![\"Lara](\"https:\/\/nfornerds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Lara-Croft-Tomb-Raider-N-For-Nerds.jpg\")
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In a video posted last week on the official Tomb Raider Twitter page, a host of Crystal Dynamics figures shared their \u201cbig ambitions for the future of Tomb Raider\u201d ahead of the milestone. The most exciting of them all came from Tomb Raider franchise Game Director Will Kerslake who teased plans to unify the timelines from both the classic Core Design series and post-2013 reboot era. Considering fans have been crying out for Crystal Dynamics to do more with classic series, besides adding retro Lara skins into the most recent instalments, this, and the wonderful job their social team are doing of brightening my days with classic Lara references across Twitter, is a very good indicator that fans are getting their birthday wish. <\/p>\n Details were thin on what we can expect from the \u201clots of surprises\u201d promised by Crystal Dynamics this year, and Kerslake tempered expectations by telling us not to expect any big game announcements. If that\u2019s the case, here are six things I\u2019d like to see from Tomb Raider\u2019s big silver anniversary. <\/p>\n Okay, I know they said no games but I feel like this falls outside of \u201cbig game announcement,\u201d so here me out. I would love it if this was the year we finally got some kind of definitive Tomb Raider collection. I think we all deserve it after 2020, and especially after the heavily rumoured T.R.U.E. (Tomb Raider Ultimate Experience) August release turned out to be, well, false. Successful remasters of the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro series, and even the rumoured BluePoint Metal Gear Solid project, have set a precedent for classic PS1 remasters. In my absolute dream scenario, for Tomb Raider this would mean a collection of beautifully remastered HD versions of the original Core Design games with expansions included, or, if I\u2019m not pushing my luck, I\u2019d be satisfied with a direct port of the classics for the Nintendo Switch that I could easily jump in and out of without having to dig out my PlayStation. (All the incarnations on one system! That’s the dream!)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Gaming Heads did an amazing job of the 20th anniversary edition Lara figures, though a little on the pricey side for me to justify the whole collection. It would be great to have a new range of anniversary collectables, maybe commemorating some of Lara\u2019s looks that we don\u2019t often see moulded into plastic like the Antarctica outfit or Tokyo dress from Tomb Raider: Legend. Then, there\u2019s plenty of other bits of merch I\u2019d love to see a reissue or reimagining of. I never did get my hands on any of the Official Lara C collection back in the day – though I did always enjoy filling out the order form inserts and never sending them off – but I\u2019d jump at the chance to own a modern take on that \u2018signed by Lara Croft\u2019 merch now. There\u2019s something so satisfying about how every time I join a work Zoom call, very subtly in the background is a poster of Lara Croft, gun pointed, that says \u201cTut, tut, tut, now you\u2019ve really pissed me off.\u201d I would like more of this please. Across her many iterations, artists have created stunning (and sometimes questionable) concepts and renders of Lara\u2019s travels and I\u2019m already loving that Crystal Dynamics is asking artists to reimagine classic Tomb Raider box art. This anniversary is a chance to show the many lives of Lara and re-envision classic Croft for a modern audience. I\u2019m not saying there\u2019s anything wrong with Lara\u2019s shorts but I can\u2019t understand why some fans choose them as their hill to die on in the classic versus contemporary argument. I\u2019d love to see artists take the good parts from both eras to create new prints for us 30 somethings who now have our own grown-up walls to hang them on. Think UDON\u2019s glorious \u2018Art of Capcom\u2019 hardbacks which feature carefully curated renditions of classic Capcom franchises from various artists. Though, if a three-part collection of Tomb Raider 1-3 art prints is in the works, forget my suggestions and take my money instead. <\/p>\n My shelves are practically bursting with art books, history ofs, special edition magazines, just about anything that comes with Lara Croft\u2019s face printed on the cover. But what they\u2019re desperately missing is a hardback collection of the original Tomb Raider style guides. Ah style guides, those dreamy binders that pop up once in a blue moon on eBay, and never at a time when you\u2019ve got enough fun money to buy them. Admittedly, we\u2019ve been fairly spoiled for handsome Tomb Raider books over the years, including the comprehensive 20-year anniversary retrospective, but like any good relic hunter, I\u2019m sure there\u2019s plenty of unseen imagery and stories out there that might just inspire a follow up. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We all know video game movie adaptations have got a reputation for being a bit crap. I don\u2019t necessarily think the Tomb Raider movies fall into this cliche – yes they\u2019re flawed but they\u2019re also a lot of fun if you take them at surface level. Now, it seems to be the era of every video game franchise getting a TV show spin-off and thanks to a new deal with Legendary to produce an anime-style series for Netflix, Tomb Raider won\u2019t be the exception. Netflix has a decent track record of producing shows from video game IP, like Castlevania and The Witcher, though it also has a rep for churning out content for content\u2019s sake just because it can – apparently it\u2019s already in talks to make a film about the whole GameStop stock thing. I just hope Legendary takes the time to do something cool with it and as the series is said to take place sometime after Shadow of the Tomb Raider\u2019s conclusion, I hope that means a more self-assured Lara who\u2019s adopted some of that old school Tomb Raider badassery. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n When even films you didn\u2019t think had that big of a fan base are rounding up old cast members to do table reads over Zoom, I think it\u2019s about time we got some kind of Tomb Raider reunion. Tomb Raider superfan Ash Kaprielov did a stellar job of rallying together the old Core Design team for a 20th anniversary panel session at PlayExpo back in 2016 and it would be pretty special if fans the world over could tune in to something similar this year in a virtual capacity. It\u2019s been encouraging to see original team members being active within the Tomb Raider community online over the last few of years, from Nathan McCree\u2019s crowd-funded Tomb Raider Suite to the recent resurfacing of the cancelled Core Design Tomb Raider: 10th Anniversary project. It would be fitting to hear more about those stories and the impact the series has had. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Well, those are some of the things we\u2019d love to see from Tomb Raider\u2019s 25th anniversary. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below. Also don’t forget to follow us on Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>and subscribe to our\u00a0YouTube channel<\/a>\u00a0and if you\u2019re feeling generous feel free to donate to our\u00a0Patreon<\/a>, thanks for reading.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This year marks 25 years since the gates to that chillingly atmospheric Peruvian cave first slammed shut behind Lara Croft and our adventures with the globetrotting star of what would become the storied Tomb Raider series began. 25 years, countless locations and bullets spent, and several retcons later, Lara Croft remains one of the most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":8847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[900,268,565,596,118],"gp_videos":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nfornerds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nfornerds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nfornerds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nfornerds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nfornerds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8834"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nfornerds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8848,"href":"https:\/\/nfornerds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8834\/revisions\/8848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nfornerds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nfornerds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nfornerds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nfornerds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8834"},{"taxonomy":"gp_videos","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nfornerds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fgp_videos&post=8834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n(Come on! I can’t be the only one who wants more dinosaurs!)<\/address>\n<\/a><\/p>\nSome Kind of Classic Collection<\/em><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nMore Figures and Stuff, Please<\/em><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n(I Neeeeeed Mooooooreee!)<\/address>\n\u00a0<\/address>\n
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Anniversary Art<\/em><\/h2>\n
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Books, Books and More Books<\/em><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n(You’re God Damn right I’ll take extended universe cannon novels!)<\/address>\n\u00a0<\/address>\nFor the New TV Show to Actually be Good<\/em><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n(All hail Netflix!)<\/address>\nA Core Coming Together (of sorts)<\/em><\/h2>\n
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