Croc: Legend of the Gobbos Remastered Review

I picked up the original 1997 release of Croc as a young Jamie and, Sega Saturn issue aside (where Croc spawned in with no head and most of his torso missing unless you loaded it in a certain way), I can’t honestly say I had a great time with it. The controls were awkward, the challenge was not tremendously fun, and trading it in for Burning Rangers proved to be one of the best ideas I’ve had. 

However, nostalgia is a hell of a thing, and so when this remastered version of Croc The Legend of the Gobbos was announced I just had to give it another shot, even as part of me was not expecting much to have changed. 

Well, I can confirm this is indeed the game I remember in some aspects, but it’s also been vastly improved with some modern QoL changes that make it a more enjoyable experience 28 years later.

In terms of the overall content, what we get in Croc The Legend of the Gobbos Remastered is identical to the original release; five worlds, each with a dozen or so stages to beat, plenty of collectibles and hidden secrets, and a surprisingly chirpy aesthetic to go along with it. As it was back in the day, early levels were easier and shorter, and towards the end of the game we get introduced to some bastard-hard stages that test our skills and patience. 

Improvements come in the form of visuals and controls. The former sees the CTLotGR get a bit of an upspuff, with whole new models and textures making it look far closer to the CGI image on the 1997 game’s boxart. This new lick of paint is nice enough, making great use of vibrant colours and better defined level designs. Croc himself looks great now (and fully formed too), while the enemies and furry little Gobbos are all chunky looking. We also get the oft-featured ability in these remasters to toggle between retro and modern visuals at the press of a button. While the retro visuals aren’t quite as they were on the Saturn (I suspect it’s the PC build this remaster is based on) it’s still nice to flick back and forth and see the difference. We can toggle these visual changes in a bit more depth in the menus such as adding CRT Scanlines or mixing both remastered and retro elements too which is a nice touch.

Controls get the biggest improvement by far, thanks to dual analogue control. The Saturn version – even when using a 3D Analogue pad – controlled dreadfully, feeling very stilted and awkward to make some of the finer movements required for some of the trickier platforming. Having far more fluid 3D control and being able to move the camera makes the game feel much more enjoyable to play. We can still use Croc’s sidestep and quick flip round if needed, but unlike in 1997 these are more there because they were part of the game rather than being a necessary addition today.

I flew through the first couple of worlds, and was honestly having a good time with CTLotGR. It’s far from the hardest game we’ll ever play, but there’s just enough in terms of hidden extras and alternate routes/secrets to find that exploring the small levels felt somewhat rewarding. We’ve got gems to collect, Gobbos to save, and if we manage to collect all five special gems hidden in a level we open up the alternate level exit, further rewarding us with an extra little challenge and more collectibles to nab. 

The latter half of world three and beyond almost broke me though. See, this is an easy game, but the 90’s sensibility of these new-for-the-time 3D platformers was ‘right, you’ve done the easy stuff, now have a bunch of hard levels that will grind your will to keep playing down until there’s nowt left’. 

It’s not just that the levels are challenging, it’s that they can feel unfair on top of the fact that even these improved controls still don’t give us quite enough control at key times. Tiny platforms that Croc seems to just slide off of, enemies that fire out rapid projectiles that hit us mid jump causing us to fall, and some parts that I was convinced were broken because we have to be far more precise than the inputs can allow on a repeatable level. Again, this is just ‘how it was’ back then, but it doesn’t make it any more enjoyable when we lose all our lives right at the end of a level over and over. 

I did find that changing to retro visuals actually helped at points though. Some of the new geometry is visual only, and so a diamond shaped platform is now presented as a circle but still has the same physical collision of a diamond. This may have been somewhat psychological but I found it much easier on some parts to have retro visuals, then flicked it back once I’d passed the section. 

Boss battles are a weak point much as they were before. The attack patterns are basic, and really none of them are much fun to play. Luckily they are short and the rest of the levels around them are (mostly) far better, even when they reach the aforementioned latter stages.

Conclusion

All in all, Croc The Legend of the Gobbos Remastered does what it says on the tin – remaster a 1997 video game with an upspuff in visuals and improved controls. Keeping the rest of the game as was is great in theory, but too many 90’s sensibilities remain in terms of wonky level design and difficulty spikes. It’s certainly more enjoyable thanks to the improvements made, and I’m all for reviving old games for a new lease on life, but this game is far from the best of the era and it certainly can’t challenge the modern greats that have come since.