According to the Guinness Book Of World Records Lara Croft is officially the most successful human videogame heroine of all time. We’re not quite sure how you’d actually go about figuring something like that out – or what it even means – but seeing as she’s about the only human videogame heroine that we can think of at this moment in time, we’re going to concede the fact. Lara is undeniably an icon: probably the only character to ever truly transcend the medium and enter the mainstream conscience as more than just ‘some polygon woman with unrealistic proportions.’ No matter how popular she has become outside of videogames, it is to us that she owes her superstardom – not to the marketing men who put her on the front cover of The Face, but the gamers who invested so much time into her continuing adventures, for increasingly meagre returns.

Tomb Raider: Legend was meant to be the game to return Lara to the top of the videogame pantheon after the famous fall from grace that was Angel Of Darkness. It unfortunately falls someway short of achieving this Herculean task and to put it as plainly as we can, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend is a disappointment. It’s certainly a solid enough game – providing a good base on which to build – but it never manages to live up to the quality of the first two Tomb Raider games, undeniably the highpoints of the series. If you read the review of the PlayStation 2 version that appeared in last month’s issue then you know pretty much everything we have to say on what Crystal Dynamics has done right – and wrong – with Legend, and you can copy every single word over and apply it to the PSP version.

From a technical standpoint, Legend on the PSP is a marvel, retaining much of the graphical frippery seen on the PS2. Each of the varied environs Lara visits on her globetrotting adventure is rich in incidental detail – abundant in flora and fauna that really brings them to life. The handful of tombs you get to raid are heavy with dust and debris, and at times you genuinely believe that Lara is the only human to have stepped-foot in them for centuries. Lara herself is just as beautiful in miniature form as she is fully-grown, with a much more realistic model that looks and moves with more grace than ever before.

Thanks to the removal of the classic Tomb Raider grid system, Lara’s repertoire of moves has expanded immensely, but thanks to some clever tinkering, the control system has survived the shrinking process with relatively few changes. The lack of a second analogue stick does complicate camera control somewhat, but aside from that, manoeuvring Lara through Legend is remarkably without incident. Combat is still rather cumbersome, and like the PS2 version, you’ll often find yourself pointing at nothing and shooting at a wall. Unlike the PS2 iteration, however, PSP Legend only has one choice of combat control, which is actually superior to the default setting on the home console. Shooting bad guys and endangered species is still a chore though, and the over-reliance on action-sequences gets in the way of the already sparse exploration, much to Legend’s detriment.

In all other areas Legend is almost identical to the PS2 version, which means everything that we loved and hated has made it onto the PSP. Moments of majesty rub shoulders with sections that get very close to ruining the game, meaning it never gets near to being the triumphant return to form that we were promised. The time spent in musty caverns and tombs is much too brief, and you are never given the chance to fully appreciate an area before you are whisked off to the next. The most memorable moments in the Tomb Raider series came when you had to spend hours traversing massive levels with nothing but Lara’s footsteps to keep you company, but Legend constantly throws dull combat and unfulfilling distractions in your way, resulting in an adventure that falls someway short of emulating the glorious highs of the past.

Tomb Raider: Legend on the PSP is an odd one, because aside from a few new multi-player modes, it is identical to the PS2 version. If you want to play Tomb Raider: Legend and have a PS2, then there’s absolutely no reason to give this a second thought unless you’re desperate to have Lara in the palm of your hand. The PS2 version is graphically superior and the DualShock makes it better to control, but if you have to play it on the PSP, you won’t be missing out on anything. Judged solely as a game in its own right, Legend is easily the best platform/ adventure on the PSP, but all the criticisms we levelled at the PS2 version last month are just as relevant here: it’s too short, too bitty, combat is poor, Lara doesn’t control or move as fluidly as the Prince Of Persia and, worst of all, Legend doesn’t fulfil its potential.

Jude Salmon