This year marks the 30th anniversary of Tomb Raider, the seminal action-adventure platformer that debuted on the Sega Saturn, PC, and PlayStation in 1996. Protagonist Lara Croft quickly became an industry icon, receiving a whole line of sequels, revivals, and reboots, with games gracing virtually every major platform in the decades following. The franchise has spread to all kinds of merchandising and multimedia, including three theatrical films, two animated series, and an upcoming live-action show for Prime Video. Simply put, even if you’re not a gamer, there’s a good chance that you know who Lara Croft is.
Aside from the occasional remaster collection, the gaming side of the Tomb Raider franchise had been relatively dormant since 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Fortunately, publisher Amazon Game Studios and developers Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog have been hard at work on the next era of Tomb Raider by looking at the series’ celebrated roots. The upcoming game Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis serves as a remake of the 1996 original, but also connects it to the Survivor trilogy that unveiled the modern origin of Lara Croft while welcoming newcomers to the franchise.
We got to play an early preview build of Legacy of Atlantis at Summer Game Fest 2026 and speak with some of the developers behind the eagerly anticipated project. Based on that conversation and what we experienced for ourselves, the game definitely evokes the classic environments from the 1996 title, right down to that intense first encounter with a T-Rex, reimagined for modern players. Given where the franchise is currently at in this moment of its extensive history, a remake of the first game makes sense, with Lara revisiting her past before forging her future.
The original Tomb Raider debuted four months after Super Mario 64, which revolutionized how we played video games with its true 3D presentation and tight platforming controls. But whereas the Nintendo franchise had its usual family-friendly sheen, Tomb Raider proved that 3D platforming could be a bit more mature and action-packed, combining acrobatic platforming and exploration with third-person shooter spectacle years before Metal Gear Solid or Prince of Persia ventured into similar territory. With her action-adventure credentials, Lara Croft felt like the heir apparent to the archetype popularized by Indiana Jones while providing much more entertaining gaming thrills than the venerable archaeologist’s own video game tie-ins.
Lara Croft broke through the male-dominated hegemony of video game protagonists, dual-wielding matching pistols before The Matrix made it cool. And while Lara certainly turned heads compared to other protagonists, if it was just about polygonal good looks, we wouldn’t still be talking about the character and excited about her games 30 years later. Lara was moving and fighting more intuitively than most of the 3D platformers on the market at the time, with the games’ success leading Eidos Interactive to release a new project annually for much of the PlayStation’s lifecycle, with the console receiving five games in all.
In the 21st century, Tomb Raider faltered a little bit as it tried to find its place in an industry that had since mastered 3D platforming action in plenty of other franchises. The lukewarm response to 2003’s Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness prompted Crystal Dynamics to take the creative helm and reimagine the series with 2006’s Tomb Raider: Legend. This led to a new line of games, but the franchise grew dormant again, leading an even more ambitious reboot to take shape, something that brought a real grit to the series.
The Survivor trilogy, as it became known as, started with 2013’s Tomb Raider, providing gamers with an updated origin story as they guided Lara following her being caught in a shipwreck while searching for a lost fabled kingdom in the Pacific Ocean.
