Croc 2

Croc 2
Developer(s)	Argonaut Software Natsume (GBC)
Publisher(s)	Fox Interactive THQ (GBC) JP Koei
Distributor(s)	Electronic Arts
Director(s)	Hidesi Ito (GBC)
Producer(s)	Jon Osborn Iku Mizutani
Designer(s)	Sousuke Yamazaki (GBC)
Composer(s)	Justin Scharvona Karin Griffin Iku Mizutani (GBC) Kinuyo Yamashita (GBC)
Platform(s)	PlayStation, Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Color
Release date(s)	PlayStation NA 30 June 1999 EU 3 August 1999 JP 2 September 1999 Microsoft Windows NA 29 February 2000 EU 9 June 2000 Game Boy Color NA 25 January 2001 EU 2 February 2001
Genre(s)	Platform
Mode(s)	Single-player

Croc 2 (Croc Adventure (クロックアドベンチャー) in Japan) (working title Croc 2: Kingdoms of the Gobbos), is a video game released in 1999. It is the sequel to Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, developed by Argonaut Software between 1998 and 1999, and published by Fox Interactive. Croc 2 was released on PlayStation, Microsoft Windows and Game Boy Color. Sega Saturn was advertised but never released.^[1] The plot revolves around Croc searching for his missing parents, and saving the Inventor Gobbo from a revived Baron Dante. The original soundtrack features the guitarist Simon Gosling.

Storyline

Set several months after Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, the Dantinis plot the return of Baron Dante. An Inventor Gobbo is captured when he witnesses Dante's return.

Back at Gobbo Valley, Croc is playing at the beach, and finds a bottle washed up on the shore. He picks it up and finds a message with a baby crocodile footprint on it. The message explains that the senders are looking for their child. Croc is surprised and takes the message to King Rufus, who reads it and tells Croc that he needs to look for other Gobbos far off, who may be able to help him to find his parents.

All the Gobbos make a see-saw. Croc stands on one end and a Gobbo pushes a boulder on to the other end to bring Croc to the distant mainland, where his search begins.

Gameplay

A screenshot from the game.

The gameplay in Croc 2 has changed considerably compared to the previous game. Instead of simply finding six Gobbo in each level, the player must now complete various missions.

One of the many changed elements is the health system; instead of the extra life system that Legend of the Gobbos had, Croc now has only one life and a heart count of up to 9; each hit Croc takes, or any time Croc falls into a bottomless pit or lava pits, takes away one heart; the heart count can be restored by finding heart tokens in the levels, or by collecting 100 crystals; the starting maximum count for hearts is three (five in PC version), the player can buy Heart Pots from Swap Meet Pete to be able to collect more hearts.

A new addition to the game is that Croc has an extra jump, that is triggered by stomping and repeatedly pressing the jump button before hitting the ground and he can also ride vehicles in some levels, which include mine carts, a race car, a speedboat, a hot-air balloon, a hang-glider and an aeroplane.

Another new aspect is Swap Meet Pete's General Store. The store is owned by a large, anthropomorphic cat, named Pete. Pete is capable of teleporting Croc to other Gobbo Villages with the use of his Crystal Ball.

There are four villages Croc must traverse through before reaching the end of the game, each with Gobbo of different personalities. The four villages are the Sailor Village, the Cossack Village, the Caveman Village and the Inca Village. Each village has five levels, two bosses (with the exception of the Inca Village, which has only two levels, and one boss) and one Golden Gobbo level. Once the fourth village is finished, Croc then travels to Baron Dante's Tower of Power, and once the Jigsaw Puzzle Pieces are assembled, a fifth village can be unlocked; the fifth village is a corrupted version of the Gobbo village, created by Dante.

Characters

Croc 2 features many new characters, however several characters that were featured in Legend of the Gobbos are absent here.

Protagonists

• Croc, a heroic young Crocodile who sets off on a quest to thwart Baron Dante's plans and find his missing parents.
• King Rufus, the king of the island Gobbos and Croc's adoptive father.
• Inventor Gobbo, a Gobbo who builds equipment like a Plane and a self-propelling Pencil.
• Swap Meet Pete, an anthropomorphic cat who sells Croc various items, such as Jellies (Gummi Savers in the NTSC version.) and Clockwork Gobbos. He is also the main form of transportation between the villages, using a crystal ball.

Antagonists

• Baron Dante, a Dark frog-like sorcerer and the main villain in the Croc series.
• Soveena The Squid, a giant purple Kraken with a massive love for Ginger Soda.
• Cannon Boat Keith, a Pirate necromancer with an army of skeletons.
• Flavio The Thermal-Fish, a giant fish who can spit hot water.
• Roger Red Ant, a giant ant that has a liking for explosives.
• Lava Lamp Larry, a Fire Demon created by Baron Dante.
• Venus Fly Von-Trappe, a giant Venus Fly-Trap that likes to eat Gobbos.
• The Village Masher, a robotic T-Rex created by Mad Scientists to destroy all Caveman-kind.
• Goo Man Chu, a giant Goo creature, loosely based on fu manchu

Reception

Croc 2 received mixed to positive reviews upon release. Aggregating review website GameRankings gave the Game Boy Color version 74.22%,^[2] the PlayStation version 69.65%^[3] and the PC version 67.17%.^[4]

IGN gave the game an overall 7.5/10 for the PlayStation version, praising the games voice acting, graphics, soundtrack and size but criticizing its difficulty and camera angles.^[5]

NowGamer also gave the game a positive review, giving it 8.4/10, only criticizing its difficulty.^[6]

GameSpot gave the game poor ratings, giving the PC version 5.8/10 and the PlayStation version 5.4/10, also criticizing the camera angles and the difficulty.^[7][8]

Allgame reviewed the PlayStation version and gave the game 2/5, also criticizing the game for its camera angles and difficulty. Unlike other critics' reviews, Allgame also criticized the game's graphics.^[9]

GamePro was also negative, giving the game 3/5 and said "After weeks of playing Croc 2, I was praying each new level would be Croc 2's last, but it just kept dragging on and on". However, Mark Webson from CDPro stated that all allegations against the Croc 2 came from the people who haven't even played the first entry in the series. He also felt that the game was very full of content and praised the level diversity, voice acting and overall length of the game. ^[10]

References