Was it Good? - Croc: Legend of the Gobbos 

The sound design of this game was fantastic. Everyone who played the game is probably taken back 20+ years when they hear Croc's "Ka-Boom!!", "Ka-Pow!" and "Ka-Splat!"

Croc was weird. It made me sad when I first started but the more I saved the gobbos the happier I got. Even though it was incredibly lonely.

I know Josh mentioned how he used to be a teacher, but throughout this series, it feels like he is grading somebody's paper. Pointing out what is good, what makes it good, and doing the same with the bad. As someone trying to become a teacher myself, its always kind of funny when I notice moments that sound like that xD

I played this game as a kid, but I was never able to complete it. It was not just the game being hard; somehow this game made me depressed. I don't know why. It's strange to read that I was not alone with this problem. I remember deep sadness when I'm looking at this game.

Considering Croc and Banjoo are less than a year apart and how development cycles work it might be just a coincidence that the jigsaw pieces are similar, rather than inspired by

If Croc does anything that is specifically Croc, it is the music and artstyle. Those are the most unique and memorable bits of the game.

I love how they implemented the gobbos as simply two sprites with feet and eyes.

Don't know why but I always remembered Croc as the saddest platformer. I recall a mood of deep loneliness crossing its various levels. Did anyone had that feel too ?

The game's real secret? You could put the game disc into your CD player and jam out to the soundtrack

I feel like the backpack could have been easily justified by animating the gems being placed inside. Or even pseudo cheating the effect by having the flap open and close so it at least looked like they were going inside, at these low frame rates that could be made convincing, even if fully animating it was problematic.

Fun fact: I got this, on Sega Saturn, when the game came out and the Saturn version of the game actually shipped with a bug that made Croc's head invisible..but you could still see the eyes. So it was just a body with floating eyes, running around. How a bug that apparent, could go through any kind of testing is beyond me lol

Almost every single game on this channel is a nostalgic game from my childhood that i spent countless hours playing and loved the crap out of it. Love the content. Every time a new video drops it's like christmass

Here's my reason for replaying Croc: He is so cuuuute. Such an adorable mascot. If I got this game as a kid I would spend hours on end playing this just to see Croc.

I remember this game creeping me out at a kid. The weird, boxed in worlds, lifeless enemies and weird musical jiggs mixed together to make me feel uneasy. The weird boxing boss used to give me nightmares. His entire design, to this day, creeps me out.

interestingly enough, while the tank steering is awkward, I distinctly remember the combination of the tank controls and 180° flip being VERY satisfying once you got the hang of it.

That musical nostalgia hit. This, medievil and gex the gecko were the games of my childhood.

You just hit me with so much emotions...my grandparents had an old PS1 and that was my introduction to gaming. I played the greats like crash and crash racing but those never disappeared with their popularity. This game though, I totally forgot about. Seeing this video pop up I immediately remembered all those memories associated with playing this game at my grandparents. I started to cry as my grandma just passed away a few months ago, the last of my grandparents, and I still am grieving. It's amazing what memories can be attached too, but I remember very vividly my grandma helping me play since I was too young and being so enamored by the colors of those gem things when you collected them. I never beat the game though, maybe I'll emulate it and finally get around to doing it...I miss you grandma, thank you for all the love and memories.

Once you said Croc was supposed to be a Yoshi game all the similarities with Yoshi's Island became pretty clear. The levels, 8 stages per world with 2 bosses and mechanics to unlock hidden levels.

I would love to see you do one of Tomba or Tomba 2. The 3D style with the 2D sprites are just legendary.

I played the saturn version, which had an amusing glitch where croc's head, except for his eyes and the tip of his nose would be invisible. And also the arms and legs of the gobbos and enemies, and everything but the wings of the end of level bird. There was an easy fix, but that glitch and the altered aesthetic it caused really stuck with me.

Croc was made by Argonaut Software. AKA the boys who helped Nintendo make the original Star Fox and got the 3D technology they needed to transition from the Super Nintendo to the Nintendo 64 going. Argonaut did a lot of classic hidden gem work, including Stunt Race FX, the Emperor's New Groove (PS1), Alien Resurrection, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (PS1), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (PS1), and I-Ninja.

It's important to note that part of the reason the tank controls in Croc are frustrating but not in Tomb Raider.. Is because of the level design. Most of TR has wide open spaces or tight caves with no falling. Croc is very small spaces with death tiles everywhere (be it falling, lava, etc) and that's not to mention the terrible hit detection, AND the respawning enemies. These factors all combine for a very frustrating control scheme.

And here I thought nobody else played this game and I somehow manifested it into existence. What a good childhood I had.

My favourite anecdote about Croc is that they pitched it to Nintendo, who said no, and when Super Mario 64 came out somebody from Nintendo went up to them at (I think) E3 and basically went "Yeah... sorry."

Holy shit, when 4:10 music started playing I just got with a massive wave of nostalgia, don't remember last time I felt it. Almost got dizzy. Great game, never finished it as I had no patience as a child, but I should definitely try to go for it soon.

Oh now this is a treat. Despite its flaws, Croc 1 is extremely nostalgic to me, and it especially has a soundtrack that's just beyond beautiful and atmospheric for the time.

Croc was my first platformer and gotta agree with Josh. It is an amazing experience if you're inexperienced. But, even to this day I absolutely adore how Croc looks as a game. The starry sky in distance (when appropriate) and the music is just... it's good! For what it does have, and for my deep nostalgia aswell, Croc will be in my memories always.

The main theme still rings in my head and I've been humming it for well over 20 years

Man, Croc was one of my very first 3D platformers...but I only had the demo for the PC version. Still I remember being shown short clips of the gameplay that showed things like the worm and the underwater level in amazement because I had never seen a 3D game before as a toddler...Good times.

When i was little i got Croc for my birthday. The moment i got it my sister lent it to the neighbours girl who broke the disc. I never played Croc and im still mad today.

Man I absolutely loved Croc as a kid. I truly can't even remember if I ever beat it but there was something about the music, the exploration and level design that I think was the real catalyst that slingshot me into RPGs in general

I loved this game as a kid. It was super immersive - despite how it looks. (I also believe this was popular due to the 3D. Back then it was mostly 2D scrawlers.)

I played this so much as a kid. THE most garbage handling I experienced on a platformer in my younger years (and there was a lot of competition for that), but really fun vibes!

Holy shit. This was the first Home Console video game I ever played. I haven't even hit play yet, and the nostalgia just from seeing the thumbnail was enough to stop whatever irrelevant train of thought I was on prior to seeing it xD

You're absolutely right , this game was an amalgamation of ideas from other games . I completed the game 100% and I did enjoy playing it but I never played the second game because I predicted it would be more of the same either from the previous game or other games

One of the most nostalgic games for me from when I was very young.

This was actually the first game I ever played in my life, so this holds a super special place in my heart

I highly recommend Tomba (Or Tombi) or Klonoa for a Was it Good. Hugely interesting games, with Klonoa being one of my most scarring video game childhood memories.

The ice level skybox might be foreshadowing honestly. The next world is a desert world I saw a cactus, their is a castle level which you might be seeing in the distance and not sure about the mushrooms.

As a kid I used to love playing Croc 2 and Gex: Enter the Gecko, so watching this video made me pretty nostalgic!

I will defend Croc until my dying breath. This game was sick. Might play it this afternoon.

No way.. I cant believe you will do this one! I loved this game as a kid.. Croc, Mario 64, Banjo, Spyro and Crash were my childhood games lol

On the point of some things with no context in this game: One of the bosses in this game explodes into the Crystals that Croc collects, maybe referring to the fact that The Crystals can become bad guys? The final secret boss is a Crystal Dante as is the entire island, so it might sense within Croc's lore that The Crystals can become baddies? I think Spyro The Dragon did something similar a year later of turning Gems into Gnorcs? Also the story behind this game inspiring other games such as Mario64 is facinating. The pitch to create a 3D platformer to Nintendo was first by Argonaut Games. Then Nintendo went cold in relations and beat them to the punch by one year with the idea they pitched. Explains why there's still mushroom kingdom assets in Croc.

I am literally laughing out loud due to how I said to myself “he has to mention something about how amazing the theme song is” right as I clicked on the video. Thankfully, I was not let down. 😂

Croc was the very first game I ever got! I got a ps1 for my 7 th birthday, and croc as a game! Later that year i got Rayman, and my next birthday i got Spyro the dragon! Those 3 games were so meaningful to me in any way shape or form!

Wouldn't have remembered any of the music from when I played as a kid, but the quirky shouts that Croc does are forever burned in memory. Thanks for having an entire section dedicated to them.

Seeing it as abandonware is really unfortunate, but knowing it's available I'd recommend playing it! I relived some lovely memories replaying it over the last week and while it is a flawed game, you can really appreciate the art and the design here Awesome video man ❤️👍

The thing I like about this game is the thing it has over it's contemporaries. The atmosphere.

I'm nostalgia-tripping so hard... Croc, Worms and Pandaemonium were the games I've grown up on

This game also came out on the Sega Saturn, that's where I played it.

For some reason this game was installed on the single classroom computer in my 5th grade classroom. Needless to say, on rainy "indoor recess" days it was a very hot commodity. Who got to use it was left to the social order of 11 year olds. Thankfully, this was long enough ago that only 8 or 10 people were willing to play video games in front of their peers, risking being called a "geek" or "nerd" Even so, I'd be surprised if anyone got more than a couple hours of playtime over the school year. Lunch recess was out of the classroom, so this was strictly limited to 15 minute recess and only on rainy days. I wonder which teacher or district IT guy installed it, why, and whether they knew they were creating one of *those* video game memories for a handful of 11 year olds. In the kid prison that is school, it really felt like we were free in a way that wandering around a fenced in playground didn't.

Her: "I don't give any mixed signals." Her signals: *The Croc password*

This, King's Field, and the early Armoured Core games were some of those games that were not reviewed well at the time and noone played that I still hold fondly in my heart. If Josh is into JRPGs I would love for him to review Kartia: The Word of Fate, Golden Sun, or Lunar 2. I played the hell out of those and never have anyone to talk to about them

If I remember correctly, this game was supposed to come out before Mario64, but then it didn't, which greatly altered the game's reception.

On 38:26, I think that having that jazzy and fun music in a dark and scary villian's castle is like playing "Careless Whisper" on a funeral.

This video unlocked a very old memory for me and I want to share for nostalgia reasons. Back in 1999, I got my first PC, and slowly discovered the local pirated game market(we didn't know they were pirated copies tbh) I remember seeing this game and begging mum to buy it, had no idea on platforming elements or what the game is, just liked the "green dragon" on the cover art. Up until 99, I only knew NES games. I installed the game with much anticipation(Game didn't require any kind of crack and just run). I pressed space and/or enter to go the main menu and started the game. The image of Initial screen where you look to a road and several gems are burned to my head. Because, for some unknown reason, game had no keybinds for keyboard(Learned this much later). I pressed every key in the keyboard and found that "." and "," keys work for strafe left and right, and I cannot do anything else. I remember being disappointed a lot but haven't given up just there. No lie, I wasted for about 3 hours to figure out how to move croc(I spoke no English and anything but the start game in the menu meant nothing for me :) ) With much frustration I closed the game. I've tried almost every day, with no luck on what to do. After some time later, I lend the game to my cousin. About a month later, when they visited, with much excitement this time, he shouted something translated to " I FIGURED IT OUT THE CROC GAME, YOU HAVE TO SET KEYS TO MOVES" and showed me the "options" menu and key binding options. After that It was like magic, I played this game every day. Checking out the walkthrough today, it took me almost a week to pass to the point where people pass under an hour :) I was bad at playing but It did not matter for me, It was fun as hell. I remember being stuck on the ladybug boss and again my cousin figured out that you need to jump on his belly(We knew no English and there wasn't any internet access or any kind of guide or walkthrough accessible for us, back then, finishing games were commendable feats among the kids :) ). Finally with the cousin's help, I remember finishing the final stage and finishing the game. I can't remember what happened to that game, probably bartered it with another game, but the memory and music stuck with me. I personally want to thank you Josh, for this nostalgia trip.

I haven't played most of those games you review on this channel but honestly this quickly became one of my favourite video series. I like the way you voice your videos, the choice of games and overall how much effort you put into this content.

Wow, croc was a big part of my childhood, great soundtrack.. i think the music needs more praise, it has so much heart and atmosphere in it compared to other games. Cant wait until you do Metal Gear Solid 1 !

I had forgotten how good the music in this game was. I found that I remembered each song you showed after hearing just a few notes (thanks for jogging my memory on where a few of those tunes I've hummed randomly over the years came from.)

I played this one when it was released. I was in college at the time. Surprisingly ahead of its time and strangely addicting. One of the first 3d platformers on the Playstation. They were very creative with the limited polycount. Characters all look really appealing.

I loved this game as a kid, I was so thrilled when I finally beat it. So cute and magical.

Its fascinating how this man drops 3 hour long edited videos in a month, while for some other channels I have to wait 2 months for a 10 min video.

I played a lot of this as a kid. I remember imagining what it's like to visit all those far off landscapes that can be seen in the background of various levels :)

Seeing that dashing enemy with the fire trail got me haha. I remember that so clearly. I played this game so many times thinking there was more to it. Always felt like there was more to this game.

I absolutely loved this game! Even my mum said they should do a remake of it since she loved it too haha. I really hadn't noticed till now though that it really is just a conglomeration of a bunch of other games haha. However you have made me remember the absolutely amazing music and noises Croc makes

It seems like a very programmer-driven game, suffering a bit from the "look at this cool thing I wrote today"-syndrome. Brilliant engine and very versatile mechanics, but the game makes rather limited use of everything.

4-6 was the point where I noped out as a kid. Can't remember much of Croc but I vividly remember the anger & frustration with this level.

I haven’t thought about this game in about 20 years, what a wild memory ride. Well analyzed and thanks for the trip to the past

What a game this was. I spent countless hours playing this as a kid!

Mhmm croc is such a gem :) Not the best, flashiest or most nostalgic gem, but a treasure from a different time :) Croc 2 is just awesome in exactly the same way :D

Oh my god, I've ALMOST forgotten this game. I used to play this game so freaking much, then just stopped playing entirely and forgot the name and face of it entirely... I loved this so much!

Interesting thing not mentioned, but knowing that there's a lot of format similarities with Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (which would have been this Croc's immediate predecessor had it been a Yoshi game). 1. Yoshi's island has a map screen that is extremely similar to the one in Croc (except it's just one big island that rotates). 2. Collecting all the collectibles in a world (a score of 100 on each level) would unlock an Extra 2 stages for that world. Also while not the same pitch, or noises as Yoshi, they feel like they are in the same vein but would have been altered. Pretty cool to see how features would have gotten re-adapted.

I never actually played Croc 1 but I loved Croc 2. The squid boss in the sequel was so fun

What a legend, even if croc lost the poll he still brings it

I loved this game and Jade Cocoon as a kid. No one ever talks about these games anymore

Your comment about single-use early secrets (the looking behind you at the start of the level), and that reminds me of Pokemon. There was one or two trash cans in the franchise that has something in it, but every Pokemon player has learned to check EVERY TRASH CAN IN THE GAME just in case.

With Josh and The Golden Bolt uploading at the same time of Croc of all things, this is the most of ever heard anyone talk about this series.

This game gave me my love of depressing melancholic atmosphere. The game over screen felt like you failed everyone and the light was dying out. Looking at the distant dark skybox while the music played felt like I was looking at a dying abandoned world in shadow. Loved it

Croc! I was playing so much Crash and Spyro, I never got the chance to finish this gem. Sweet video. Takes me back!

I played this game in the late 90s, I was so bad at the game I never got passed the first boss. But Croc's sounds have always stuck with me, I remember his falling sound "WaaAaaaaa!!"

Idk why but this guys retrospectives are uniquely amazing

I always found it fascinating how different croc was to croc 2 gameplay wise. Personally played a lot more of croc 2

Croc was my Childhood Game (tm) since I didn't own any consoles, just played it on pc. Ashamed to admit that shackled prisoner was so terrifying to me I never made it past him. Thank you for showing me the rest of the game lmao Great vid!

This game was my childhood. i was about 6 or 7 when i played, loved this video dude. earned a sub from me!

Jesus Christ, this game was a huge part of my childhood. Shame it doesn't seem to have aged so gracefully but still, I'm so thankful for this little game

The demo had proper analog controls. The publisher made them change it to tank controls.

Despite never being able to get far, i kept retrying because i did enjoy playing this when i was a kid. Thank you for covering this.

this video unlocked a memory core. I recognized the game play deep con my subconscious but I could never think of the actual name of this game.

Not everything has to be innovative. Croc is just a good platformer for some platforming fun. Not much innovation, just more of the good stuff we already know. I think that is fine. Sometimes I like playing a standard platformer with fun challenges, good graphics, good music, good sound effects, good controls, etc.

This game was my childhood, literally. Shit took me like 5 years to complete!

Just discovered this channel and I have to say, I love your way of presenting! A hit right in the nostalgia every time and all the frustration/glee that it entails! Your doing good work and you just got a new subscriber!

I still remember this being a random game my mom got when we finally got a ps1 with me being the only one actually finishing it... Still love it to this day

Three videos in a month? Josh, you're spoiling us.

Can’t wait for this one. This is one of those nostalgia games I never completed so looking forward to seeing it all 👍

I wished people who made videos like this had a picture of the old game disk in the thumbnail. That would get my nostalgia going 😌

This is the very first video game i have ever played when dad brought me my first pc with ton of magazine discs with demos and games from his work buddy.

Croc was in development before, or at the very least, around the same time as Super Mario 64. The team basically had to invent the 3D platformer before the formula was stablished. Comparing it to all those games is really unfair.

Aaaah I remember this! If you liked it as a jump and run I really recommend having a look at pandemonium as well cause the first one was pretty neat but also a little hidden quite unusual gem of a game simply called 'Spider: The video game' which ... is pretty damn unique in terms of setting and has some pretty fun design choices. Not perfect for sure, but something i still fondly remember for its atmosphere and also pretty banger soundtrack.

One thing you're missing is that none of those games Croc takes from came out on PC so for PC kids Croc was THE one and only 3D platformer (we did had some excellent 2D ones though) I've never played any Mario aside the first one which came on PC but I've finished Croc many times as a kid. Tried to replay it as adult and got brutally murdered by a ladybug...

An instant smile came across my face when you played the music in the beginning. This game was my absolute favorite as a kid.