![]() ![]() ![]() “Lara is the perfect heroine,” enthused British games magazine Edge. Due to its early 3D graphics and awkward controls, it hasn’t aged brilliantly – but at the time it blew critics away. The game saw her leaping from motorbikes on to speedboats in search of a lost Atlantean artefact. Plummily voiced by Shelley Blond, the original Lara Croft was an upper-class English action hero with two guns and a talent for one-liners. Toby wanted to create an aristocratic woman who was strong, intelligent, independent, athletic and powerful.”īranding coup … Croft on the cover of a 1997 issue of the Face. “The Spice Girls were dominating pop culture and girl power was on the rise. “While was aware that most gamers were male, and lad mags were all the rage, he didn’t want to create a page three cyber-babe for Tomb Raider,” says Livingstone. Ian Livingstone, then chairman of Tomb Raider’s publisher, Eidos, recalls that, while her exaggerated features prompted the most discussion, she was never designed to be a sex symbol. Toby Gard, an artist working at Derby gaming company Core Design, suggested a female character and came up with the design for Croft. The game that became Tomb Raider originally had a male hero. The prevailing wisdom – now disproven – was that video games starring women wouldn’t sell. Women might have loved her, but she was all we had. With her improbable proportions and minimal outfit (hot-pants and a tank top in the tundra?), she was a product for the male gaze. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/PARAMOUNTĪlthough she is a multilingual archaeologist with extraordinary athletic abilities, it’s hard to call the original Lara a feminist icon. Strong, intelligent, powerful … Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider 2. ![]()
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