What The Heck? A Decent Disney Game?
You play as Emperor Kuzco, who has been turned into a llama by an old woman, Yzma, who Kuzco fired because she was trying to do his job. You turn up at the home of Pacha, a friendly, good-natured peasant, who only moments ago in the movie, had been told by Kuzco that his village would be demolished to make way for Kuzcoland.
The gameplay is like any other platformer, and though it does nothing new, the game uses the source material well to make for some great in-game jokes, and some intresting objectives. These could be racing a kid on his toy llama bike, or using llama spit to shoot that kid off the bike, and many other wholesome activities. The game is very simple, but, you visit a wide variety of locations, all with their own theme music, and this keeps the game fresh all the way to the end. You play the game in chapters, and each chapter has about 2-5 levels. These are set out on a piece of paper, and the colourful screen is just fun to navigate. There are many puzzle solving elements to the game, which you may have to use your unique llama abilities to complete. Throughout the game, you will be turned into a number of other animals, consisting of a rabbit, a frog, and a turtle, each with their own abilitites which make them unbelievably fun to play as.
The graphics are very basic, even for a PS One game, but the music makes up for this, and even though is the same style, is great and fills many of the soundless areas well. The sound is good, and you'll hear things echo when you're in a cave, and the actors have lent their voices to the game, which makes for some great one liners.
The Emperor's New Groove has it's flaws, but overall, it's a uniquely fun game.