Croc Legend of the Gobbos Review – A Nostalgic Comeback That Feels Just Right

Reminiscences from the Croc Legends of the Gobbos, a game from the late ’90s, I can remember playing in the PlayStation when I was young, and it just completely immerses you into those worlds that are so colorful. Indeed, 3D platformers were the biggest trend back then. Super Mario 64, Spyro the Dragon, Banjo-Kazooie, and Crash Bandicoot, all reigning on top. But Croc had its own little charm that made it special.

It was released in 1997, and it did really well, selling over three million copies. Now, after all these years, Croc is back with a remastered version, and what’s cool about it is that it was done by the same team that developed the original. The Argonauts, the studio that built Croc, went off for a while, but now they are back. This time, they did everything themselves and didn’t hand the job to another studio. That surely made me really happy because you can see how much care they put into it.

I tried it on Xbox, but the remaster is also on PC and all major consoles. The story of Croc is very elementary, like in the old school games. It centers around Croc, who is the little green crocodile discovered by the Gobbos when it was a hatchling. For those cute, hairy creatures, Baron Dante takes them along with their king. Now it is up to Croc to save them.

Each level has five Gobbos and five colored gems to collect. Collecting all these opens up another Gobbo, obtained via a minor puzzle or a short platforming challenge. This is a simple loop but intriguing.

The game is simple to control. You go from one area to another, work on floating platforms, pop enemies, and beat a gong at the end before flying off with your bird buddy. Straightforward but no fuss about it; good platforming fun really!

Coming to the controls, that’s where the remaster shines. The original used tank controls that were truly difficult to work with. I remember suffering from that quite a bit as a kid. Now, smooth analog controls have been introduced, feeling very natural. If you want to experience that 1997 feel, the old tank controls are still available, which I tried for fun, but I came back to the new setup very soon.

The boss fights got better, too. In the old version, you didn’t know how many hits you had to bear to defeat the boss; this was frustrating. Now there is a proper health bar so that you know how close you are to winning.

The core gameplay remains the same as ever. You jump, run, tail-whip, ground-pound, and collect Gobbos, although some levels can be tricky because in the end you miss a collectible and have to replay the whole stage but that is the charm of it: it’s a fun and frustrating mixture that keeps on bringing you back to the game.

The level-wise design really appealed to me. The ice levels, whilst slippery, are still fun. The puzzle-heavy ones can sometimes slow down the pace a little, but I still never felt that I was not enjoying myself. The short level design is also very effective, so even if you mess up, you can try again within a few minutes without having lost too much progress.

Also included in the remaster is what is known as the Crocopedia, which is in many ways a treasure chest for fans. It includes old interviews, concept art, discarded ideas for a Croc cartoon, pictures of old merch, and even remixed soundtracks by artists such as The Living Tombstone. It’s really something if you’re into behind-the-scenes.

The developers rebuilt the game using the decompiled version for PC, upping all the graphics, and then being able to switch between original and new at any point is awesome to compare the distance. It runs super smooth at 120 fps, and you can pile on filters to make it look as if you’re playing on an old CRT TV.

The visuals are bright and colorful, and the soundtrack complements it beautifully. The music has still got that cheerful ’90s spirit to get you grinning, and I actually found myself humming one of the things while playing. Croc makes those little sounds and has those goofy expressions today so you just can’t help but find him lovable.

Croc Legend of the Gobbos Remastered is not about competing with modern games that do exist today; simply reliving the old PS1 magic in a way that still feels quite right in 2025, going back into childhood, sitting in front of the TV with your friends after school, and wasting hours lost in play.

But it’s far from perfect-some of the later levels can get really irritating, but that’s how old school games were. It’s not complex because it’s the 90s; it just polished those things that were responsible for making Croc enjoyable in the first place.

So if you remember playing Croc back in the day, it’s high time to check this remaster out. You can feel the heart and nostalgia in every single bit of the fun that can hardly be found today. Seeing Argonaut Games getting back with this much respect to their original work, I, to be honest, just smiled.

It’s like an old pal you hug after some time and find he hasn’t changed very much, but he just seems better in all respects. You may also be interested in: My take on Keeper Game