Special - Tomb Raider Anniversary Edition - . : LARA'S BACKPACK IN ENGLISH : .

July 6th 2006, starting as a simple rumour surfing on the internet (trailers and videos), and later being finally revealed as a canceled project, Tomb Raider Anniversary Edition would be a title, developed by Core Design, celebrating the 10 years of Tomb Raider and Lara. Would be exclusivly for PSP.

Many questions poped out: Did Core Design were back to developing Tomb Raider? Is this game totally new? Would it be Tomb Raider 6? A compilation of Tomb Raider 1 and 2? A remake?. too many questions, but no answer, at least not until Tomb Raider Anniversary by Crystal Dynamics was published.

Clarifiing messages

Since the first time trailer was seen of what would be the next Lara's adventure, official messages were spread around internet, to make these "missunderstandings" stop once for all. But questions wouldn't stop, and still no answers for them.

So on the same day of the release of the trailer, Core Design typed a message om Tomb Raider forums, named as "Taohl" saying:

"Hi all, you'll have a few people from Core online tonight and tomorrow morning with their feelings on this thread but don't expect anything concrete about the trailer.

We have (as the Core team) been asked not to divulge too much or enter into a protracted debate about the topic of this thread until an official statement is made. This is due tomorrow or possibly Monday and is to be arranged by our new owners / bosses as we are not under eidos' supervision anymore.

The facts will be made clear (or are there within this thread on previous entries if you can just believe them). Please be patient and appreciate that a particular small Core team (of the 60 development staff at the Derby office which has not been disbanded or closed down and is still making games) is very annoyed with the way this trailer has been dealt with.

If you want to know the truth then please wait and avoid the massive and unfounded speculation that has been circling and becoming increasingly grandiose and is more of a conspiracy theory now than a serious debate.

Thank you for your interest in the trailer, some of your comments have made us smile, some have down right annoyed us and some are simply bizarre.

I work for Core and turn in five days a week and the windows are not boarded up as far as I know."

No one is exactly sure whom member from Core it was (or if it was a tur member even), but from what was said, the game was simply awaiting to be accepted oficialy, not giving any notice of cancelation.

Later on, after some mor rumours, toby decided to put an end to this missunderstood story:

"Following speculation on the internet, we would like to offer the following clarification.

The video of Tomb Raider: 10th Anniversary Edition that appeared on certain sites was an unauthorised release of an internal presentation of a game that was being developed by Core Design until very recently. It was running on PSP and used a Core-developed engine. However, following a recent review this project has been officially cancelled by SCi.

Core is alive and well and working on some great new projects, and we are still planning to announce some exciting news very soon!"

Oficial trailer inicialy banned

Who is Melissa?

Melissa adopting the same 3D model as Lara, hence the same animations

Tomb Raider anniversary Edition, couted a new feature: Melissa Croft. Her last name suggested her to be Lara's daughter.

From then, many sotiries were heard, from her being Lara's evil tiwn, whom would be her rival, to just simply being Lara's twin sister. Mas afterall, Melissa was her cousin.

Melissa's Gallery

But afterall, what's Melissa's role in the game?

LAter in 2007, on an interview with Phil Chapman, Lead artist animator, revealed that Tomb Raider Anniversary would feature a second character who would co-operate with the player on a 2 player engine, but this would be made ina diferent way. Melissa would simply help Lara, so one player would contol Lara, and the other player Melissa.

To play with Melissa, you needed 2 players afterall, and they would help eachother to finish the game. This mode to play 2 player games is turning popular in some games, instead of the versus mode.

The Truth behind Anniversary Edition.

Maybe you always wanted to know the true reason why the game was cancelled. Well its simple, by the time the game was being developed, Core was sold to Rebellion, losing then the rights of the name "Tomb Raider", which is owned by Eidos.

So Eidos contracte Cyrstal Dynamics to make the next Tomb Raider 1 remake.

The Trailer wasnt suposed to be published, butt here was a information leak and the trailer was published online without Eidos authorisation. As soon as it was detected, Eidos ordered that the trailer would be off internet as soon as possible.

More information about Anniversary Edition.

Lara Croft in Tomb Raider Anniversary Edition

* Tomb Raider Anniversary Edition was a remake of the 1996 title Tomb Raider. It was going to be released in Autumn of 2006, and was a celebration of Tomb Raider and Lara Croft’s 10th anniversary.

* The developers have stated that it would've been their wish for previous Tomb Raider voice actress Jonell Elliot to star as Lara Croft once more.

* Nathan McCree, composer of the original Tomb Raider soundtrack was allegedly lined up to recreate the score for Anniversary Edition.

* In 2007 it was revealed that Core Design had planned to incorporate a multiplayer co-operative mode as an extra feature - a first in the Tomb Raider series. For this purpose, a new optional playable character was created: Lara Croft's cousin 'Melissa Croft'.

* A new final level was planned, with Lara battling against an Atlantean War Machine as she attempted to escape the Great Pyramid of Atlantis. This level was originally intended to feature in the 1996 game, but due to time restrictions it was left out.

* Also, dual-aiming, a feature that was planned for the original Tomb Raider but didn't make it into the final version, was going to be present in Anniversary Edition.

* Each cutscene was to be recreated with the in-game graphics engine, as opposed to the CGI cutscenes from the original game. However, the original 1996 cutscenes were to be included as an extra bonus unlockable.

Until recently, there wasnt many media sources such as images and videos of this game, not wanting to give the wrong information that the game was still under developement, but now we are lucky to see alot of concept art, vídeos and animations as well as many other things availible on the internet.

Here on Lara's Backpack we will show you some images.