Gaming Target - Game Boy: Croc 2

Written by Matt Swider on May 21, 2001

Review: A sequel that blows away the previous bunch of Croc.

Following last year's mediocre presence on the GameBoy Color, THQ has decided to give Croc another run, but has Natsume develop the sequel. Attempting to create a perspective similar to the Playstation Croc series, Natsume chucked the side-scrolling platform original, and instead, went with an all-new overhead adventure title, much like the Zelda series. Unlike Zelda, however, you won't find a gripping storyline, rather a lame adventure based on finding his mother, and running into all sorts of puzzles along the way. With Baron Dante and his Dantinis causing trouble, it's your job to venture through 16 levels within 4 environments, stopping these troublemakers, and searching for your mom along the way.

For the type of portable system and limitation many developers face with GameBoy Color, Natsume has done an excellent job graphically, creating a title with impressive visuals and animation. With an overhead view, mimicking a 3D perspective, fine detail concentrated on the characters, and color backgrounds to suit each environment, you may just go off calling the Croc 2's graphics perfect; and for the most part, you would be correct.

Yet, just when you think a game's visual department looks just about flawless, you will stumble upon its one fault; the camera perspective sometimes interferes with jumping. Although frustrating at first, you will soon learn to overcome particular areas where this problem is present, and will not be caught up in this minor difficulty.

The gameplay found in Croc 2 consists of mostly tailing-whipping enemies and solving puzzles through the worlds. The game doesn't offer much complexity, and many gamers might find it a tad dull over time. When tail-whipping, I found it slightly annoying that I had to basically be adjacent to the enemy before I could effectively reach them. The original Croc for GameBoy Color featured a couple mini-games, which were left out of the sequel, but the developer seems to have tried it up by including a massive amount of puzzles throughout Croc 2, although this may prove tiresome after a little while.

There's not much to be impressed by as far as audio goes. While the soundtrack seems to fit the mood of the area you are in, I didn't find anything that I was yearning to hum after hearing, and found some of the music to be repetitive after some time. The sound effects don't provide much more than you might expect in presenting a limited amount of clips that seem just about fit the games needs.