Croc: Legend of the Gobbos

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Croc: Legend of the Gobbos
System(s): Sega Saturn
Publisher: Fox Interactive (US, Europe), Media Quest (Japan)
Developer:
Distributor: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (US), Electronic Arts (EU), Ecofilmes (PT), Tec Toy (BR)
Sound driver: SCSP/CD-DA (35 tracks)
Peripherals supported: 3D Control Pad, Saturn Backup Memory
Genre: Action[1][2]

















Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code
Sega Saturn
JP
¥5,8005,800 T-26410G
Sega Rating: All Ages
Sega Saturn
US
T-16105H
ESRB: Kids to Adults
Sega Saturn
DE
T-5029H-18
FXG025013671
USK: 6
Sega Saturn
ES
T-5029H-06
FXS025013671
ELSPA: 3+ OK
Sega Saturn
FR
T-5029H-09
FXF025013671
ELSPA: 3+ OK
Sega Saturn
PT
Sega Saturn
UK
T-5029H-05
FXE025013671
ELSPA: 3+ OK
Sega Saturn
PL
Sega Saturn
BR
191x58
Tectoy: Todas as Idades
Non-Sega versions

Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, known as Croc! Pau-Pau Island (クロック!パウパウアイランド) in Japan, is a 3D platform game developed by Argonaut Software for the Sega Saturn, PlayStation and Microsoft Windows. A 2D version exists for the Game Boy Color.

Story

Croc: Legend of the Gobbos stars the young crocodile, Croc, who is found drifting down a river in a basket by a tribe of small brown furry creatures called Gobbos. Adopted and raised by them, Croc quickly shoots up in size and begins to feel isolated from his adoptive family.

The peace of the land is broken when the evil Baron Dante and his army of Dantinis invade the Gobbo's home island, capturing all of them and spreading them all over the chain of islands on the archipelago, with the Gobbo leader King Rufus encaged in the Baron's castle. Croc, who was spirited away by a bird called Beany at the last minute by the King before his capture, must now travel the island chain with Beany and rescue all the captured Gobbos, defeat the Baron and save the King from his prison.

Gameplay

As a 3D platform game, Croc sees the player traverse over 3D levels, collecting crystals, defeating enemies, and exploring in an attempt to free all of the captured Gobbos that Baron Dante has spread around the various islands of the game world. Each level usually has six Gobbos, usually hidden in crates or locked inside cages, with the sixth one usually placed in the sealed off bonus section towards the end of the map.

Similar to Sonic the Hedgehog, crystals act as hit points - as long as Croc is carrying a crystal, he cannot be killed, but coming into contact with enemies or dangerous obstacles will cause Croc to drop his crystals. Coloured "bonus crystals" are also scattered around the levels, which may also be locked up or inside crates, or disguised as normal crystals. If each of the five bonus crystals are collected (one each of red, green, blue, yellow and purple), the bonus section becomes available.

Croc has the ability to strike back at enemies with two different attacks - a tail swipe, or a stomp (performed by jumping in the air then pressing another button to drop down heavily on the target). The latter move is also used to open crates, while the former is used to strike the "Beany Gong", used to to summon Beany and complete each level. Enemies that are defeated don't stay gone for long, however - they will respawn within a fairly short time, making the aim of the game more about saving Croc's friends than killing every enemy in sight.

Levels

The game world of Croc is broken up into five distinct islands:

Each of the first four islands has the same structure - three regular levels, each with six Gobbos to find, then a mid-world boss. Finding all the Gobbos in the three regular levels will open up a secret level, usually on a miniature island away from the main one (though not always - in world 4 one of the secret levels is in the dungeon of Dante's castle). The pattern then continues in the second half of the world, with another three levels with six Gobbos to find, an end-world boss, and another secret level with a jigsaw piece.

Secret levels contain a hidden jigsaw piece which needs to be found, and once all eight jigsaw pieces are collected, a fifth and final island is unlocked, with four more levels on it. Each level is a more difficult example of each of the four previous world's levels (i.e. there is a grassy level, an ice level, a desert level and a castle level). Completing all of these (there are no Gobbos to be found here) will unlock the game's real final boss, which upon defeating shows the true ending.

The bosses themselves (with the exception of the final world 4 Boss and the world 5 boss) aren't actually Dantinis - for each, the Baron has transformed an innocent creature it into a vicious being with the objective of stopping Croc. Upon defeating each of these non-Dantini bosses, a cutscene is shown of the spell being dissipated and Croc helping the ex-boss back towards its friends before Beany spirits him up again and on to the next challenge - in this way, Croc is helping the non-Gobbo creatures the Baron has been terrorising too.

List

Notavailable.svg 1-1: And So The Adventure Begins
Notavailable.svg 1-2: Underground Overground
The theme song from British TV series The Wombles
Notavailable.svg 1-3: Shoutin Lava Lava Lava
Shouting lager lager lager, lyrics from the Underworld track "Born Slippy"
Notavailable.svg 1-B1: Lair of the Feeble
Notavailable.svg 1-S1: The Curvy Caverns
Notavailable.svg 1-4: The Tumbling Dantini
Notavailable.svg 1-5: Cave Fear
The movie Cape Fear
Notavailable.svg 1-6: Darkness Descends
Notavailable.svg 1-B2: Fight Night With Flibby
Notavailable.svg 1-S2: The Twisty Tunnels
Notavailable.svg 2-1: The Ice of Life
The British idiom Variety is the spice of life
Notavailable.svg 2-2: Be Wheely Careful
Notavailable.svg 2-3: Riot Brrrrr
Riot grrrl, an underground feminist punk rock movement
Notavailable.svg 2-B1: Chumly's Snow Den
Notavailable.svg 2-S1: Clouds of Ice
Notavailable.svg 2-4: I Snow Him So Well
I Know Him So Well, a 1985 song performed by Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson
Notavailable.svg 2-5: Say No Snow
Notavailable.svg 2-6: License To Chill
License To Kill, James Bond's secret agent status
Notavailable.svg 2-B2: Demon Itsy's Ice Palace
Notavailable.svg 2-S2: Ice Bridge To Eternity
Notavailable.svg 3-1: Lights Camel Action
Lights, camera, action, the Hollywood catchphrase
Notavailable.svg 3-2: Mud Pit Mania
Notavailable.svg 3-3: Goin Underground
Likely the 1979 album from British punk rock band The Jam
Notavailable.svg 3-B1: The Deadly Tank of Neptuna
Japanese anime The Deadly Tank, which had a character in it called Neptuna.
Notavailable.svg 3-S1: Arabian Heights
The Arabian story collection of the Arabian Nights.
Notavailable.svg 3-4: Sand and Freedom
Notavailable.svg 3-5: Leap of Faith
Notavailable.svg 3-6: Life's a Beach
Notavailable.svg 3-B2: Cactus Jack's Ranch
Notavailable.svg 3-S2: Defeato Burrito
Notavailable.svg 4-1: The Tower of Power
Likely a reference to the American soul and funk based horn section and band Tower of Power, who have been performing since the 70s
Notavailable.svg 4-2: Hassle in the Castle
A Scooby-Doo cartoon film from 1969
Notavailable.svg 4-3: Dungeon of Defright
Notavailable.svg 4-B1: Fosley's Freaky Donut
Notavailable.svg 4-S1: Smash and See
Notavailable.svg 4-4: Ballistic Meg's Fairway
Notavailable.svg 4-5: Swipe Swiftly's Wicked Ride
Notavailable.svg 4-6: Panic at Platform Pete's Lair
Notavailable.svg 4-B2: Baron Dante's Funky Inferno
Notavailable.svg 4-S2: Jailhouse Croc
Notavailable.svg 5-1: And So The Adventure Returns
A pun on the name of level 1-1
Notavailable.svg 5-2: Diet Brrrrr
Notavailable.svg 5-3: Trial on the Nile
Notavailable.svg 5-4: Crox Interactive
Fox Interactive, the game's publisher
Notavailable.svg 5-B: Secret Sentinel

History

Sequels and re-releases

Croc was followed in 1999 by Croc 2 on the PlayStation, Game Boy Color and Windows. Ports for the Nintendo 64 and Sega Dreamcast were planned, but scrapped.

Versions

Differences

Croc was developed with the PlayStation in mind, with the Saturn version being a port.[7] Due to the console's different hardware architecture, it led to many differences:

  • The Saturn version runs on a completely different game engine in comparison to the PlayStation and PC versions, which use BRender.
  • The level sizes are reduced in size and the screen is much more zoomed in, making character models larger than normal.
  • As with most Saturn ports of games originally developed for the PlayStation, the color scheme is darker.
  • Semi-transparent objects are solid colors instead of being transparent due to polygon rendering differences.
  • Backgrounds are much more flatter.
  • The Fox Interactive and Argonaut Software logos are still images instead of FMVs.
  • The intro and ending sequences are entirely re-created using the Saturn version's game engine. The intro itself does not have any music on the beginning shot of Gobbo island, and a loading screen before the scene where King Rufus discovers Croc.
  • There is no Game Over sequence in this version.
  • The title screen appears after the company logos rather than the opening sequence, which plays if the player stays on the title screen.

Localised names

Also known as
Language Localised Name English Translation
English Croc: Legend of the Gobbos Croc: Legend of the Gobbos
English (US) Croc: Legend of the Gobbos Croc: Legend of the Gobbos
Japanese クロック!パウパウアイランド Croc! Pow Pow Island

Production credits

FOX INTERACTIVE
  • Executive Producer: Paul Provenzano
  • Producer: David Stalker
  • Associate Producer: Chris Miller
  • QA Lead: Michael Dunn
  • Quality Assurance: Eric Asevo, Paul Pawlicki, Jackson Hamiter, Harish Rao, Jennifer Kelly, Theresa Rizzo, Erik Larson, Seth Roth, Allyson Lund, Mike Schneider, Bruce Maksin
  • Ph.D. in Gobbology: Neil Alsip
ARGONAUT
  • Test: Anna Larke, Howard Scott, Roger Davies, Nick Rodriquez, Nathan Burlow, Ashley Rubenstein
  • Lead Test: Chris Tudor-Smith
  • Production Staff: Julian Jameson, Jim Loftus, Mark Washbrook
  • Art: Scott Butler, Nina Drabwell, Mick Hanrahan, Luke Verhulst, Simon Keating
  • Level Design: Nic Cusworth, Nathan Burlow, Lynsey Bradshaw, Simon Keating, Chris Tudor-Smith
  • Sound Programming: Richard Griffiths
  • Lead Musician: Justin Scharvona
  • Music and Sound Effects: Karin Griffin, Martin Gwynn Jones, Justin Scharvong
  • Music Recording Supervisor: Steve Levine
  • Trumpet: Noel Langley
  • Drums and Percussion: Terl Bryant
  • Voice Talent: Jonathan Aris
  • Saturn Programming: Matthew Porter, Saviz Izadpanah
  • Programming: Anthony Lloyd, Lewis Gordon
  • Additional Programming: Gavin Ashdown
  • Character Programming: Dan Laufer, Paul McAllister
  • Character Design: Simon Keating, Peter Day
  • Character Animation: Peter Day, Lisa Springett, Jason Smith
  • Lead Design: Nic Cusworth
  • Executive Producers: John Edelson, Jez San
  • Special Thanks: Daniel Leung, Matthew Leung, Andrew Leung, Leanne Burley, Duncan Brown, Suzanne Cole, Simon Everett, Ian Foster, Carl Graham, Richard Joseph, Marcus Morgan, Colin Jackson, Ed Hollingshead
Source:
US manual
Error creating thumbnail: /bin/bash: line 1: 4099784 Done '/usr/bin/gs' '-sDEVICE=jpeg' '-sOutputFile=-' '-dFirstPage=1' '-dLastPage=1' '-dSAFER' '-r150' '-dBATCH' '-dNOPAUSE' '-q' '/home/sonicret/domains/segaretro.org/public_html/images/e/e0/Croc_sat_us_manual.pdf' 4099785 Segmentation fault | '/usr/bin/convert' '-depth' '8' '-quality' '95' '-resize' '2195' '-' '/home/sonicret/domains/segaretro.org/public_html/images/temp/transform_e2344fc6f647.jpg'
[8]

Magazine articles

Main article: Croc: Legend of the Gobbos/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Main article: Croc: Legend of the Gobbos/Promotional material.

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
{{{{{icon}}}|L}} Division by zero.
Based on
0 review
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
CD Consoles (FR)
80
[9]
Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U
75
[10]
Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J
55
[11]
GamePro (US) NTSC-U
88
[12]
Game Informer (US) NTSC-U
78
[13]
Hobby Consolas (ES)
91
[14]
MAN!AC (DE) PAL
85
[15]
Mega Console (IT) PAL
85
[16]
Mega Force (FR) PAL
85
[17]
Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J
53
[18]
Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J
58
[19]
Saturn Power (UK) PAL
80
[20]
Sega Saturn Magazine (UK) PAL
91
[21]
Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J
60
[22]
Strana Igr (RU)
80
[23]
Sega Saturn
76
Based on
15 reviews

Croc: Legend of the Gobbos

Saturn, JP
Croc Saturn JP Box Back.jpgCroc Saturn JP Box Front.jpg
Cover
Croc Saturn JP Disc.jpg
Disc
Saturn, US
Croc Saturn US Box Back.jpgCroc Saturn US Box Front.jpg
Cover
Croc Sat US disc.jpg
Disc
Croc sat us manual.pdf
Manual
CrocSaturnUSQRC.pdf
Reg Card
Saturn, UK
Croc Sat UK cover.jpg
Cover
Saturn, FR
Croc Saturn FR Box.jpg
Cover
Saturn, DE
Croc Saturn DE Box.jpg
Cover
Saturn, UK/ES/PT
Croc Saturn UK-ES-PT Box.jpg
Cover
Saturn, BR
Croc Saturn BR Box Front.jpg
Cover

Technical information

Main article: Croc: Legend of the Gobbos/Technical information.

External links

  • Sega of America webpage: Saturn

References


Croc: Legend of the Gobbos

Croc Saturn Title.png

Main page | Comparisons | Hidden content | Bugs | Magazine articles | Reception | Promotional material | Technical information


Sega Saturn
Prototypes: 1997-09-02