Croc 2 was the first game I worked on when I moved to Argonaut. It was a really fun one to work on and was *nearly* released for the Dreamcast with extra worlds (including Wild West Gobbos) until Sega imploded just before it was finished. It definitely got released on the PC though :)
Not hugely I think, although I wasn't the engine coder (I coded the gameplay elements other than Croc himself and the Camera ;) ). I think Tony and Lewis were playing with a few tweaks to improve the water etc. though but after getting the Wild West area up and running I got pulled away to sort out the mess that was going on with Aladdin, Nazira's Revenge at the time :) Shortly after that, Sega imploded and the Croc team got put onto new projects (at the time, the super secret PS2 devkit). The mobile versions at the end are interesting as they weren't Argonaut (as they went bust in 2004). I'm assuming someone at Fox or somewhere did a bit of a cash in :)
Oh my gosh!! I just want to say, I respect the hell out of you guys at Argonaut. You made a hell of a lot of good games. :) I don't know if you personally had any hands in The Emperor's New Groove, but I particularly adored that game as a child. You guys had some of the most top-quality licensed games back when licensed games weren't all crappy cash grabs. ;~; I just wanted to voice my appreciation as a fan who always found it a shame that things didn't explode for you guys the way I feel it should have.
@@qisotwprofessionalsentvid6675 I have no idea. The licenses got sold on after Argonaut went bust, so it would be down to whoever owns them to decide whether it's worth it for them.
I did read Fox like the premise so much, they wanted to turn it into a CG cartoon series ALA Donkey Kong. It also explains why they hired a Simpsons writer to pad out the story.
Larry Bundy Jr I might know that there's footage of Yoshi Racing somewhere in a far away google website, Yoshi Racing is Fantastic and Croc: Legend of the Gobbos is Dumb, Yoshi Racing is a prototype that was going to be the world's first 3D Platformer game and Yoshi Racing is amazing and if it was accepted then it would of been released in March 1996 and would of been in 10 months development and would of been the first ever 3D platformer and Croc: Legend of the Gobbos would of never been released and Simon Keating would of been working for Traveller's Tales, Yoshi Racing's footage needs to be found and played with, I might know that Yoshi do Platforming and Racing, Also I might know that Yoshi Racing was going to have 4 playable characters Yoshi, Why Guy, Tooperpara and Croc, I might know that Croc was going to be a Mario Character but don't get mad, I know that Bowser was going to be in his Super Mario 64 design, and Bowser Jr was going to be in the game, I also might know that Rareware took a look, Miyamoto loved the Yoshi Prototype, I think Tim and Chris Stamper was going to Produce the game, I guess Nintendo was bulling third party developers, So yeah Croc: Legend of the Gobbos sucks major donkey balls, I guess that Argonaut didn't pitch a Mario 3D prototype, So yeah Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hard, It was fucking hard, It was atrocious, Croc 2 was also sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hard, The controls are a Freaking D-Pad, I hate the D-Pad, but hey, At least if you play the game on the Sega Saturn with a 3D Sega Saturn Controller with the Analog stick, The game will be so decent instead of crappy, Yoshi Racing was more Amazing than Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, Super Mario 64 is medicore but I love Yoshi Racing as a real game, It would of been released in March 1996, but it was rejected, Poor Argonaut, I must of feel sorry for Jez San, Maybe both Jez San and Jon Burton "The Founder of Traveller's Tales" make a video game company together in Stourbrige, Dudley called Travelling Tales, The company I'm thinking of Mr San and Mr Burton making team up with Namco, Capcom, Konami, Ubisoft, Ahetset, 20th Century Fox, SEGA, Activision, Playtonic Games, Sony, Tommo, Fortunefish and finally Nintendo, They will merge with Fortunefish to make Fortunetales and Fortunefish would go Defunct, So yeah Show me footage of Yoshi Racing now.
... Wow. That was definitely a dick move from Nintendo. Between that and fucking things up with Rare, it's no wonder they don't exactly foster trust with third-party companies.
I fucking loved Croc as a kid and I play the shit out of Croc 2 The music in this episode really brought me back, it was so good. I'm off to replay it now
Funny thing is that I'd like to see a real history of the mechanical differences in the games and spin-offs, but I'd only want to see it done by a fan of the series. As a fan of the series, it is kind of interesting tracing those differences. It is also kind of sad to see how much Omega Force over-corrects from game to game, and how scared they became of altering Dynasty itself. (Which leaves Samurai and the licensed spin-offs carrying the weight of attempts at better, more involved, combat.) It would be a monumental task at this point, though.
Talking about the subtle differences in all the Dynasty warriors games is actually an impossible goal. 1 to 3 you'd be spending weeks to make an hour long video but once you get to 4 or even 7 and include the empire modes You're looking at probably one of the longest retrospectives you can hope to request.
The Sega Saturn version has the best music, and can output in Dolby Surround Pro Logic, which was mind-blowing for 1997 (even today is sounds phenomenal). The controls are also tighter on the Saturn version, none of that slip-sliding present in the PSX version.
I'm not surprised at Nintendo's "less than ethical" back-handed business practices... I mean look at the fast one they pulled on Sony in the mid 90's. Boy, that didn't work out well for them huh?
Thanks for posting this, it's great to hear the entire story of Croc. I was the lead artist on this game, brings back so many fond memories, but I only started once it actually moved from Yoshi to Croc, I also left right after Croc 1's completion, so didn't know too much about the sequels. This was new ground for us, creating a 3D platformer for a brand new (and very powerful for the time) console. Thanks for all the Croc support, Yazoo! :) I'm posting never seen before concept art of Croc on my Instagram and Twitter pages (@ScottButlerAct), if you want to take a look, and appreciate any follows, more concepts to come! Have a wonderful week everyone! - Scott Butler
"That felt hollow to me." You know what else felt hollow? Your gameboy games. But no, I actually do love Croc a lot, as a bit of a nostalgia game as it is. Shame that there's no new gen Croc game. Also, people give Nintindo WAY too much credit and not enough criticism. Not purchasing Rare and and pushing Argonaut away was a questionable decision, to say the least.
The visual presentation in your videos is top-notch. The videos as a whole are excellent as well, but I'm always blown away by how slick and polished they look.
My friends and I spent vast amounts of time making movies in 3D Movie Maker, many of which I still have copies of. Some seriously great memories in them.
Croc has that vibe of the majority of 3D platformers from around that time to me. I liked them but could never really finish Mario 64 or Croc. I preferred the Crash series. Haha I recently went back to Pac Man World which was a huge part of my childhood, and it didn't hold up to me as well as I'd hoped for the same reason And that ending. It sounds really cold of Nintendo to do. :( Reminds me of all the times Eric Chahi got screwed over by publishers.
Croc was this weird series... I played the first game, somehow missed the second and... ended up feeling regret of never returning to the series...... but that sounds so weird! Why was I so certain that it was an entire franchise, when I only played one game, and... heard of one sequel?! Thank to your video, I now know :)
Amazing! I haven't remembered Croc for at LEAST 10 years. My memory of it totally got overlayed, displaced and split between Yoshi and Spyro! Without this video I doubt I would have ever remember this character! Thx a bunch!
Great video Daniel! you forgot to mention that some people who worked on Croc founded their own Indie studio and made a Kickstarter for a game called Toybox where they said that if it sells well they'll buy the rights to Croc, but sadly the Kickstarter was a failure and they haven't made any updates since.
Hey DJ Slopes, around 13:10 as a few others probably mentioned, Croc 2 had a PC release a few months after the PS1 release in 1999. I actually bought a used copy of the game at a local second hand shop a few years back, and I've played it on Windows 7, 8 and 10 at 1080p resolution with no issues. It'll also recognize most buttons and the left joystick of a Xbox 360 controller since the game uses DInput. Fun fact about Croc 2 is that Argonauts actually reused the engine for it with The Emperor's New Groove Action Game when Disney commissioned them in 2000 so it coincides with the film's theatrical release. That game also plays quite well on modern versions of Windows with little to no issue, and if you look at the executable file's properties by right clicking it it'll even say that the file was originally named 'croc2.exe' and even show some of the copyright info of Croc 2 on it strangely enough.
Tetris Plus, Croc, Spyro, Bushido Blade 2, Soul Blade, Guardians Crusade, Pitfall 3D, Final Fantasy 7, and Resident Evil one and two were some of my first games growing up, either watching my family play it or me. Ahhh I miss my childhood.
The best thing about your videos are they are slightly obscure in the sense of the video games you pick! Somehow it's always the video games I grew up playing and loved but have been knocked out of my brain one way or another haha Thanks as always for top notch stuff and bringing some forgotten memories P.s I think you said croc 2 was PlayStation only? I had 1&2 on PC and damn do they look much better and I think 2 had a bit more Leeway with the camera didn't seem to have as much bother but the could just be me 10/10 episode!!
Real talk, that backup animation of him looking over his shoulder and slowly moving back is adorable. I can practically hear him going, "Beep beep beep!"
This game brings me the best memories of Christmas. My brother got Croc, and I got Sonic 3D Blast (PC). Any time I hear music from either of these games, it feels like Christmas.
I have so much nostalgia with Croc.... hard to believe it's been nearly 20 years now, although I didn't play it until the end of 99, but even then... it's certainly been a minute or two. Had both games for PlayStation, and I had both of the GameBoy games as well - first GameBoy one was alright, the 2nd one was godawful.... Croc still holds up, for me, played it again a few months back, and I finally got a legit 100% playthrough of it. And that music brings back so many memories.... it has its flaws but it's absolutely one of my favorite games ever.
I had the saturn version and it was far more than "a little glitchy". In many times you boot the game textures went missing, Croc was headless, and gobbos and enemies were invisible except for their eyes. It was a gamble to boot the game without any issues right from the start.
Croc, one of the games I remember playing that had weird controls in the boss battles. But looking back on it, that was considered my first platformer in the whole world (not super mario 64). But the music was a killer; Seriously I love the soundtrack of the first game but with the second game, PFFT, I didn't even go any further then that.
Super Mario 64 is my favorite game of all time. It was the first 3D game I ever saw and it blew my mind. I still haven't played Croc yet, but I plan on picking up a copy for PS1 at some point.
Crocs music is so memorable and great. I remember the ice levels pissing me off as a kid lol. Edit: I just noticed the lava in the PS1 doesn't flow like in the saturn version
Croc was the reason I wanted an original PlayStation. I remember seeing a demo of it at Funcoland on their wall mounted CRT tvs. I wanted the game immediately. But that was '97 and I was only 15 so I had to wait a few months to save money for it and trade in some stuff. I loved the game though I got annoyed at the camera pretty often. If Croc couldn't hang on the edge of a platform from a misjudged jump, then I would of put it down pretty fast and left it to collect dust. I had problems judging depth on many of the jumps. I hated the swimming too. All in all, I really enjoyed the game. If they made an HD Remake, I'd be on board. Just give us more camera control. Great video! Subbed.
This was one of the first console games I've played as a kid, along with the first Red Alert and Resident Evil (so much for ESRB ratings eh). Such a nostalgia trip!
There is in fact, a legit reason why Nintendo rejected Argonaut's Yoshi pitch. Super Mario 64 (and possibly Mario Kart 64 as well) was already in development at the time and it would've been a competing product against what Nintendo were already making. In issue 24 of Sega Saturn Magazine (came out in October 1997) on page 63, Jez San actually said himself that the reason why Nintendo rejected Argonaut's offer was because Nintendo said they "had something similar in development." Jez refers to their pitch in this particular magazine as "a dinosaur racing game". It may seem confusing at first when you consider what Jez San had said in 2013 over on Eurogamer's Star Fox article, however something that should be noted is that Jez had actually made some errors on that article over on Eurogamer in regards to the Yoshi pitch. Jez claimed in the Eurogamer article that their Yoshi pitch failed to get greenlighted because "Nintendo had never let an outside company use their characters before, and weren't about to, either." But this is untrue, as they did let other companies use their characters before, as there was the Zelda CDI games, which were created by folks outside of Nintendo. Jez San had also claimed that their 3D Yoshi pitch was actually the first ever 3D platformer in the world, which isn't true, as there was a game called Alpha Waves released in 1990. He also claimed that Miyamoto had apologised to them for not picking up and working with their Yoshi demo, along with also claiming that Miyamoto had thanked them for the idea of a 3D platform game. But again, in issue 24 of Sega Saturn Magazine, Jez San didn't even mention anything about Miyamoto apologising. And, according to the January 1996 issue of Nintendo Power, Miyamoto claimed that he already had the idea to do a 3D Mario game all the way back in 1991 when he was working on the original Star Fox game. Jez San had also made an error in the Retro Gamer issue 154 (April 2016) magazine where he claimed that the original Yoshi's Island was co-developed by HAL Laboratory as well. But the reality is, Yoshi's Island wasn't developed by HAL at all, only Nintendo EAD. In Sega Saturn magazine issue 24 however, Jez San seems to have not made any mistakes and he appears to be more accurate there, I suppose the main reason for this is because it came out in October 1997, which was around the same time Croc itself came out. And why do people think that Nintendo would've made a masterpiece 3D Yoshi platformer if they had picked it up? Why would Nintendo do that when they already have Mario established as their main top-tier platforming mascot already? Judging by what Yoshi's Story, along with all the other Yoshi games that came out after that was like, it can seem obvious that Nintendo have never wanted their Yoshi character and franchise to compete against Mario. All Argonaut showed them was just a basic demo, not a half-finished game, and if Nintendo were to have for some reason picked up Yoshi Racing and scrap what they had already been working on themselves in favour of Argonaut's pitch, Nintendo would've more than likely changed the main character to be Mario instead, considering that he is their main top-tier platforming mascot and making Yoshi the protagonist while not featuring Mario as a protagonist, or even not featuring Mario at all and using the Yoshi IP as the ever Nintendo-themed 3D platformer would just be out of place and a wasted opportunity to make more money since they would be using a weaker IP. It makes much more sense to place Mario as the protagonist for Nintendo's very first true 3D platformer game since he has a stronger history. And as time gone by has shown, Nintendo never needed to make Yoshi a top-tier platforming mascot to compete against Mario, just like the way Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog and Ubisoft never needed to make more top-tier platforming mascots to compete with their Spyro, Crash and Rayman characters. Nintendo have even confirmed themselves before that when they launched the original Yoshi's Island, they considered it an ordinary Mario game. Miyamoto has also said before that he wanted Mario to essentially be the Mickey Mouse of gaming since the beginning, and to be the one evolving with every new development and staying at the lead. It also makes sense for Nintendo to want to keep their first ever true 3D platformer strictly in-house because such a project is very monumental. There are positive things that came about as a result of Nintendo's decision to reject the Yoshi pitch. It created a brand-new franchise that introduced new characters, environments and other new concepts that was also able to be released on more than just one system. The Sega Saturn benefited greatly from this considering that the only 3D platformer that came out for the Saturn was Croc, unless you count Tomb Raider as a platformer as well. It also meant the PC platform got two more 3D platformers as well, which is a good thing because while the PC platform got more 3D platformers than the Saturn did, it still didn't get as many as the PS1 and N64 consoles did. This wouldn't have been the case if Nintendo had picked up Yoshi Racing.
I was a dual citizen of Nintendo and Sony at the time of Crocs release. I really enjoyed playing through the first level on the demo disc, then after that I knew I wanted to add the game to my collection. I must say though even at the time I remember finding the game as a whole a massive let down in comparison to the likes of Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie. I guess I was already spoilt with 3D platformers.
I remember making little pink gobbo's from play dough when I was little. So learning that they were originally intended to be pink is pretty funny to me. I'm glad someone reviewed this, I don't see anyone even mentioning it.
THANK YOU! I have such a clear memory of playing a game that looked like Croc, but also nothing like it. Now I realize that I must’ve played the game boy game
I am extremely surprised no one has tackled the development history of Kameo: Elements of Power. That and the hidden lore it has (which was a lot of hard work to find too!) gives a very dark implication on the characters in the story.
Yeah, Croc had so much lost potential and are pretty flawed, but I still love the first two original console games.......gotta give a shout out to the original game's AWESOME motion picture musical scores!!! ..........despite original game's awkward tank controls, it's much more smoother to control with a "Dual Shock Analog" controller!! AWESOME video by the way and thanks for covering this forgotten series!! it really made my day!!^^
I swear I've heard that story of Croc somewhere before.... it was probably from YOU lol. Either way, another fantastic video Dan! Too bad they didn't end up working for Nintendo in the end since Nintendo really needed more titles for the 64. Also, if they really did use a bunch of the code in Star Fox 64 thats pretty... bad business. -_-
+Jonny Nitpick hahaha prob was on one of my 1 on 1 history lessons lol Its a shame they didnt work together more closely and make a good 3d yoshi game. Even if it was timed to be released AFTER mario 64. As a playstation owner i would had been pissed at the time but i think it would had been for the greater good
Me too! Especially if they put forth the sort of effort seen in games like Yoshi's Island, it probably would have been phenomenal! And I'm sure Nintendo wouldn't have let them get away with those Resident Evil Tank Controls either lol
I grew up with this game on my old computer. Even though I had more experience with Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Gex 3, Bomberman Hero and DK64 at the time, I still had a ton of fun with the game. Even with the weird controls. I could probably go back to play it no problem if I ever find my old disc.
thank you for a good review. I didn't even know this game even existed. and now I am listening to it's ost over and over and over again. ost is damn good as you said. :)
Okay, so it wasn't just me. I distinctly remember quitting Croc 1 as a kid toward the end because of the controls and camera. And I had no idea more Croc games besides that one existed.
Yes, Jez San designed the chip. I also don't remember Argonaut for Starfox, it remember them for my first Amiga game ever, Starglider. They also made a sequel to it which was using filled shaded 3D polygons, quite good for the A500.
Although his profile says "helped" design the chip. I can only imagine he provided the full list of requirements from a software perspective on what the chip needed to do.
After playing Crash and Spyro I found Croc harder than those two when I was a kid. I find the challenge of trying to jump without falling worth all the effort. The music reminded me of Tomba; both games have the most memorable scores.
Pretty neat stuff, love how informative your videos are. Croc needs more love from the gaming community. btw, the Baron Dante artwork at 7:10 isn't official artwork, I created it a couple of years ago. I don't want credit or anything, just thought I'd give you a heads up.
The glaring flaws of the first game stood out at the time too when you had games like Crash Bandicoot 1 and Spyro 1. Spyro 1 suffers a bit of the same issues, but unlike Spyro 2, Croc 2 didn't improve enough on the movement and camera at all. I'm split on if I prefer Croc 1 or 2, they both got their strong points and weaknesses, but I think I actually had more fun with 2 than 1.
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was the first video game I ever played. I was only little and my dad used to play it and I would help him. I loved that game so much. It was the only game that I properly remember from the play station era with the others being bits and pieces of a Stuart Little game and a toy story game. It really made an impression on maybe three or four year old me and I loved it.
Croc? More like CRACK! I would sit in school all day waiting to get home so I could come home and play this! The imprecise jumping, sluggish framerate and impossible collision detection made this the MARIO 64 KILLER!
There is a reality out there where the relationship between Argonaut and Nintendo never went sour and they'd still be collaborating on killer games today. That's a reality I'd love to live in :( ah well. Great video mate!
+Blast Processing the sad thing is. I actually think it was for the best as the in house 3d mario game is defo better than what argonaught would had made imo
I remember really wanting to do a video talking about the mobile games because I just thought it was interesting that...well...existed. I never had too much history with Croc. My friend lent me play it and I just couldn't get past the weird tank/car style controls. Maybe it's because I'd played games like Crash 2 and even Glover before Croc, but control wise it felt like a step backwards to me, and I never gave it the proper chance that I should have. I do agree that I think the most interesting thing about Croc is his history as a potential Yoshi game.
Croc really has a very "Mario-esque" charm to it.......despite the original game's tank controls, it's much more smoother to control with a "Dual Shock Analog Controller"!!
I had Croc on the Saturn and the PC. I vaguely remembered it.. It was pretty good at the time! I don't remember those tank controls though.. Seems bizarre nowadays!
I played this game in Myers as a kid and loved it so much I wanted a play station. Looking back I think I felt those flaws you mention without knowing it. The game was fun, it had an incredibly immersive story but everything was the same with slightly different colours. A bit of repetition is fine but I felt like the game never got easier as you went on somehow, every level was just as irritating and difficult for 7 year old me.
I remember being desperate for this game to come out. I had a ps1 and had recently played Mario 64 in a local 2nd hand game specialist store. It blew me away and being about 14 or 15 I couldn't afford an N64 Croc looked like it was the answer I then played it and found it to be ok and luckily got the chance to swap my ps1 for an N64 and Mario and I even though I missed a lot of ps1 games until I got another one not too far down the line I didn't regret it. Croc was fun, a solid 3d platform game but in 1997 like many others it wasn't fit to clean Mario's shoes
I dont know if there would be enough material for you to do a video on but a really unique game I played was Mischief Makers on the N64. its a game I dont see covered often and I feel like it could be interesting to learn more about it. it was Made by Treasure. they were a really awesome development studio so perhaps you could do a history video on them.
Poor little Croc, he had so much potential :C Do you happen to know a japanese 3D platformer called Tomba! 2 for the Playstation? I've never seen anyone praising that game but omg it was one of my favorite games back then :3
Just now commenting bc I just beat both of these games today & was curious about the history. Agree these games do feel like steering a truck more then playing a game lmao. I found it best to use the D-pad instead of the analog sticks.I was only able to finish both games with level collecting before each level in croc 1 & the infinite lives cheat in croc 2. It was the first video game I ever played so I had to go back and replay but I would have been at it for months if I didn’t hoard lives and use the cheat codes. I think they were really onto something with the first two games but things just felt incomplete. I’d love to see it rereleased with a more complete feel to it
yep people praise nintendo but that shit right there of ripping other people off and its current bullshit with youtubers is exactly why i have 0 respect for the company
Oh, I thought I found one of the games of my childhood when I saw the intro of Croc 2. But the game I search is more of a puzzle game. Maybe someone can help me find that. The intro of the game is very similar to the one of Croc 2. It's about a green animal finding a message in a bottle and then going to an island to save his friend or so. All I can remember is some puzzles/riddles that you solve by pushing Boxes etc. I played it on Pc at the early 2000s. I would love to find that game. I'm thankful for every idea!!
Ah, Croc... I have pretty fond memories of this game, although admittedly, they might be a bit rose-tinted! This video actually got me considering doing a Let's Play of it at some stage, so I can finally complete it, seeing as I got pretty far in it, but like you, I never finished it!
Daniel Ibbertson I'll let you know one way or another when I get around to it! Not sure if I should try to play the Playstation version, or try to get a legit copy of the PC version instead, and see if I can get it to run, seeing as I expect that it may be a bit iffy on newer versions of Windows, but I'm not yet sure!
Mario was a good game, no doubt, but as a PS1 owner the N64 game that made me jealous was Ocarina of Time. Up to that point I had never seen an open world game like that. Being able to go off and do random quests, go fishing, or just ride Epona around all day was really mind bending to me. Thankfully my best friend had a 64, so i got my fill of screwing around in Zelda. And after I got my PS2 and GTA 3 came out I never looked back. But damn, that game was the only thing that made me want an N64 at all.
I was hoping you would talk about the current status of the croc IP, it is my understanding that it's not known who has legal control over it and this is why it hasn't resurfaced on PSN.
This one was on the shorter side, after about 3-4 hours of scripting and the editing takes about 10-12 hours spread throughout the week. Shinobi was the hardest to make, spent over 40 hours in total on that video hahaha
I actually played the hell out of Croc and beat the game 100%. The reward of playing another level was nice but I am a bit biased seeing as I didn't have that many games at the time and was used to going back to level one whenever starting up a game. It has aged poorly with it's tank controls but it does have a fantastic soundtrack. Never played it's Sequel. Played the gameboy one though and beat that in a day. One of the first games I returned to a gamestore.
Huh. I was going through my old computer games a while ago* (like one or two years ago), and found a case containing Croc and Croc 2. I played the first one for a little bit, and it honestly seemed solid besides the issues. Since then, I've always been excited to see this lil gem I own pop up now and then. (I'm going to be fully honest. I was looking for Blue's Clues Counting Carnival. I don't care how old I am; it's time for Blue's Clues.)
I can't quite get over how you used Spyro music in the beginning of the video, yet completely overlooked it in the whole discussion about 3D platformers and competing with Mario. :/
Daniel Ibbertson But Spyro predates Croc by a fair bit on the platform? :) Edit: No wait - Croc did of course come first. I was misreading old Wiki dates.
Played a lot of Croc back int he day. I still think it's pretty solid but maybe overly pure for a platformer. In that there's not much going on beyond the jumping and collecting. Certainly has aged better than say, Jersey Devil.
Croc 2 was the first game I worked on when I moved to Argonaut. It was a really fun one to work on and was *nearly* released for the Dreamcast with extra worlds (including Wild West Gobbos) until Sega imploded just before it was finished. It definitely got released on the PC though :)
+Zwilnik ahhhh thanks so much for commenting, i made a mistake with the pc release.
Was the dreamcast version much of a garaphical jump?
Not hugely I think, although I wasn't the engine coder (I coded the gameplay elements other than Croc himself and the Camera ;) ). I think Tony and Lewis were playing with a few tweaks to improve the water etc. though but after getting the Wild West area up and running I got pulled away to sort out the mess that was going on with Aladdin, Nazira's Revenge at the time :) Shortly after that, Sega imploded and the Croc team got put onto new projects (at the time, the super secret PS2 devkit).
The mobile versions at the end are interesting as they weren't Argonaut (as they went bust in 2004). I'm assuming someone at Fox or somewhere did a bit of a cash in :)
Oh my gosh!! I just want to say, I respect the hell out of you guys at Argonaut. You made a hell of a lot of good games. :) I don't know if you personally had any hands in The Emperor's New Groove, but I particularly adored that game as a child. You guys had some of the most top-quality licensed games back when licensed games weren't all crappy cash grabs. ;~; I just wanted to voice my appreciation as a fan who always found it a shame that things didn't explode for you guys the way I feel it should have.
@@ZwilnikSF please tell me will croc get a new game and will it come on the switch
@@qisotwprofessionalsentvid6675 I have no idea. The licenses got sold on after Argonaut went bust, so it would be down to whoever owns them to decide whether it's worth it for them.
I did read Fox like the premise so much, they wanted to turn it into a CG cartoon series ALA Donkey Kong. It also explains why they hired a Simpsons writer to pad out the story.
did not know this!
Daniel Ibbertson You learn something new every day, huh?
Niatona Yeah, if you'd like, check out ProJared's review of it on his channel.
I believe DexTheSwede also covered it, if I remember right.
Larry Bundy Jr I might know that there's footage of Yoshi Racing somewhere in a far away google website, Yoshi Racing is Fantastic and Croc: Legend of the Gobbos is Dumb, Yoshi Racing is a prototype that was going to be the world's first 3D Platformer game and Yoshi Racing is amazing and if it was accepted then it would of been released in March 1996 and would of been in 10 months development and would of been the first ever 3D platformer and Croc: Legend of the Gobbos would of never been released and Simon Keating would of been working for Traveller's Tales, Yoshi Racing's footage needs to be found and played with, I might know that Yoshi do Platforming and Racing, Also I might know that Yoshi Racing was going to have 4 playable characters Yoshi, Why Guy, Tooperpara and Croc, I might know that Croc was going to be a Mario Character but don't get mad, I know that Bowser was going to be in his Super Mario 64 design, and Bowser Jr was going to be in the game, I also might know that Rareware took a look, Miyamoto loved the Yoshi Prototype, I think Tim and Chris Stamper was going to Produce the game, I guess Nintendo was bulling third party developers, So yeah Croc: Legend of the Gobbos sucks major donkey balls, I guess that Argonaut didn't pitch a Mario 3D prototype, So yeah Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hard, It was fucking hard, It was atrocious, Croc 2 was also sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hard, The controls are a Freaking D-Pad, I hate the D-Pad, but hey, At least if you play the game on the Sega Saturn with a 3D Sega Saturn Controller with the Analog stick, The game will be so decent instead of crappy, Yoshi Racing was more Amazing than Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, Super Mario 64 is medicore but I love Yoshi Racing as a real game, It would of been released in March 1996, but it was rejected, Poor Argonaut, I must of feel sorry for Jez San, Maybe both Jez San and Jon Burton "The Founder of Traveller's Tales" make a video game company together in Stourbrige, Dudley called Travelling Tales, The company I'm thinking of Mr San and Mr Burton making team up with Namco, Capcom, Konami, Ubisoft, Ahetset, 20th Century Fox, SEGA, Activision, Playtonic Games, Sony, Tommo, Fortunefish and finally Nintendo, They will merge with Fortunefish to make Fortunetales and Fortunefish would go Defunct, So yeah Show me footage of Yoshi Racing now.
@The SNES Man
Yeah. Exactly. Megamandixel283 went on a huge rant about nothing
Yes! Thank you for making an episode about Croc. Literally the first console game I ever played!
MegaMitch dude me too!
Croc 2 eventually got a PC release, I had it on PC.
Gigas0101 I actually remember playing Croc: Legend of the Gobbos on my dad's old PC when I was a kid.
So many happy memories and pure nostalgia !
hitmandahl Croc and Croc 2 look great on PC. Much better graphics comparing to PSX version.
I remember my brother play this game and dawnload i like
The graphics of Croc 2 on PC are close to the N64's
... Wow. That was definitely a dick move from Nintendo. Between that and fucking things up with Rare, it's no wonder they don't exactly foster trust with third-party companies.
I read a similar story from Epyx when they show the Handy (Atari Lynx)* in 1987 to Nintendo they refuse and started making the GameBoy.
I fucking loved Croc as a kid and I play the shit out of Croc 2
The music in this episode really brought me back, it was so good. I'm off to replay it now
Complete History of Dynasty Warriors. I must know the subtle differences in all 200 entries in the series.
lol
Funny thing is that I'd like to see a real history of the mechanical differences in the games and spin-offs, but I'd only want to see it done by a fan of the series. As a fan of the series, it is kind of interesting tracing those differences. It is also kind of sad to see how much Omega Force over-corrects from game to game, and how scared they became of altering Dynasty itself. (Which leaves Samurai and the licensed spin-offs carrying the weight of attempts at better, more involved, combat.)
It would be a monumental task at this point, though.
All you need ot know is that the 1st one wasnt even the Dynasty Warriors we know today. It was a Virtua Fighter rip off. seriously.
Talking about the subtle differences in all the Dynasty warriors games is actually an impossible goal. 1 to 3 you'd be spending weeks to make an hour long video but once you get to 4 or even 7 and include the empire modes You're looking at probably one of the longest retrospectives you can hope to request.
Oda Swifteye Yes, I know someone who started such a project once. I think he made it through one game and never did the next.
The Sega Saturn version has the best music, and can output in Dolby Surround Pro Logic, which was mind-blowing for 1997 (even today is sounds phenomenal). The controls are also tighter on the Saturn version, none of that slip-sliding present in the PSX version.
I'm not surprised at Nintendo's "less than ethical" back-handed business practices... I mean look at the fast one they pulled on Sony in the mid 90's. Boy, that didn't work out well for them huh?
Then again, it gave us our gloriously bad cdi games lol
True, they fucked over sony for the cd-i and then the cd-i flopped lol.
Thanks for posting this, it's great to hear the entire story of Croc. I was the lead artist on this game, brings back so many fond memories, but I only started once it actually moved from Yoshi to Croc, I also left right after Croc 1's completion, so didn't know too much about the sequels. This was new ground for us, creating a 3D platformer for a brand new (and very powerful for the time) console. Thanks for all the Croc support, Yazoo! :) I'm posting never seen before concept art of Croc on my Instagram and Twitter pages (@ScottButlerAct), if you want to take a look, and appreciate any follows, more concepts to come! Have a wonderful week everyone! - Scott Butler
"That felt hollow to me." You know what else felt hollow? Your gameboy games.
But no, I actually do love Croc a lot, as a bit of a nostalgia game as it is. Shame that there's no new gen Croc game.
Also, people give Nintindo WAY too much credit and not enough criticism.
Not purchasing Rare and and pushing Argonaut away was a questionable decision, to say the least.
Tatari Lives these days i hear much more hate towards Nintendo, but that doesn't negate anything danny said here
i hope croc will get a new game soon tho also i hope he gets in smash bros
The visual presentation in your videos is top-notch. The videos as a whole are excellent as well, but I'm always blown away by how slick and polished they look.
+Keith Fulkerson thats awesome to bear mate. I take hige pride in editing so really appreciate this
I feel a disturbance in the force. *price of all croc games rise*
My friends and I spent vast amounts of time making movies in 3D Movie Maker, many of which I still have copies of. Some seriously great memories in them.
Croc has that vibe of the majority of 3D platformers from around that time to me. I liked them but could never really finish Mario 64 or Croc. I preferred the Crash series. Haha I recently went back to Pac Man World which was a huge part of my childhood, and it didn't hold up to me as well as I'd hoped for the same reason
And that ending. It sounds really cold of Nintendo to do. :( Reminds me of all the times Eric Chahi got screwed over by publishers.
Vicious Servant it should be noted that other co-founder of Argonaut worked with Nintendo since then, most notably on Star Fox command
"Geee I like Daniel's videos, but I dont really feel motivated enough to go from Guru Larry's channel to his..."
*sees a Croc video*
"SOLD!!!!"
+FarelForever hahaha glad that grabbed ya mate :)
Croc was this weird series... I played the first game, somehow missed the second and... ended up feeling regret of never returning to the series...... but that sounds so weird! Why was I so certain that it was an entire franchise, when I only played one game, and... heard of one sequel?!
Thank to your video, I now know :)
Can you do a complete history on Oddworld
Silent Sam yes please do it
This!
Oh god yes.
That Croc 3: Stone of the Gobbos is apparently just a hoax made by someone with too much time on their hands. Other than that, great video as always!.
Just to be correct; Croc 2 was also released for Windows-based PCs. I remember this, 'cause i used to play a lot of the PC demo as a kid.
Amazing! I haven't remembered Croc for at LEAST 10 years. My memory of it totally got overlayed, displaced and split between Yoshi and Spyro!
Without this video I doubt I would have ever remember this character! Thx a bunch!
Croc needs a Remake
Yes!!!
It really does
Great video Daniel! you forgot to mention that some people who worked on Croc founded their own Indie studio and made a Kickstarter for a game called Toybox where they said that if it sells well they'll buy the rights to Croc, but sadly the Kickstarter was a failure and they haven't made any updates since.
I loved the first Croc, I had it on PlayStation. That quote at the end is unbelievable, the bastards! Great video, Dan.
+onaretrotip cheers pete, glad you enjoyed it. I hope people dont think i hate miyamoto lol
Hey DJ Slopes, around 13:10 as a few others probably mentioned, Croc 2 had a PC release a few months after the PS1 release in 1999. I actually bought a used copy of the game at a local second hand shop a few years back, and I've played it on Windows 7, 8 and 10 at 1080p resolution with no issues. It'll also recognize most buttons and the left joystick of a Xbox 360 controller since the game uses DInput.
Fun fact about Croc 2 is that Argonauts actually reused the engine for it with The Emperor's New Groove Action Game when Disney commissioned them in 2000 so it coincides with the film's theatrical release. That game also plays quite well on modern versions of Windows with little to no issue, and if you look at the executable file's properties by right clicking it it'll even say that the file was originally named 'croc2.exe' and even show some of the copyright info of Croc 2 on it strangely enough.
+DurradonXylles ahhhhh wownthats pretty awesome! Massive thanksbfkr sharing that buddy :D
you just hit me right in my fucking child hood like a truck all these suppressed memories of playing this game as a kid is all coming back to me
Tetris Plus, Croc, Spyro, Bushido Blade 2, Soul Blade, Guardians Crusade, Pitfall 3D, Final Fantasy 7, and Resident Evil one and two were some of my first games growing up, either watching my family play it or me. Ahhh I miss my childhood.
I actually had Croc: Legend of the Gobbos on PS1. I liked it. The atmosphere and music are great.
Same ! Many fond memories of playing it while being babysat by my granny
The best thing about your videos are they are slightly obscure in the sense of the video games you pick!
Somehow it's always the video games I grew up playing and loved but have been knocked out of my brain one way or another haha
Thanks as always for top notch stuff and bringing some forgotten memories
P.s I think you said croc 2 was PlayStation only? I had 1&2 on PC and damn do they look much better and I think 2 had a bit more Leeway with the camera didn't seem to have as much bother but the could just be me 10/10 episode!!
Real talk, that backup animation of him looking over his shoulder and slowly moving back is adorable.
I can practically hear him going, "Beep beep beep!"
Loved this one, Dan. Fantastic work, as always! your editing has been pretty remarkable in the last few SGR episodes, keep it up!
+DatRyanTho ahhhhhh thank you :) always trying to push the editing side of things :)
Holy fuck, this came out on my birthday and I loved croc as a kid
This game brings me the best memories of Christmas. My brother got Croc, and I got Sonic 3D Blast (PC). Any time I hear music from either of these games, it feels like Christmas.
I have so much nostalgia with Croc.... hard to believe it's been nearly 20 years now, although I didn't play it until the end of 99, but even then... it's certainly been a minute or two. Had both games for PlayStation, and I had both of the GameBoy games as well - first GameBoy one was alright, the 2nd one was godawful....
Croc still holds up, for me, played it again a few months back, and I finally got a legit 100% playthrough of it. And that music brings back so many memories.... it has its flaws but it's absolutely one of my favorite games ever.
I know...
great video as usual, I'd like to see a complete history on Argonaut Games, I think it would make an excellent story
+SimmyBassline I like this idea!
Yet another great series for me, loved these games as a kid. Thank you for making your videos!
I had the saturn version and it was far more than "a little glitchy". In many times you boot the game textures went missing, Croc was headless, and gobbos and enemies were invisible except for their eyes. It was a gamble to boot the game without any issues right from the start.
Daniel, your videos always makes even worst day a little brighter and warmer. Keep the good work
I'm so happy people somehow still remember croc
Croc, one of the games I remember playing that had weird controls in the boss battles. But looking back on it, that was considered my first platformer in the whole world (not super mario 64). But the music was a killer; Seriously I love the soundtrack of the first game but with the second game, PFFT, I didn't even go any further then that.
Super Mario 64 is my favorite game of all time. It was the first 3D game I ever saw and it blew my mind.
I still haven't played Croc yet, but I plan on picking up a copy for PS1 at some point.
Crocs music is so memorable and great. I remember the ice levels pissing me off as a kid lol. Edit: I just noticed the lava in the PS1 doesn't flow like in the saturn version
Croc was the reason I wanted an original PlayStation. I remember seeing a demo of it at Funcoland on their wall mounted CRT tvs. I wanted the game immediately. But that was '97 and I was only 15 so I had to wait a few months to save money for it and trade in some stuff. I loved the game though I got annoyed at the camera pretty often. If Croc couldn't hang on the edge of a platform from a misjudged jump, then I would of put it down pretty fast and left it to collect dust. I had problems judging depth on many of the jumps. I hated the swimming too. All in all, I really enjoyed the game. If they made an HD Remake, I'd be on board. Just give us more camera control. Great video! Subbed.
+PairUgamers thanks for subbing mate, glad u enjoyed the video. I too remember saving for a while to get it :D
This was one of the first console games I've played as a kid, along with the first Red Alert and Resident Evil (so much for ESRB ratings eh). Such a nostalgia trip!
you deserve so much more subs. i really enjoy these videos. thank you
Hearing the music of Croc really took me back :) I called in sick for 2 days to complete this game lol
There is in fact, a legit reason why Nintendo rejected Argonaut's Yoshi pitch. Super Mario 64 (and possibly Mario Kart 64 as well) was already in development at the time and it would've been a competing product against what Nintendo were already making. In issue 24 of Sega Saturn Magazine (came out in October 1997) on page 63, Jez San actually said himself that the reason why Nintendo rejected Argonaut's offer was because Nintendo said they "had something similar in development." Jez refers to their pitch in this particular magazine as "a dinosaur racing game".
It may seem confusing at first when you consider what Jez San had said in 2013 over on Eurogamer's Star Fox article, however something that should be noted is that Jez had actually made some errors on that article over on Eurogamer in regards to the Yoshi pitch. Jez claimed in the Eurogamer article that their Yoshi pitch failed to get greenlighted because "Nintendo had never let an outside company use their characters before, and weren't about to, either." But this is untrue, as they did let other companies use their characters before, as there was the Zelda CDI games, which were created by folks outside of Nintendo. Jez San had also claimed that their 3D Yoshi pitch was actually the first ever 3D platformer in the world, which isn't true, as there was a game called Alpha Waves released in 1990. He also claimed that Miyamoto had apologised to them for not picking up and working with their Yoshi demo, along with also claiming that Miyamoto had thanked them for the idea of a 3D platform game. But again, in issue 24 of Sega Saturn Magazine, Jez San didn't even mention anything about Miyamoto apologising. And, according to the January 1996 issue of Nintendo Power, Miyamoto claimed that he already had the idea to do a 3D Mario game all the way back in 1991 when he was working on the original Star Fox game.
Jez San had also made an error in the Retro Gamer issue 154 (April 2016) magazine where he claimed that the original Yoshi's Island was co-developed by HAL Laboratory as well. But the reality is, Yoshi's Island wasn't developed by HAL at all, only Nintendo EAD.
In Sega Saturn magazine issue 24 however, Jez San seems to have not made any mistakes and he appears to be more accurate there, I suppose the main reason for this is because it came out in October 1997, which was around the same time Croc itself came out.
And why do people think that Nintendo would've made a masterpiece 3D Yoshi platformer if they had picked it up? Why would Nintendo do that when they already have Mario established as their main top-tier platforming mascot already? Judging by what Yoshi's Story, along with all the other Yoshi games that came out after that was like, it can seem obvious that Nintendo have never wanted their Yoshi character and franchise to compete against Mario. All Argonaut showed them was just a basic demo, not a half-finished game, and if Nintendo were to have for some reason picked up Yoshi Racing and scrap what they had already been working on themselves in favour of Argonaut's pitch, Nintendo would've more than likely changed the main character to be Mario instead, considering that he is their main top-tier platforming mascot and making Yoshi the protagonist while not featuring Mario as a protagonist, or even not featuring Mario at all and using the Yoshi IP as the ever Nintendo-themed 3D platformer would just be out of place and a wasted opportunity to make more money since they would be using a weaker IP. It makes much more sense to place Mario as the protagonist for Nintendo's very first true 3D platformer game since he has a stronger history. And as time gone by has shown, Nintendo never needed to make Yoshi a top-tier platforming mascot to compete against Mario, just like the way Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog and Ubisoft never needed to make more top-tier platforming mascots to compete with their Spyro, Crash and Rayman characters. Nintendo have even confirmed themselves before that when they launched the original Yoshi's Island, they considered it an ordinary Mario game. Miyamoto has also said before that he wanted Mario to essentially be the Mickey Mouse of gaming since the beginning, and to be the one evolving with every new development and staying at the lead. It also makes sense for Nintendo to want to keep their first ever true 3D platformer strictly in-house because such a project is very monumental.
There are positive things that came about as a result of Nintendo's decision to reject the Yoshi pitch. It created a brand-new franchise that introduced new characters, environments and other new concepts that was also able to be released on more than just one system. The Sega Saturn benefited greatly from this considering that the only 3D platformer that came out for the Saturn was Croc, unless you count Tomb Raider as a platformer as well. It also meant the PC platform got two more 3D platformers as well, which is a good thing because while the PC platform got more 3D platformers than the Saturn did, it still didn't get as many as the PS1 and N64 consoles did. This wouldn't have been the case if Nintendo had picked up Yoshi Racing.
I don't think it's too repetitive to finish but eh >: P
Can you do a complete history of TY the Tasmanian Tiger?
+Sonic5558 loads of peeps have asked for this recently. This and time crisis
I was a dual citizen of Nintendo and Sony at the time of Crocs release. I really enjoyed playing through the first level on the demo disc, then after that I knew I wanted to add the game to my collection. I must say though even at the time I remember finding the game as a whole a massive let down in comparison to the likes of Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie. I guess I was already spoilt with 3D platformers.
I remember making little pink gobbo's from play dough when I was little. So learning that they were originally intended to be pink is pretty funny to me. I'm glad someone reviewed this, I don't see anyone even mentioning it.
+Blackemperess hahaha thats awesome. It deserves its time in the spotlight thats 4 sure :) thanks so much for commenting
THANK YOU! I have such a clear memory of playing a game that looked like Croc, but also nothing like it. Now I realize that I must’ve played the game boy game
I am extremely surprised no one has tackled the development history of Kameo: Elements of Power. That and the hidden lore it has (which was
a lot of hard work to find too!) gives a very dark implication on the characters in the story.
I really wished the best for Croc.
Another great video! I think Rocket Knight Adventures would make a good one.
Yeah, Croc had so much lost potential and are pretty flawed, but I still love the first two original console games.......gotta give a shout out to the original game's AWESOME motion picture musical scores!!! ..........despite original game's awkward tank controls, it's much more smoother to control with a "Dual Shock Analog" controller!! AWESOME video by the way and thanks for covering this forgotten series!! it really made my day!!^^
I swear I've heard that story of Croc somewhere before.... it was probably from YOU lol. Either way, another fantastic video Dan! Too bad they didn't end up working for Nintendo in the end since Nintendo really needed more titles for the 64. Also, if they really did use a bunch of the code in Star Fox 64 thats pretty... bad business. -_-
+Jonny Nitpick hahaha prob was on one of my 1 on 1 history lessons lol
Its a shame they didnt work together more closely and make a good 3d yoshi game. Even if it was timed to be released AFTER mario 64.
As a playstation owner i would had been pissed at the time but i think it would had been for the greater good
Me too! Especially if they put forth the sort of effort seen in games like Yoshi's Island, it probably would have been phenomenal! And I'm sure Nintendo wouldn't have let them get away with those Resident Evil Tank Controls either lol
Jonny Nitpick Do you know which game invented those "tank controls"?
I grew up with this game on my old computer. Even though I had more experience with Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Gex 3, Bomberman Hero and DK64 at the time, I still had a ton of fun with the game. Even with the weird controls. I could probably go back to play it no problem if I ever find my old disc.
thank you for a good review. I didn't even know this game even existed. and now I am listening to it's ost over and over and over again. ost is damn good as you said. :)
Okay, so it wasn't just me. I distinctly remember quitting Croc 1 as a kid toward the end because of the controls and camera.
And I had no idea more Croc games besides that one existed.
When this came out it was that period in time where everyone was obsessed with 3d platforms. This game was good I remember it.
Man you deserve way more subs for such content. Found you from Larry's channel. You've got amazing videos!
+Konstantine Rymaruk thanks so much mate i really appreciate it
Honestly one of my favorite channels
Croc is one of those games that I got on a demo disc and played over and over
Argonaut also did the hardware for Starfox which was reused in Yoshi's Island, the SuperFx
Yes, Jez San designed the chip. I also don't remember Argonaut for Starfox, it remember them for my first Amiga game ever, Starglider. They also made a sequel to it which was using filled shaded 3D polygons, quite good for the A500.
Although his profile says "helped" design the chip. I can only imagine he provided the full list of requirements from a software perspective on what the chip needed to do.
After playing Crash and Spyro I found Croc harder than those two when I was a kid. I find the challenge of trying to jump without falling worth all the effort. The music reminded me of Tomba; both games have the most memorable scores.
Pretty neat stuff, love how informative your videos are.
Croc needs more love from the gaming community.
btw, the Baron Dante artwork at 7:10 isn't official artwork, I created it a couple of years ago.
I don't want credit or anything, just thought I'd give you a heads up.
+DannyJay thats YOUR artwork, duuuude thats great. Massive respect to you :)
Thanks for helping with the video :)
The glaring flaws of the first game stood out at the time too when you had games like Crash Bandicoot 1 and Spyro 1. Spyro 1 suffers a bit of the same issues, but unlike Spyro 2, Croc 2 didn't improve enough on the movement and camera at all. I'm split on if I prefer Croc 1 or 2, they both got their strong points and weaknesses, but I think I actually had more fun with 2 than 1.
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was the first video game I ever played. I was only little and my dad used to play it and I would help him. I loved that game so much. It was the only game that I properly remember from the play station era with the others being bits and pieces of a Stuart Little game and a toy story game. It really made an impression on maybe three or four year old me and I loved it.
+Rebecca Robson thats awesome :) i think caddicarus reviewed that stuart little game. Its better than ud expect
That's brilliant.
Croc? More like CRACK! I would sit in school all day waiting to get home so I could come home and play this! The imprecise jumping, sluggish framerate and impossible collision detection made this the MARIO 64 KILLER!
There is a reality out there where the relationship between Argonaut and Nintendo never went sour and they'd still be collaborating on killer games today. That's a reality I'd love to live in :( ah well. Great video mate!
+Blast Processing the sad thing is. I actually think it was for the best as the in house 3d mario game is defo better than what argonaught would had made imo
My Grawd! I love Croc, Forgot all about this until I saw the link! Love It!!!
+Dr. Gonzo hahaha awesome... My mission has been a success
I remember really wanting to do a video talking about the mobile games because I just thought it was interesting that...well...existed. I never had too much history with Croc. My friend lent me play it and I just couldn't get past the weird tank/car style controls. Maybe it's because I'd played games like Crash 2 and even Glover before Croc, but control wise it felt like a step backwards to me, and I never gave it the proper chance that I should have. I do agree that I think the most interesting thing about Croc is his history as a potential Yoshi game.
Croc really has a very "Mario-esque" charm to it.......despite the original game's tank controls, it's much more smoother to control with a "Dual Shock Analog Controller"!!
I cannot belive that Croc 2 is a PS1 game. It looks to be Gamecube quality
Yeah I remember the controls and camera being the reason I died so much
I had Croc on the Saturn and the PC. I vaguely remembered it.. It was pretty good at the time! I don't remember those tank controls though.. Seems bizarre nowadays!
I played this game in Myers as a kid and loved it so much I wanted a play station. Looking back I think I felt those flaws you mention without knowing it. The game was fun, it had an incredibly immersive story but everything was the same with slightly different colours. A bit of repetition is fine but I felt like the game never got easier as you went on somehow, every level was just as irritating and difficult for 7 year old me.
i loved croc. i even finished it it was so awesome and would love to see another one
Ahem, Croc 2 did get a PC release, it wasn't just on the Playstation
What the hell is a pc?
I remember being desperate for this game to come out.
I had a ps1 and had recently played Mario 64 in a local 2nd hand game specialist store. It blew me away and being about 14 or 15 I couldn't afford an N64
Croc looked like it was the answer
I then played it and found it to be ok and luckily got the chance to swap my ps1 for an N64 and Mario and I even though I missed a lot of ps1 games until I got another one not too far down the line I didn't regret it.
Croc was fun, a solid 3d platform game but in 1997 like many others it wasn't fit to clean Mario's shoes
Please make a complete history of the Gex franchise. Thank you!
I dont know if there would be enough material for you to do a video on but a really unique game I played was Mischief Makers on the N64. its a game I dont see covered often and I feel like it could be interesting to learn more about it. it was Made by Treasure. they were a really awesome development studio so perhaps you could do a history video on them.
Nice one. Brings back a lot of memories :)
Poor little Croc, he had so much potential :C
Do you happen to know a japanese 3D platformer called Tomba! 2 for the Playstation? I've never seen anyone praising that game but omg it was one of my favorite games back then :3
Great video, I remember playing the demo of Croc a lot. It's a shame when you go back to things you used to love and see how flawed they are.
+Retro Zone indeed. The music was still great tho :D
Just now commenting bc I just beat both of these games today & was curious about the history. Agree these games do feel like steering a truck more then playing a game lmao. I found it best to use the D-pad instead of the analog sticks.I was only able to finish both games with level collecting before each level in croc 1 & the infinite lives cheat in croc 2. It was the first video game I ever played so I had to go back and replay but I would have been at it for months if I didn’t hoard lives and use the cheat codes. I think they were really onto something with the first two games but things just felt incomplete. I’d love to see it rereleased with a more complete feel to it
yep people praise nintendo but that shit right there of ripping other people off and its current bullshit with youtubers is exactly why i have 0 respect for the company
You should give Monster Rancher some love. The greatest PlayStation hidden gem
Man, I really like the first Croc game. It puzzles me how I managed to beat it as a kid. The game gets so hard! Panic at Platform Pete's Lair!
+Lugmillord only ever did it via the level.select but... I agree, those later levels are bloody hard
Oh, I thought I found one of the games of my childhood when I saw the intro of Croc 2. But the game I search is more of a puzzle game. Maybe someone can help me find that. The intro of the game is very similar to the one of Croc 2. It's about a green animal finding a message in a bottle and then going to an island to save his friend or so. All I can remember is some puzzles/riddles that you solve by pushing Boxes etc. I played it on Pc at the early 2000s. I would love to find that game. I'm thankful for every idea!!
Ah, Croc... I have pretty fond memories of this game, although admittedly, they might be a bit rose-tinted!
This video actually got me considering doing a Let's Play of it at some stage, so I can finally complete it, seeing as I got pretty far in it, but like you, I never finished it!
+All Geeked Up - Stormkeeper its the same with me. Wanted to do this video forever due to the rose tinted nostalgia goggles lol
Daniel Ibbertson I'll let you know one way or another when I get around to it! Not sure if I should try to play the Playstation version, or try to get a legit copy of the PC version instead, and see if I can get it to run, seeing as I expect that it may be a bit iffy on newer versions of Windows, but I'm not yet sure!
Mario was a good game, no doubt, but as a PS1 owner the N64 game that made me jealous was Ocarina of Time. Up to that point I had never seen an open world game like that. Being able to go off and do random quests, go fishing, or just ride Epona around all day was really mind bending to me. Thankfully my best friend had a 64, so i got my fill of screwing around in Zelda. And after I got my PS2 and GTA 3 came out I never looked back. But damn, that game was the only thing that made me want an N64 at all.
Have it on Saturn. Good game just camera control issues damn near all 3d platformer had back then. Nice deep cut video!
I was hoping you would talk about the current status of the croc IP, it is my understanding that it's not known who has legal control over it and this is why it hasn't resurfaced on PSN.
I actually completed Croc 1 years ago; I enjoyed it a lot!
Also, you've earned a sub from us!
- Andrew
+JeggiTV thanks 4 subbing guys :)
Quick question, on average how long do you spend editing these videos? Just curious.
This one was on the shorter side, after about 3-4 hours of scripting and the editing takes about 10-12 hours spread throughout the week.
Shinobi was the hardest to make, spent over 40 hours in total on that video hahaha
Daniel Ibbertson Wow, well I think that work payed off! :D
Daniel Ibbertson what video editing software do you use? I'm stuck with videopad at the moment
He never replied....*cries*
I actually played the hell out of Croc and beat the game 100%. The reward of playing another level was nice but I am a bit biased seeing as I didn't have that many games at the time and was used to going back to level one whenever starting up a game.
It has aged poorly with it's tank controls but it does have a fantastic soundtrack. Never played it's Sequel. Played the gameboy one though and beat that in a day. One of the first games I returned to a gamestore.
Huh. I was going through my old computer games a while ago* (like one or two years ago), and found a case containing Croc and Croc 2. I played the first one for a little bit, and it honestly seemed solid besides the issues. Since then, I've always been excited to see this lil gem I own pop up now and then.
(I'm going to be fully honest. I was looking for Blue's Clues Counting Carnival. I don't care how old I am; it's time for Blue's Clues.)
Thank god for your videos on Larry Bundy's channel, great discovery of this gem!
+Meta Cron ahhhhh thanks buddy :)
I can't quite get over how you used Spyro music in the beginning of the video, yet completely overlooked it in the whole discussion about 3D platformers and competing with Mario. :/
+Mansen i mention that all this happened before spyro and used music up to that point
Daniel Ibbertson But Spyro predates Croc by a fair bit on the platform? :)
Edit: No wait - Croc did of course come first. I was misreading old Wiki dates.
Mansen not a problem buddy :) Will defo do a spyro vid one day with my sis no doubt (she's a huge fan)
Daniel Ibbertson Yay :)
Crash 2 was my first PS1 game followed by Spyro. So both franchises hold a very special place in my heart.
Croc was my first video game! 💚
I never knew Croc 2 was on play station. I only ever played it on PC.
Played a lot of Croc back int he day. I still think it's pretty solid but maybe overly pure for a platformer. In that there's not much going on beyond the jumping and collecting. Certainly has aged better than say, Jersey Devil.
I had Croc 2. I really liked it, but I never got past the first few screens. I don't remember why, but I do know I never saw much of the game.
Malcom Chase yeah same, I recently played it again and found the jumping was very delayed making the game very hard