As the only bonafide "Mario 64" clone available on the Sega
Saturn (besides Eidos' "Tomb Raider"), "Croc: Legend of the " Gobbos" wins
the genre by default but that still doesn't " mean the game is that good
or enjoyable a romp. An obscene lack of originality in every aspect
of the game, from the cliche storyline about kidnapped Gobbos at the mercy
of Baron Dante to the butt-stomp attack (ripped from Nintendo's SNES
classic "Yoshi's Story"), makes me question the recent report on Next
Generation Magazine #45: according to a PDA report, "Croc" and "Mario 64"
are the only games that are played as much by both boys and girls.
So the game is doing well and it has its merits as a family-friendly
PSX/Saturn alternative to Nintendo's plumber; still, I'm not sold on this
game after playing it thoroughly for two weeks while vacationing in El
Salvador. My cousins were delighted to receive it and my older
Saturn as a gift, but they're dirt-poor and would have been ecstatic with
a Pong machine anyways.
GRAPHICS / VISUALS: B+
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"Croc" plays like crap but looks wonderful, thanks to an engine that
recreates the PSX version pretty well and barely sacrifices resolution (a
tad on the low-res side) and frame-rate (30 per second, with some slowdown
when there's too much stuff going around him). There are four
Islands with classic (read: recycled) themes like jungle, ice, lava, etc.;
each Island has several levels through which Croc must run saving the
imprisoned Gobbos, tail-spinning enemies, breaking/moving boxes full of
crystals, jumping to moving platforms floating over pools of lava,
etc. These levels consist of a series of small rooms or enclosed
areas that our hero (read: wannabe mascot) must clear of enemies and
crystals and then move on to the next. There's a brief four-second
loading time between these areas and rooms, which allows for the game to
have decent-sized worlds which unfortunately can't be seen as far and wide
as newer 32-bit games like Sony's "Spyro the Dragon" (which benefited from
additional years of development, a luxury the Saturn could no longer
afford). Argonaut, best-known as the creator of the SNES classic
"StarFox", did a fine job of creating very basic polygon models that don't
tax the system too hard while giving them a smidgen of personality (most
of them have bugged eyes straight out of SD Japanimation); their build is
blocky and their limbs not joined at all (there are serpents that consist
of a series of colored round polygons with white eyes... oh my!), which a
game aimed at toddlers and developed by Europeans can get away with
calling 'cute'. Textures are a little on the blocky side, and the
game is missing most of the transparency and lighting effects from the PSX
version (which were minimal to begin with); camera angles are barely
acceptable and cannot be properly adjusted, but give you a view of Croc
and his immediate surroundings. The crocodile that leads the
proceedings looks pretty good with a goofy fang and a childish stare, and
a backpack straight out of "Tomb Raider"; his animations are smooth, and
that makes more pleasant the sight of Croc climbing and recreating
everything Mario pioneered a year earlier. With baddies featuring
names like Swipe Swifty, the Ice Demon and Tooty the Feeble, and levels
with names like "Lair of the Feeble" and "Underground Overground", I'll
leave to your imagination the artistic design that populates the worlds of
"Croc". Menu/option screens use very basic polygon models and fonts,
and aren't exaclty a pleasant sight to navigate.
MUSIC / SOUND EFFECTS: C+
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Gibberish talk and exclamations, not unlike the one's heard in
"StarFox", come from the mouths of enemies and Croc alike, although the
cute and harmless chatter emanating from the imprisoned Gobbos is kinda
charming in a "baby talk" sorta way. Sound effects are typical for
the genre with lots of funny-sounding sounds of magic, enemies exploding
into diamonds when hit by a tail, lava lakes spilling into the air,
gelatin trampolins that go 'boing!', and so forth. The music is
pretty weak, with tunes that go from Christmas-like jingles with lots of
bells and flutes to weak "Addams Family"-meets-"Batman Forever" tunes that
come across as poor memory tunes in a cheap Casio keyboard.
GAMEPLAY / FUN FACTOR: B-
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Generic, unoriginal, totally predictable, dumbed down and cliche 3D
'go-anywhere' gameplay that has been done a gazillion times on N64 ("Banjo
Kazoie", "Bomberman Hero") and the PSX ("GEX: Enter the Gecko", "Jersey
Devil", "The Fifth Element")... but that is all alone on the Saturn and
pretty much wins by default; "Sonic R" could have qualified if it hadn't
gone straight into the racing genre. Collect 100 gems and you'll get
an extra life (any game since the NES); get hit by an enemy and you'll
lose all your diamonds with only three seconds to collect a handful of
them back to prevent a one-hit death ("Sonic the Hedgehog" anyone?).
Butt-stomp on top of sealed wells and marked boxes to reveal more gems
("Yoshi's Island/Story"), and hang-on to the edge of a platform as you
navigate treacherous 3D terrain from a behind-the-character perspective
("Tomb Raider" developers would be proud); the Croc character is " an
attempt to establish another alternative franchise to leading mascots
Mario/Sonic/Crash (like Bubsy, Zool and Prehistorik Man), and has a sequel
in the works that will correct all the shortcomings of this first attempt.
The two more serious blows to "Croc" as a Saturn game were part of the
game's development, so they were also in the PC/PSX versions of the game:
the camera angles, and the control. There are only two camera angles
in the game, and they are slightly-above-and-behind-the character and
slightly-higher-than-before-and-still-behind-the-character; they work most
of the time but, since the game lacks a precise way to control the camera
when it hits a rough spot, the camera may prove problematic and useless at
certain spots when Croc gets stuck and you can't swing the thing
around. The controls for "Croc" support both digital pad and the
"NiGHTS" controller, and they are both a pain the butt because they lack
precision and aren't as tight and firm as they should (the same happened
on the PSX version); navigating log bridges over lava lamps or trying to
cross floating platforms in an ice level is a royal pain in the
you-know-what, and the game never seems to come together at any level with
any degree of full maneuverability. The AI is very basic and geared
toward beginners/kids/people who suck at this type of games, since there
are instances in which you're standing in the middle of a room surrounded
by enemies that don't attack because you haven't crossed their limited POV
attack pattern. Did I mention Croc's main attack consists of a
tail-whip maneuver very reminiscent of another game featuring a
tongue-happy comedian ("Gex: Enter the Gecko" and its prequel)?
OVERALL: B-
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Since its the only game close to a "Mario 64" on the defunct Saturn
platform, its version of "Croc: Legend of the Gobbos" is a weak 'B' title
instead of the 'C' title that the PSX version has become due to the better
clones coming out on a regular basis. For some reason the Funcoland
chain has received a truckload of copies of Saturn "Croc", which they're
selling for $14.95 brand-new; at such a low price this game becomes an
attractive proposition to the Saturn owner in search for a little 3D
action in an otherwise characterless 3D 'go-anywhere' library of domestic
releases. Avoid, like me, if you have access to a PSX or N64 and
want to play the best games in the genre, where "Croc" is no longer a
factor or a standout. Fox Interactive bailed out on the Saturn right
after the game was released, so I guess they are dumping their stock of
Saturn copies of the game to an unsuspecting gaming public; arm yourself
with knowledge, grass hopper, and watch "The Secret World of Alex Mack"
every Mon-Fri at 6:30PM only on Nickelodeon before you purchase another
bad game... so there!
- J.M.
Vargas
