Following series protagonist Lara Croft as she searches ruins in South America for a powerful artefact, the gameplay features platforming and puzzle-solving on a 2D side-scrolling environment.

[2] The story of the game follows Lara's attempts to stop a group of treasure hunters from possessing the Nightmare Stone, a key capable of releasing the evil god Quaxet.

[1] Tomb Raider was developed for the Game Boy Color (GBC) by series creators Core Design as the character's first title on Nintendo hardware.

[3] The music and audio were handled by Manfred Linzner and Bernhard Wodok of Shin'en; the GBC Tomb Raider was among the company's first projects.

[1] Critics also highlighted Lara's smooth and acrobatic animations,[14][15] and the fact that the player can perform a wide variety of moves with the limited buttons of the Game Boy Color.