I never played the old tomb raider games so I'm not quite sure. I hear they were pretty good though. As for Skyward Sword... I feel it will not break the Zelda cycle of something being considered negative and then being looked at as something better years later. Like I love lots of things in Skyward Sword such as the sandship/timestones or the rpg weapon mechanics...but overall I think the controls are still far from perfect, and it's got a lot of meandering/fetch questing.