Favorite 3D Groove Games

brandonthefan01
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Favorite 3D Groove Games May 6, 2018 3:48:07 GMT via mobile

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Post by brandonthefan01 on May 6, 2018 3:48:07 GMT

What are your favorite 3D Groove games created by the company itself? My favorites are:

- SpongeBob Saves The Krusty Krab 3D

- Nesquik Chocolate Mountain Challenge

- Santa Goes Buttboarding 3D

- Joe’s 3-D Scavenger Hunt

- That Dora 3D Driving Game

Happy Brian
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Posts: 317

Favorite 3D Groove Games May 6, 2018 17:39:11 GMT brandonthefan01 likes this

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Post by Happy Brian on May 6, 2018 17:39:11 GMT

I have plenty since I played them a lot back in the day (mostly the ones on Nickelodeon and Disney since I browsed their websites a lot as a kid):

*All Grown Up Crazy Karts - An incredibly fun but simple take on Mario Kart for the PC themed to the All Grown Up! animated series on Nickelodeon.

*SpongeBob SquarePants 3D Movie Game - While I consider it inferior to the tie-in game released on home consoles (which I thought was fantastic and shows that not all movie tie-in games suck), it was incredibly fun for me at the time to drive around the main hub looking for minigames to play and have SpongeBob and Patrick taking turns in the driver's seat.

*Diego's Rescue Adventure 3D - I was into Go Diego Go! at the time, so this game was immersively fun by having to take care of the animals needs and wants and having to rescue them whenever they are in danger.

*Blue's Clues: Joe's 3D Scavenger Hunt - I still love Blue's Clues after all these years due to me thinking that it's educational material has hold up well (as well as Blue still being adorable as I remember her), this game is still great and a memorable one of exploring the show's world as Joe to find all of the stuff that he needs with no time limit.

*Kim Possible: Middleton Mayhem - The only game on my list that is still lost (at the time of me writing this post), I remember this game the most fondly and was an incredibly fun game where you control Kim's car she recieves in season 4 and complete the objectives you are given while exploring the show's set in 3D.

That's all I have to say on my personal favorite 3D Groove games.

Despite the frustrations of normal day life we go through, the best thing to do about it is still being happy for our friends and family.

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tomysshadow
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Posts: 178

Favorite 3D Groove Games May 13, 2018 6:07:45 GMT brandonthefan01 likes this

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Post by tomysshadow on May 13, 2018 6:07:45 GMT

Top 10

Penguin Racers

    This is just a fantastic racing game, especially on a 360 controller. It's one of Ezone's original IPs and the physics here are just bang on, exactly what I look for out of a racing game. There isn't a tonne of content, but enough to feel satisfying. The characters and their dialog have a fun charm to them. I remember playing this game on Ezone's site and revisiting it, it does not disappoint. No wonder its physics became the basis of a lot of other 3D Groove driving games. It occasionally glitches but it's a lot of fun and the AI isn't too easy, which is a problem a lot of racing games have.

    There is also a great sense of speed, the controls are very light and flighty and the items are well suited for the game's play style and keep the action going. You can never predict the outcome of the any race in this game. That said, the rubber banding is pretty aggressive here once you notice it and it can feel a bit cheap sometimes, but overall, great game.

    I should mention as well that All Grown Up! Krazy Karts is really just a reskin of this game with less levels, characters, and worse items. So try this one out if you liked Krazy Karts, it controls similar but is better in pretty much every regard.
Space Wombat

This game is hugely ambitious and very underrated. Again, it supports the 360 controller and it controls beautifully. It almost feels like a proper console game, both in terms of controls and level design but also in terms of the sheer amount of content. There are six worlds each with five levels, a final boss and a bonus stage - somehow they managed to fit this all into under 5 MB! There are a few minor gripes I had. On a controller, the right stick can't be used to change the camera - that's alright because in general the camera follows you pretty well, but to change it you occasionally have to enter first person (using the X button on the controller.)

Also, the ending cutscene is beyond underwhelming. I was really wondering what would happen when I 100%'d the game and not much comes of it. That's okay though - the game was always introducing new and interesting mechanics right up to the end, so I don't feel like I wasted my time with this one. You can also clearly see how this game affected Ezone's later work like Diversion. I think the main reason this didn't blow up as big as some of Ezone's other games is that there is so much content, counter-intuitively - webgames are usually simple concepts that you spend only a few minutes on and not full blown platformers. That, and with the arrow keys, it doesn't control bad but not nearly as good as a 360 controller, which the web version wouldn't allow you to use.
Spongebob 3D Movie

This game uses similar physics to Penguin Racers. It features an pretty ambitious open world environment, which is well above and beyond anything the game needed to do. Given, it's not tremendous or anything (still moderately large) and clearly not always accurate to the show, what with the Chum Bucket not being across from the Krusty Krab and a few key locations missing. This game also puts the Thug Tug along the outskirts of Bikini Bottom (do I really want to create a forum post that says "the outskirts of Bikini Bottom" anywhere in it? yes, yes I do.) It's just kind of odd because in the movie the Thug Tug is pretty far from Bikini Bottom, but maybe Ezone were just given a couple of notes or a list of things to accomplish, so they're probably not to blame here.

I will say that for an open world game, it feels pretty linear at first. You spawn right next to a race event, which leads you to another race event, which leads you to Goofy Goober's. But Goofy Goober's minigame doesn't take you anywhere, which then feels awkward, like "what am I supposed to do now?" I feel like the game should've spawned you further away from the events to get used to the open world aspect first. There's also the fact the game doesn't actually have an ending, it's just a minigame collection, which comes off as a bit disappointing since there's clearly an order they're intended to be played in - but then, the game already over-delivers in the open world aspect and it's a lot of fun to control still, especially on a 360 controller.
Blues Clues: Joe's 3D Scavenger Hunt

This game isn't anything revolutionary, but it's really memorable for the simple reason that it allows you to explore the neighbourhood of Blues Clues in 3D. This was beyond cool to me because in the show we don't get to see much of that. The game runs too fast on any modern CPU, but thankfully it doesn't matter much as it's not any kind of time sensitive game. You simply walk around and find the items that you're told to. I love games that allow exploring the world of a TV show or movie, they make it feel just a little bit more tangible.
AlienX

I'm not a huge shooter fan, but this is a decent one, if short. You shoot up monsters in a futuristic sci-fi environment. I feel like this game is quintessential 3D Groove, like this is what the engine was truly meant for. It controls well, the cutscenes are fun, it's just a solid package.
Dora the Explorer 3D Driving Adventure

This isn't really a good game. I just like it because I remember it fondly. This was my first 3D Groove game and I liked it for much the same reason I liked the Blues Clues one, which is that it was a 3D game based off a TV show. It feels just a bit more real that way. This game has a way of burning itself into your memory, I don't know what it is. Maybe it's that aggressive orange used for the interface. I remember I found this game via banner ad, and one day the ad stopped running. I got really sad and it took my Dad to show me that I could still get to the game by just going through the normal site navigation.
Lenny Loosejocks Boardin'

This game was way too slow and didn't run at all on my old XP machine I had at the time. Now that I revisit it, it's the best out of 3D Groove's many snowboarding games. 3D Groove made a lot of games about snowboarding, and they all control about the same though with minor differences based on the weight of the character, and usually some change in the environment i.e. Nesquik had a snowboarding game where the snow is coloured like chocolate. Lenny Loosejocks Boardin' actually has multiple levels and many different goals to find a lot of pickups, so it'll last you the longest out of the snowboarding games 3D Groove had to offer.
Battle of the Planets - Peril of the Praying Mantis

This game is so bad it's good, in the best possible way. In terms of the controls, they're great, leagues above anything Pepworks produced. You can use a controller, but you're better off using the mouse here as you'll be pointing and shooting a lot. Most importantly, there's a lot of open space which makes it easy to turn, unlike say Animenace where every level feels claustrophobic. It's clear Ezone put a lot of emphasis on getting the controls right because all their 3D games play very smoothly. What really steals the show are the cutscenes. Yes, this game has "animated," fully voice acted cutscenes, and all the voices are done by one guy - Jamie Edis. I'm not at all familiar with the anime but it's incredibly cheesy and I couldn't help but smile and laugh. I say "animated" in quotations because it's really just cutout stills from the show with pictures of their mouths open and closed moving back and forth to animate them talking. Even losing in this game is fun because of the enjoyably terrible dialog and attempts at sounding like the characters from the show. The game is fun, but the cutscenes are just gold.
Danny Phantom Ghost Sweep

It's a short but fun Luigi's Mansion clone. It's not entirely clear how to play the game without reading the instructions - which most people don't - so it can be confusing, but there is a strategy and I've beaten the game and had fun with it. The model of Danny Phantom is very good and doesn't seem uncanny at all. In fact, most of the textures are single, flat colours, in keeping with the cartoon, so the graphics in general hold up surprisingly well.
Real Pool

3D Groove's first game. I'm not a huge sports fan or anything, and to be honest, this feels like a thrift store game. Really, it is a thrift store game. But it's an enjoyable little time waster - if you can get it running at the right speed. It makes pool very accessible, it's a casual game that's just fun enough for me to spend a few minutes on occasionally, which is how webgames were intended to be played, after all.

Pull the lever Donga! The lever!

captiveofchrist Lost Media Fan Posts: 220	Favorite 3D Groove Games Jul 2, 2020 20:55:04 GMT via mobile Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by captiveofchrist on Jul 2, 2020 20:55:04 GMT Bleeposaurus

Post by brandonthefan01 on May 6, 2018 3:48:07 GMT

Post by Happy Brian on May 6, 2018 17:39:11 GMT

Post by tomysshadow on May 13, 2018 6:07:45 GMT

Post by captiveofchrist on Jul 2, 2020 20:55:04 GMT

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