Developer: Core Design
Year: 1996
Great moments in PC gaming are bite-sized celebrations of some of our favorite gaming memories.
In retrospect, maybe Lara should have become a daring zoologist instead. I mean, how much could any ancient cup sell for compared to, y’know, a living T-Rex? But anyway. One of the defining moments of early 3D boss-fights, matched only by the attack of the first Fiend in Quake, saw a whole generation get pistol-based therapy for their Jurassic Park-related nightmares. The T-Rex living in The Lost Valley didn’t just sit there and take it though, especially in Tomb Raider: Anniversary, where its claws and jaws were coupled with… shudder… crap QTE sequences.
Like all the best boss fights, it took its time. You'd already fought a few piddly raptors before entering its domain—a sealed-off valley with a non-suspicious corner. Turn it, and there's the original Mister T, ready to chew off Lara's polygons faster than you can say, "Oh shit, it's a—"
At least, until Lara demonstrated why the words 'endangered species' now universally translate to 'any animal in the vicinity of Ms. Lara Croft'. At least it was a quick way to go. And the last one of its kind, presumably?
Ha-ha. No. The next game, two of them showed up at once.
