Also On: PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
Publisher: Argonaut Games
Developer: Argonaut Games
Medium: Digital
Players: 1
Online: No
ESRB: E
Back in the early days of 3D video games and 64-bit processors for home consoles, there was a legend that hasn’t seen the light of day in decades. You had your Mario, but you also had the funny little fella Croc. After literal decades, Croc makes his glorious re-debut/return in a shiny remake.
Argonaut Games brings back the certified 3D platforming classic Croc: Legend of the Gobbos with a shiny new coat of paint and redefined controls. Croc now plays better than ever. You can still use the d-pad for the classic PS One control scheme, albeit if you’re not a fan of tank controls in a platformer I’d advise against it. Personally, I’d wager they still hold up fairly well given Croc’s level design was designed with them in mind back in the day.
The Croc remake keeps all the original levels intact, so you’ll truly be living your childhood over again in 2025. Of course, that’s not to say you can’t play the game on modern hardware and displays without the nostalgic visuals of the PSOne era. In your display options, you can toggle smoothed out versions of the original game’s textures, its original textures, and even enable a couple filters to really bring out that old school cool. From a CRT filter to a VGA filter and the ability to change model quality to the OG, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos is quite honestly one of the best re-releases of a classic title I can possibly think of in recent years, if not ever.
Everything about the remaster and playing Croc: Legend of the Gobbos again brings back some old nostalgia and memories, and boy does this include the music. The music is just as stellar as everywhere, even seemingly more touched up and clear. It all culminates into fantastic nostalgic packages.
All of this of course isn’t to say it’s perfect, as the game does have some notable oddities with visuals in the remastered style. Certain things that were part of the charm back in the day get somewhat muddled by the remastered visuals. There are certain things like repeated floor textures and some goopy bits that seem to be laid out in tiles. Whether they really are just tiles or whether it’s a goof with the texture I can’t say, but it is noticeable. If the smoothness of the new visuals is off putting, at least there’s the classic visuals to fall back on.
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos’s remaster is really good, and I think it’s worth playing even if you didn’t play it back in 1997. You can find it on consoles and GOG, which is also a huge plus for everybody. It plays better than before, offers new and overhauled visuals, and yet still keeps all of that original charm it had back in ‘97. Argonaut Games returns with a real blast from the past and boy is it ever wonderful. With all the new updates for modern platforms and smooth performance without hiccups, it’s a fantastic port for PCs and modern consoles. If Argonaut is bringing quality of life like this to older titles, I can only be excited for future releases and work from them.
Note: Argonaut Games provided us with a Croc: Legend of the Gobbos code for review purposes.
