Croc: Legend of The Gobbos Review

Croc: Legend of the Gobbos is a game I’ve always said I’d return to since I first received my PlayStation as a gift during Christmas 1998. I vaguely remember playing a demo of it at some point and enjoying its small slice of gameplay. Oddly enough, I never did go back to it after that point. I had other platformers like Crash and Spyro that took precedence over that game. That’s why when Argonaut Software announced a remaster of the game coming to modern consoles, I thought it would be the perfect time to run through Croc for the first time.

Story

Croc’s story is pretty simple and told with CGI cutscenes. A woven basket floats down the river, carrying a baby crocodile. King Rufus and a furry race of creatures called Gobbos decide to raise Croc as one of their own. That’s when Baron Dante and the villainous Dantinis invade Gobbo Valley and capture all the Gobbos. Croc is transported to safety by a magical bird named Beany, and now he must set out on a quest to free the Gobbos and defeat Baron Dante to liberate Gobbo Valley.

Gameplay

Collectibles

The main goal in Croc: Legend of The Gobbos is to reach the gong at the end of the level. Before you get to the gong, you’ll be trying to find the six Gobbos and five colored crystals hidden in the stage. The colored crystals will allow you to access a bonus area hidden behind a special door at the end of the level. There are also keys that open Gobbo cages or special doors. Rescuing all the Gobbos before a boss level will unlock a secret level where you are tasked with collecting a puzzle piece. Collecting all the puzzle pieces will give you access to a bonus island with extra levels to play through. Collecting all the Gobbos is necessary to unlock the game’s final boss and true ending.

Moveset

While the original game had tank controls, the remaster has more traditional movement that makes the game much easier to control. Croc has a pretty simple moveset. He can jump, climb up certain walls/ledges, tail whip, hip stimp, and swim. The tail whip is annoying because it has a weird radius, especially during boss battles, that sometimes just doesn’t hit the enemy. The hip attack can be equally irritating because it’s mapped to the jump button. I don’t know how many times I pressed that by accident and fell to my death. Croc’s health is represented by crystals (like rings in Sonic); you must collect them if you’re hit, or your next hit will make you lose a life. You can also find hearts across levels to gain extra lives. If you lose all your lives, there’s an infinite continue system and a password system in the original game (that you can also use in the remaster).

Level Design

Much like many platformers at the time, the levels in Croc are broken up into islands. Forest, Ice, Desert, Castle, and Crystal are the islands in Croc and contain the typical tropes you would expect. Forest Island is full of lava, caves, and volcanoes. Ice Island is self-explanatory, with Croc sliding all over the place. Desert Island is just an aesthetic with green poison pools and mud pits. Castle Island uses a lot of lighting effects and has some of the most interesting enemies in the game. Crystal Island is the secret island and gives you some extra levels based on all the previous islands. There’s a nice variety here in the islands, but I did feel like many of the levels within each island felt the same. This is a very early 3D platformer, so I can give it a pass on that.

Enemies

There are a variety of enemies in Croc. The Dantinis mostly walk or run around while some shoot projectiles or spontaneously burst into fire. There’s even one that flies around. Some unique enemies in the castle levels change things up with new enemies, like the Ballistic Meg that leaves burning trails where it runs or the Robot Fist Guards that are hidden to the side of archways waiting to hit Croc. I didn’t bother with the enemies on most levels, as you can usually avoid them. I found it much easier to do that than to chance being hit trying to go out of my way to hit them with a tail whip.

Guardians

I felt like one of the weaker points of Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was the battles with the Guardians. There’s a boxing ladybug named Flibby, Chumly the Rocket Man, and Baron Dante himself. There are nine boss battles, including The Secret Sentinel, and each one has a distinct personality, and some use the level design against Croc (like ice or water). A lot of these boss levels weren’t very difficult or innovative. I don’t need it to be a pain to play, but these were incredibly easy. The hardest part was trying to get the trophy in the remaster for not taking a hit during all of the boss battles. If you’re not doing that, they’re a breeze.

Presentation

Croc looks suitable for the time it was released, with vibrant and colorful worlds and good use of lighting in many of the later levels. However, the remaster did little to update the visuals. I was playing with the original graphics for a bit without even noticing. That’s not to say that it doesn’t look sharper and smoother, but it’s not a massive upgrade like the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, for example. I was surprised that there wasn’t more detail in the worlds. They felt very empty for the most part. The audio sounds great, and the soundtrack was one I was humming along to during my entire playthrough without even noticing. Whether you’re playing the original or the remaster, the presentation is solid, but don’t expect anything groundbreaking.

Conclusion

Croc: Legend of the Gobbos is a decent platformer, but it’s clear why it has played second fiddle to all the more prominent platformers of its time. It’s fun but still a relatively basic game with little gameplay innovation throughout the playthrough. I’m happy I finally gave this one a chance, but it didn’t catch my attention how I hoped it would. I’m hoping for a remaster of the second game to see how the gameplay has evolved.