Croc 2 Review: Is Argonaut's 1999 PlayStation Platformer Still Worth Playing?

Croc 2 at a Glance: The Short Answer First

If you squint at a screenshot of Croc 2, the late-'90s PlayStation magic comes rushing back: a stubby green hero, a sun-soaked tropical island, and a village of squeaking furballs called Gobbos. But charm alone doesn't answer the question retro fans keep asking — is Argonaut's 1999 platformer worth your time today? This Croc 2 review breaks down exactly where the sequel soars and where it stumbles. Any honest Croc 2 review has to weigh huge, imaginative worlds and a catchy soundtrack against slippery controls and a camera that turns simple jumps into small crises. The verdict, up front: it's a lovable mixed bag, and the sections below explain why.

Before diving into the details, here's the snapshot. Croc 2 launched on the PlayStation in 1999 as the follow-up to 1997's Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, pushing the series toward a bigger, more open structure. The rest of this Croc 2 review unpacks every category, but the two tables below give you the quick version.

Why Croc 2 Was a Big Deal in 1999

The Studio Behind the Crocodile

Argonaut wasn't some anonymous shovelware shop. The London-based studio co-created Star Fox with Nintendo, and that history matters more than most players realize. According to contemporary coverage — including IGN's original 1999 Croc 2 review — the warbling gibberish language that Gobbos and Croc speak wasn't a Banjo-Kazooie imitation. Argonaut pioneered that style of babbling character audio back on the Super NES with Star Fox, years before Rare's bear-and-bird duo made it famous.

The original Croc also holds a quiet place in PlayStation history. While Crash Bandicoot's early adventures kept players locked on forward-scrolling paths, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos stood among the first platformers on the system to offer fully explorable 3D environments. That pedigree alone makes the sequel an interesting artifact for anyone tracing how fifth-generation 3D platformers evolved.

What the Sequel Changed

Croc 2 addressed nearly every shortcoming of its predecessor while introducing a few new problems. The changes that mattered most:

• Bigger world structure. The tiny Gobbo homeland from the first game ballooned into sprawling territories packed with hidden nooks.
• Non-linear level selection. Argonaut ditched the straight-line progression and let players cherry-pick from a buffet of mixed stages whenever they pleased.
• More varied activities. Racing, gliding, and balloon stages broke up the traditional run-and-jump loop.
• More content overall. New characters, a full roster of bosses led by the returning villain Baron Dante, and a genuine sense of scale the first game never delivered.

Gameplay: Big Worlds, Cute Gobbos, and Uneven Mini-Games

The personality is the selling point, and it holds up. For the first five or so hours, every Gobbo you meet is charming enough that you'll actually stop to listen. One recurring bit — a trampoline Gobbo who delivers his sentences one word at a time, bouncing skyward between each syllable — remains a genuinely funny piece of character animation. The warm, squeaky presentation gives Croc 2 an identity that separates it from the flood of mascot platformers on the shelf in 1999.

The structure works well too. Because stages are selectable rather than sequential, you can bounce between biomes when one level wears thin, which softens the difficulty spikes considerably.

The mini-games are another story. Some are highlights of the whole package; others feel like filler that never left the prototype phase.

That last row deserves emphasis, because it captures the core design weakness. Community reports and contemporary critics agree the problem isn't the concept of the mini-games — it's that almost every vehicle and race section fights the player. When the handling model feels detached from the action, even a fun idea collapses.

Controls, Camera, and Difficulty: The Pain Points

Movement Without Nuance

Control is the single biggest flaw in Croc 2, and it's worth understanding why. The platformers that defined the era — Super Mario 64, Ape Escape, Jumping Flash, Banjo-Kazooie — treated character movement as the foundation of everything. Nintendo's team famously spent months fine-tuning Mario's jumps, leaps, and flips before building levels around them. Croc can turn in tight circles, sure, but he lacks the subtle weight and responsiveness that make movement feel joyful. Playing him is less about mastery and more about negotiation.

A Camera That Sabotures Your Jumps

The camera compounds the problem. It hangs far too close to Croc to give you a usable read on upcoming platforms, which turns distance judgment into guesswork. Since jumping is the core verb of the entire game, this single design choice infects hundreds of encounters. You'll die on routine hops — not because you played carelessly, but because you couldn't see the landing.

Argonaut did include a partial fix: a button that snaps the camera back behind Croc's head. It works, but players never get free orbit control, so you'll spend a lot of time tapping the shoulder buttons wishing you could reposition the view manually.

Difficulty Aimed at the Wrong Audience

Here's the strangest part. Croc 2 markets itself toward young kids, yet even experienced players reportedly restart the opening levels three or four times before finding their footing. That steep learning curve, stacked on top of stiff controls, creates frustration exactly where a family-friendly game can least afford it.

Graphics and Sound: The Parts That Age Best

Visually, Croc 2 was never a technical showpiece, and that's precisely why it still looks pleasant today. The cartoon art direction — a tropical island laced with caverns, lost lands, and scowling little enemies — sidesteps the muddy "realistic" textures that date so many PS1 games. The character designs carry the show:

• The Gobbos are scrunched, neckless little creatures whose wobbly animations match their goofy language perfectly.
• Croc himself, backpack and stubby legs and all, lands firmly on the right side of adorable rather than creepy.
• Boss designs lean entertaining over intimidating, which suits the tone.

Sound is arguably the best-crafted element of the entire game. The soundtrack mixes cheerful pop melodies with jungle percussion — bongos, vibes, and bass — that stays energetic without collapsing into repetitive chiptune loops. Even the mine levels, traditionally a low point for audio in platformers, feature clean guitar lines and low-key keyboard pulses. And the gibberish voice work remains hilarious decades later; the babbling conversations between Croc and the Gobbos do more for the game's personality than any cutscene could.

Croc 2 Review Verdict: Should You Play It Today?

As this Croc 2 review found, the game is exactly what contemporary critics called it: a mixed bag. It's cute, it's fun in bursts, and it never became the classic its studio clearly hoped to build. The world design, art, and audio earn real praise; the controls and camera earn real frustration. If a reviewer's honest admission from 1999 still stings — that they only finished the game because it was their job — that tells you everything about the friction involved.

For modern players, the practical picture looks like this:

• Original hardware. Secondhand PlayStation copies remain widely available and affordable through retro game stores and online marketplaces.
• No modern remaster. Argonaut's original Croc: Legend of the Gobbos returned via a well-received remaster in 2025, but as of this writing, Croc 2 has never received an official digital re-release or remake.
• Know what you're buying. This is a collectible curiosity and a charming time capsule, not a polished classic on par with Spyro or Banjo-Kazooie.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Croc 2 a good game? As this Croc 2 review found, it's a genuinely mixed package. The world design, cartoon visuals, and excellent soundtrack hold up remarkably well, while the stiff controls and cramped camera drag the experience down. Think "charming and flawed" rather than "hidden gem."

Is Croc 2 harder than the first Croc? Yes. Contemporary reviewers noted the sequel is noticeably tougher than expected, with a learning curve so punishing that even seasoned players restarted the earliest stages multiple times — a strange choice for a game aimed at children.

How long does it take to beat Croc 2? Player-reported estimates generally put a main playthrough in the eight-to-ten-hour range, with the game's large selectable world list pushing completionist runs well beyond that.

Can you play Croc 2 on modern platforms? Not officially. Unlike the original game, which received a 2025 remaster, Croc 2 has no digital re-release, so tracking down an original PlayStation disc is currently the only legitimate way to play it.