Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider brought to the Sega Saturn the adventures of archaeologist Lara Croft, who explores vast tombs and ancient complexes full of puzzles and traps in search of mysterious artefacts. The gameplay is built on a combination of acrobatic movement — jumping, climbing, and swimming — with solving spatial puzzles and shootouts with wild animals and human opponents alike. It was precisely this fusion of platforming acrobatics with adventure-style exploration of the environment that made Tomb Raider one of the defining titles of the mid-1990s and a template for a whole line of later action-adventure games.

The Saturn port was made shortly after the original PlayStation release and had to contend with the console's different graphics architecture, which required developers to adjust a number of technical solutions — this showed in certain technical compromises compared to the PlayStation version, particularly in rendering speed and shadow handling. Even so, the game retained its vast, atmospheric locations full of echoing footsteps, mysterious music, and unexpected traps, which to this day remain among what players remember most about the series. The controls followed the conventions of 3D action-adventures of the time, meaning a somewhat stiffer, grid-based approach to character movement that required precisely gauging distances before every jump.

Tomb Raider became one of the most striking titles of its generation and, together with Lara Croft, created an icon that transcended the boundaries of the games industry and entered wider pop-culture awareness. The Saturn version let fans of Sega's console experience this groundbreaking title as well, even if as a technically somewhat weaker sibling of the original, with a somewhat shorter draw distance and simpler lighting effects. Even with the passage of years, it remains clear how the fusion of action and exploration in Tomb Raider influenced the direction of the entire action-adventure genre for a long time to come.

Why play: For players interested in the history of action-adventure games who want to experience the iconic title starring Lara Croft, even in the technically somewhat weaker Saturn version compared to the original.