History YMMV / TombRaiderI

* CompleteMonster: [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Jacqueline Natla]] was one of the three ruling leaders of {{Atlantis}} who, seeing them as weak, used the power of the Scion to warp countless innocents into feral mutants before being sealed away. Freed from a bomb test, Natla [[TreacherousQuestGiver tasks Lara Croft]] with recovering the Scion, while having one of her goons trail her and kill her. Acquiring all the pieces of the Scion, Natla uses an old Atlantean outpost as a breeding factory for mutants, intending on unleashing them on mankind. Viewing evolution as "in a rut", Natla's [[EvilutionaryBiologist ambitions]] reflect her megalomaniacal desire to [[TheSocialDarwinist cull who she deems as weak]].

* ObviousBeta: Some think this is the Sega Saturn version (''especially'' the European version). The game was always intended to be MultiPlatform, but Sega's contract mandated it as a timed-exclusive in PAL territories for over a month (reportedly three). As a result, development was rushed to meet the deadline and the original Saturn version was missing a few features, including the handstand animation and some areas. The later worldwide Saturn release is somewhat more polished by the addition of some save points, enemy rebalancing, and small adjustments to the level design to match the other versions (among minor things), but even Toby Gard stated that the [=PlayStation=] version was the better product. It's a pity - despite the muddier textures, awfully compressed audio and miscellaneous glitches, the improved draw distance and water ripple effects (which were also on PC but not as pronounced) show that it had the potential to be remembered as the superior release.

* FirstInstallmentWins: Twenty five years after the premiere, the game is ''still'' considered Core's finest. And you will be hard-pressed to find people to genuinely claim any installment of both reboot trilogies to surpass it, either.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Whereas ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' showed how classic platforming could transfer from 2D to 3D earlier in 1996, ''Tomb Raider'' fundamentally codified 3D tank controls and a more cinematic flair for exploration, puzzles, combat with a simple auto-lock and more mature adventure in general. If you weren't trying to follow Mario, you were trying to follow Lara Croft, with ''lots'' of Tomb Raider clones in the following years trying to [[FollowTheLeader refine or rip off]] what it managed to pull off in the early debut of 3D gaming. By today's standards, the game's barren, simplistic when it isn't [[GuideDangIt torturously vague]], and most of gaming abandoned tank controls altogether unless intentionally invoking nostalgia, causing it to be very difficult to approach for those unused to the much older standard of gaming.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Whereas ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' showed how classic platforming could transfer from 2D to 3D earlier in 1996, ''Tomb Raider'' fundamentally codified 3D tank controls and a more cinematic flair for exploration, puzzles, combat with a simple auto-lock and more mature adventure in general. If you weren't trying to follow Mario, you were trying to follow Lara Croft, with ''lots'' of Tomb Raider clones in the following years trying to [[FollowTheLeader refine or rip off]] what it managed to pull off in the early debut of 3D gaming. By today's standards, the game's barren, simplistic when it isn't [[GuideDangIt torturously vague]], and most of gaming abandoned tank controls in general, causing it to be very difficult to approach for those unused to the much older standard of gaming.

* AcceptableTargets: Being a UK-developed game, the main villain and all but one of her henchmen are [[{{Eagleland}} loud, brash Americans.]] The other is a Frenchman who [[CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys keeps running away.]] This was rectified in Core's later installments, as Lara is shown to have allies of American and French nationalities.

* ScrappyMechanic:
** One nasty lever in Atlantis does nothing but release a wall of lava onto Lara. There's no way to tell it apart from the other levers.
** There's a puzzle that involves a room full of switches and eggs. Pulling the wrong switches will only release mutants to harass Lara. And then once Lara solves the puzzle, the game releases a mutant anyways.

* ThatOneBoss: The Torso boss at the top of the Great Pyramid. Its [[ThatOneAttack grabbing attack]] is a OneHitKill, you can accidentally fall off the platform you're fighting it on, it can [[DamageSpongeBoss withstand hundreds of Uzi bullets]] and worse yet, just when you've finally killed it, the boss will make one last DesperationAttack: blow up and try to [[TakingYouWithMe take you down with it]], forcing you to start over if you were too close!

* CriticalResearchFailure: Shrines to Thor and Neptune showing up in a Greek tomb from the first Tomb Raider was a doozy. It was fixed in ''Anniversary''.

* SignatureScene: Ask a casual player what they remember about ''Tomb Raider''. It'll be the ''[[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs T. Rex]]''.

* FanNickname:
** The "Unknown Entity" that possesses Amanda in Peru is commonly known as "[[FluffyTheTerrible Fluffy]]'' in the fandom.
** "Doppleganger" was known early on as "Bacon Lara", and the new and improved Doppelganger is sometimes called "Dopplehoe" or shortened to "Dopple" or "Doppie".

** "[[VideoGame/TombRaiderLegend L]][[VideoGame/TombRaiderAnniversary A]][[VideoGame/TombRaiderUnderworld U]]", to make it possible to list all three (and identify their continuity) with a single breath.