Tomb Raider: Ranking Every Game Worst To Best

Separating the best adventures from the misadventures.

By Callum Marsh /

Even though gaming was a predominantly male-focused practice in the beginning, there were a few openings for the females to live out their wildest fantasies through an on-screen avatar.

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The first of these came in 1986 when Metroid's finale - to the shock and awe of millions - revealed that you were playing as a woman all along, in one of gamings most historical moments. This was but a precursor to the greatest female protagonist to embellish the title of video game legend; Lara Croft.

When she exploded onto the scene in the 1990s, the Tomb Raider license was issued to more institutions than Microsoft computers. Lara Croft hadn't only cemented her name into the annals of the pop culture history, she reimagined just how the public viewed females in fictional media at the time.

Lara wasn't your atypical, weak, damsel in distress. She was a capable fighter, a marksman with a vast array of weaponry and a badass heroine that blazed a trail, challenging those after to dethrone her as the pinnacle of not only female leaders, but one of gamings most elegant behemoths.

It's safe to say that with her popularity immediately taking off, the lass has more than a few adventures under her belt. Which one was the worst and which one was better than the rest?

19. Lara Croft Relic Run

Beginning the list with the oh-so dreaded run and gun shooter for mobile phones should be expected. However, the sheer laziness and lack of inspiration that this title imbues is just so abhorrently uninteresting that it was nearly left off entirely. It's another one of the endless clones that copies the Temple Run formula, sticking a familiar pop-culture icon in place of any other blank slate that can be interchanged at a whim.

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There isn't much else to say other than that, if you've played Temple Run then you've essentially already played Relic Run. There are a few things that the developers do to make it feel more attuned to an actual Tomb Raider experience, but even then it's not enough to breathe new life in a dead genre.

Understandably, there are people out there who will engage with this based on the intellectual property alone, and if that's your cocaine, then fill your nostrils. However, don't be blindsided by the sinister method of easy revenue generation that is the micro-transactions. As this is practically the only reason for this game's existence, which makes it a blemish on the franchise rather than a premise with potential.

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