Croc: Legend of the Gobbos
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos is a 1997 platform game developed by Argonaut Software and published by Fox Interactive. An early example of a 3D platform game, Croc was released for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and Windows. Taking place in the fictional setting of the Gobbo Valley, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos follows a young crocodile named Croc, who sets out to rescue his adoptive family from the evil magician Baron Dante.
The game initially started development shortly following a successful relationship between Argonaut and Nintendo, with the former creating a processing chip for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System called the Super FX that was used in games such as Star Fox to display 3D polygonal environments. It was first pitched to Nintendo as a prototype for a 3D platform game in which the player controlled Yoshi from Nintendo's Super Mario series, but was ultimately rejected by Nintendo, ending the relationship and prompting Argonaut to retool the game as an original property. The game's characters and mechanics were designed by Simon Keating in his first-ever video game project. Justin Scharvona, Karin Griffin, and Martin Gwynn Jones composed the game's music, while Jonathan Aris provided the voice of Croc.
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos received average reviews from critics; praise was directed towards the game's visuals, music and sound, while criticism was directed towards the controls, camera, and lack of innovation. It went on to become one of Argonaut's most successful releases, selling over 3 million copies for the PlayStation. A sequel to the game, titled Croc 2, was released in 1999. A 2D port of the game was developed by Virtucraft and released for Game Boy Color in June 2000, with a sequel developed by Natsume Co., Ltd. released in January 2001. A remastered version of the original game was released for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Windows on 2 April 2025.
Gameplay
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos is a third-person 3D platformer in which the player controls the main character, a green crocodile named Croc, through several courses taking place on various islands throughout Gobbo Valley. Levels are accessed through a world map, and consist of various different smaller sub-sections taking place both above land and underground that are filled with various enemies and obstacles that try to impede Croc.The main goal of each level is to navigate through the stage and reach the gong located at the end of the level in order to transport Croc to the next, while also saving as many captured Gobbos imprisoned throughout the stage as possible. Certain stages also contain boss enemies known as "Guardians" that Croc must defeat in order to progress to the next stage. Various different collectibles are scattered throughout stages, including small, gray crystal orbs that act as Croc's health, and red hearts that give the player an extra life when collected. Also hidden across each stage are 6 Gobbos being held captive by the Dantini tribe that act as Croc's main objective throughout the length of the game. 5 of these Gobbos are hidden in various locations throughout the level, often collected by solving a puzzle or completing a challenge, whilst the 6th Gobbo is located in a bonus room hidden behind a set of doors that can only be reached by collecting 5 colored crystals hidden throughout the level. Rescuing every Gobbo before a boss level in each world unlocks a secret level that can be completed in order to collect a jigsaw puzzle piece. Subsequently, collecting every puzzle piece in the game unlocks an extra island containing more levels for the player to progress through. While collecting the Gobbos is not mandatory to completing the game, doing so is nonetheless necessary in order to face off against the game's final boss and unlock the game's true ending.
Croc's maneuvering abilities are somewhat comparable to that of Mario's in Super Mario 64, with his primary methods of movement consisting of the abilities to run, jump, climb, and swim using either the analog stick or the D-pad, as well as touting the abilities to perform a sidestep and a 180-degree quick turn as other methods of maneuver. Croc's main method of attack consists of a full-circle tail swipe that is used to defeat enemies and bosses, as well as a hip drop move that can be used to break open crates containing collectibles. Croc's in-game health is represented by the crystals that the player collects throughout the game; when Croc is hurt by an enemy, all of his crystals are lost and scattered around him in several directions. If Croc is hurt while he has no crystals, the player loses a life and is sent back to the beginning of the segment of the level they are currently in.
Plot
King Rufus, the leader of a furry race of creatures called the Gobbos, is watching the sunrise over Gobbo Valley when he sees a large, woven basket carrying a baby crocodile floating down the river. Initially suspicious of the young crocodile but ultimately won over by its innocence, King Rufus and the Gobbos decide to raise it as one of their own and teach it in the ways of the Gobbo. The crocodile, named Croc, grows bigger over time, eventually becoming much larger than the Gobbos.One day, Baron Dante and his band of villains known as the Dantinis invade Gobbo Valley and begin terrorizing the Gobbos, capturing them and locking them in steel cages. Amidst the chaos, King Rufus summons a magical yellow bird named Beany, who uses her magical abilities to transport Croc to safety, immediately before Rufus is snatched by Baron Dante.
By the time Croc has been brought to safety, the Dantinis have completely taken over all of Gobbo Valley, locked up all the Gobbos, and turned innocent creatures all across the valley into monsters to act as their minions. Croc sets out on a quest to free the Gobbos and defeat Baron Dante.
Development
Concept
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was developed by Argonaut Software, who were coming off of the heels of a successful relationship with Nintendo as a result of their development of the Super FX expansion chip used in Super Nintendo Entertainment System games such as Star Fox and Stunt Race FX. Early development of the game began in 1994, when Argonaut began experimenting with the concept of a platform game set in the third dimension. Under the tentative title "Yoshi Racing", the initial concept was a hybrid of several mechanics from the two video games Super Mario World and Super Mario Kart, with the player controlling the character Yoshi from Nintendo's Super Mario series. Argonaut created a prototype of Yoshi Racing and pitched it to Nintendo, who was initially enthusiastic about the game, according to San, with Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto expressing particular fascination with the project. Despite this enthusiastic response, Nintendo ultimately rejected Argonaut's proposal, explaining that they already had a similar project in development. This, alongside the cancellation of the near-completed Star Fox 2, marked the end of Argonaut's relationship with Nintendo, prompting them to find another publisher who would finance and publish the game. After shopping the prototype around, Argonaut received offers from several publishers in 1996. Fox Interactive was chosen because the company had a solid plan for turning Croc into a multimedia franchise and was familiar to the staff at Argonaut, who were already working on a game for Fox. According to Jez San, the prototype of Yoshi Racing that Argonaut had initially pitched to Nintendo was a large influence towards the creation and development of Super Mario 64, though in a 1997 interview he had stated that it was possible that the similarity between the games was completely coincidental.After being turned down by Nintendo, Argonaut sought the creation of a new character to take the place of Yoshi. Offering to design a new character was young computer artist Simon Keating, who "stumbled" into the game's development as his first job in the video game industry after hearing that the developers of the game needed a new main character. After having sketched out several different potential character designs, Keating ultimately came up with the final design of Croc as a result of Argonaut's request for him to design a character whose design looked marginally similar to that of Yoshi's. According to Keating, Croc was given a single fang protruding from his mouth in reference to his pet house cat at the time who shared the same characteristic.
The team came up with the game's plot and the concept of the Gobbos out of a desire to give Croc "something to save" that was not a damsel in distress such as a princess, which the team thought would have been too bizarre for the game's setting and main character. According to Keating, the Gobbos were colored pink in early stages of development, but character animator Pete Day changed the characters' fur color to brown in order to allow them to work better in a 3D environment.
Design
Croc's game mechanics were designed by Keating and lead designer Nic Cusworth. The game's levels were divided into several sub-sections due to hardware limitations at the time and Argonaut's desire to not have to deal with creating convincing depth perception. The team designed the game's levels with the mindset of making each individual room feel like its own individual puzzle that would give the player a sense of accomplishment whenever they completed it. Cusworth came up with the names for many of the levels, several of which were references to other pieces of popular culture; the game's first level, named "...And So The Adventure Begins", was a reference to the title card of the music video for the David Lee Roth song Yankee Rose, which Cusworth found in a video collection that he owned at the time. The level "Shouting Lava Lava Lava" was a play on words with the lyric "Shouting Lager Lager Lager" from the song Born Slippy by Underworld, which appeared in the British comedy film Trainspotting. Some snowboarding levels were created for the game but removed near the end of development because there was no time to finish them before the deadline, though San stated in an interview that they would be featured in the game's sequel.Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was programmed using a proprietary BASIC-style language called the "Argonaut Strategy Language", while the levels and mechanics were created using an in-house level editor titled "CrocEd" which was run using MS-DOS. The engine for Croc went on to be repurposed by Argonaut for several of their other games, including Alien: Resurrection, Disney's Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Although Croc supported use of the DualShock controller's analog stick for movement, the controller was not released until late into the game's production and the game was mostly developed with the Sega Saturn's directional pad control in mind; as a result of this, analog control was implemented into the game fairly late into its development.