Yoshi Racing

Croc: Legend of the Gobbos is a third-person 3D platformer in which the player controls the main character, a green crocodile named Croc, through several courses taking place on various islands throughout Gobbo Valley. Levels are accessed through a world map, and consist of different smaller sub-sections taking place both above land and underground (as well as occasionally taking place underwater) that are filled with various enemies and obstacles that try to impede Croc.

The main goal of each level is to navigate through the stage and reach the gong located at the end of the level in order to transport Croc to the next, while also saving as many captured Gobbos imprisoned throughout the stage as possible. Certain stages also contain boss enemies known as "Guardians" that Croc must defeat to progress to the next stage. Different collectibles are scattered throughout stages, including small, gray crystal orbs that act as Croc's health, and red hearts that give the player an extra life when collected. Also hidden across each stage are 6 Gobbos being held captive by the Dantini tribe that act as Croc's main objective throughout the length of the game.

King Rufus, the leader of a furry race of creatures called the Gobbos, is watching the sunrise over Gobbo Valley when he sees a large, woven basket carrying a baby crocodile floating down the river. Initially suspicious of the young crocodile but ultimately won over by its innocence, King Rufus and the Gobbos decide to raise it as one of their own and teach it in the ways of the Gobbos. The crocodile, named Croc, grows bigger over time, eventually becoming much larger than the Gobbos.

One day, Baron Dante and his band of villains known as the Dantinis invade Gobbo Valley and begin terrorizing the Gobbos, capturing them and locking them in steel cages. Amidst the chaos, King Rufus summons a magical yellow bird named Beany, who uses her magical abilities to transport Croc to safety, immediately before Rufus is snatched by Baron Dante.

Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was developed by Argonaut Software, who were coming off of the heels of a successful relationship with Nintendo as a result of their development of the Super FX expansion chip used in Super Nintendo Entertainment System games such as Star Fox and Stunt Race FX. Early development of the game began in 1994, when Argonaut began experimenting with the concept of a platform game set in the third dimension. Under the tentative title "Yoshi Racing", the initial concept was a hybrid of several mechanics from the two video games Super Mario World and Super Mario Kart, with the player controlling the character Yoshi from Nintendo's Super Mario series. Argonaut created a prototype of Yoshi Racing and pitched it to Nintendo, who was initially enthusiastic about the game, according to San, with Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto expressing particular fascination with the project.

Despite this enthusiastic response, Nintendo ultimately rejected Argonaut's proposal, explaining that they already had a similar project in development. This, alongside the cancellation of the near-completed Star Fox 2, marked the end of Argonaut's relationship with Nintendo, prompting them to find another publisher who would finance and publish the game. After shopping the prototype around, Argonaut received offers from several publishers in 1996. Fox Interactive was chosen because the company had a solid plan for turning Croc into a multimedia franchise and was familiar to the staff at Argonaut, who were already working on a game for Fox (Alien Resurrection).

Croc: Legend of the Gobbos received average reviews from critics. The PlayStation version of the game held an aggregated review score of 79.14% on the review website GameRankings at the time of the site's 2019 closure, based on seven reviews.

Critics almost unanimously commented that the game is very derivative, shamelessly taking elements from earlier platformers such as Tomb Raider (hanging onto ledges, pushing blocks), Sonic the Hedgehog (losing collected items when hit), Gex (the tail whip attack), and Super Mario 64 (the butt stomp, the free-roaming 3D, the visual style), but most concluded that these secondhand elements were blended in a way that yielded an at least moderately entertaining experience with some feel of its own. Sushi-X of Electronic Gaming Monthly, for example, concluded that "Most features seem borrowed from other titles, but the mixture works pretty well." Game Informer stated that "We enjoy everything that has been taken from the different games, and we're sure you will too. Croc uses all of these ideas and adds its own flavor to it."

A sequel to Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was first teased on the back of the Sega Saturn version of the game's manual. Initially advertised for a Christmas 1998 release, Croc 2 was released in June 1999 for the Sony PlayStation, and later for Microsoft Windows and the Game Boy Color. A Sega Saturn release was also advertised but never released, and a Sega Dreamcast port of the game was ultimately cancelled. The game follows Croc as he once again ventures to defeat Baron Dante, who has captured an old inventor Gobbo, while simultaneously searching for his long-lost parents.

The game makes numerous gameplay changes from the first game, including the addition of a health counter, more mission-based levels, and an open hub area for navigating levels. A 2D side-scrolling port of the game for the Game Boy Color, simply titled Croc, was released in June 2000. Three mobile phone games based on the game, developed by Morpheme, were released through the mid-2000s, titled Croc Mobile: Jungle Rumble, Croc Mobile Pinball, and Croc Mobile: Volcanic Panic!.