted by a new biography which supported an in-game sub-plot concerning the deaths of Lara's parents.

In addition to the voice actresses who have been responsible for Lara Croft's spoken dialogue during the games, a number of women have taken on the role of Lara for applications outside of the games themselves. Six different women have served as the official Lara Croft model for publicity purposes, including model Nell McAndrew, actress Rhona Mitra, and, most recently, gymnast Alison Carroll, who held the job until 2010 and is reportedly going to be the final Lara model as part of a new direction for the character. American film star Angelina Jolie portrayed Lara Croft in two feature-length Tomb Raider films, which together grossed nearly US$500 million worldwide, making her role as Lara the most well known and widely seen of any other.

Nearly fifteen years after the release of the original game, Lara is still one of the most famous and recognizable video game characters in the history of the medium. The debate over whether she is an icon of female empowerment or a vessel for male titillation has existed for as long as she has, but the huge effect she has had on both gaming and popular culture in general can not be denied.

Video games

The Tomb Raider video games have together sold over 35 million units,if you do not include the sales of the portables, TV remote-controlled versions and mobile phone releases, making it one of the best-selling video games of all time.

The original game, titled Tomb Raider, made its début on the Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and PC. Despite being released on the Saturn first alongside PC, it was one of the titles responsible for the PlayStation's success in the mid 1990s. The games present a world in 3D: a series of tombs, and other locations, through which the player must guide Lara. On the way, she must kill dangerous creatures or other humans, while collecting objects and solving puzzles to gain access to an ultimate prize, usually a powerful artifact.

Tomb Raider, an early example of the 3D genre, uses third-person shooter mechanics. The player's camera follows her, usually over her shoulder or from behind. Until Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, the game's environments were largely orthogonal, as a result of the creators' decision to extend the 2D platform game genre to a 3D world. This is shown through Tomb Raider's gameplay, which is very reminiscent of older platform games like Prince of Persia and Flashback that had a heavy focus on timed jumping interspersed with combat.

Each game has introduced new weapons and moves; by the fourth game, Lara could back flip off ropes and turn around in mid-air to grab a ledge behind her. Tomb Raider: Legend introduced an electromagnetic grapple that Lara can attach to metal objects and can, amongst other things, be used to make rope swings and pull metal objects (and enemies) toward her. Standard moves in Lara's range of abilities include the somersault, a roll, climbing techniques, the ability to swim, a swan dive manoeuvre, and a handstand. In Tomb Raider III, a sprinting move was introduced that allowed Lara to quickly speed up while a bar in the lower corner of the screen drained her stamina. In Tomb Raider: Chronicles, Lara was able to bar-swing and somersault/roll out of crawl spaces higher than ground level.

, one of the creators of Tomb Raider]] The storyline is usually driven by the quest for a powerful artifact, with Lara in a race against a sinister shadow league who want to obtain the relic for their own purposes. These artifacts usually possess mystical powers and may be of supernatural, or even alien, origin. Often in the series, the antagonist uses the artifact or bits of it to create terrifying mystical monsters, creatures, and mutants which Lara must defeat throughout the journey.

Originally, the Tomb Raider Games were developed by Core Design, and a game was released annually. However, the pressure grew so much on the team that they decided to kill Lara Croft off at the end of the fourth game. Still, a fifth game was released, which consisted of a series of flashbacks with Lara Croft's funeral serving as framing story for the various tales. The sixth instalment Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness revived the character and was to start a trilogy. The game infamously featured a darker more city-based setting and included stealth-elements and also introduced a new playable character for a short time in the game. The game was a failure, thus ending the Core Design Era.

In the early 2000s, a series of hand-held titles were released for the GAME BOY color and GAME BOY Advance, which were developed by other developers, neither Core Design (except the second GameBoy game) nor Crystal Dynamics and are therefore not considered to be part of the series.

Crystal Dynamics, known for their work on the Legacy of Kain series, relaunched the series with Tomb Raider: Legend which brought the character back to its tomb raiding roots. It was the first time since the original Tomb Raider that Lara Croft's original creator, Toby Gard returned to work on a sequel. The game heavily expanded on Lara Croft's background, detailing on the loss of her mother in early childhood and how she followed her father's footsteps to find her (therefore beginning her archaeology career). Following the success of Legend a remake of the original was produced and released almost a year later, called Tomb Raider: Anniversary. The game expanded on some of the plot lines, further setting up the follow-up to Legend, which was released in late 2008: Tomb Raider: Underworld. The game featured the conclusion of a loose Trilogy that forms Anniversary, Legend and Underworld.

Following that, the Structure in Crystal Dynamics changed and part of the team worked on a new spin-off, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, while another began working on a reboot of the franchise.

On August 18, 2010, Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix released a download-only title, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, the first game in the series not to bear the name Tomb Raider. The omission of the Tomb Raider branding was said to separate Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light from the "pillar" Tomb Raider games, which are also still being produced.

In an interview with GamingIndians.com, Ian Livingstone, Life President of Eidos Interactive, announced that the next Tomb Raider was currently in the works. Livingstone stated "I think [it] will surprise a lot of people and reinvigorate the franchise." The official site revealed the next Tomb Raider game which is simply titled Tomb Raider, It is described as a reboot of Lara Croft. It is expected to be released in the third quarter of 2012.

Music

All the scores to the Tomb Raider saga are produced by respective composers using software instrumentation, such as recording samples and electronic synthesizers. The exception is which was recorded live by the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios, London, in 2002.

A few Tomb Raider soundtracks have had official releases made (see: Soundtracks). However, the majority of the in-game music has yet to be commercialized. Eidos has expressed no concern (despite considerable fan demand) in 15 years of publishing the franchise. Even though score commercialization became common ground during the late 2000s (with music being sold from blockbuster titles such as the Halo, Assassin's Creed, and Mass Effect series), soundtracks to the Tomb Raider saga remain unreleased. This may be due to Eidos's lack of a music sub-group, such as rival companies' Ubisoft Music or EA Trax.

The composers are unable to sell their music independently because under employment as in-house composers (at either Crystal Dynamics or Core Design), they are also tied to Eidos (as the parent company) by contract. Subsequently, Eidos owns the licensing rights to the composers' material. An example of this exploitation is Troels Folmann's recycled music from and (plus O'Malley's ) present in the 2010 game Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, and Aleksandar Dimitrijevic's inability to sell his discarded music for Tomb Raider (2012).

It is unclear whether or not the situation will change after Square Enix Europe's acquisition of Eidos in 2009. However, SEE does support a Square Enix Music sub-group.

!width=120 !width=160 !width=160 !width=160 !width=160 !width=160 !width=160

+ Pillar Release by Core Design	Data/Game	Tomb Raider(1996)	Tomb Raider II(1997)	Tomb Raider III(1998)	(1999)	Tomb Raider Chronicles (2000)	(2003)
General mood || Classical music, Ancient Mystery || Classical music, Fantasy || Classical music, Adventure || Ancient, Mythical || Military, Fear || Obscure, Chased
Main composer || Nathan McCree || Nathan McCree || Nathan McCree || Peter Connelly || Peter Connelly || Peter Connelly
Collaborator(s) || Martin Iveson || n/a || Martin Iveson, Peter Connelly, and Matthew Kemp || n/a || n/a || Martin Iveson, Peter Wraight (orchestrator), and David Snell (conductor)
Main theme duration|| 3:15 || 2:46 || 2:18 || 2:17 || n/a || 3:08
Material expanse || ~17 minutes || ~19 minutes || ~35 minutes || ~18 minutes || ~16 minutes || ~51 minutes
Commercialization || Promotional only || Promotional only || Promotional only || n/a || n/a || Standalone, Enclosure

!width=120 !width=160 !width=160 !width=160 !width=160

+ Continuation by Crystal Dynamics	Data/Game	(2006)	(2007)	(2008)	Tomb Raider (2012)
General mood || World, Modern || Dramatic, Atmospheric || Journey, Chased, Relaxation || Unsettling, yet Familiar
Main composer || Troels B. Folmann || Troels B. Folmann || Colin O'Malley || TBA
Collaborator(s) || n/a || n/a || Troels B. Folmann (supervisor) ||TBA
Main theme duration || 2:20 || 3:37 || 3:33 || n/a
Material expanse || ~180 minutes (loop forms)|| ~56 minutes || ~110 minutes || n/a
Commercialization || Enclosure || Enclosure || Enclosure || TBA

The basic instrumentation for the Tomb Raider scores is orchestral, though the games adopt different instrumentation and tone with each instalment in the series. Nathan McCree's style when scoring the first Tomb Raider is most similar to Classical music, especially the cues with a fast tempo. Additionally, slow tempo cues are built on a minimalist base using minimalist cells and two to four repeated musical notes. Different instruments like the vibraphone, strings, harp, or woodwinds provide a mysterious setting for the player.

Stings were used very often to warn the player about an impending danger, or if the player discovers a certain area. As an example, if the player picks up a secret object or, in later games, if he/she discovers an area with that object, a short vibraphone sound may be heard indicating the player has found a "Secret". The sound has been used in the first five Tomb Raider video games, including Tomb Raider: Anniversary, though it has some insignificant sound variations.

The most memorable tune of the series was composed by Nathan McCree with the main theme of the first game of the series, a solo oboe melody orchestrated with choirs and strings, exposing for the first time the 4 most important musical notes, the signature, the motif of the entire series, composed in a most conjunct melodic manner possible: G-A-F-G. The original motif is followed immediately after by the sequenced motif with A-A-G, giving at the same time the possibility of looping the theme and the feeling of completion. Variations of this tune, especially the G-A-F-G motif has been used throughout all Tomb Raider games.

The symphonic sounds of the earlier games composed by Nathan McCree were created using Roland Corporation's Orchestral Expansion board for their JV series modules (JV-1080 Synthesizer Module & SR-JV80-02 Expansion Board).

With Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, the composer changes for the first time in the series, Peter Connelly being the next composer to come, he tries to respect Nathan's musical style of the series, keeping the stings and similar orchestration. For the main theme of "The Last Revelation" he sequences with a vibraphone the original motif in a 4 musical note minimalist cell, used from the beginning to the end of the melody.

Angel of Darkness is the first game to bring underscores, previous games using stings and full scores only. Furthermore, as another premiere for the series, the score has been performed by a real orchestra (London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Snell). This game combines the style of Danny Elfman Batman scores with the classic Tomb Raider style. There are pieces that do not loop, meaning they only play one time and are triggered on specific events. The score is made more of musical fragments, similar to the first five games of the Tomb Raider series with less constant music than in Legend. On 21 December 2010, a podcast was released via the exclusive Game Informer media coverage. As well as featuring an interview with the developers regarding selected publicized fan questions, it also included "a sneak peek at a track from the game itself" composed by Aleksandar Dimitrijevic. The music heard introduces piano and guitar layers, purporting darker undertones. This literally and symbolically creates a distinct feel for Tomb Raider; made explicitly separate to the rest of the music of the Tomb Raider franchise which the guitar as an instrument is particularly foreign to. Most similar to music from , fully orchestrated strings follow, which are accompanied by percussion. The instruments develop into an inverted minor derivation of the classic Tomb Raider motif composed by Nathan McCree in 1996, providing an unsettling familiarity. However, On the eve of the "Turning Point" CGI Trailer, which debuted on the 3rd of June, 2011, Dimitrijevic expressed that "none of the music [he] did for the game or the trailer will be used in Tomb Raider or the upcoming Tomb Raider Trailer." A new theme for the trailer was created, currently available as a ringtone from Tomb Raider's official website.

Films

portrayed Lara Croft in the film series]] Two feature films have been created based on the Tomb Raider universe: Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in 2001, and the 2003 sequel Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, both starring Angelina Jolie.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

A 2001 adventure film adapted from the Tomb Raider video game series; Lara Croft races against time and villains to recover a powerful artefact called the All-seeing eye.

The film was directed by Simon West and starred Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft. It was released in U.S. theaters on June 15, 2001 receiving mostly negative reviews from critics. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider debuted at number one with $48.2 million, giving Paramount its second-best debut and the fourth-highest debut of 2001. It beat the opening record for a film featuring a female protagonist ($40.1 million for Charlie's Angels), and is the second most successful video game adaptation to date (after Prince of Persia), grossing $274,703,340 worldwide.

Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)

Angelina Jolie returns as Lara Croft in the 2003 sequel to the original video game based film. This time, Lara Croft attempts to find Pandora's Box which supposedly contains one of the deadliest plagues on Earth, before evil scientist, Jonathan Reiss, can get his hands on it.

This film was directed by Jan de Bont and was released in U.S. theaters on July 21, 2003 receiving slightly higher reviews than the original. Despite the more favourable critical response, Cradle of Life suffered a disappointing opening weekend, as it debuted in fourth place with a take of $21.7 million, a 55% drop from the original's opening gross of $47.7 million. The film finished with a domestic gross of only $65 million. Total earnings amounted to $156.5 million.

Potential third movie

Graham King's GK Films acquired the film rights and plan to release an origin story reboot by 2013. Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby have been hired to pen the film.

Box office performance

rowspan="2"| Film	rowspan="2"| Release date	colspan="3"| Box office revenue	colspan="2" text="wrap"| Box office ranking	rowspan="2"| Budget	rowspan="2"| Reference
| United States	| Foreign	| Worldwide	| All time domestic	| All time worldwide
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider	June 15, 2001	$131,168,070	$143,535,270	$274,703,340	style="text-align:center;"| #251	style="text-align:center;"| #243	style="text-align:center;"|$115,000,000	style="text-align:center;"|
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life	July 25, 2003	$65,660,196	$90,845,192	$156,505,388	style="text-align:center;"| #788	style="background:lightgrey;"|	style="text-align:center;"|$95,000,000	style="text-align:center;"|
Total		$196,828,266	$234,380,462	$431,208,728			style="text-align:center;"|$210,000,000

Critical reaction

rowspan="2"| Film	colspan="2"| Rotten Tomatoes	rowspan="2"| Metacritic
| Overall	| Cream of the Crop
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider	19% (154 reviews)	11% (9 reviews)	33% (31 reviews)
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life	24% (163 reviews)	25% (8 reviews)	43% (34 reviews)

Other media

Tomb Raider was licensed to comic book publisher Top Cow Productions, which released several Tomb Raider comics beginning in 1997. Alongside crossovers with the publisher's company-owned Witchblade and creator-owned Fathom, an eponymous ongoing series began publication in 1999, ending in 2004 with its fiftieth issue.

Ballantine Books, in conjunction with Eidos, began publishing a series of original novels in the spring of 2004, beginning with The Amulet of Power by Mike Resnick, which was followed by The Lost Cult by E. E. Knight in August 2004 and then The Man of Bronze by James Alan Gardner in January 2005. They generally followed the continuity of the video games (particularly Angel of Darkness) rather than the movies, although Lost Cult contained references to Cradle of Life. Man of Bronze differs from the first two books in that it is told in first-person narrative from Lara Croft's point of view. Ballantine's contract only called for three novels, and it is not yet known if the book series will continue.

GameTap aired a ten part animated short series called from 10 July 2007 to 13 November 2007. The series consists of various artistic talent's renditions of Lara Croft. Minnie Driver provides the voice for Lara Croft.

Soundtracks

Four scores to seven of the Tomb Raider games exist as promotional items (and/or under enclosure), while some were available to consumers in specific retail editions with a limited window of opportunity to purchase. All marketable commodities are now out of print and have become rare collector's items. The majority of musical material for the games remains unreleased.

! Promotional Sampler ! Composer(s) ! No. of Tracks ! Duration ! Format, Release ! Year

	Nathan McCree	34	00:54:51	CD, Promotional (Included with the French magazine Total Play, issue 14. Includes music from Tomb Raiders I, II and III.)	1999
	Peter Connelly, Martin Iveson	8	00:18:48	DVD/CD, Enclosure, Standalone (Europe pre-order "making-of" DVD/TRAOD Collector's Edition DVD/standalone CD)	2002/2003
	Troels Brun Folmann	13	01:03:17	DVD/CD, Enclosure (TRA Collector's Edition, includes music from Tomb Raider: Legend)	2007
Tomb Raider: Underworld (Limited Edition) Soundtrack	Colin O'Malley	10	00:23:48	DVD, Enclosure (TRU Limited Edition)	2008

In addition:

Several promotional tracks for all of the Tomb Raider games were distributed to the public. These are difficult to trace back to a source, and are unfortunately not part of any larger body of released music. Examples include Mediterranean Murder & Deep Sea Encounter from Tomb Raider: Underworld, that while clearly are from the game's soundtrack, do not appear in any official form. The releases were made to invoke pre-media hype before, or to meet public demand after the releases of the game(s) by Eidos, Core Design or Crystal Dynamics. There has been four releases of Tomb Raider Film soundtracks, 2 for & 2 for (each a Various artists soundtrack compilation and an original score).

Theme park rides

The film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and subsequent sequel, having been distributed and licensed by Paramount Pictures, were eligible for inclusion in the six Paramount Parks, theme parks owned and operated by Paramount (and later, CBS Corporation). As such, three Tomb Raider rides were opened at various Paramount Parks: Tomb Raider: The Ride (both a at Kings Island and a at Canada's Wonderland) and Tomb Raider: FireFall (a suspended HUSS Top Spin at Kings Dominion). The Paramount Park's sale to Cedar Fair, L.P. was accompanied by a loss of rights to the Tomb Raider name, and subsequently, Kings Island's "Tomb Raider: The Ride" and Kings Dominion's "Tomb Raider: FireFall" were renamed "The Crypt", while Canada's Wonderland's "Tomb Raider: The Ride" was renamed "Time Warp."

With its investments and licensing pulled from the former Paramount Parks, the Tomb Raider ride franchise was started anew with Tomb Raider: The Machine at Movieland Studios, Italy. The ride, manufactured by Zamperla, looks very much like the HUSS Top Spin ride, but is more advanced ride called a Windshear.

The original (and only indoor, themed) Tomb Raider: The Ride at Kings Island was celebrated for the way it turned what is generally a typical "boring" thrill ride like a Top Spin (something found at most carnivals) into a highly interactive, themed dark ride complete with lava pits, volcanoes, icicles, and a giant goddess carving on the wall with laser eyes. The ride was synchronized to a specially-made Tomb Raider soundtrack and featured the real, six armed "Durga" goddess and water vase from the first movie, as well as the monkey warrior statues that come to life in the film..

References

External links

WikiRaider (a wiki dedicated to the series)

Category:1996 introductions Category:Novels based on video games *

Lara Croft is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Square Enix (previously Eidos Interactive) video game series Tomb Raider. She is presented as a beautiful, intelligent, and athletic archaeologist-adventurer who ventures into ancient, hazardous tombs and ruins around the world. Created by Toby Gard during his employment at British developer Core Design, the character first appeared in the 1996 video game Tomb Raider. The character has also appeared in video game sequels, printed adaptations, a series of animated short films, feature films (portrayed by Angelina Jolie), and merchandise related to the series. Official promotion of the character includes a brand of apparel and accessories, action figures, and model portrayals. Croft has also been licensed for third-party promotion, including television and print advertisements, music-related appearances, and as a spokesmodel.

Core Design handled initial development of the character and the series. Inspired by pop artist Neneh Cherry and comic book character Tank Girl, Gard designed Lara Croft to counter stereotypical female characters. The company modified the character for subsequent titles, which included graphical improvements and gameplay additions. American developer Crystal Dynamics took over the series after the 2003 sequel was received poorly. The new developer rebooted the character along with the video game series. Crystal Dynamics focused on making the character more believable. The company altered her physical proportions, and gave her additional ways of interacting with game environments. Croft has been voiced by four actresses in the video game series: Shelley Blond, Judith Gibbins, Jonell Elliott and Keeley Hawes.

Critics consider Lara Croft a significant game character in popular culture. She holds two Guinness World Records, has a strong fan following, and is among the first video game characters to be successfully adapted to film. The character's debut was well-received by the video game industry, but her popularity slowly declined until the series' reboot in 2006. While the rebooted games were generally well-received, Croft's redesign was met with mixed responses. Lara Croft is also considered a sex symbol, one of the earliest in the industry to achieve widespread attention. The character's influence in the industry has been a point of contention among critics; viewpoints range from a positive agent of change in video games to a negative role model for young girls.

Description

Lara Croft is depicted as an athletic woman; she has brown eyes and hair, frequently kept in a plait or ponytail. The character's classic costume is a turquoise sleeveless tank top, light brown shorts, calf-high boots, and long white socks. Accessories include fingerless gloves, a backpack, a utility belt with holsters on either side, and two pistols. The video game sequels introduced new outfits designed for different environments, such as underwater and cold weather. In the later games, Croft wears a crop top, camouflage pants and black or light brown shirts. When exploring, she often carries two pistols, but has used other weaponry throughout the series. Lara Croft is fluent in several languages.

Game manuals describe the character as the Wimbledon, London-born daughter of the fictional Lord Richard Croft. She was raised as an aristocrat and betrothed to the fictitious Earl of Farringdon. Lara Croft attended the Scottish boarding school Gordonstoun and a Swiss finishing school. A plane crash left the character stranded in the Himalayas for two weeks; the experience spurred her to shun her former life and seek other adventures around the world. Croft wrote books and other published works based on her exploits as a mercenary, big-game hunter, and master thief. The story was later changed to include her mother in the plane crash. While searching for shelter against the elements, Lara Croft witnesses her mother vanish after tampering with an ancient sword. Her father disappears in search of his wife.

Appearances

In video games

Lara Croft primarily appears in the Tomb Raider video game series published by Square Enix Europe (previously Eidos Interactive). The action-adventure games feature the protagonist travelling the world in search of rare objects and mystical artefacts. Croft first appeared in the 1996 video game Tomb Raider, in which she competes against a rival archaeologist in search of an Atlantean artefact. Tomb Raider II (1997) centres on the search for the Dagger of Xian, which is sought by thieves. Tomb Raider III (1998) focuses on meteorite fragments that endow humans with supernatural powers. In (1999), the first depiction of a young Croft, she is accompanied by her mentor, Werner Von Croy. In Tomb Raider Chronicles (2000), most of the game relates adventures told via flashbacks. The next portable game, (2002), was released on the Game Boy Advance, and focuses on three magical stones. (2003) was released on home platforms, centring on the murder of Professor Von Croy.

Eidos rebooted the series with (2006), which focuses on Lara Croft's search for Excalibur and her mother, altering the character's backstory as part of the reboot. (2007), a remake of the first game in the series, carried over design elements from Legend. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (2010) is a downloadable game that is set in a Central American jungle, and features an ancient warrior who works with Lara Croft.

In other adaptations

Beginning in 1997, the character regularly appeared in comics by Top Cow Productions. Lara Croft first appeared in a crossover in Sara Pezzini's Witchblade, and later starred in her own comic book series in 1999. The series began with Dan Jurgens as the writer, featuring artwork by Andy Park and Jon Sibal. The stories were unrelated to the video games until issue 32 of the Tomb Raider series, which adapted Angel of Darknesss plot. Other printed adaptations are Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Amulet of Power, a 2003 novel written by Mike Resnick; Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Lost Cult, a 2004 novel written by E. E. Knight; and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Man of Bronze, a 2005 novel written by James Alan Gardner.

Lara Croft has appeared in two motion pictures. The first, , was released in 2001, and follows Croft as she encounters the Illuminati, a group searching for a relic able to control time. The film depicted Croft's backstory differently from the version in the early games. In the films, Lara Croft's mother died in a plane crash and her father disappeared in Cambodia; in the games, both parents are alive. A similar backstory was adopted in 2006 in Legend. The sequel, , depicts Croft in search of Pandora's box in competition with a Chinese crime syndicate. Development for a third movie was announced in 2009. Producer Graham King plans to release the film in 2013. Episodes ranged from five to seven and half minutes in length, featuring Minnie Driver as Croft. The creative staff was given considerable freedom to re-interpret the character; they did not consult the video game designers, but were given a guide listing acceptable and unacceptable practices.

Development history

was an early inspiration to Lara Croft's creation.]] Core Design, a subsidiary of Eidos, created Lara Croft as the lead protagonist of its video game Tomb Raider, which began development in 1993. Lead graphic artist Toby Gard went through about five designs before arriving at the character's final appearance. He initially envisioned a male lead character with a whip and a hat. Core Design co-founder Jeremy Smith characterized the design as derivative of Indiana Jones, and asked for more originality. Gard decided that a female character would work better from a design standpoint. Smith was sceptical of a female lead at first because few contemporary games featured them. He came to regard a female lead as a great hook and put faith in Gard's idea. He settled on a tough South American woman with a braid named Laura Cruz.

Core Design improved and modified the character with each instalment. Other changes included new outfits and manoeuvres. The character model was altered to feature more realistic proportions, and Jonell Elliott replaced Gibbins as the voice of Lara Croft. Core Design conducted market research, including fan polls, to aid in Angel of Darknesss development. The development team felt they could not alter the character and instead opted to place her in a situation different from previous games. The PlayStation 2 hardware allowed for more manoeuvres and a more detailed character model; the number of polygons in Croft's model increased to 4,400.

Developer switch to Crystal Dynamics

, Lara Croft's original designer, left Core Design in 1997, but returned to work with Crystal Dynamics as a consultant.]] Angel of Darkness was received poorly, prompting Eidos—fearing financial troubles from another unsuccessful game—to give development duties for future titles to Crystal Dynamics, another Eidos subsidiary. The Legacy of Kain development team began work on a new title (Tomb Raider: Legend), and Toby Gard returned to work as a consultant. The development team reassessed the brand value of the franchise and its protagonist. Chip Blundell, Eidos's vice-president of brand management, commented that the designers understood that fans saw the character and brand as their own, rather than Eidos's. The storyline intended for a trilogy of games that started with Angel of Darkness was abandoned and a new plot was created for Legend. They updated Lara Croft's move set to make her movements appear more fluid and continuous. The animations were also updated so the character could better interact with environmental objects. Responding to criticism directed at the character controls in Angel of Darkness, Crystal Dynamics redesigned the character's control scheme to provide what they felt was the best third-person action experience. Crystal Dynamics updated the character model to add more realism, but retained past design elements. Crystal Dynamics retained the design changes for the next game, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, a remake of the first game. The designers aimed to aimed to portray Croft with more emotional depth, and focused on the character's desire to achieve the end goal of the game, culminating in killing one of the antagonists. The developers used the death to evoke guilt in Croft afterward and illustrate that shooting a person should be a difficult choice.

performed voice work in four Tomb Raider games, more than any of her predecessors.]]

Tomb Raider: Underworld continued the plot line established in Legend. To achieve a more natural appearance, the developers added spherical harmonics to provide indirect lighting to in-game objects like Lara Croft. The developers enhanced Croft's facial model by increasing the number of polygons, bones used in the animation skeleton, and graphical shaders in the face to add more detail and expressive capabilities. The hair was created as a real-time cloth simulation to further add realism to its shape and movement. The developers kept Croft's hair tied back because they felt a real person would not want it flying around while performing dangerous manoeuvres. While previous games used hand-animated movement for the character, Underworld introduced motion capture-based animation to display more fluid, realistic movement and facial expressions. Stuntwoman and Olympic Gold medalist Heidi Moneymaker was the motion capture actor, and advised the designers on practical movements. The blends and additional animations give the character more flexible movement. Crystal Dynamics sought to make the visual appearance of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions identical, although the systems use different techniques to achieve this.

Publisher switch to Square Enix

Japanese game company Square Enix acquired Eidos in April 2009, restructuring Eidos into Square Enix Europe. Crystal Dynamics remained the developer of the Tomb Raider games. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light introduced co-operative gameplay to the series, a move that brand director Karl Stewart said was meant to "show [Lara] as a more humanistic character" by placing her in a situation that differed from previous installments. The game used the same technology featured in the studio's past Tomb Raider games.

In late 2010, Square Enix announced a franchise reboot titled Tomb Raider; the new Lara Croft would be a darker, grittier reimagining of the character. In examining the character, Crystal Dynamics concluded that Croft's largest failing was her "Teflon coating", and that it needed a more human version that players would care about. The second reboot focuses on the origin of the character, and as a result, changes the previous back story. Staff opted to first work on the character's biography rather than cosmetic aspects. Crystal Dynamics sought to avoid the embellished physique of past renditions and pushed for realistic proportions. In redesigning the character's appearance, the designers began with simple concepts and added features that it felt made Lara Croft iconic: a ponytail, "M-shaped" lips, and the spatial relationship between her eyes, mouth, and nose. The company also changed the character's wardrobe, focusing on what it believed was more functional and practical. In designing the outfits, staff aimed to create a look that was "relevant" and "youthful", but not too "trendy" or "hip". To gauge the redesign, Crystal Dynamics conducted eye tracking studies on subjects who viewed the new version and previous ones. Eidos marketing manager David Burton oversaw marketing efforts, which attempted to portray the character as attractive and pleasant. However, interaction with the press, especially those in Europe, resulted in less clothing depicted in promotional images. Following Square Enix's acquisition, Eidos's marketing duties were transferred to the Square Enix Europe subsidiary. The character has also been featured on the cover of non-video game publications such as British style magazine The Face, American news magazines Time and Newsweek, German magazine Focus, and the front page of British newspaper the Financial Times. Eidos licensed the character for third party advertisements, including television ads for Visa, Lucozade drinks, G4 TV, Brigitte magazine, and SEAT cars. Picture advertisements appeared on the sides of double-decker buses and walls of subway stations. German punk band Die Ärzte's 1998 music video for "Men are pigs" () also features Croft. Music groups have dedicated songs to the character, culminating in the release of the album A Tribute to Lara Croft. Bands and artists including Depeche Mode, Moby, Faith No More, Jimi Tenor, and Apollo 440 donated their songs for the album. Near the end of 2006, Lara Croft became the spokesmodel for the Skin Cancer Awareness Foundation of Minden, Nevada as part of their Sun Smart Teen Program. The foundation felt that the character personified the benefits of a healthy body, and that young teenagers could relate to Croft.

Lara Croft's likeness has been a model for merchandise. The first action figures were produced by Toy Biz, based on the video game version of the character. Graphic designer Marc Klinnert of Studio OXMOX released scale model kits of the character, and later built a full scale version. Arcade: The Videogame Magazine and PlayStation Magazine promoted life-size Croft statues as contest prizes. Spurred by a rumour that Eidos provided Lara Croft autographs, fans wrote to the company to obtain them. The quantity prompted Eidos to quickly produce autographed cards to meet demand. Xbox Live Marketplace released Xbox 360 avatars in conjunction with Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Eidos released a brand of Lara Croft apparel and accessories, marketed under the label "LARA©". The line included wallets, watches, bathrobes, and Zippo lighters. Other third-party apparel are hiking boots, backpacks, leather jackets, and thermoses. In October 1997, Eidos held an art exhibition titled "Lara Goes Art" in Hamburg, Germany to promote Tomb Raider II. The exhibit featured selected artwork of the character submitted by artists and fans. Pieces included oil and airbrushed paintings, photo-stories, and Klinnert's model; SZM Studios provided the computer-generated footage they had created for Die Ärzte's music video and the Brigitte magazine television commercial.

Model portrayal

Reaction from groups have been mixed. The journal Leonardo noted some feminists' negative reaction to her design; though males were identifying with their feminine side through Croft, she reinforced unrealistic ideals about the female body. Australian feminist scholar Germaine Greer criticized her as an embodiment of male fantasies. PlayStation Magazine staff commented that Croft could be seen as either a role model for young independent girls or the embodiment of a male adolescent fantasy, though later stated that the character does little to attract female demographics and was obviously designed with a male audience in mind. Jonathan Smith of Arcade: The Videogame Magazine similarly noted that male players often see themselves as "chivalrous protectors" while playing the game.

Griffith described Lara Croft as a flawed female influence. He stated that though the character is a step in the right direction, too many women view her as a "crudely realised male fantasy figure".

See also

Girl Power

Woman warrior

List of female action heroes

References

Further reading

External links

Official Tomb Raider website

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