Legend of the Gobbos Remaster Review

Within the mid to late 90s, 3D platformers have been experiencing a large spike in each high quality and recognition. With the unique PlayStation and the Nintendo 64 having simply been launched, builders have been attending to stretch their legs into an entire new dimension that was largely unexplored on earlier consoles.

This new tech led to some actually prolific titles for gamers to leap into. Issues like Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot in 1996, adopted by Spyro and Banjo-Kazooie in 1998, put 3D mascot platformers on the map for hundreds of thousands of avid gamers, and the medium would by no means be the identical afterward. These video games have been seminal moments in gaming that rippled throughout history.

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Smack-dab in the midst of these different titles that might go on to create large, long-lived, and beloved franchises, was the unique Croc: The Legend of the Gobbos, dropped in 1997. Whereas the sport would in the end garner reward from some retailers and followers, even on the time, it was a little bit of a polarizing expertise general.

Croc‘s tank controls and primary stage design weren’t as much as par with Mario 64 (an unreasonably excessive bar to observe, to make certain), and whereas the sport did find yourself with one sequel, a pair Sport Boy variations, and a handful of cellular titles, the franchise in the end fizzled out and has remained utterly dormant for 20 years.

Due to all of this, it was slightly stunning to be taught {that a} remaster of the unique title from 1997 was coming again in 2025. Would a sport that obtained left behind within the 90s actually be capable to have a renaissance and seize trendy audiences?

I jumped in to search out out.

A Respect For Its Historical past

Essentially the most pleasing expertise I had with the Croc remaster was with the actually beautiful historic “Crocipedia” that the devs included with the title. Very like different retro remasters and collections we have seen in recent times, the workforce right here went the additional mile to incorporate nostalgic seems again on the unique heyday of the collection within the 90s.

You get to learn little snippets about everybody concerned with the challenge, watch goofy and endearing Japanese TV commercials from the time, browse a set of enjoyable merch, and flip by previous journal protection from publications lengthy defunct.

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There’s even a step-by-step tutorial on find out how to crochet your personal Croc plushy, which is actually cute and endearing. It is very clear that the workforce has a lot love for the unique title and the mascot they birthed into existence, and all this gathered materials was genuinely heartwarming to have a look at.

I went by the entire Crocipedia earlier than leaping into the precise sport. It gave me hope that this remaster would someway translate to the fashionable period in ways in which I wasn’t anticipating, and I would in the end find yourself having a very good time with the title even within the possible occasion that it hadn’t aged the most effective over the past 28 years.

I could be a little naive at occasions.

Delicate Modernization

Croc took an attention-grabbing strategy with its ranges of remastering. We have seen different throwback titles be revived and seem like from-the-ground-up recreations of their earlier iterations. Video games like Spyro Reignited and Crash Bandicoot N. Sane trilogies clearly come to thoughts as nice examples of this.

In excessive comparability, Croc opted for a way more low-key strategy to the time period “remaster.” The sport remains to be polygonal and primary wanting, simply with a recent sheen that brings the sport to the 4K period and runs a lot extra easily from begin to end.

Nonetheless, I could not assist however suppose that this additionally in the end felt like a fairly low effort endeavor.

On the one hand, it is form of neat to see a sport introduced again in a means that appears on display screen the way you all the time imagined it as a child within the 90s. Each gamer has had the expertise of going again to a childhood title and considering, “Whoa, this seems means worse than I keep in mind,” so it is cool in some ways in which Croc actually simply aimed to deliver the sport to the requirements of our reminiscences.

On the opposite, I could not assist however suppose that this additionally in the end felt like a fairly low effort endeavor. The sport offers you menu choices to flip between the unique and remastered model of the graphics, even with the flexibility to throw a VGA or CRT filter on high for further nostalgia. It is right here that you may additionally actually see simply how comparable this sport nonetheless someway seems to the 1997 model.

All of it form of finally ends up feeling like remastering for the sake of remastering. It wasn’t obligatory, and the result’s largely underwhelming within the trendy panorama. From a historic preservation angle, it is a cool concept. However it’s additionally possible not sufficient to entice most gamers to present Croc one other look.

The Identical Boring Gameplay And Ranges

Probably essentially the most notable characteristic of 1997’s model of Croc was the sport’s tank controls. Devs on the time have been nonetheless determining find out how to get their characters to maneuver round a 3D house most successfully, and the outcome for Croc was a super-clunky and bad-to-handle model of motion compared to just about the rest on the time.

It is good that in 2025, we will now play Croc with typical joystick controls and a digital camera on the precise stick with reposition as you please. The tank controls are nonetheless out there on the d-pad if you wish to expertise what the sport was like again within the day, however… do not do it.

Degree designs are extraordinarily primary and now painfully straightforward with trendy controls.

Whereas this up to date management scheme is clearly good, it would not do something to cover the truth that Croc actually has by no means been a enjoyable sport as compared with… virtually the rest within the style.

Degree designs are extraordinarily primary and now painfully straightforward with trendy controls. The well being system of Sonic ring-like crystals that scatter whenever you take injury feels horrible whenever you’ve collected round 80 after which are solely capable of get well 2 upon taking a success.

Enemies are tremendous generic and annoyingly respawn after a brief timer. Not one of the collectibles really feel rewarding to search out, except for having access to a brief bonus ending to every stage, that’s normally not enjoyable both.

Croc skates round a bit like he is all the time on ice. Platforming is imprecise and barely enjoyable or attention-grabbing. Puzzles are by no means greater than pushing a field or dangling from the underside of a chain-link platform to cross a niche.

Boss fights are actually abysmal, boring, primary, and irritating, weirdly missing sound results for incoming assaults and easily anticlimactically ending with a “stage full” display screen when you land your third, awkward-feeling tail-swipe in your foe.

LittleBigPlanet on left, Banjo Kazooie in middle, Fez on right

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On the finish of the day, Croc actually has subsequent to nothing that’s enjoyable to finish or value going again for. I discovered myself usually simply utterly skipping a collectible Gobbo in a room as a result of I knew it would not be rewarding to get to, and it would not matter if I collected it anyway.

I love platformers, and I really like many collect-a-thon variations of them. For me to only need to beeline on to the exit of each single stage as a result of nothing non-compulsory was ever enjoyable or worthwhile is just not a very good signal.

Solely For The Extraordinarily Nostalgic

On the finish of the day, I can not see Croc remastered touchdown with anybody outdoors the choose few that performed it as a child in 1997 and want a fast shot of nostalgia to make it by their day. For this viewers, I am positive they will love what’s been packaged collectively for them to time journey again into.

Longtime followers of platformers that also have not performed Croc by 2025, nonetheless, will discover nothing right here value experiencing. I do not actually even suppose youngsters of the day will discover a lot enjoyment from the short 5 or 6-hour journey, both. There are many different trendy contemporaries that can maintain their consideration extra efficiently.

What sucks essentially the most is that it feels dangerous to come back to those conclusions after enjoying the sport, too. I do know there are those who cherished this title as a toddler. I do know the devs are pleased with the product and needed to deliver Croc again to rejoice the enjoyable historical past they have been part of. All of that may be a bummer to consider as you are enjoying by a clunky, boring platformer that actually would not have to exist within the trendy panorama.

Not each retro sport wants or warrants an encore-type remaster to deliver it again into the highlight, and I can not think about that exposing a contemporary viewers to this title can have individuals clamoring for a real reboot of the franchise. By the point I beat the ultimate boss, I had been ready for the sport to finish for hours, and I actually do not suppose I will be alone in that sentiment.

Nonetheless, you possible already know if this sport is for you, then by all means, get pleasure from your journey down reminiscence lane should you select to test it out.

Sadly, Croc: The Legend of The Gobbos actually by no means wanted to come back again. Even in 1997, it was a title tormented by cumbersome controls, generic worlds, and uninspired stage design that have been left behind by its extra prolific contemporaries. Whereas a pleasant sheen of additional polish and modernized motion does make this the easiest way to expertise Croc in 2025, you continue to actually simply… need not. People who cherished the sport again within the day and know what to anticipate shall be completely satisfied, however that is actually only a remaster for the nostalgia-starved. It is clear that the builders have numerous love for his or her inexperienced, reptilian hero, but it surely’s merely not sufficient to make Croc a enjoyable 3D platformer for anybody else.