Why adding modern controls to 1996's Tomb Raider simply doesn't work

"For a lot of the games I've written about in the C:\ArsGames series, I've come to the conclusion that the games hold up pretty well, despite their age- Master of Orion II, Jill of the Jungle, and Wing Commander Privateer, for example. Each of those have flaws that show now more than ever, but I still had a blast revisiting each of them."

"You might be thinking this is going to be a dunk on the work done on the remaster, but that's not the case, because the core issue with playing 1996's Tomb Raider in 2026 is actually unsolvable, no matter how much care is put into a remaster. The age of tank controls Tomb Raider was part of the first wave of multi-platform games with fully 3D gameplay, releasing the same year as similarly groundbreaking 3D titles Super Mario 64 and Quake."

Revisiting the original Tomb Raider via the 2024 Tomb Raider I-III Remastered collection exposes a fundamental control problem that modern expectations find limiting. Tomb Raider launched alongside Super Mario 64 and Quake as part of the first wave of mass-market 3D games, when control and camera conventions were not yet established. The game used tank controls, where forward/back moves and left/right rotates the character in place. That input modality was once intuitive but now feels sluggish and clunky, reducing responsiveness and making the experience frustrating despite strong level design and atmosphere.

Read at Ars Technica