Modders Get Original 'Tomb Raider' Running On Game Boy Advance, And It Looks Pretty Good

It seems like we’re getting nothing but re-releases and remakes of games lately, doesn’t it? Maybe it just feels like more than usual because of all the things that have been brought over to new-gen consoles (as well as all the stuff that’s still on the way, like the umpteenth release of GTA V).

Either way, one thing basically all ports have in common is that they always bring games over to newer platforms, because why wouldn’t they? Well one modder has done exactly that, just not in the way you’d expect.

While you're here, check out this amazing Unreal Engine 4 remake of Tomb Raider 2.

Behold, Tomb Raider running on a Game Boy Advance, because why the hell not. The GBA, of course, came out in 2001, about five years after Tomb Raider, so it seems like a reasonable port to make, right? This comes courtesy of XProger, who recently released a video of the project, dubbed OpenLara, over on YouTube. The whole thing runs so much better than you’d expect, too - the frame rate (displayed handily in the corner of the screen) isn’t super consistent, but in general, the game appears to be astonishingly playable.

People have been showing their support for the project in the comments section: “How is the GBA capable of these kinds of textured 3D games? This is blowing my mind! Amazing work!” commented Jimbo Bimbo. “This is indeed impressive, I didn’t know that GBA was able to pull this, amazing,” wrote Leonardo Reyes.

According to the project’s GitHub page, the GBA isn’t the only platform that the modder has brought the game over to - they’ve been working on OpenLara since 2016. Since then, they’ve got it running successfully on the 3DS, PS Vita, Switch, Xbox, and more. If you’re interested, you can download the port for yourself (on basically any platform of your choosing), here. The GBA version is still in an alpha state, though, so don’t expect it to run flawlessly. 

Recently, a different modder made Counter Strike playable on the DS, so this isn’t the first we’ve seen of seemingly incredibly random fan-made ports happening lately. I, for one, am all for it though - Skyrim for the Atari when?

Topics: Tomb Raider, Mods, Retro Gaming