PSA: Tomb Raider Underworld for the Wii is broken

Now imagine if the ledge wasn't there...

Tomb Raider Underworld, released last week for a multitude of systems, was undeniably one of the most anticipated action-adventure games of the year. Another point of interest was that Underworld would be the first original Tomb Raider game to come out on the Nintendo Wii console. However, those anticipating a great game making clever use of the Wii controls were tragically incorrect, and that’s not just based off of the mediocre reviews. Even worse, it turns out the Wii version of Tomb Raider Underworld, and that version alone, is broken. 

In the Thailand level, Lara needs to jump onto a pole sticking out from the wall at one point. That pole turns out to be a lever which, when pulled by Lara’s body weight, opens up the next area of the level. A video of how this is supposed to happen can be seen here. Unfortunately, in the Wii version the lever will sometimes not show up. It just isn’t there, and if there’s no lever, you can’t progress to the next area, you can’t complete the level, and you can’t play the rest of the game. A video of this glitch in action can be seen here. 

Eidos, publisher of Tomb Raider Underworld, is aware of this glitch and has advised those that encounter it to contact their tech support. If you’ve encountered this glitch, you can see how to contact them here. But the fact remains that this game shipped with a game-killing glitch, something which is unacceptable for a highly anticipated game. Until this is solved, I cannot urge you enough to not buy the Wii version of Tomb Raider Underworld. Spending $50 to support a broken product is simply inadvisable, especially when there are so many other products out there more deserving of your money.