You know what they say: the shoes make the man. Hence, in the same way: the Mario Shoes make the Mario Fan.

Well, it's not totally unheard of that fashion statements are born out of video game fandoms. And fashion is just one side of it. Video game merchandise is also a prolific industry, from Final Fantasy toys to Pokemon plush dolls. Accessories can also be based on video game themes, from a Super Mario Galaxy mobile phone cover to a Halo faceplate for your 360. But whether it be fashion, merchandise, or accessory, there is a sense of wonder that makes you think, "Man, why didn't I think of that?"

Now consider this: what if someone made Super Metroid Wellington boots? Or how about Lara Croft clip-on ponytails? Earthworm Jim spacesuit, anyone?

You got to hand it to the creativity and artistry of these fans. Very impressive!

Want some bargains? Then you've come to the right place. If you've got 30 bucks to spend on a good game, then you might wanna think about getting Tomb Raider: Legend for the 360. Best Buy's selling 'em for $29.99.

In Legend, Lara embarks on another globetrotting adventure as she searches for an ancient and mysterious artifact. Hmm. All ancient artifacts in games and movies and stuff are mysterious, aren't they? And it also works the other way around: all mysterious artifacts are ancient.

Anyway, Legend has all the usual Tomb Raider goodies -- puzzles, acrobatics, and huge... things -- plus improved graphics and an enhanced interactive game environment. The game is from Eidos Interactive and has been stamped with a T rating by the ESRB.

What do you get when you mix a mobile game developer, a game title that sounds suspiciously like a well-known and well-endowed video game character, and a bunch of lawyers?

Potential legal troubles, that's what.

Ozura Mobile, makers of cellphone game Lava Kroft, may very well find itself in worse trouble than their mobile heroine. Eidos Entertainment, developer of the Tomb Raider game franchise, has been thinking of legal action against the Singaporean company due to the many similarities between Lava Kroft and Lara Croft, star of the Tomb Raider series.

Much like Lara Croft, Lava Kroft is billed as a treasure seeking young woman who can't help but find herself in dangerous situations in the search for priceless artifacts. This is especially problematic for Ozura Mobile as Eidos already has a Tomb Raider game for the mobile phone.

Bottom line: If you're planning on making a game with a similar premise as an existing game from a big developer, think of a more original name and storyline that won't get you sued.

Eidos is again out with another Lara Croft: Tomb Raider game for those who take the life out of their thumbs because of too much mobile gaming. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: Legend, links closely to the 7th title in the Tomb Raider franchise.

As always, our heroine, Lara Croft, is in an around-the-world adventure exploring treacherous tombs & uncovering details of her murky past. An expedition for a Pre-Incan relic changes course dramatically when she meets a dangerous figure from her past.

Here are some of the mobile game's features:

• Lara Croft comes to life! - the sexy, dual-pistol, wielding adventurer’s polygon count and animation set has been increased significantly, presenting Lara in the finest fidelity to date.
• Return to the Tombs: Lara’s new quest brings her to lost ancient realms that guard Secrets of the Past.
• Move and shoot. Lara uses her natural physical prowess to combine fast and frantic gunplay with unique platform adventure freedom.
• This new adventure will take you through an impressive journey of exotic locations including ancient tombs, hazardous jungles and snowy mountains which uncover some hugely unexpected situations for Lara to deal with in the way only she can.
  

More screen after the jump!

She's tough - adventurous - daring - and (dare I say?) sexy to boot. Hard to believe she's only ten years old...

Tomb RaiderLara Croft came into the world a decade ago this month. Since then, she has appeared in numerous incarnations, upgrades, consoles, fan art, a feature film, and not a few adolescent boys' nighttime fantasies. (Well, the girls had Indiana Jones, after all.)

Game developer Core Design, Ltd. and publisher Eidos originally released this video as part of Lara's tenth anniversary celebration. Although its been out there a few days, the foreboding musical score, amazing sets and unbelievable cinematography make this clip is a fine representative of machinema film making. (In case you didn't know, "machinema" is a new art form in which game figures and animations are used to create visual stories - often as good or better than what Hollywood puts out, and produced at a mere fraction of the cost). I personally found this as entertaining as Indy Jones' finer moments (not to mention she's much more interesting to look at).

But, as always, you should not take my word for it. Check out this video gem for yourself:

That's rare, actual cheats in an Xbox 360 game. Well it's real, they're there - you just have have to unlock them by completing certain tasks within a set time. Let's just cut to the chase, here's the list (and remember, you're weak when you cheat!):

Bulletproof cheat.
Complete England Time Trial in under 27:00.

Draw Enemy Health cheat.
Complete Bolivia Time Trial in under 12:30.

Infinite Assault Rifle Ammo cheat.
Complete Japan Time Trial in under 12:15.

Infinite Grenade Launcher Ammo cheat.
Complete Kazakhstan Time Trial in under 27:10.

Infinite Shotgun Ammo cheat.
Complete Ghana Time Trial in under 20:00.

Infinite SMG Ammo cheat.
Complete Peru Time Trial in under 21:30.

One Shot Kill cheat.
Complete Bolivia Redux Time Trial in under 4:15.

Textureless Mode cheat.
Complete the game.

Wield Excalibur cheat.
Complete Nepal Time Trial in under 13:40.

Wield Soul Reaver cheat.
Achieve 100% Completion.

Now you have to activate them. You can obviously only use them if you unlock them, and you have to do it while playing:

No Textures Cheat
Hold LT and press LB, A, B, A, Y, RT during game play.

Draw Enemy Health Cheat
Hold LT and press X, B, A, LB, RT, Y during game play.

Unlimited Assault Rifle Ammunition Cheat
Hold LB and press A, B, A, LT, X, Y during game play.

Unlimited Grenades Cheat
Hold LB and press LT, Y, RT, B, LT, X during game play.

Unlimited Shotgun Ammunition Cheat
Hold LB and press RT, B, X, LT, X, A during game play.

Unlimited SMG Ammunition Cheat
Hold LB and press B, Y, LT, RT, A, B during game play.

Bulletproof Lara Cheat
Hold LT and press A, RT, Y, RT, X, LB during game play.

One Shot Kill Cheat
Hold LT and press Y, A, Y, X, LB, B during game play.

Wield Excalibur Cheat
Hold LB and press Y, A, B, RT, Y, LT during game play.

Wield Soul Reaver Cheat
Hold LB and press A, RT, B, RT, LT, X during game play.

As we finally thought we could sleep at night thinking that the "Wassup" fad had finally died, another rendition is flying around the internet. It is at least a little bit humorous though. I can only imagine if Pikachu's voice was really like that. Then out of nowhere BAM! Lara Croft appears to make it even better. True, True. You can watch the video below, thanks to the great and powerful You Tube.

Eidos Interactive have today confirmed that they will be bringing a 10th Anniversary edition of the legendary Tomb Raider series to the PSP, PC and PS2. Tomb Raider fans should be pleased to hear that despite the confusion, the special Anniversary edition is currently being developed by Crystal Dynamics, the same people that brought us Tomb Raider: Legend.

Earlier this week we reported that Tomb Raider 10th Anniversary edition was cancelled by developers Core Design. After the game was dropped, Eidos Interactive gave the job of producing a remake of Tomb Raider 1 and 2 to the ever-dependable Crystal Dynamics, with the reassurance being the quality of the latest Lara Croft offering, Tomb Raider: Legend.

“Our ‘10th Anniversary Edition’ of Tomb Raider, is a one-off title to celebrate both Lara and Tomb Raider, it will appeal not only to the loyal fans of the Tomb Raider series but will also attract a totally new audience.” Said Larry Sparks, Head of Brands Management at Eidos Interactive. Hopefully this game will be as big of a hit as Tomb Raider: Legend was for the PS2 and Xbox, which topped the gaming charts for a number of weeks after it's launch April.

Expectations are high for Tomb Raider, and hopefully the PSP version of Tomb Raider: Legend will turn out to be a cracker when it hits the PSP's screen on June 21st. This considered, with the time Crystal Dynamics have had to fine-tune the system used in Tomb Raider: Legend, the 10th Anniversary edition should even better. For 10 years running its seems that gaming fans cant get away from Lara Croft, who has now become one of the legendary characters of gaming by her own right.

Last week we brought you news of a canceled Tomb Raider game previously under development at Core Design. The game was rumored to be an updated compilation of Tomb Raider's 1&2 completely redone with a new proprietary engine made by Core Design specifically for the PSP, rumor also has it the game was to be titled Tomb Raider: Anniversary Edition.

Today Core Design posted a message on their official homepage clarifying things, the message reads thus:

"Following speculation on the internet, we would like to offer the following clarification.

The video of Tomb Raider: 10th Anniversary Edition that appeared on certain sites was an unauthorised release of an internal presentation of a game that was being developed by Core Design until very recently. It was running on PSP and used a Core-developed engine. However, following a recent review this project has been officially cancelled by SCi.

Core is alive and well and working on some great new projects, and we are still planning to announce some exciting news very soon!"

Dang, shoot, poop and darn! That game looked good! Hopefully we'll be hearing more from Core on just what they're up to (thev're piqued our interest). Until then I guess we'll just have to snuggle our teddy bears close at night and hold on to what would have been.

After a successful outing on the Xbox 360 a few months ago, Tomb Raider: Legend is finally getting ready to grace the PSP's sexy screen. Under production at Crystal Dynamics and under the watchful eye of series creator Toby Gard, hopes were high for a smooth transition to Sony's miniature wonder, the first reviews are starting to trickle in, and here's what they're saying:

Pro-G: "I had expected the PSP game to look significantly different to the PlayStation 2 version, but the port has been handled incredibly well. Legend looked great on PlayStation 2, with large environments and a steady frame rate, so it wasn't going to be easy to bring that to the portable without making sacrifices. The biggest difference between the games can be seen in the frame rate. Legend tends to bog down a little on the PSP, which is a shame, as the environments generally look remarkably close to their PlayStation 2 counterparts." -8/10

Eurogamer.net: "The PSP version may not have the zip of the others, and you certainly wouldn't choose it over and above them, but Tomb Raider: Legend is a good game, and if you can put up with the initial awkwardness you'll find it was worth the wait."-7/10

Computer And Videogames: "While Legend's lack of light certainly doesn't make it unplayable, it does lessen the impact of its good looks somewhat, and more to the point, those of Lara herself. There are numerous sticking points in the game caused by simply not being able to see the way ahead, and unless you've played through the PS2 version you could spend ages scratching about in the gloom for ledges and switches."-7/10

Well there you've got it folks, the general consensus seems to be that it's a pretty good translation of the console experience, all the best parts are kept intact and there is some exclusive content, but a mixture of sometimes iffy controls, dark, murky graphics and a so, so framerate hamper the experience. It's probably worth picking up if you haven't got the console versions, otherwise you might want to skip this 'un.