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. This time I’d like to write about one that I think doesn’t hold up quite as well for me: For the first time in almost 30 years, I revisited the original Tomb Raider via 2024’s Tomb Raider I-III Remastered collection.

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