Croc Legend of the Gobbos

It's times like these that I wish Steam had an option for a mixed review. I like the game and I don't feel like it deserves a negative review, but I wouldn't really recommend it either. I never grew up with Croc, I don't have the nostalgia goggles like with other retro games. I did play it as a kid, but only to island 2. "Replaying" it now on the Platinum Edition and honestly... I don't get it. First off, this game gives me mad dreamcore vibes, which I am a sucker for. Every room in a level don't really make sense and aren't really connected together, and followed with levels that don't have walls, lead to this weird aesthetic which I am a big fan of. This game also plays like your standard collectathon platformer; you collect Gobbos, and coloured crystal to open up a door to get the last Gobbo. The movement is pretty standard (running, jumping, ground pounding and attacking unless you also count side-stepping and having a button to turn around 180 degrees), and they also added modern controls, so you're not forced to use tank controls (well, unless you don't have a controller, then you're forced to use tank controls :/) But, besides adding a more modern movement system, and upscaling the graphics (I do have to add that the addition of old graphics, along with the ability to turn on CRT and VGA filters was pretty neat and cool), it seems like... that's it? Well, along with the added time trials, it seems like they didn't fix the bugs and some issues this game has. This also leads me to the thing I said earlier; I don't get it. For who was this game made for? I thought it was a simple kids game, to which it is, but in the later levels of the game, the difficulty drastically increases, and it can sometimes not be fun at all (especially at the last island where they spam Devil Dantinis) I don't mind the difficulty increase, I just don't understand the reason for the increase to be this drastic. At times the levels weren't that fun to 100%, on island 3 for example all of the bonus stages are ghost chases, that make you race the ghost to the end to get the key to free the Gobbo. You have to play the stage multiple times to get the route down, which would be fine, but if a collectible like a key, or a coloured crystal despawn, they won't EVER spawn again, so you have to reset the level from the beginning which was rather tedious. Along with the other issues; there isn't coyote timing, so if you're at the edge of a platform, it won't even register your jump. It's rather easy for the game to not register your inputs, actually. Especially at times, at island 3 once again, where the game makes you do some pretty big jumps, and to not slide in the quicksand you have to spam the jump button. But there is a correct window where the game actually realizes that you want to jump (???) and that usually results in you accidentally hitting jump again, which makes Croc ground pound, resulting in you going in the quicksand anyway. Also the hit detection for the bosses/guardians are whack. After investing 22 hours on the game I still have no idea how close you have to be for the hit to register, I know that you have to be VERY close to them, basically going into the boss itself. Which creates a problem because if you don't time the hit, you can very easily get hit yourself and have to wait for the phase to repeat. What gave me even more mixed signals were the platinum record times/time trials. If you're going for a 100%, I really do recommend to skip these and get 5 for the achievement, and get every gold time trial instead. These are EXTREMELY inconsistent, some are just way too strict, while others are way too lenient. I got them all in ~8 hours, and I used the hover jump glitch. Still, for some I was a second or less ahead of the platinum relic, even while using the glitch to skip huge portions of the level, which makes me believe that they intended for you to use it? Although all of them are attainable without the use of the glitch. Still though, rushing through this game really shows its flaws. Don't get me wrong, I had a LOT of fun on a ton of levels. I ADORE when developers add speedrun mechanics or additions to their games and I don't mind grinding the same level until I beat the given time. But man some levels were such a slog to get the platinum time that it made me not wanna play the game again. And I do understand that Argonaut is a small studio, and I genuinely wouldn't mind if they just added modern controls, fixed the bugs, and published the game. But with such little additions, I just don't think it's worth the asking price, even when it's on sale for around 15 euros. If you're a lover of retro games, and especially if you grew up on the game, I do recommend trying it out, but otherwise really think through if you wanna buy the game.