Mechanics

Use the D-pad (directional buttons) to walk.

Tapping twice in a single direction causes Croc to begin to run.

Press A to jump and B to do a spin attack.

When jumping from a walking or standing animation, Croc can spin attack in midair. You can also control Croc in midair from a walking or standing jump.

When jumping from a running animation, Croc will go farther and will kill enemies with his jump. Croc goes a set distance and cannot change direction midair from a running jump.

Diagonal jumps tend to broken, as Croc goes the same distance as if he did a horizontal and then vertical (or vice versa) jump. You can abuse these jumps to skip some portions of the game.

Ice in this game carries interesting properties: walking on ice changes nothing, but running on ice speeds you up and causes you to slide. Be careful when running on ice!

Each level contains 5 colored gems which together unlock a door to a secret area which contains a golden gobbo. There are 3 gems in each level which do not require an item to get. When you collect a gem, Croc pauses whatever he's doing and does a little victory dance that takes about 2-3 seconds. As such, these are generally avoided in Any%.

Each level contains a number of crystals which are used as currency. You can hold a maximum of 100 crystals. Crystals on hand are lost upon a Game Over. Crystals respawn upon exiting and reentering a level.

When you have defeated 20 enemies (the star counter below your crystals), you gain a life. This count is reset upon a Game Over.

Press start to open up the pause menu. This shows your current items.

Press select to use an item such as a robo gobbo or jump jelly. These can only be used in certain places.

Press start, select, A, and B at the same time to exit to the title. This can be helpful if you want to reload a password or if you don't want to watch the end credits.

Shop

Robo Gobbo - 20 crystals. Unlocks after the "retrieve the robo gobbo" mission in Caveman Village, which also provides one free robo gobbo. You can carry a maximum of 3 at a time. Each level contains a robo gobbo panel which you must use (press select when standing on it) to get one of the colored gems. As such, the 100% route requires you to buy a minimum of 11 of these (220 crystals total), and you must revisit at least 7 levels. These items are unnecessary in Any%.

Jump Jelly - 20 crystals. You can only carry one at a time. Each level contains a jump jelly panel which you must use (press select when standing on it) to get one of the colored gems. As such, the 100% route requires you to buy a minimum of 12 of these (240 crystals total). These items are unnecessary in Any%.

Heart Pot - 50 crystals. You can have a maximum of 8 hearts. You start with 3 hearts, and there is a free heart pot in Sailor Village. None of these are necessary to complete the game, whether in 100% or Any%, but they can be helpful for survival purposes.

Tail of the Phoenix - 75 crystals. You can only carry one at a time. This revives you to full health if an enemy's attack would kill you. It does not activate from a falling death. This is not necessary to complete the game, whether in 100% or Any%, but it can be helpful for survival purposes, especially against the final boss.

Crystal Ball. Selecting this brings up the world map. You can use the D-pad to select a village that you have unlocked and travel to it by pressing the A button. Pressing the B button stops you from travelling. Regardless of whether or not you travel, exiting the map screen brings you back to the shop.

Password. This provides the password for your current file. These are generally unnecessary but can be helpful if you want to keep a Tail of the Phoenix or other wasteable item.

Exit. This exits the shop to whatever village you are in. Pressing the B button while in the shop brings you to this selection.

Puzzles

Sailor Village, Crow: No puzzles

Sailor Village, Caged Gobbo: No puzzles

Sailor Village, Item Collection: Image puzzle = laughing sun angry moon.

Water pipes is tricky. You have to rush for the first one and then be really patient on the other two.

Sailor Boss, Soveena: Self-explanatory. Barrels will spawn on either bottom left or bottom right corner. Avoid spikes and Soveena's attacks to head up to the top and throw the barrel at Soveena. Remember to press A when the victory scene appears to proceed!

Note: When you lose a barrel, either by being hit or by throwing it, the next barrel will spawn on the opposite side of the screen as you are. Knowing this, you should be able to manipulate barrel spawns to minimize time lost from going to the wrong side to pick up barrels.

Cossack Village, Mines: Block puzzle = center, right, left blocks.

Flashing lights puzzle = center, right, left, right, left, right, center <- this puzzle is skippable, but skipping it requires an extremely precise jump done twice (see TAS). As far as I can tell, the jump is pixel-perfect and needs to be done while running, which makes it all the more difficult. Just do the puzzle. :)

Exploding barrels = hit the left rock with the first barrel, the right rock with the second, and the top rock with the third. The gobbo should be ahead.

Cossack Village, Herb: Jump with Dark Blue Gem. This is not really a puzzle, but it is hands down the WORST intended jump in the game. It's helped slightly by the fact that the gem is here. Both jumps require a running jump, but the victory animation for the gem stops you a bit. You can do one of two things: 1) you can stop inputting any direction, which lets you walk, so you can run and jump across the second gap, or 2) you can keep holding up and spam A for the right timing once the victory animation ends. Note that if you die, the gem is gone, which means you have to deal with the two back-to-back jumps.

Cossack Village, Snowman: Path of delusion = left, up, up, right, down

Cossack Boss, Lava Monster: Fast strats are to run and keep running in a circle, back and forth, hitting the pillars as you go. If you're fast enough, you won't get hit. Or you can take it more carefully when crossing the gaps, but that will be slower. Remember to press A when the victory scene appears to proceed!

Caveman Village, Water Handle: Image puzzle = laughing sun angry moon. Familiar, huh? :) Flashing lights puzzle = left, up, left, right, up, left, right

Caveman Village, Item Collection: Remember to go right first, or else there will be a lot of backtracking.

When you're coming from the right, you can diagonal jump up-left to the blue rails, rather than walk all the way around.

Math puzzle = 4, 1. It's pretty simple.

Path of delusion = right, right, up, right, up

9-block puzzle = center, up, right, down, left

Caveman Village, Robo Gobbo: Path of delusion = right, down, down, left, up

Caveman Boss, Mad Scientist: This boss takes 12 hits to defeat, and you can pretty easily do three hits per phase by standing in a safe spot and attacking. You can do four maximum, though it's difficult and only saves a phase if you get all three four-hits. Of course, missing a single three-hit adds a phase. After each phase, an enemy will come out that you can kill early to speed up the fight as well. Remember to press A when the victory scene appears to proceed!

Inca Village, Letter Delivery: Flashing lights puzzle = up-right, up, left, up, up-left, right, up, left, up-right <- this puzzle is skippable, and it's easy to skip! Finishing this puzzle creates a platform in the room after the math puzzle. However, you can skip that platform with an easy diagonal up-right running jump. :)

Math puzzle = 8, 4. Again, not difficult.

Warning: the pit in the room with the math puzzle does NOT kill you. Instead, it sends you into a secret area that is long and leads you backwards in the map. It activates the platform from the flashing lights puzzle, but it's slower, and we skip it anyway. Be very careful NOT to fall into the pit here...

Inca Village, Mayor: The pit in the first room leads straight to the first puzzle. Fall into it. :) 9-block puzzle = center, left, right, down-left, up, down, up-right, center

Inca Village, Red Jewel: The wall in the top left of the first room is breakable and skips a lot. Use it, since it's faster than the TAS route by about 30 seconds. :)

With the room with the bees, you just need to kill a certain number of bees for the door to open. Just run to the center and keep spinning, and you'll be fine. Or run around jumping; whichever you prefer. :)

For the Dante fight, there are four rows of hazards: electricity, bees, electricity, bees. Take a barrel and move to the center of the red carpet (directly below Dante offscreen). Time the first electricity and bees so that you can go straight up without getting hit. You should be able to throw your barrel from between the first row of bees and the second row of electricity to damage Dante without any problem. As with Soveena, the barrel spawns are determined by what half of the screen you're on. Don't worry too much about your health in the first fight as long as you have extra lives. You get a checkpoint after the first portion of the fight, so you can death abuse for health in the second portion if you're scared of that portion of the fight. The second portion of the fight is mainly timing your movement so Dante's attacks miss you.