Croc 2

Croc 2
The game's cover art.
Developer(s)	Argonaut Software Natsume (GBC)
Publisher(s)	Fox Interactive THQ (GBC) JP: Koei
Director(s)	Hidesi Ito (GBC)
Producer(s)	Iku Mizutani Jon Osborn
Designer(s)	Sousuke Yamazaki (GBC)
Composer(s)	Iku Mizutani (GBC) Justin Scharvona Karin Griffin Kinuyo Yamashita (GBC)
Platform(s)	Game Boy Color Microsoft Windows PlayStation
Release	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 is a 1999 platform video game developed by Argonaut Software and published by Fox Interactive. It is the sequel to Croc: Legend of the Gobbos. Croc 2 was released for the Sony PlayStation in North America on 30 June 1999, and was later released for Microsoft Windows and Game Boy Color in 2000 and 2001, respectively. A Sega Saturn version of the game was also planned, but was never released.^[1] The plot revolves around Croc searching for his missing parents, and saving the Inventor Gobbo from a revived Baron Dante.

Storyline

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

Back at Gobbo Valley, Croc is playing on a beach and finds a message in a bottle. 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 in finding the crocodiles who sent the message.

A large number of Gobbos make a see-saw. Croc stands on one end and a Gobbo pushes a boulder on to the other end to propel 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 Gobbos 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/spike 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.

Development

Development of Croc 2 began after the release of Croc: Legend of the Gobbos in 1997. The game was originally planned for release on the PlayStation and Sega Saturn for a Christmas 1998 release, as it was first advertised on the back of the Croc: Legend of the Gobbos instruction manual for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. However, the game was delayed to a summer 1999 release.^[2] The Sega Saturn version was also cancelled when Sega discontinued the console. The original soundtrack features the guitarist Simon Gosling.

A Dreamcast port of the game was planned, but was cancelled after Argonaut decided to stop developing Dreamcast games due to the poor commercial performance of the system.^[3][4]

Reception

Croc 2 received mixed to positive reviews upon release. Aggregating review website GameRankings gave the Game Boy Color version 74.22%,^[5] the PlayStation version 69.65%^[6] and the PC version 67.17%.^[7]

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.^[8]

NowGamer also gave the game a positive review, giving it 8.4/10, only criticizing its difficulty.^[9]

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.^[10][11]

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.^[12]

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.^[13]

References