If you’re as old as me, there’s a decent chance you grew up with a PS1 and a particularly revered 3D platformer: Croc: Legend of the Gobbos.
Now 27 years on from the game’s 1997 release, original developer Argonaut has been resurrected, and its first project back from the dead is a remaster of the legendary PS1 title.
The initial teaser trailer shows that the Croc: Legend of the Gobbos remaster is looking much smoother with a higher framerate and resolution. A press release for the remaster seen by Eurogamer states that it’s coming to PC and consoles sometime in 2024, and will feature extras such as the ‘Crocipedia’ which is being described as an “extensive and meticulously curated digital museum”. That means you can expect concept art, interviews and the like.
There isn’t much else that can be gleaned from the teaser trailer outside of a few short segments of gameplay, but the updates to the game via the remaster appear to be promising. Hopefully, there will also be options for improved control schemes, as the original game’s tank-like controls certainly haven’t aged well and were pretty ill-suited for a 3D platformer to begin with.
And if you’re wondering why this remaster in particular is a bigger deal than usual, a huge part of that is Croc’s developer. Argonaut, while founded in the 1980s, really established itself in the following decade on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The developer worked with Nintendo to create the original Star Fox game in 1993.
And while Star Fox’s blocky look is severely dated by today’s standards, it was nothing short of phenomenal for a home console release to look like this in the early 90s. Keep in mind this was before the PS1 was on most folks’ radar, too. Argonaut followed up in 1994 with Stunt Race FX, another impressive 3D showcase for the 16-bit console. If that pedigree is any indication of what Argonaut could be capable of now that it’s reopened its doors, we’ll be keeping a keen eye on the developer.
