They were great games hampered by some pretty abysmal controls, dual analogue wasn't exactly commonplace at the time (hell, the dual analogue controller was released the year after TR1 came out) so there was only so much you could do with just a d-pad. The controls got noticeably more tolerable as the series went on but even then it was the same tank controls full of animation lock-in (sidestepping being the main one).