27 years after its original launch, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos is getting a remaster courtesy of Argonaut Games, which has reformed after 20 years dead. Croc was a massive hit back on the PS1, but it could've taken a very different form if the original pitch for the game as a 3D Yoshi platformer had not been rejected by Nintendo.
A new version of Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was announced earlier this week, and judging by the teaser trailer it looks to be a faithful remaster of the original PS1 platformer. The devs have not provided any details on what platforms the game is coming to or what new features it'll include, but on social media they say "we're aiming for a release later this year!"
Argonaut was best known as the developer of the original Star Fox on SNES, collaborating with Nintendo to build perhaps the most impressive early example of 3D graphics on a game console. The studio eventually shut down in 2004, and it seems the name Argonaut is coming back as "boutique publisher," according to a press release, "with a planned slate of classic Argonaut IP and exciting original titles for both current and retro-gaming platforms."
There's some continuity with the original studio, too, as co-CEO Gary Sheinwald "I worked closely with Jez on the design and production of Starglider, Argonaut’s first big hit back in 1986, so to take up the mantle of relaunching Argonaut Games nearly four decades later brings me full circle, and we have further exciting announcements in the pipeline in the coming months."
'Jez' refers to original studio founder Jez San, who's been hyping up this project for over a year, and has told the story of Croc's origins a few times. In every telling, it seems that even Shigeru Miyamoto himself "loved it."
San elaborated on the story in issue 154 of Retro Gamer magazine: "We offered them what we called Yoshi Racing, which was a 3D Mario game with the Yoshi character. It was probably a cross between Mario Kart and Super Mario World, a hybrid of a racing game and a platformer. It also looked like Super Mario 64, only a year or two earlier."
San said, "We showed it to Miyamoto-san and he was blown away. “It was clear we were on to something - this was special. It was at that point that they kind of said, 'No, we’re not doing it.'" Nintendo didn't provide a clear reason why the pitch was rejected - at least, not that San revealed - but the devs started reworking their prototype, transforming Yoshi into an original character they could use in their own game.
The result was Croc, which launched in 1997 to decent reviews and fantastic sales - reported back in the day as over 3 million units. That makes it one of the best-selling games in the PS1's massive library, if Wikipedia's aggregation on sales data is to be believed, ahead of the likes of Dino Crisis, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3.
In the time between Argonaut's initial pitch for Yoshi Racing and Croc's eventual release, 3D platformers had their breakout moment with the launch of Super Mario 64. "Little did we know that Nintendo had effectively run with our idea and produced a game that was very similar," San told Retro Gamer. "Mario 64 was very similar in concept to what we had shown Miyamoto a year or two earlier. And Miyamoto actually came up to me at the launch at the CES show and apologised for not doing Yoshi Racing with us and then doing Mario 64 instead. He said, ‘You'll make enough money. You've made enough money from Star Fox and Stunt Race. You're not going to worry.’ It was a bit hollow." Still, San reckoned, "Miyamoto is the best guy in the industry."
We shall know no rest until all of the best PS1 games are remastered.
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