I remember Croc from when I was a kid, and even though the details are a little hazy after nearly 30 years, nostalgia had me looking forward to revisiting Croc: Legend of the Gobbos. After playing the remaster, I’m questioning whether I did actually enjoy this game, or if it was a case of donning rose tinted glasses.
Despite these newfound doubts over my younger self’s taste, I 100% completed Croc: Legend of the Gobbos during this review, though it was more out of stubbornness than any real sense of enjoyment.
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos starts off with a brief introduction for the background of our main character. As a baby he was placed in a basket and sent floating downriver, eventually being found by the Gobbos who adopted Croc as one of their own, like a narrative cross between Moses, Mowgli and… well, a crocodile. Life was good until the Gobbo village was invaded by Baron Dante and his forces, with all of the Gobbos being kidnapped as part of this takeover. Croc manages to escape and embarks on a mission to free his Gobbo family from Baron Dante’s clutches.
The game itself is split into four areas – five if you count the secret island – each with their own levels to navigate. Each of these levels has a pretty similar set up, generally split into a few rooms filled with obstacles that you need to get past, be they enemy Dantinis, traps or locks. Most rooms will also contain a Gobbo and a Colour Crystal too. Coming from the earliest days of 3D platforming, it’s no surprise that Croc slips into some familiar tropes with these settings, taking you from Forest to Ice, Desert and Castle islands, each with a string of levels that build up to mini-boss and main boss levels.
The secret fifth island, the Crystal Island, needs you to grab all the Gobbos and then the jigsaw pieces in secret levels, though most of the Gobbos and Colour Crystals are on your main path, with only a bit of extra manoeuvring required. Sometimes Gobbos can only be rescued by completing a mini-game. Failure means you do not get that Gobbo, and the only way is to, annoyingly, restart the level.
That is probably the least annoying thing about Croc: Legend of the Gobbos. The most egregious issue is the platforming in the game. It just has no real consistency when it comes to navigating from one section to another. I couldn’t tell you how many times Croc slipped off a platform, failed to grab a ledge, or just seemed to fall from certain areas of his own accord. This has to be a hang over from the 90s where games seemed to have been made like this, either just from a lack of mastery of control schemes and physics, or deliberately to pad out the playtime. You could line up the camera perfectly and assume you have the best line for a jump, only for Croc to fall short of the gap.
Another issue was some of the enemy placements, where in some instances they are practically unavoidable meaning you lose your crystals or a life if you have no crystals. Hit boxes are also off, with there being examples of Croc being hit or killed by an enemy that is in the near vicinity but not touching him. Bosses are easy fights but have this hitbox issue.
The music sounds good in Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, though can get repetitive and annoying if you’re hearing the same tune for the umpteenth time. The game’s graphics are decent as well, this high resolution remaster looking nice on modern screens, bursting with colour. The Crocopedia is a nice touch as well, hosting concept art, photos of the original merchandise, and videos with the development team about their time working on Croc: Legend of the Gobbos.