Since the very first Tomb Raider game came out so many years ago, Lara Croft has been an international sex symbol. Sure, she’s just pixels and audio bits, but she’s spawned a slew of Lara Croft models that have graced various video game conferences, paved the way for video game heroines to be sex symbols (or just sex, depending on how many times you played DOE: Extreme Beach Volleyball), and became one of the most popular video game move adaptions ever (i.e. Ewe Boll did not direct it). It was really only a matter of time until Lara Croft made her way onto the App Store, but the new game being released by Square Enix wasn’t quite what I was expecting.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a top down, dual stick shooter that has you playing as both Lara and her new sidekick, Totec. The game looks as pretty as you’d expect a big budget Lara Croft game to look, but this title is definitely focusing more on the action than Lara Croft’s sex symbol status.

Like the rest of the series, the game will take you through an exhaustive adventure through jungle/supernatural terrains and contains more action and puzzle solving than you can throw a stick at. The real kicker though is the inclusion of co-op multiplayer, which allows you and a friend to play simultaneously as Lara and Totec via Bluetooth or WiFi. If that doesn’t sound like the best possible way to pass the time on a plane flight, I don’t know what does.

If the iOS version of Guardian of Light is as good as the X-Box Live Arcade and Playstation Network versions (and I suspect it will), it will surely be one of the best action games in the App Store. After garnering almost universal praise by publications like IGN, 1UP, and Game Informer, fans of the series should be extremely excited for this one to launch (it should be available tomorrow, 12/16).

Be sure to check after the jump for more screenshots. Enjoy!

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