One of the PS1's many 3D platformers, Croc is famous for originally being intended as a Yoshi game but repurposed after a deal with Nintendo fell through. Unfortunately, while you might have nostalgia for its colourful levels and twee soundtrack, the game doesn't stand the test of time. Tank controls make the platforming feel stiff and ungainly, level design quickly falls into the trap of presenting platforms over voids rather than coherent worlds, and - incredibly - the entire collectathon aspect of platformers is rendered entirely pointless as you don't actually need to collect anything unless you want to play the laziest secret level in existence.

One of the least essential games I've ever played. The score isn't indicative of the quality of assets or because of technical issues. When I check out older games, I do try to see these games through the context in which they were released. Even by this time, even on the Playstation 1, even if you are just looking for a platformer that would appeal to small children that saw this being advertised on some Fox-related VHS rental, there are better alternatives.

Nothing in this game from an artistic standpoint resonates with me. I am a slither-wizard enthusiast. From Renekton to the entire Blindwater Congregation, if you show me a flat fuck running around, having a good time, I'm probably gonna feel some attachment. I don't care about Croc at all. I think his design invokes feelings of plain oatmeal. There's no personality to Croc shown in game. He doesn't even do anything cool or have like, a fun powerup. You have a tail swipe with no range. You have a ground pound with very little impact. Croc's movement, demeanor, and personality feels like you're playing someone with arthritis. He doesn't even control as poorly as many other platformer characters on the same console, but nothing is fun or engaging, and I can't imagine it would have been to the target audience even at the time. People complained about the tank controls of this platformer, but that would imply you needed precision platforming in the first place. This game isn't going to ask precision from you, this game isn't asking for anything other than to lay down in bed.

(There are also good, or at least more interesting platformers with tank controls.)

Take everything I said about Croc himself, and apply that to every other aspect of the game. The soundtrack sounds less ambitious than most of the licensed PS1 games I've played through. When I picture the level design in my head, I get visions of AI hallucinations. Everything blends together and I can see the entire game in my head, and nothing distinctive all at once. The only level that stood out at all was the optional final boss of the game, and it was fucking terrible. This game doesn't need a remake, and the fact one is on the way (or already out, I don't care) is baffling.

This game is timeless, in that I can't imagine any time since it's existence where I'd rather be playing Croc over anything else I had access to.

Adorable, great music, and pretty fun too.
The tank controls actually work pretty well, as long as the camera stays behind croc, but will take a little getting used to for new players.
The production quality is mostly very good, with great models, animations, interesting level ideas, etc.
The only real issue is that some of the later levels lack a bit of polish, and so can be frustrating or confusing.
Otherwise, a lot of fun, and well worth playing.

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.

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.

He is green and so are tanks. So of course you would also expect him to have tank controls right? It is sooo obvious.

If you haven't experienced the scariest moment of your life yet just listen to the underwater music or get jumpscared by worms that pop out of wells to eat you. Then there is also dante. The most unsetteling villain in any game. I can play any horror game no problem but show me an jpeg of dante and ill screech like a cat when u step on its tail

Also when croc grabs the ballon he goes "Huuiiiii" which is a common german exclaimation of joy we use when going down slides for example.

Fond memories of my friend Tobias bringing his newly acquired, family-owned Playstation over to my house to play this. Without a memory card we played as much as we could that evening, and let it stay on overnight to continue our progress. A pointless endeavor since he had to bring it back with him next morning. I doubt we made it much further than the first level.

Just the novelty of playing our first Playstation game was enough to have fun, and we dreamed about what other games we'd get on it. Not that we ever got any.

This was a bit harder for me to try and be fully biased as I do remember this game from my childhood and really, it's just a basic and cute platformer, but I certainly try my best.

Croc: The Legend of the Gobbos is about this dragon that gets adopted by these furry little critters called Gobbos. Everything is peaceful, until this evil guy shows up to kidnap all of Croc's family. Fairly basic stuff and it doesn't try to hide that. The mission is to save the Gobbos, including their king and defeat the bad guy!

With gems as collectables and with it being a dragon, you can be forgiven for thinking about Spyro, but I admit Spyro is better in regards to both controls and platforming. This game suffers from stiff controls, due to being out before they created and made dual-shock a necessity for games moving forward to give greater camera control and ect. Due to this you will find yourself cursing to every deity you know whenever you fall off a platform or fail to make a jump or other issues that controls make worse.

The camera is pretty bad too. It doesn't matter too much as the levels are very linear so it's hard to get lost, but it only moves in the direction you are facing which makes turning corners or turning 180 degrees a challenge when the camera is looking at the wall. It isn't too bad in this game because of the levels being small, but the sequel...oof...it's much worse in that one.

It was a fun little game when I was younger, but it certainly hasn't aged too well and there are better platformers out there that have aged well and worth looking into far more than this. As much as my nostalgia wants me to claim otherwise.

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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