Yamaha SRT-1000 review

You know that old Nintendo 64 you've got packed up in your loft? Keep it there. And that Dreamcast that's gathering dust under your bed? Let it stay put. What about the original PlayStation you're using as a door stop to your spare room? Leave it be. They're all of far better use where they are.

In our minds, the classic games we used to play on these systems are just that – classics that, over the years, our brains have turned into little nuggets of gaming perfection, whether they warrant such praise or not. Truth be told, if we hunted down most of the games we claim to cherish in our collections and took them on in a 2014 frame of mind, almost all would come off a little worse for wear.

And that's only right: if 20 year old games played as well today as they did then, then that would mean the games as a whole would have stood still.

Tomb Raider 2
Tomb Raider II, then, has two different hurdles to clear. Not only is the game nearing its 20th anniversary, but it also lands on a touchscreen device with controls never intended to be mapped out in such a way. It's an indication of how far 3D action games have moved forward that you'd likely have more joy laying out the controls for Assassin's Creed than you would one of Lara's legacy adventures.

Indeed, when you struggle to contend even with a game's tutorial, you know something's gone fundamentally wrong. Jumping between platforms, Lara repeatedly informs you failed attempt after failed attempt, is a case of pushing forward to run and hitting the jump button at the same time – a process that would be made all the easier if she actually ran in a straight line, rather than veering off in one direction or other.

This is the crux of half of Tomb Raider II's problems. Mapped on the right hand of the screen is a virtual stick to direct Lara, a button to make her jump, a button to make her grab hold of ledges, a button to draw your weapon, a button to change the angle of the view, and a button to make her turn 180 degrees, as well as two buttons to make her sidestep to the left and right. It's as ridiculous a set up in the modern era as it sounds: such an approach would feel entirely out of step on a console controller in 2014, let alone on a touchscreen littered with virtual buttons.