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 Gobbo. 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. By the time Croc has been brought to safety, the Dantinis have completely taken over all of Gobbo Valley, locked up all the Gobbos, and turned innocent creatures all across the valley into monsters to act as their minions. Croc sets out on a quest to free the Gobbos and defeat Baron Dante. Development Concept Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was developed by Argonaut Games, 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 Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. 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