Yesterday, Blaze announced it was refreshing its line of hardware with the Evercade VS-R and EXP-R, both of which will be launched in July alongside a brand-new cartridge which uses "Giga Cart" tech for expanding storage capacity.
Blaze has now confirmed that this cart will be Tomb Raider Collection 1, the existence of which actually leaked on Amazon a few days ago.
The cart will include the PS1 versions of the first three games in the series. It will be available to pre-order from April 30th and will be released on July 31st, alongside the revised hardware. It will also be available to purchase separately, with a retail price of £22.49 / $24.99 / €24.99.
"Tomb Raider is the game that defined an entire era of 3D gaming and the start of the classic era of Lara Croft’s adventures. Originally released in 1996, this adventure introduced the world to Lara with its exotic landscapes and mythological treasures alongside the genre-defining platforming and puzzle-solving gameplay," reads the PR.
"Sequels Tomb Raider II and Tomb Raider III, from 1997 and 1998 respectively, are also included in the collection in their original 32-bit console form. The games feature many locations from around the world and are offered on Evercade as the complete games as they were when first released. All games use the Evercade interface, meaning you’ll have access to six save states per game."
Blaze states that we should expect more collections from Tomb Raider's current IP holder, Crystal Dynamics, in the future.
Blaze Entertainment CEO Andrew Byatt has this to say:
We are beyond thrilled to announce our partnership with Crystal Dynamics to bring Tomb Raider cartridges to the Evercade platform. This collaboration marks a significant milestone in bringing one of the most popular gaming franchises of all time to Evercade. Tomb Raider is a hugely important game series to add to our platform and further expands our growing library of amazing titles from retro eras.
Tomb Raider Franchise General Manager Dallas Dickinson adds:
We are huge fans of Blaze Entertainment and knew they would be a great partner to bring classic Tomb Raider games in a fantastic retro package on Evercade. We can’t wait to see fans enjoying the collection when it launches on July 31st, and to see a new generation of gamers enjoy a full retro console experience.