Croc 2

Croc 2, called 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 Game Boy Color, Windows, and PlayStation. Sega Saturn Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast releases were planned but eventually canceled because of programming and porting difficulties. The plot revolves around Croc searching for his missing parents, and saving the Inventor Gobbo from Baron Dante. The original soundtrack features the guitarist Simon Gosling. The current best-looking version of the game is the PC-version. It even offers support for modern graphic cards and can even be played in 1080p on a modern system.

Storyline
Previously, a baby crocodile was found by the Gobbos who inhabit the Gobbo Islands. Rufus, the king of the Gobbos adopted the crocodile, and with the help of the rest of the tribe, raised him, teaching him the ways of the Gobbos.

Baron Dante arrived in the valley where the Gobbos lived. Angered by the happy Gobbos, he and his Dantinis swept into the Gobbo Valley and captured the Gobbos. King Rufus was taken by Dante himself and kept in a cage inside his Tower of Terror.

Croc managed to avoid being caught but he was left alone. He knew he had to help the Gobbos in any way that he could and save the King from Baron Dante. After having a long journey, Croc managed to rescue the Gobbos and destroy the Baron and save their King. Everything was right again in Gobbo Valley and the Gobbos celebrated by erecting a statue of Croc in their Valley.

Now, after Baron Dante was destroyed, Croc and the Gobbos resumed their lives of playing. But in the mean time, the evil Dantinis plotted the return of Baron Dante. Unfortunately, an unlucky Inventor Gobbo got captured when he witnessed Dante's return.

Back at Gobbo Valley, Croc was playing at the beach, and found a bottle washed up on the shore. He picked it up and he found a message with a baby crocodile footprint on it. The message explained that the senders were looking for their son. Croc was surprised. He took the message to King Rufus who read it and eventually told Croc that he would need to go to a far away land where there were other Gobbos who might be able to help him to find his parents.

Then all the Gobbos made a see-saw. Croc stood on one end and a Gobbo pushed a boulder on to the other end to bring Croc to the distant mainland, where his search began.

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

A Western-style village, featuring Cowboys and Native Americans, was planned but never finished.

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 was met with mixed to positive reviews. 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. NowGamer also gave the game a positive review, giving it 8.4/10, only criticizing its difficulty. 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. 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. 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".

Soundtrack

 * Justin Scharvona - Composer
 * Karin Griffin - Composer
 * Simon Gosling - Guitars
 * Noel Langley - Trumpet
 * Gita Langley - Violin