Croc 2 is a platformer that follows the cute crocodile protagonist, Croc, in his adventure to free his furry friends the gobbos from the forces of evil. On his way Croc collects gems in order to buy items that will assist his quest.
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Let's goooo, again.
Probably the most spectacularly pointless videogame sequel ever made.
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was certainly not some sort of Wabisabi flawed masterpiece hidden gem. It was just an adequate 3D platformer working with the unfortunate limitations of trying to make a 3D platformer for PC, Sega Saturn, and PlayStation. Three platforms for which analog controllers were still pretty much a fetus of a thing. Something which i can't imagine most of the people complaining how the tank controls in the original ever keep in mind and probably just think that every dev team back then mastered 3D movement overnight after the release of Mario 64.
Croc 2, i have my reasons to have a lot less sympathy for. And it's not from a lack of nostalgia because i played it almost in conjunction with the first one as a kid. Launching in 1999, Croc 2 feels outdated than the original Croc was in 1997. In fact, it just feels like an inferior Banjo Kazooie clone at times.
All the "improvements" over the original here are just like a small drip feed of superficial things that were already standard for every other 3d platformer by then. Binoculars, mediocre racing sections and an item store don't make a platformer good on their own. You're still stuck with the same super short-range tail attack as your defense throughout the whole game, enemies still respawn after you kill them, the boss fights are still numb (the final one against Dante being basically a fucking escort mission) and the outside of the wholesome thing about Croc seing his family again, the story elements still doesn't have anything memorable, or interesting, or appealing to people above the age of 8. I might be having expectations way too high for what may or may not have always been meant to be a babby game, but what i'm basically saying is that Croc 1 was a game that was flawed but felt like it was made with soul, while Croc 2 feels like an early example of "more mechanics = gooder" game design thought.
I don't hate Croc 2 because it's worse than Croc: Legend of the Gobbos. It's not and it's honestly why i didn't rate it any lower than 2.5 as i would've liked to. I just hate it because it simply isn't better. I liked Croc 1, but not enough to want a carbon copy repeat of it that improves and adds literally nothing.
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was certainly not some sort of Wabisabi flawed masterpiece hidden gem. It was just an adequate 3D platformer working with the unfortunate limitations of trying to make a 3D platformer for PC, Sega Saturn, and PlayStation. Three platforms for which analog controllers were still pretty much a fetus of a thing. Something which i can't imagine most of the people complaining how the tank controls in the original ever keep in mind and probably just think that every dev team back then mastered 3D movement overnight after the release of Mario 64.
Croc 2, i have my reasons to have a lot less sympathy for. And it's not from a lack of nostalgia because i played it almost in conjunction with the first one as a kid. Launching in 1999, Croc 2 feels outdated than the original Croc was in 1997. In fact, it just feels like an inferior Banjo Kazooie clone at times.
All the "improvements" over the original here are just like a small drip feed of superficial things that were already standard for every other 3d platformer by then. Binoculars, mediocre racing sections and an item store don't make a platformer good on their own. You're still stuck with the same super short-range tail attack as your defense throughout the whole game, enemies still respawn after you kill them, the boss fights are still numb (the final one against Dante being basically a fucking escort mission) and the outside of the wholesome thing about Croc seing his family again, the story elements still doesn't have anything memorable, or interesting, or appealing to people above the age of 8. I might be having expectations way too high for what may or may not have always been meant to be a babby game, but what i'm basically saying is that Croc 1 was a game that was flawed but felt like it was made with soul, while Croc 2 feels like an early example of "more mechanics = gooder" game design thought.
I don't hate Croc 2 because it's worse than Croc: Legend of the Gobbos. It's not and it's honestly why i didn't rate it any lower than 2.5 as i would've liked to. I just hate it because it simply isn't better. I liked Croc 1, but not enough to want a carbon copy repeat of it that improves and adds literally nothing.
They took a perfectly enjoyable platformer in Croc and simply made it less fun.
Laziness: the game. Play the first one instead
I hinted towards this game in my review of the first and I really didn't like it. There's not much I fully remember, but I'll try to cover as much as I can.
The controls are still sluggish, but now the difficult/impossible to move camera is much more of a pain as instead of selecting levels, they elected for an open-world selection similar to Spyro, but that game was much more fluid than this one in it's control!
Visuals aren't usually a thing I comment on unless it's warranted and here it is. They had time between the first game and this one to take their time to improve anything and this game feels like they literally just took the old game and copy pasted the assets with no extra work. It's a level of laziness that's always so galling!
The story is not much better than the first, but it is meant to be simple, if dark.
One of the worst things to experience was the merchant in this game. He's in a tent and dressed like he's from the middle-east and the voice/language they decided to give him...it was like the offensive/comical way they spoke in Team America: World Police. "Derka-Derka!" and so on. It felt physically uncomfortable when playing the game.
Story:
There isn't too much here, apart from it oddly being very dark for a kid's game. These little evil critters sacrifice other critters into a volcano to summon their master, who was the big bad guy from the first game. Yes, the main villain is the main villain from the first game and he's back, but with a scar from their previous battle. He now takes revenge on the Gobbos too for what happened to him.
I really wouldn't recommend looking this up. The first one is ok and even then, I may have had rose-tinted nostalgia goggles giving me a more positive view of it, however, this lazy follow up wasn't worth looking into.
Gameplay + Stream
The controls are still sluggish, but now the difficult/impossible to move camera is much more of a pain as instead of selecting levels, they elected for an open-world selection similar to Spyro, but that game was much more fluid than this one in it's control!
Visuals aren't usually a thing I comment on unless it's warranted and here it is. They had time between the first game and this one to take their time to improve anything and this game feels like they literally just took the old game and copy pasted the assets with no extra work. It's a level of laziness that's always so galling!
The story is not much better than the first, but it is meant to be simple, if dark.
One of the worst things to experience was the merchant in this game. He's in a tent and dressed like he's from the middle-east and the voice/language they decided to give him...it was like the offensive/comical way they spoke in Team America: World Police. "Derka-Derka!" and so on. It felt physically uncomfortable when playing the game.
Story:
There isn't too much here, apart from it oddly being very dark for a kid's game. These little evil critters sacrifice other critters into a volcano to summon their master, who was the big bad guy from the first game. Yes, the main villain is the main villain from the first game and he's back, but with a scar from their previous battle. He now takes revenge on the Gobbos too for what happened to him.
I really wouldn't recommend looking this up. The first one is ok and even then, I may have had rose-tinted nostalgia goggles giving me a more positive view of it, however, this lazy follow up wasn't worth looking into.
Gameplay + Stream
Uma evolução direta do primeiro CROC "Um crocodilo de bigode/10"