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: Argonaut Software
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
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1998-03-26 ¥5,8005,800 T-26410G US 1997-11-25 T-16105H DE 1997 T-5029H-18 FXG025013671 ES 1997-12-29 T-5029H-06 FXS025013671 FR 1997 T-5029H-09 FXF025013671 PT 199x UK 1997-12-19 T-5029H-05 FXE025013671 PL 1997-10 BR 199x 191x58
Non-Sega versions PlayStation Windows PC

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:

• 

  World 1: The home Gobbo island. Grassy levels, with lava.

• 

  World 2: A snowy island, with icy cold water.

• 

  World 3: A desert island.

• 

  World 4: The Baron's castle island.

• 

  World 5: A mysterious crystal island.

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

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

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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

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score CD Consoles (FR) 80 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 75 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 55 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 88 Game Informer (US) NTSC-U 78 Hobby Consolas (ES) 91 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 85 Mega Console (IT) PAL 85 Mega Force (FR) PAL 85 Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J 53 Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J 58 Saturn Power (UK) PAL 80 Sega Saturn Magazine (UK) PAL 91 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 60 Strana Igr (RU) 80

	76
Based on 15 reviews

Croc: Legend of the Gobbos

Saturn, JP
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Disc

Saturn, US
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Disc Manual Reg Card

Saturn, UK
Cover

Saturn, FR
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Saturn, DE
Cover

Saturn, UK/ES/PT
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Saturn, BR
Cover

Technical information

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

External links

• Sega of America webpage: Saturn