The Final Word game review

The Emperor's New Groove -- Disney Interactive/Argonaut Games PLC

R.I.P.
What's this? A Disney game that's both fun to play and at the appropriate skill level of the intended audience? Wow! This game was a lot of fun. The only thing missing was David Spade. I'm not really sure why Sony had a sound-a-like do his voice since they appeared to actually have John Goodman speaking in the game. While Spade's stand in does a decent job of sounding like him, he doesn't quite get his delivery right at times. But really, this is a very small issue.

The game itself is good, and the sound and graphics in the game were decent as well (for what it's worth, I have a strong suspicion that this game is using the Spyro the Dragon game engine). More than that though, it's really the humor and tight play control which helps bring this game to the top of the stack. I for one am just so glad that they have finally appeared to dump the old Hercules engine for their new games. Did I say that the play control was great?

Let's face it, playable children's games on the PlayStation are rare and far between. Support the good ones and buy this game. Even if you don't know any kids, check it out for the humor. There is a lot of funny interactions between the Emperor and the peasants who tell him how to perform actions in the game. I know some adults who will play this game are going to feel it may be on the strong side of easy, but remember this game wasn't written for adults, so it should not be as hard as say any other dozen Disney games I can think of. Besides, what's wrong with playing a game you can laugh at and relax with over a weekend. Of course this means replay value is low for an adult, but kids will play this thing for weeks.

Definitely a keeper.

(12/2000)