The Emperor's New Groove is a platformer in which the player controls Kuzco from a third-person perspective, progressing through a linear succession of levels based on locations from the film. The primary goal of the game is to get to the end of each level without losing all health. Throughout the levels are placed a number of coins. Collecting all coins in a level rewards the player with a large gold coin and is necessary for 100% completion. To achieve this, the player is usually required to defeat enemies and uncover secrets within each level. Some levels involve Kuzco drinking magic elixirs, turning him into a frog, a turtle, or a rabbit, each with specific abilities needed to complete the level.
Plot
The game loosely follows the plot of the film, from which it also includes a number of video clips. Emperor Kuzco has been transformed into a llama by his evil advisor Yzma, who has subsequently taken over his throne. Kuzco befriends the peasant Pacha, and together they seek to confront Yzma and obtain an elixir that will return Kuzco to his human form.
Development
founder Jez San noted that the game's development team tried to keep the game's plot and setting close to that of the film while also "exaggerating some elements of the movie that would make great game scenarios", specifically pointing to the scene in the film with the roller coaster leading to Yzma's labaratory, which played a minor role in the movie but was made into a much larger aspect of the game. The PlayStation and PC versions of The Emperor's New Groove were developed using the same game engine as Croc 2, following Argonaut's common strategy of reusing game engines and development tools from their previously created games. Argonaut developed The Emperor's New Groove at the same time as Disney's Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge, another 3D platformer also built from the Croc 2 engine. The Emperor's New Groove shares many graphical and gameplay similarities to Nasira's Revenge as a result of this.
Release
A DVD-Rom demo of The Emperor’s New Groove was included on the DVD release of the game's respective film counterpart, accessible by inserting the DVD into a PC.
Reception
The Emperor's New Groove received mixed reviews, holding an aggregate score of 71% on GameRankings and 66/100 on Metacritic. Writing for video game news website IGN, Jeremy Conrad compared the gameplay of the game to the games in the Spyro the Dragon trilogy of games, noting the similarities in controls and gameplay style. Conrad ultimately gave the game a 6.5 out of 10, stating that the game "doesn't offer anything that we haven't seen before" and criticizing the game's difficulty and short length, while praising the gameplay for its variety and "spot-on" controls, and also praising its graphics and music and highlighting the game's self-aware dialogue as an enjoyable aspect. Reviewer Jon Thompson of Allgame spoke positively of the game, praising it for its graphics, music and controls while also criticizing the game for its short length. Electronic Gaming Monthly praised the game's presentation, noting that it had "wit and sarcasm" similar to the film it was based on, but was more critical of its gameplay, calling it "a mixed bag" and praising the level variety but criticizing the repetition of certain gameplay elements. Star Dingo of GamePro gave the game a 3.5 out of 5, commending the game's self-aware sense of humor and level variety, though they also noted the game's similarities to other 3D platformer games, concluding that "The Emperor may have found himself a brand new groove, but the gameplay sits squarely in the niche formed by a thousand other 3D games...". Frank Provo of Gamespot was critical of the game's sound quality and low difficulty, and particularly criticized the camera as being "jittery and out of control" at times, but ultimately lauded the game's variety and presentation, noting the game's graphics to be "underwhelming from a visual standpoint" in the beginning of the game but becoming more interesting as the game progressed, concluding that the game "does more right than it does wrong" and calling the game "pretty, funny, and pretty funny- the way a Disney game should be." David Chen reviewed the PlayStation version of the game for Next Generation, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Neither challenging nor captivating, but a solid game nonetheless."
