In the fall of 1997, Fox
Interactive published Croc Legend of the Gobbos by Argonaut Software
for the Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Microsoft Windows and Game Boy
Color. The game stars a young baby crocodile named Croc who was found
by a species called the Gobbos and raised as one of their own.
Everything was peaceful until one fateful day where the evil Baron
Dante invaded and captured the Gobbos and their king, King Rufus.
Evading capture, Croc now stands alone with the challenging task of
freeing the Gobbos and defeating Baron Dante on his own. Today we'll
be looking at the Sony PlayStation port of the game since that's the
only port of it I have.

You can move Croc with either the
directional buttons or the analog controls. The X button has Croc
jump, pressing X twice leads Croc to jump up into the air and pounds
back down onto the ground. The Square button is your tail attack and
Circle has Croc does a 180 degree turn where the camera follows.
Triangle activates the Croc-cam (a kind of first person view mode),
L1 and R1 side steps Croc either left or right and R2 and L2 changes
the camera height.

In each stage there are crystals that Croc
collects, collecting 100 will earn Croc an extra life like the fruit
did for Crash in Crash Bandicoot, only every time you take a hit you
lose crystals. Get hit by an enemy without any crystals and you lose
a life. There are also five colored crystals you can collect that
allows you into a bonus stage near the very end of the level but
these are not mandatory to complete the game. You can find crystals
in boxes or just lying around on the ground.

On top of the
crystals you can also find Gobbos in each stage. Just like the
crystals they too can be found on the ground or in boxes. Some times
you'll find them in cages which requires a key to unlock.

There
are over 40 levels and 50 different enemies to fight, with up to nine
stage bosses in the game. Enemies has a tendency to respawn after you
take them out so whenever you have to linger in a spot where enemies
were for too long watch out for their return.

Unlike Crash,
where you could only save during the bonus stages, Croc Legend of the
Gobbos gives you the option to save in-between levels so you never
have to worry about losing your data after completing a challenging
level and like Crash, you can also use passwords as an alternative to
saving on the Memory Card.

Cons: The biggest con that I can
see has to be the camera. There are times where the camera just
doesn't want to work with you, mainly when you want to see behind
Croc. Other than that there isn't much to complain about with this
game that doesn't include just personal preferences. It may not be
the most memorable game of all time but it looks visually stunning
for its time and with no dialog it really allows you to take in the
environment of the game and get sucked in. As far as Platformers goes
this is definitely worth at least a look see for those interested in
the genre. 8/10 for our young crocodile friend.