Despite some of its problems, Croc still provides a worthwhile platforming experience.
The concept and story is simple. You play as a crocodile named Croc (funnily enough) who has to save his cute, small and fuzzy friends named Gobbos from the evil mastermind known as Baron Dante. While the concept may provoke a platformer designed for kids, to be played by kids, you'd be horribly mistaken.
And this is one of the major problems in Croc, its not because of the levels themselves that are difficult, its problem lies in the control scheme.
While its simple enough as you begin to accustom yourself to them (the X button lets you jump, the Square button lets you attack and you can either move using the Directional Buttons or the Left Analogue Stick, there are also a lot more actions that you can perform such as a Stomp, similar to Mario's Ground Pound attack) you'd soon begin to realize how clunky and broken the controls really are as you begin to traverse the platforms that you'd expect to have no problems with, causing far too many deaths and costing your precious life stock. Due to this, it makes the game a lot harder than it actually is, and its clear to see many younger gamers having problems with it.
The game features 4 worlds (5 if you include the secret world) like many platformers, each world is themed (Croc features a Grassy world, a Snowy/Ice covered world, a Hot, slightly Arabian themed world and a Castle themed world. The secret world combines the other areas and is named 'Crystal Island') and every level within that world contains Gems, Hearts and 6 Gobbos to find and collect (Excluding Boss Fights) while collecting all the Gobbos isn't essential to complete the game, it is needed to unlock the secret levels that will eventually unlock Crystal Island (However, due to the problem of the controls this is a lot harder than you actually think)
Each level keeps the theme of the world it is located very well but perhaps a little too well, compared to Super Mario 64, a lot of levels use the same textures and some use the same backdrop which can cause a lack of variation throughout each world, but this is only a minor issue concerning the graphics. Although you'll feel incredibly boxed in by the walls found in every single level, there aren't any noticeable graphical issues and the graphical style fits the game's target audience very well (even if it didn't meet it's intended market in terms of difficulty)
One other high point is the game's musical score, its fantastic and suits the atmosphere of every world perfectly weather your listening to the bouncy sounds found on Volcano Island or listening to the calm and almost angel-like tunes when jumping around the platforms found on the Snowy Island.
Although it may seem as this game has more negative points than positive points, the game is still worthwhile to play. Traditional platforming elements are found in every level (whether by finding keys to unlock doors, swimming underwater to progress within the level, or just simply jumping around the entire place) which keeps to the intended genre, the simple concept and cute character design can really keep you interested and involved with the characters (even without any speech or spoken dialogue, just cute little sound effects) even making you sometimes feel sorry for Croc, and its memorable soundtrack will remind you of its attempt to challenge Super Mario 64 at its own game, and in which, like many other platformers, could have succeeded in doing so.
If you ever come across this game, its a good opportunity to experience the Croc series, even if it can't match up to many other good rivaling platformers such as Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie, it deserves some recognition for attempting to recreate the excellence of these games for the Playsation console.