May 15, 2010

Tomb Raider in a Parallel Universe – Contest Week 3

This week's topic came from Davie, another online friend. We were talking about how Crystal Dynamics is heading into uncharted territory with Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, the arcade-inspired co-op action-platform-puzzler due out this summer. We started imagining other possibilities for off-year games to tide the fans over between major Tomb Raider adventures.

Davie and his friends came up with a Tekken-style game called Tomb Raider Fight Night. They thought it would be great to match various TR characters and monsters against each other in combat. Or how about a crossover title like Tomb Raider vs. Capcom or Street Fighter?

Lara Croft vs. Nina Williams
Lara Croft vs. Tekken's Nina Williams...why not?

Get Fit with Lara CroftPersonally, I'd like to see a fitness game starring Lara Croft for the Wii, Project Natal and PlayStation Move. Using motion sensor technology, players could kick, punch, shoot, run, grapple and balance their way into good shape following Lara's cues. Improvement would be rewarded with unlockable goodies like new workout gear and mini-games. It would be like the Croft Manor training level, only you'd actually work up a sweat.

So, how about you? What spin-off title or genre would you like to play during the long months between real Tomb Raider games?

For a chance to win this week's prize, the complete Tomb Raider Tankobon comic collection (5 volumes, 220 pages each!), just post a comment below, on my Facebook page or YouTube channel, send me an , or message me on Xbox Live (gamertag: stellalune)—or all of the above. Each participant can enter once per week, per method.

Tomb Raider Tankobon

Entries for this week's drawing will be accepted through 11:59 p.m. EDT, Friday, May 21. Winners will be announced May 22. If you miss this deadline but still want to share an idea, go ahead. Later comments on this post will still be considered for the final prize drawing on May 30.

Entering this contest implies that you have read and agree with the contest rules. For more info, see the Book Bonanza intro, and feel free to contact me with any questions.

33 comments:

  1. Yes! Got done playing some Portal, which is awesome might I add, and am glad to be the first to answer this week's question! I personally would like to see the arcade-style Tomb Raider game flourish. It might not be what everyone wants, but its interesting. A great appetizer to tide us over between games. Crystal Dynamics and the crew could have a separate crew working the Lara Croft arcade games where, between each Tomb Raider mainstream game, they release a new Lara Croft adventure. For the spin-off series though, I want to see a game based on Werner Von Croy's background. It goes off last week's question, but I think a game on Von Croy would be aslo to tide us over because Von Croy is a major factor in the Tomb Raider games. I would love to see Background games though. Maybe even background arcade-styled games. I know it's a stretch for the die-hard there's-only-one-way-to-play-tomb-raider fans, but I would personally enjoy this mini Lara Croft adventures. ANOTHER SUPERB QUESTION, STELLA!!!!

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  2. Wow! I'd love to enter that competition! :)

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  3. I Love your Idiea Stella, i need that. im Turning into a ompa-loompa meaning im getting Blubber Fat HEHE :D. But i Would Love to see a something like "the adventures of UnchartedRaider" Lara Croft & Nathan From Drake Team up. Finding Treasures and Goods, Nothing Sexual Between Eachother though. because the main character from uncharted try`s hard to get the ladies.

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  4. Lately, I've become a fan of mini-games and think that it would be great to see all of the tomb raider elements in mini-game form. There could be sliding block puzzles, rappelling courses, treasure hunting and a game where the floor is rapidly collapsing underneath you and you have to get to the other side of the room as quickly as possible. Those are always fun.

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  5. I'd love to enter this competition again:)
    And I can say that this is great idea....but I think the same way as Lance...Nathan Drake and Lara Croft Team up..wow..and maybe they can get fall in love later who knows:)

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  6. I would love to see Lara Croft in some sort of online universe with death matches or vs matches (along the lines of different game modes on left 4 dead games). For example if you did a verses you could have the baddies, amanda, natla, Eckhardt etc and then you could have a team of goodies consisting of lara, kurtis and maybe even anaya?

    Alternatively I would also love an free-flow online community racing game (street-running etc) on rooftops and other urban obstacles where other game heros/heroines have been incorporated as playable characters ie, lara, rayne (bloodrayne series), Faith (mirror's edge). The maps would include all types of different obstacles that have been seen in all the different games, urban, obstacle courses, factories etc.

    Thinking about it, I would maybe prefer the free-flow running race game, as long as it had loads of acrobating elements in it like bloodrayne and tomb raider offer fans. I think this would be an amazing online game!

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  7. I would totally buy a Tomb Raider fitness game. I do like my wii balance board, and the idea of actually physically playing would be awesome.

    I think a professor Layton crosso ver would be quite cool. Solve the puzzle or shoot your way out!

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  8. Great ideas, everybody. Keep 'em coming! :D

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  9. A Bayonetta and Lara Croft crossover would be awesome, but I could see the entire story is them showing off and trying to be the best...Which could work.

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  10. I think that after each main tomb raider game it would be good if there was another mini tomb raider game from the baddies point of view from the last game!!!! :)

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  11. Well, I'm a traditional adventure game player, so I would like to see something along the lines of The Tales of Monkey Island, something maybe a little cartoony where you have to combine the toothpick with the ear wax to make a key, ha ha!

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  12. I really loved your suggestion of a fitness game with Lara! That would be fun! And mabe that way I would actually start to work out!!! XD

    I would like to play a crossover with Uncharted would be so AWESOME!!!! And maybe the player could actually have the choice of how things would turn out! Like you could decide if Lara and Nate team up or go against each other! You decide if Lara falls for Drake's charms or if she is indiferent!!! That way, not only you get to see things the way you would like but also gives a HUGE replay value, because you can always make different choices and change the way things play out!!!!

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  13. I've been thinking a bit more about this week's competition and I also think that since Lara has always had awesome vehicles in the games, boats, motorbikes, jeeps etc.

    I think it would be a cool idea to take the environments that have been shown in past tomb raider games like the motorbike level in underworld, and turn it into some form of racing/stunt game. The levels would have traps along the way like spike pits or broken paths/bridges. It could be really awesome, like PGR4 with a more classical Tomb Raider setting and feel to it.

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  14. ok her is my ansew to this weeks question....for a spin-off ideas..the mini-games and tekken would be cool ideas to go for...I would think a Resident vil game would be really cool...like an outbreak would be based in Russia and Lara would be teame up with Chris..the two of them would have to make out alive....another game for a possibility would be called Infamous with a character named Cole... he has electric superr powers and he can hover in the air with great advantages....as well as fight enemies...with Lara, she would earn her abilities as she progresses in the game...with would be using electricity..her guns would be the usual guns and she would also get to use the huge electric guns each one firing different ammo.....another one i thought about with Lara would be Assassins Creed...there is some great combat that Lara could do and she could use a sword in the game...Prince of Persia..i could see Lara in these games because of how he plays in the games.....the new game that is based on the movie shows him using water as a ladder to gain higer places or water to use to swing on bars to gain access to other places..that was really cool..i could see Lara using those(maybe in a next game in the future?)

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  15. I've always wondered what it might be like to have a crossover between Tomb Raider and Prince of Persia (the original trilogy, mind). Something along the lines of Lara discovering one of the time-manipulating artifacts (probably Farah's amulet, since the Prince just dropped it in the river, while the Dagger was taken by the Empress of Time) and ending up thrown back in time. She and the Prince would have to work together to get her back to the present. Maybe he could teach her a thing or two about free-running in the process, while she could . . . I don't know, show him how to use something other than a sword or dagger to fight with. (I'm at a loss for ideas there, but some brilliant mind would come up with something, I'm sure!)

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  16. I think Tomb Raider as a point-click-adventure game would be an interesting Take on the series. Adventure and puzzle solving could be really fun in that style. I am thinking along the lines of old Lucasarts games. Maniac mansion woohoo~! :) I wonder if there would be any way to work in some degree of action still? haha~!

    I would give it a try!

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  17. I reckon a cool thing for a small side game would be like Nintendos Super Smash bros series with Tomb Raider characters. You could have Lara (obviously), Natla, Larson, Kold, Pierre, Colt, Bartoli, Willard, Sophia, Amanda, etc. You could even use some of the artefacts in the games as weapons. Basically every single (or most) TR characters. They would also create new levels so you can control each character individually. They could make the game downloadable.

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  18. Stella,
    If Eidos does not have your blog on their reading list, they really should do so!
    What a mine of useful ideas ....

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  19. i also think it would be fun if there was a tomb raider racing game were you choose your character (lara,natla etc) and then choose your vehicle (JEEP, motorbike etc)and race. The courses are the ones like the jeep course in tomb raider 4 or the boat course in tomb raider 2 and once you complete a course you then unlock a character or a car or something like that, that would be fun :) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  20. I'd love to see something like ICO with Tomb Raider's characters. I mean, an huge castle full of puzzles, the idea of protecting someone... now imagine if Lara was the protagonist and one of the other Tomb Raider's characters was Yorda, the princess. Lara hasn't got an health bar, she only has to care of the other character. She might kill the shadows with her guns, instead of the wand stick, and I suppose that her agility is far higher than the boy's one. I suppose that the castle can be much bigger and intricated, with more puzzles etc... I think it's a good idea, I'd personally buy this game XD

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  21. I would love to see a Kurtis/AoD spin-off. Heavily plot-oriented, with a mystery to solve in the style of old school point and clicks. Very dark, very atmospheric, very high-concept artsy, with the added bonus of redeeming what may be the most vilified of the Tomb Raider games.

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  22. Well, I would simply adore to see Lara team up with the Sims. Yes, it may seem odd, but imagine, you could design a manor for Lara, and then raid through it. It will let loose your creativity and allow you to use your creation.

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  23. I agree ver much with Hunter, that this new style of Lara Croft action should be brimming with new material upon those long months intervening between our beloved Tomb Raider games. Not necessarily upon the Guardian of Light game, but new adventures where the arcade-style of gameplay is still constant. I would also really enjoy seeing them possibly add upon this new style the game boy color games. Who knows the story of the Nightmare Stone besides diehard fanatics as Stella, and what better way to modernize the two older games than with this new Tomb Raider game engine.

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  24. More excellent ideas. You guys are just brilliant. I'm glad the selection of winners is random. I could never choose just two based on merit. :)

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  25. I like something like Stella was talking about, a Lara Croft fitness game. It could take us on some cheesy adventure having us work with a "grapple" and "guns" the whole way through. It'd be a fun and, if I might say so myself, very unique experience!

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  26. I was thinking something along the lines of a background-type game. Maybe something to give us some background on maybe, Lara's father or something? It would be interesting to see his quests for treasure and the truth behind his wife's disappearance. Maybe even play a little as her father (I know it sounds odd). Still, her father had to get through those tombs somehow, right? I think it would just be nice.

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  27. Some interesting ideas indeed. I think this new Lara Croft series could be just the way to develop further the AOD storyline but it probably wouldn't be enough so it's better they leave it alone. Lara Croft and the Lux Veritatis does have a ring to it, though...

    I still hope we'll see a pinball game of sorts. There have been so many different settings through all the games that could result in a wide range of different tables with different features and stuff. The possibilites are endless, really, for Lara Croft.

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  28. I love your idea, Stella, it's great!! Maybe we could have Tomb Raider Racing or sth like that, I think someone already mentioned it here... Lara could use one of her vehicles and race thralls, Natla, Amanda, Doppel, Zip... That would be cool!!! ;)

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  29. I want to be able to play Tomb Raider Racing, with little Tomb Raider avatars, classic Lara classic Natla vs. new Lara and new Natla. A story mode like Crash Team Racing where you get to chose your character and move them through a temple-ish home area where you can get transported to multiple different courses. That would be great!

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  30. I like Hunter's idea of having a continuation of the new-styled Lara Croft games. And I'd also like to thank hunter for making me aware there are two TR games I DON'T own. Thanks for another superb question!!!

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  31. Here's something REALLY far'fetched. Futuristic Lara Croft mini-games. Yeah. I said it. Lara Croft would have a blaster gun and really cool tech armor and would visit the ruins of today! That would be interesting.

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  32. I love Lara Croft and the philosophy behind it all. But the idea of playing Lara Croft forever in the same aspect is, well...dull, boring, un-interesting. Of course I'll always play ANY tomb raider game, but, it's just like Pokemon. After years and years, sticking to the same gameplay mechanics doesn't really make it as fun anymore. So I'd propose we do new things with Lara, for example somebody said Lara Croft Racing, another suggested continuing the arcade-styled gameplay. GREAT IDEAS! I love the idea of being ble to add to what Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is really about. It's not just about playing the games (being aided along the way by the definitive Lara Croft master), but about keeping the spark of tomb raiding aglow. So I suggest the racing and arcade games. I even thought of, between the mainstream Tomb Raider games, a series of Lara Croft adventures where you don't play Lara Croft, but her backstories. Play the crossover between Lara and Indy and Lara and Nathan D. or the backstory of Kurtis Trent and Werner Von Croy. Add to Tomb Raider and, as Stella says, RAID ON!!!

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  33. I would like to see a Nex Gen Tomb Raider Level Creator. Where you you could make some better quality levels more like the newer tomb raider games. Sort of like a Crystal Dynamics Level Editor for Tomb Raider. The player should be able to create, play and share the levels through out the world. It should be released on PS3, PC, WII and Xbox. That would be fun.

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