Yeaaaa! Croc is back! If you didn't get the chance to meet this adorable little crocodile in his first go-around of adventures, then you don't want to miss him in this second action-packed game, CROC2!

The beginning animation shows Croc playing and having fun with his friends, the Gobbos, who are cute little furballs who live on the Gobbo Islands. While playing on the beach one day, Croc finds a bottle with a message inside that contains a baby crocodile footprint that looks just like his and says that the senders of the message are looking for their long-lost son. King Rufus tells Croc that he will need to travel to far-away lands where other Gobbos might be able to help him find his parents! All the Gobbos then help make a see-saw that catapults Croc all the way to the mainland where this new adventure begins.

Croc arrives to find that his archenemy, Baron Dante, has been magically resurrected by his evil Dantinis and they have captured an Inventor Gobbo and stolen several Gobbo treasures! Croc must journey to four Gobbo tribe villages to battle his way through more than 40 levels of fast-paced adventure! Each village has its own unique Gobbos, tons of mischievous monsters and surprises galore! Plus there is a Secret Village that you can only find if you complete all your goals!

CROC2 features OmniPlay, a Fox Interactive innovation, that allows two players to share control of Croc for double the fun! Free-roaming gameplay allows you to explore where you want, when you want.

There are over 30 original characters you will encounter including Soveena the Squid who has a crush on Croc, Cannon Boat Keith the pirate and of course, that evil Baron Dante himself! While talking to all the characters, be sure to listen carefully to every conversation to learn what Croc needs to do! You can expect lots of help from Gobbo friends who aid Croc as you guide him through each level, and there are plenty of bosses and secret levels to add to the fun and excitement.

Croc has developed some cool new moves that will be needed such as the Boost Triple Jump, Power Flip, Hanging, Croccy Paddle, Pick Up/Throw and Rope Swing. He can use many different kinds of vehicles, too, like a Mine Cart, Boat, Snowball, Hot Air Balloon, Kart, Hang Glider and Plane.

There is no end to the excitement in CROC2. This is a game you will want to play over and over again just to find things you missed when you last played. It is fun for kids of all ages and has a rating for Everyone with Mild Animated Violence. Yes, those bad guys do go splat when you beat them!

Full instructions are included in the manual provided with the game and game hints, tips and tricks are available through a 900 hint line.

Minimum System Requirements call for:

Windows 95/98, Intel Pentium II 266MHz MMX processor (Intel Pentium II

350MHz MMX processor recommended)

32MB RAM (64MB RAM recommended)

4x speed CD-ROM (8x speed CD-ROM recommended)

DirectX compatible graphics card with 4MB of RAM (Voodoo2 or Direct3D

compatible graphics card with 12MB of RAM recommended)

DirectX compatible sound card (Soundblaster Live! sound card recommended)

32MB free hard drive space

SPECIAL NOTE: This game was tested on my CPU using a Guillemot 2D/3D graphics card with 32MB of RAM and Soundblaster Live! sound card and ran beautifully. However, when my daughter and granddaughter attempted to play CROC2 on a CPU using a Voodoo2D/3D graphics card with only 8MB of RAM and a Soundblaster AWE 64 Gold sound card, there was NO video but there was good sound quality.

Installation is fast and easy.

GAMEPLAY: 8.5. This game is chock full of things to do. An added plus are the options and pause menus.

GRAPHICS: 6. As I said, the graphics on my computer were great but did not work on a computer with equipment that more than met the minimum system requirements.

SOUND: 8. The sound is good and quite catchy.

DIFFICULTY: 7. CROC2 is played exclusively with keyboard commands that are fully explained in the manual included.

CONCEPT: 8. Although this game is the second in this series, you can play it with no loss of information of what went before and you can play it with complete clarity without having played its successor.

OVERALL: 7.5. While I thoroughly enjoyed the game, I am still somewhat dissatisfied with the graphics issue as noted above.