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 movie.

The PlayStation and PC versions of The Emperor's New Groove loosely follow the plot of the movie, from which they also include several cutscenes at the start or end of certain levels.

[7] Argonaut developed The Emperor's New Groove at the same time as Disney's Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge,[8] another 3D platformer also built from the Croc 2 engine.

[9][Note 1] Demo versions of The Emperor's New Groove on PlayStation were exhibited at the European Computer Trade Show in September 2000, alongside other upcoming games from Disney Interactive.

[15] Sam Kennedy of 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.

"[28] By August 2001, the PlayStation and PC versions of The Emperor's New Groove had together sold 400,000 units, which Argonaut Games deemed as disappointing.