Hol-E-shit. It wasn't just a fever dream, it was real! But in all seriousness, yeah - I still kind of wonder what ever happened to Croc - If the first two games were anything to go by, I think he had a bit of potential.icemasteryeti said:
My own list:
Castlevania: Circle of The Moon (GBA) [2001]
This was actually a pretty popular Game Boy Advance title at the time and the first Castlevania game for the system. Turns out that the series' current art director, who didn't have anything to do with this game and hence his decision, later on erased it from canon and the main story line, despite it's former popularity and being overall a great game.
Asshole.
Beast Wars: Transformers (PS1 & PC) [1997]
This game was a 'C+' at best. The platforming was awful; it had no real story to speak of; the characters had no characterization... at all; the graphics were poor, even back in the PS1 era; and it had little to do with the Beast Wars transformers franchise it was based on. But even still, 16 years later, I still have the music of the first desert stages for the Predacons stuck in my head. It was totally inadvertent and unintentional, as I'm sure the devs at Hasbro just wanted to make a quick franchising dollar off of the toy line, but to me it perfectly captured the feeling of loneliness that comes with being marooned in an inescapable, hostile desert while being lost in space and time. To everyone else though, it might just be boring. Your mileage may vary.
Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far (PC) [1997]
This wasn't a bad game at all. It wasn't popular either, but that was because it was meant for audiences too old for the young PC gamer demographic at the time, yet most adults who would have appreciated the game at the time weren't into PC gaming. I think I've only beaten one single level in that game after years of on-again-off-again attempts. My brother though, was awesome at it and beat the entire thing. I still have no idea how he picked up on anything. game had no tutorials and the learning curve was steep.
Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil (PS2) [2001]
Good game, very good platformer from what I remember. Unfortunately, like everything forgotten with the Klonoa series, the only people who seem to be currently aware of it are *shudder* furries.
(Oh lord, for the things I've seen, kill me now.)
I'm sure there's more to my list, but for the moment, i'm content, as these were the ones most immediate and off the top of my head.
*EDIT*
I'm an idiot- how could I forget...
Glover (PS1 & PC) [PC in 1998; PS1 in 1999]
This game had problems: the camera was pretty shitty and some levels were pretty poorly laid out - but I had a bit of fun with this title back in the day and I lump it in with the Croc series as one of those franchises that had the potential to strike it big, had perhaps their developers/publishers/whoever not fucked up/gone-under.
... And a personal favorite:
Frogger (the Hasbro game from 1997, not the original from Konami) (PC & PS1) [1997]
This was a 3D remake by Hasbro Interactive, the same guys who made Beast Wars from earlier in the list, but this, unlike the former entry, was actually really fucking good. Seriously - if any of you somehow can get a hold of a copy, or even more rare, a working healthy torrent of the game - give it a shot. Despite the simple premise, this game goes above and beyond anything of the '80s original and does it's own unique platforming puzzles. Aside from Klonoa, I think this one has aged the best.
Unfortunately, unlike a few of the other ones above, I know exactly why this franchise went to shit - it was such a success that Sony and Hasbro made an absolutely retarded sequel, Frogger 2: Swampy's revenge and then made some weird-ass RPGs starring frogger for the PS2 and GBA. It was, in other words, killed by franchisecide due to it's own success and now remains forgotten in the murky depths of game history.
What a shame.
