fuck, croc, i was rooting for you. i really was. you deserved better.

the story goes that croc was originally pitched by argonaut games to nintendo as a yoshi game, as what would be the first ever 3D platformer: Yoshi Racing. miyamoto was apparently enthusiastic about the idea, but nintendo turned them down. argonaut had previously had a very close working relationship with nintendo. they helped make many of their first 3D games on the snes, including the original star fox. but things started to seem iffy when nintendo decided not to release star fox 2, which was already completed. when nintendo turned down argonaut on their yoshi project, argonaut forged forward with the idea and ended up making croc. and nintendo? well, whether or not they took the idea directly or not, they made super mario 64, a game with a similar premise and with a legacy that continues to endure, while croc has faded into obscurity and argonaut fizzled out in the 2000s. jez san, the founder of argonaut, said miyamoto himself apologized to him for how nintendo handled the situation, and that at least croc was doing well for them. but jez san felt that the bridge had already been burned a long time ago.

this firmly solidifies croc as an underdog, a scrappy and ambitious game who had its thunder stolen by one of the biggest gaming companies of all time. we all love an underdog story, i'm sure. but underdogs aren't always good at their job. and croc, frankly, isn't.

it's all so rote as to be asinine to describe: croc consists of running and jumping between FOUR COLORFUL WORLDS and collecting FLOATING ICOSAHEDRONS and saving these little fuzzy critters called "gobbos", which i can't take seriously at all, partially because its a silly name, but mostly because i once stumbled into some erotica about lesbians turning into goblins that was very intensely into body odor fetish and she referred to herself as a "gobbo" and that's all i can think about when i hear it now. the levels are trivially short if you don't go for the collectibles, which at least can make completing this game less painful. but i don't even like 3D platformers that much to begin with, and this game is maligned even among those fans.

i'm sure there a bunch of reviews on youtube or whatever that go into the particular design failures of croc. i don't really want to get into it too deep. but a note on tank controls: i think tank controls are fine. i like them. they do need to exist in a context, though. croc is a 3D platformer, which usually shouldn't have that, but i do genuinely think you could have a decent 3D platformer with tank controls. but this isn't it. controlling croc doesnt feel great, but it could be a lot worse, it's better than bubsy 3d. honestly the bigger issue is his tailwhip attack, where he yells "kersplat!!" or "kaboof!!" or "kapow!!" and pretty much never hits any enemy and dies because the hit detection in this game is terrible. for me the problem of game feel is exacerbated by everything else. it has this classic 3d platformer design, the same kind that underwhelmed me in spyro and crash, and in fact the extension of design in the mascot platformers of the previous era, a game of just "Stuff in Places". its far from the worst example of that design, collectibles are usually framed within some particular challenge or puzzle, but it’s just not enough. everything is forgettable. it instills this sense of meaninglessness to these objects and it doesn't help that along with that, moving croc around never feels great.

i know people have nostalgia for these kinds of games, but there is a very good reason mascot platformers have died out. they were always banking on the likability of their funny animals, but there's only one mickey mouse. there are some great ones, sure. but do you like mr nutz, kao the kangaroo, donk the samurai duck? probably not, and if you do, you probably stan gex ironically. because when you're banking on the character, you're not really spending much time on everything else. i dont know what most of these enemies are supposed to be, the levels mostly look the same, couldn't hum you any of these songs. but that doesn't matter. just look at the funny animal, go through 8 levels in green grass forest place collecting MAGIC GEMERALDS and then 8 levels in the sewer and then 8 levels in ice world and then the end of the game. these games lack so much personality even though that's the exact thing they're trying to cash in on. croc, my friend, i'm trying to give you a chance, i'm listening to you when you say "kersplat!!", i want you to be the clumsy yet triumphant underdog, but theres so little to care about, i dont care about the secret jewels, and every single time i save one of these little gobbos all i can think about is that goblin lesbian porn i read. how did i even find it? i can't even remember, but it was about a virus that turns people into very stinky goblins and orcs. ive got no problem with the green lesbians, i respect and cherish them. but i have so many questions. why "gobbo"? is that seriously sexy? why was it so clearly a reference to covid-19? with quarantine measures and such? how would a virus even change your bone structure? maybe it can, im not a doctor. and why did it then frame the virus as something that would project into social standing? it constantly highlights prejudices and judgements cast on those who become smelly goblins. are there unanswered issues with racial politics within its fantasy? why was it also very deliberately using an epistolary style, as if on reddit? are cockney accents for goblins supposed to be sexy? why was the stinkiness so important? are goblins and orcs particularly stinky? they were always talking about the smell, i'm not even sure what smell i was supposed to imagine. i know that's a fetish but like why? is reading about the odor enough to illicit a response? i'm not even really disgusted by it i am just trying to process it. there are so many weird twists and turns with the interiority of the characters that we see, how they respond. stinky gobby girl and her big giant smelly orc gf. im happy for them but also what. is it supposed to be a metaphor for something specific? queerness, transness, disease, disability, racism, classism, something else entirely? who is all this even for? is it for me? did i like it? i don't THINK i liked it, but i definitely found it somehow, and i definitely read it to the end, and i definitely am still thinking about right now when i'm trying to play croc: legend of the gobbos and i’m definitely considering reading it again

cock: legend of the blowjobbos

now that that's over with, on with the review:

Croc is the little mascot who could. They even gave him a backpack to disguise how uninteresting his design is. Don't you love backpacks???

The game is so ok. You collect things and go through levels. There are 6 Gobbos to collect per level, with the last being put behind a bonus room at the end of the level, which is sometimes platforming but other times a minigame. You get one chance at this minigame, which usually starts with a tenuous indication of what you need to do, so by the time you've figured it out you've already lost. Now you need to do the entire level again. This game doesn't want me to 100% it.

Although I gave up on even completing it at all. I do like some things: the music, the odd bit of satisfying platforming, and I even like how Croc controls (with an analog stick, probably sucks with a D-Pad). But sadly for Croc, I had an existential realisation that I don't play games to tolerate them until I reach an ending that will absolutely be unsatisfying. I'm sorry Croc. Like a failed relationship, we've both learned an important lesson from our time together and I'm sorry we must part. Goodbye.

Croc is one of those games that I think is a genuinely incredible underrated gem for the PS1, until it becomes the pure embodiment of hatred and malice in the 2nd half. It's one of the very few games where I genuinely do feel as if I could make somewhat of a case for considering it style over substance, though in actuality it's probably just a bit closer to being a game that's overwhelmingly carried by its sublime presentation. At its core though, Croc is a game that feels as if it's slowly eroded by a multitude of smaller flaws that end up culminating into a promising but ultimately unpleasant experience, a disappointment after having such a strong start.

The aforementioned presentation of Croc is easily its greatest strength to me, being able to bring even the smallest, most simplistic of environments to life with the combination of evocative music and downright obscene levels of cuteness from literally everything. Everything about the game is made to feel extremely vibrant and inviting, whether it's the bright, contrasting colours of the environment itself, the fact that even the most threatening of enemies are big eyed lumps of polygons, or Croc himself being one of the friendliest looking mascots of them all, there's just a lot to love. This is further accentuated by the sound design bringing a degree of whimsy to all of your actions, and also making it fun to run around attacking nothing just to hear croc keep saying "kersplat!!". In this sense, it often becomes inherently fun to just mess around and take in the view around you and all the fun little details of even the most simplistic stages the game has to offer.

It seems that one big point of contention amongst those that have played this game is the fact that Croc has tank controls, which is quite the unique (and often bad) choice for a full blown platformer. Usually I'd complain way more about this point but honestly the stage design for the most part is open enough or spaces out obstacles and platforms correctly for this to rarely actually be a problem for the first couple worlds, even if this slowly goes out the window as the game progresses. From world 3 onwards, not only do the stages get far longer, making it feel both more punishing and frustrating whenever you make a mistake, but the platforming gets far more precise and fast paced to the point that the deaths end up rarely feeling like your fault due to the fact that the game at its core clearly isn't built around such manoeuvres. This turns things from a fun romp through pretty, cute worlds into an exercise in pure misery and frustration because it doesn't just feel difficult, but it feels as if it punishes you for things outside your control, to the point where it was a genuine struggle to put up enough of a care to even bother getting through the last couple worlds.

This is made all the worse by the way that as things go on, the game stops really knowing what it wants to do, still having a bunch of collectathon elements to it, but often placing what you need to get only very slightly off the beaten path to the point where it's clear that it was more a formality after a while than an element of the core gameplay loop to actually reward any real exploration. Taking this middle ground option ends up weakening the game, as it will detract from the more linear platforming approach due to constantly throwing minor diversions in your way, but it also doesn't feel rewarding to just walk a couple steps in a different direction to pick it up either, leaving this entire element that led to quite a few creative mini-puzzles eventually deteriorating into a superfluous element that does nothing but harm the core experience.

Even the bonus stages are a mixed bag, as while they'll bring entirely unique scenarios into the gameplay, there are just a few too many of them that either feel overly cheap or not suited to the mobility style that Croc is built around. Making these bonus areas so difficult at times is especially egregious since these are framed as rewards for taking the time to collect everything else, and yet, will often end up being especially obnoxious due to a single small mistake punishing you just as harshly. For these to work better I think that deaths just shouldn't have taken lives away in these sections, allowing to keep a sense of challenge while not feeling like something unreasonable to stick at the very end of the level.

On the whole though, while I might have a ton of complaints, some more including how bad basically all the bosses are and the way the camera essentially forces a lot of leap of faith jumps, I can't outright dislike this game either. For as weak and downright unbearable the 2nd half can get, those first 2 worlds are a fantastic slab of 3d collectathon greatness that embody a lot of what I adore about the PS1 aesthetic on top of it all. I'd genuinely recommend giving those bits a shot, it's just a shame that the full package is as unsatisfying as it is, but ah well, sometimes not even the most powerful nostalgia is enough to cloud the flaws of a game.

+pleasing, cartoony graphics that make a good showcase of the PSX's middle era of games
+I personally think the tank controls are pretty solid, about as good as I could expect for this era. it helps that you can move laterally during jumps, and that there's a quickturn as well
+there's a remarkable amount of extra content through bonus levels, multiple types of collectables, secret stages (a whole secret island!), and unlockable rooms in each level
+around the middle there really is a difficulty sweet spot where the challenges feel traversable within the bounds of the game's controls... brief but it's there
+lifting the "lose your coins" health system from sonic keeps the boss battles in particular from getting frustrating

-analog controls are godawful. I personally stuck to keeping digital mode on and using the stick
-during the first half of the game the levels are trivially easy, and very short without getting all of the extra goodies
-second half of the game is the exact opposite, with uncomfortably precise platforming, deaths from off-screen projectiles, framerate dips in tricky sections, and levels that can reach up to 10 minutes long
-to compound the above, the game uses a life system that forces you to restart the entire level when you lose all lives. it's frustrating to replay the beginning sections of levels in a relatively slow game over and over, especially since continuing at the game over screen gives you a measly 2 lives to work with
-the hit detection with croc's swipe move is really rough, partially because the move itself has no weight. boss battles especially suffer from this, since you can often collide with their hurtbox while you're edging close enough to hit them
-some of the design in the final world goes off the rails, with poor explanations for some of the puzzles, or stage designs that feel unfinished

as a document of early 3d platformer design, I think this holds up better than some other titles from the era, especially as this was originally in pre-production as a Super FX-enhanced SNES game. however, actually playing it is more a chore than anything, indicating that this evolutionary branch of 3d design was doomed to end here.

An extremely formative game for me, so of course I love it so. This was one of my first 3D platformers, and since I wouldn't own any home consoles until Christmas of '04, this ended up being one of the few 3D platformers I had regular access to. I can't say this single-handedly formed my understanding of what a 3D platformer was, but it was a big part of it. Moreover, it was the first game I ever cleared in its entirety. No cheats or nothin', just fought tooth and nail to the end.

It's common knowledge these days that Croc was to be Argonaut Software's take on Yoshi, which Argonaut turned into their own thing after Nintendo turned them down. With that in mind, I actually do see a lot of Yoshi's Island influence here, at least in how the game presents itself. The different islands and the map screen progression through them feel very evocative of the slow ascent and descent through Yoshi's Island, and Baron Dante feels somewhere between Bowser and Kamek in terms of his impact throughout the game. It's not a one-to-one comparison (there was no possible way an early 3D game could communicate the visual artistry of a 2D game late in its golden era), and you could just as easily make comparisons with other platformer contemporaries - the Gobbos are like Rayman's Electoons, Birdie is (accidentally) evocative of Kazooie, etc - but the lineage isn't hard to see.

I think the game's hard for people to appreciate these days due to the tank controls, but, like, I never had an issue with it. Even ignoring that this is of an era where people were trying to figure out what a 3D platformer was, the game's clearly built around tank controls as the core to its challenge. Late-game levels like 'The Tower of Power' and 'Panic at Platform Pete's Lair' are obnoxious as can be if you're not confident with the game's controls and physics, I have no illusions about that. But I don't think that makes the game's design bad, just reliant on a skill that did not become the standard. There's actually a good rhythm you fall into feathering some of those diagonal jumps and using Croc's ground-pound to extend jumps. It's never not nerve-wracking, but that's the fun of it.

This is a game I revisit every so often, but I owe this particular replay to Ragey's excellent long-form Croc analysis. Be sure to give that a read if you want to see a very thorough take on all this: https://randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com/gw/croc/

based on everything ive heard of this game before actually playing it, i was expecting a 3d platformer that bordered on shovelware, barely a step above bubsy 3d, with controls i'd have to wrestle with, but to my pleasant surprise, even with the tank controls it controlled like a dream. the level design, while not always great could still be fun and get pretty creative at times. honestly the game was fun enough to 100%.
only gripes are that sometimes the platforming can be a bit slippery, enemies that shoot are a pain and the bosses were very lackluster, with the secret final boss being the most disappointing.
overall good game

Average reading time: 10 minutes

A challenging platformer wrapped in a very pretty package.

This isn't my first foray with Croc. I distinctly remember attempting to play through this game a number of years ago and then quitting in world 3 due to a crazy difficulty spike. Now, a few years later, my brain spiders command me to once again control the lovable green reptilian and try to beat this game for good. Of course, I knew what I was getting into, and decided to make one small, yet absurdly essential change to make this game more fun.

Now, anyone who's read my Billy Hatcher review knows my opinions about lives systems in games, and that opinion of mine isn't going away. Because of this, I implemented an unlimited lives cheat for this run. As I go further into detail about my time with Croc, it will become clearer as to why I did this, but I did want to state this early on, just for the sake of clarity regarding my experience this time around.

Now, Croc has a simple story. You witness Croc floating in a basket towards a group of Gobbos, who then adopt and raise him. Soon, Baron Dante makes his presence known, sending his troops to kidnap the Gobbos. The Gobbo King bangs a gong to have Croc sent away from the chaos, allowing Croc the chance to fight back and save his friends!

A simple plot for a simple game. However, the instruction manual gives way more detail about the Gobbo world. Reading it will teach you more about the Gobbos as a species, the Gobbo King, referred to as "King Rufus the Intolerant", Croc's experiences growing up with the Gobbos, and even information about Baron Dante's evil group, referred to as "The Dantinis". It's also a bizarrely funny read, with a lot of jokes that stick the landing very well. If you want to read something that will make you constantly double take, read the Croc instruction manual!

Once you take control of Croc, you'll immediately notice a point of contention regarding this game: it's a 3D platformer with tank controls. Needless to say, not the most comfortable platforming experience. Even using an analog controller does not fix this issue, sadly. You'll often find yourself stopping to turn yourself to line up a jump, and jumping feels very stiff. Whatever direction you plan on moving in the air is the only direction you're moving, with little room for adjustment. Over time, of course, you'll get used to the platforming mechanics, but you'll never find yourself saying "this feels great to play!"

Aside from running and jumping, Croc has a few extra moves at his disposal. One of the most vital moves he possesses is his ability to turn around! Using a dedicated button, Croc can do a 180 degree turn whenever he wants, which is a godsend for re-orienting yourself to line up another jump. If you do it while he's on the move, he'll do a really cool flip that made me react like this when I first saw it.

As for Croc's combat ability, he has two moves to use. First, he has a tail swipe move that's great for deleting enemies from existence. His other move is a ground pound, performed by hitting the jump button twice. Aside from dispatching enemies, this move will allow Croc to bust open crates and objects blocking tunnel passageways. Gonna be honest here, I don't like that you have to hit jump twice for this. I wish it was mapped to a different button, because I would often have scenarios where I was doing a precision platforming section that required me to jump as soon as I landed on a platform, and if my timing was off slightly it would result in Croc stopping in midair, asserting the ground-pound position, and plummeting to his death. Not fun.

It's also worth noting that when Croc performs his attacking moves, he has a number of onomatopoeia's he can blurt out, such as "yazoo!" or "kersplat!" You would think this would get annoying after a while, but honestly it never bothered me. I think it adds to Croc's character, being a young croco on a big adventure to save a tribe of people who have a tradition of shoving kitchen utensils down their pants (PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL I PROMISE I DIDN'T MAKE THAT UP)

Speaking of Croc as a character, oh man, would you take a look at these little guys! This game is filled to the brim with scrimblo-type characters, little dudes that you're gonna want plushies of as soon as you see them. They're EVERYWHERE! If you love little weirdos and want to catalogue them all, this is the perfect game for you. Absolutely loved seeing each new creature emerge on my screen as I played.

Okay, so we have cute characters in a fuzzy 32-bit world clearly made for kids. The controls take some getting used to but surely the main game doesn't get too taxing, right? Oh, how I wish I could say yes. For the first two worlds, it's honestly a pretty comfortable romp. Level design is highly forgiving, featuring non-intimidating level design unless you're going after collectibles. Once you hit world 3, though, you'll start seeing much more difficult stage layouts requiring you to perform more precise movements to get by. For me, this is where Croc begins to fall in terms of quality.

So, Croc behaves like Sonic the Hedgehog when it comes to taking damage, in that he'll drop this game's ring equivalent (gems) when getting hit. Get hit without them and you'll lose a life. It's around world 3 where you'll begin facing much more challenging platforming over damaging floors and bottomless pits. Because of this, it is incredibly easy to lose lives. Thankfully, you're given a checkpoint at every door/tunnel you exit, which means a death won't set you too far back. Getting a game over, however, sends you back to whichever stage you last saved at, which means starting a level over again from the beginning.

Now, on paper this doesn't seem like too bad of a punishment, but after getting game over's over and over again due to how easy it is for Croc to die I began to find it intolerable, hence why I opted for the unlimited lives cheat. I can accept dying and having to re-do a small section but having to re-do a stage over and over due to game overs, especially when you get close to the end of a stage, just feels intolerable in the modern era. If you want to tackle this game without such assists, then all the power to you. Just be prepared for a lot of level attempts in the back half of the game and lots of visits to specific stages to grind extra lives hidden away in secret spots.

When it comes to collectables in stages, you really only have two to worry about: Gobbos and colored gems. There are six Gobbos hidden in each stage, and collecting all of the Gobbos in the game allow you to access some secret levels that unlock even more secret stuff. Throughout the stage, you'll find five of these Gobbos hidden in boxes, cages, and on hard-to-reach platforms. "Wait hold on five? I thought you said there were six Gobbos in a stage!" So remember when I mentioned colored gems? You can find five of these in each stage either disguised as regular gems or hidden in boxes. Collecting all of these unlocks a door near the end of each stage, where you will either complete a platforming challenge or a minigame to rescue the last Gobbo.

The platforming challenges are straightforward enough. However, it's the minigames where I take issue with this system. While most minigames are perfectly fine, there's one that I dislike immensely. Basically, you have a cauldron that you control by jumping on two arrow buttons. Your goal is to catch the gems descending from the sky. Catch them all and you're awarded a Gobbo. The problems here are that this minigame goes on way too long, and if you miss even one, the mini game ends. You may think "Oh, if I die I can reset the mini game and try again." A smart idea, but sadly not the case. Losing any minigame without securing a Gobbo will require you to beat the entire stage again to retry it. This means re-collecting every Gobbo and colored gem along the way, which is a frustrating process if it happened in a more difficult level, even if you know what you're getting into.

With how difficult the stages can get, you would think the boss fights would also prove to be challenging. Surprisingly, the bosses in this game are absurdly easy. It's your typical "wait for them to attack and hit them when they're vulnerable" type of fights throughout the game, and dodging attacks is as simple as running in a circle around the boss while they do their thing. Also, almost every boss does this thing where they just stop animating and freeze after you deal the final blow, which is always funny to witness.

The more thing I want to touch on is the music. The soundtrack is pretty good! There's some leitmotif sprinkled throughout the stages, with overworld and underground areas sharing some melodies. The title screen is also pretty catchy and may or may not have had a chunk of its melody lifted from it to be a part of a main theme for a Nintendo game.

Speaking of Nintendo, it's worth noting that this game began life as a pitch for a 3D Yoshi game. After the pitch was turned down, it became Croc, and you can kinda see some of that Yoshi blood in here a little bit. You have a green reptile protagonist who can ground pound (a move Yoshi had in Yoshi's Island) as well as a bad guy who uses magic to make smaller creatures into tough boss enemies. Swap the characters for Yoshi's Island ones and add a tongue move and flutter jump to Croc's arsenal and you basically have a Yoshi game, which is fun to think about as you experience this game.

Overall, I didn't hate Croc. I love his design, and the Gobbo Archipelago is fun to explore. The enemies you encounter are all cute and charming, and hearing Croc exclaim things like "Wazoo" never gets old. However, the stage design, especially in the back half of this game, combined with the awkward controls make this a difficult game to clear. I recommend giving this game a shot, despite the difficulty.

The aesthetics of this game invoke an aura of childhood innocence and succeeds at taking you back to a time where things felt simpler, even if the game isn't the easiest around. For that reason alone, I feel that Croc is worth visiting today. Even with the rise of low-poly indie 3D platformers, there's none that I am aware of that really capture the welcoming aesthetics of Croc.

First, I have to talk about the main little tidbit this game is infamous for. Feel free to skip these first two paragraphs. So the developers of this game, Argonaut, previously worked closely with Nintendo, developing Star Fox, which was an undoubtedly impressive title for the SNES. Nintendo did kinda screw Argonaut over by cancelling Star Fox 2 when it was nearly done and taking many staff who had moved to Japan, but the way this game ties into this story is that Argonaut supposedly showed a prototype of a 3D Yoshi game to Nintendo, which according to the founder Jez San, Miyamoto himself said was inspiration for Super Mario 64, thanking Jez San for the idea of a 3D Mario game. Jez San claims that Nintendo basically stole that idea from Argonaut while screwing them over. That Yoshi game, of course, went on to be Croc.

The thing is, I'm not sure if I really buy this. Even if it did happen, 3D was an inevitability. Jumping Flash released a year before Super Mario 64, Crash Bandicoot was also being developed, Alpha Waves came out far before any of these, the idea of a 3D Platformer wasn't that unique.

Even if it did happen, it doesn't really mean much. Super Mario 64 and Croc: Legend of the Gobbos are very different games. Let's start with the big thing: The controls. They're odd. In a lot of ways, your moveset is pretty basic. A jump, a tail attack, and a ground pound. Where things get odd is the actual movement. So, there is full analogue here, which is cool, but the camera is much different than modern games. The game uses a strange mix between tank controls and conventional analogue. Pressing left, for example, makes Croc run left while also turning the camera. If you just nudge the stick left, Croc stays and place and turns left. L and R are slow strafe moves. Got it? Well, there's more. In the air, the functionality of the shoulder buttons and stick are effectively reversed! Now, L and R turn Croc and left and Right on a stick move him left and right. It's very odd.

Honestly, once you get used to the controls, they're not bad. In fact, I had a decent amount of fun after getting the hang of the details. It also helps that the levels feel built around these controls. That's not to say the level design is great, it's definitely pretty basic, and one could argue that's kind of because the controls are so limiting. The first two world especially feel very repetitive in terms of level design, and the third and fourth kind of do too. I realized midway through that while this game was pretty consistent, it was also very generic. Most mechanics were very generic, most level themes were pretty generic, the most interesting thing about the game is the weird controls. Look at a game like Chameleon Twist, released the same year as this. It was very short. Its camera was inconsistent, to say the least. However, it was unique. This game isn't really unique. Look at Croc. Listen, I don't care if this game had the greatest gameplay ever, Croc would never be a cultural icon. His most distinct feature is a backpack.

Ironically, I thought the final world, which most people seem to hate, had by far the most unique ideas. Yeah, the penultimate level was a little too punishing, but each level felt distinct. It showed that they could've made a really good game with this basis, focusing more on puzzles and interacting with the environment.

Then there's the bosses. Uh... They suck. They're very easy, all take place in generic arenas, and defeating them is always the same. They attack, they get tired, you attack them, repeat. They also lack feedback. Often, I couldn't really tell if I was actually damaging a boss because any damage animations are way too subtle.

I think the best part here is the audiovisuals. Sure, the visual style is pretty uninspired, but the draw distance and detail is impressive. Also, the music is epic. Very good.

Alright, wasn't sure where to mention this, but I had to discuss it. You know how if one was to, say, stand on a relatively slow moving train, they wouldn't fly off? I believe it's called static friction? Well, in Croc even if you're just above a moving platform, your velocity matches that of the platform. It's just a very odd quirk.

So despite its problems, I liked the game. Will you like it? I dunno, maybe the upcoming Croc HD will make some modernizations. Regardless, 6/10, definitely closer to a 5 though.

Barely a hint of actual design anywhere in this thing. Basically a tech demo. Awkward, disjointed, artistically and conceptually non-existant. It's just there.

The developers of this game have dined out for a long time on the story that this was originally a rejected Yoshi game pitched to Nintendo, and the strong suggestion is that Nintendo then turned around and appropriated the idea, making SUPER MARIO 64 without them. After playing this, you're not gonna hear me weeping too loudly for Argonaut. Mario 64 is a generation-defining masterpiece because it's a game made by designers. This is a game made by programmers.

I needed a bit of comfort food while I finish my Masters dissertation, and frankly no game fits that mold quite like Croc. It was the second video-game I ever played, and has remained something I return to here and there over the years. This is nostalgia crystallised, and thus this is probably the worst game that I love.

That said, idk, I think it's decent! Like, I get that it's not great, but beyond the music and visuals being basically ingrained into me at this point, I think they're genuinely quite good. People take issue with the controls, but I never really had an issue with them. The tankiness makes Croc a pretty reliable character to control in my experience. I shan't defend the camera though.

I guess one thing I can't approve of is the weird relationship between 100% completion and its rewards. If you're not going for 100% in these levels, they're pretty barren. However, if you do go for 100%, then you're rewarded with a secret world... which consists of 4 kinda bad levels which just sorta remix rooms from earlier in the game while making them cheaper and more annoying, followed by a pretty lame boss. I wish more effort would have been put into these levels. There aren't any collectibles, so just run to the end. Pretty dull.

Still, this game has a hold over me! I enjoyed revisiting it and will likely enjoy revisiting it again in a couple of years.

Croc is absolutely full of loveable charm, from its colourful visuals, music, character designs and sound effects.

Unfortunately it suffers from having a rather terrible tank control scheme. For a platformer it makes playing the entire game somewhat of a chore at times, and often too slow.

However what survived quite well was the actual platforming. I almost never felt like I missed a jump due to the fault of the game, which is quite impressive for such an early 3D platformer.

Level variety and enemies don't differ too much unfortunately. It kind of feels like playing the same levels, just with a different theme for each world.

The last world on the other hand turns a lot of this on its head (or at least the last normal world - there is a secret world that I never bothered to unlock because I didn't think it was worth it). On one hand there is so much more variety in this world, from brand new, interesting enemy types, new types of platforming sections and puzzles. On the other hand this is where the not-quite-perfect but accept platforming goes to hell. The amount of tiny, moving platforms, at different levels, with no real sense of distance made some of these levels a huge pain.

Some existing IPs absolutely bombed with their first 3D game, while Croc showed promise. Tighten up the controls a little bit and it could have been great. I haven't yet played the 2nd game, but based on this one alone, I think the series died too early and with some improved technology it could have been something special.

Croc is a chill and solid romp that you can get through pretty quickly once you get used to the controls.

It's a by the numbers point A to B platformer that revels in precision and patience. It, however, doesn't do anything outstanding or remarkable, which isn't a bad thing, but comparing it to it's contemporaries (especially from the time it released) Croc doesn't have too much going for it that makes it stand out. Its easy to see why the game isn't as fondly remembered as Super Mario 64, Crash Bandicoot, or Banjo-Kazooie, however that doesn't make it a bad game or waste of time in my opinion.

It's controls & camera aren't perfect: they're a weird combo of analog and tank. It takes some getting used to and the game hardly fights against you when playing it. The physics and hitboxes are pretty fickle though.

The bosses aren't great, they lack any form of feedback that games of the time normally provide the player, however its one of those things where if you beaten this game once, its not really an issue the next go round (hitbox jank aside). The final boss was cool though.

The music and presentation are the highlights: the OST is a catchy and the game is so colorful and vibrant it's really nice to look at.

Overall, Croc is an alright game. If you're into platformers, I'd check it out. If you want to get into the genre, play some of the more well known titles first. Here's hoping the remaster does some cool stuff!

A sorta maligned early 3d platformer that lacks the production values of its rivals, but that does quite a few unique things. The tank controls are surprisingly not that bad, it has a 'turn 180' button that is very helpful and side-step buttons. I honestly would have traded the side-step for a turn around as often when I tried to turn I ended up walking a bit forward and falling, probably my biggest gripe with the movement.

Another thing that makes Croc interesting is that it doesn't follow the mario 64 formula, it doesn't care about open world or sense of freedom, instead you get several rooms of platforming challenges type design which reminds more of a simpler version of wario world's optional challenges or mario sunshine's "secret of" stages than anything in mario 64; after playing many collectathons, this feels like a breath of fresh air. And while it lacks the charm of a lively game world, it kinda makes up for it with creative and sometimes brutal platforming.

On the bad side, bosses are very weak, even for early 3d platformers standards and the rarity of extra lives doesn't match the demanding platforming.