Okay, what marketing person could resist this? Putting Spyro the dragon and Crash the bandicoot into one video game set for the GBA. Vivendi Universal has done just that with Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy and its companion game Crash Purple: Ripto’s Rampage. And while Spyro’s fourth outing on the GBA is not going to break any new gameplay ground, it is an entertaining enough platform game with some neat mini games for the younger players.



In Spyro Orange the arch nemeses of Spyro and Crash, Ripto and Neo Cortex, have joined forces to take over the world. The player, as Spyro, must stop them. It is a simple story for a simple game.

The story mode sees Spyro playing his way through five main levels in a side-scrolling action/adventure game. There are enemies to barbeque with his flame attack and gems to collect. The non-player characters he’ll meet are from the Crash universe. I can only assume Spyro’s friends showed up in Crash Purple. After Spyro has collected enough gems in his wanderings, he can enter portals and play mini games that will, if successfully completed, earn him even more gems and trading cards. The mini games take many forms. Many feel like classic game retreads, and can be pretty fun. Once all five portal mini games are completed, Spyro moves on to the next level.

With only five levels, it feels fairly short just playing through the story mode. Vicarious Visions thoughtfully added a trading-card collecting aspect in the game that will give the Pokemon-obsessed “Gotta get ‘em all” tykes a little more to do. I’m not sure an adult gamer is going to go for it though. The trading cards are also where the companion game, Crash Purple, comes in. It is not possible to earn all the cards unless the player trades with someone who has the other game. More multiplayer options are opened by sharing between the games as well.

The multiplayer modes offer a nice variety of games with some actually playable by up to four players with only one copy of the game. Bravo VU for not making all the multiplayer games playable only if each person has his own copy of the game. Nice to see a company respect a family budget.



All the technical aspects of the game are competently handled. Control is very responsive with the directional pad handling basic movement, ‘A’ jumping/flying, B launching a flame attack and the right shoulder button executing a head-butt attack after a jump over an enemy.

Graphics are nice even if the backgrounds are a little sparce. Animation is smooth and conveys the whimsical nature of Spyro well. I did notice a few times that Spyro seemed to be hanging in space over the edge of a ledge, but this actually makes the game a little more forgiving – a good thing for the younger audience this games seems to be geared toward.



Audio is a bit minimal but the music is not as annoying as so many of the GBA’s games tend to be. Those repeating tunes can definitely grate on the nerves after a while.

Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy is not going to set the world on fire for its originality of presentation and gameplay, but for a younger gamer, this a charming and solidly-built platform action/adventure game that should give them some real entertainment with fair value added by the trading card and multiplayer aspects of the cartridge.



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