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Nathan Blades burns rubber in Mario kart 7.
It was the only game to make a significant impression on my childhood. In it you play as the athletic super-minted ponytail-swisher Lara Croft, who seemingly goes on expeditions to the Great Wall of China and kills dragons just for the hell of it. Not that I ever actually played it – my brother in his infinite wisdom thought it best that he played the game, whilst I sat and read out the walkthrough (yes I know, we were lazy and we cheated. A lot.) I was nine, it all made sense at the time. Besides, my previous gaming efforts – the infamous River Raid debacle - had not ended well. The closest I came to actually playing was going through the assault course in the grounds at Lara’s house on the practice level that doesn’t actually count for anything. The plot line remains hazy in my memory as, even with the walkthrough, I don’t think we ever managed to complete it, but according to Wikipedia in typical Croftian fashion it features a mythical dagger, the Venetian mafia, a Tibetan Monastery and some yetis. YETIS.
Still, vague though the memories are, Tomb Raider II and the weekends spent ogling the ancient Windows 95 computer screen are remembered fondly – the 90s graphics happily allowing Lara to stand half inside a solid stone wall, the annoying yelping noises she made whenever she got mildly injured, that cheat we found that made her explode (step forward, step back, turn around three times and backflip), my brother insisting that “it’s OK to shoot the tiger because you later find out they’re all robots.”. There was that bit where we did battle with a dinosaur who was clearly no match for our grenade launcher (by this time we’d cheated and had all weapons and unlimited ammo at our disposal – I mean, pistols? Against a T-Rex? Come off it), the pesky spiders/rats/Dobermans that showed up EVERYWHERE and that bizarre level where for reasons beyond my nine year-old comprehension Lara was plunged forty fathoms underwater and had to escape a shark. Ooh look, an extra medi-pack.
It was a game that provided a wealth of entertainment (even for a mere onlooker), and ignoring the awful spin-off films became a hugely successful franchise, and one I still enjoy to this day. I’m seeing my brother next weekend. I’ve found the Tomb Raider II discs. Weekend sorted.
YES LUCIE! A darned fine choice if I do say so myself! What shocks me is how you haven't remembered how poor Lara's jumping ability was; 'right, I need to get over there'...*yelping noise*...wham, splat! 
Tell me you locked the butler in the freezer as well.
That doesn't need to be stated. That's assumed.
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