A quick catch-up with Daryl Baxter

Daryl Baxter is a freelance writer and author, living in Hadfield, Derbyshire, UK. He’s published two books, namely ’The Making of Tomb Raider’ and ’50 Years of Boss Fights’. His third book, a follow-up to ’The Making of Tomb Raider’, is set to release later next year.

On a related note, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition landed on both the Switch and Switch 2 earlier this week — as such, I thought it would be nice excuse to have a super quick chat with Daryl about the Tomb Raider series more broadly, along with his thoughts on Nintendo and the Switch.

• What are you currently playing on your Switch?
  • I’m currently playing Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero.
    
• What’s one underrated game on Switch you think more people should know about?
  • This goes back a bit, but I’ve always found Blazing Chrome to be a lot of fun, but hasn’t gotten the recognition it deserves.
    
• What game have you spent the most total time playing on Switch?
  • Tomb Raider I-III Remastered 🙂
    
• What was the first Nintendo game you ever played?
  • It was Super Mario Land on the Game Boy – I’m sure I got both on Christmas 1995.
    
• Your favourite Switch memory?
  • One of my favourites is playing Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled with my niece – I played the original at Christmas in 1999, so it felt like a full-circle moment.
    
• Which Nintendo game do you come back to most?
  • Wario Land. I’ve always loved the mechanic of collecting as many coins and treasures as possible so that Wario can get his castle back – or more!
    
• What first drew you to Tomb Raider, and do any Nintendo games scratch a similar itch for you?
  • Tomb Raider was part of a demo disk that came with my PlayStation back in July 1997. This was the first fully-3D game I ever played, and combined with the music, it blew my mind. Oddly enough, it’s Mario Odyssey – there’s something about that game that reminds me of Tomb Raider in a few ways.
    
• With a new Metroid on the way, what do you think sets it and Tomb Raider apart, and what elements do they have in common?
  • I think Tomb Raider and the Metroid Prime series both share that fun aspect of exploration. You’re never sure what could be behind a corner or hidden through some bushes. When it comes to setting them apart, I’d say the music for Tomb Raider – in Metroid, I can barely recall more than three music cues. But Tomb Raider? So many.

If you want to hear more from Daryl, and likely keep updated on all things to do with his third book, then Springboard is probably a good place to start — it’s a free newsletter about games, music, food, and more. Daryl also provides copywriting services “with no AI at the heart of it”.

My thanks to Daryl for agreeing to this quick Q&A.

A version of this interview first appeared in issue #459 of Hanafuda Report.