Way back when, Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot were known as Playstation exclusives. Skip ahead almost 10 years and now they are practically Nintendo’s. With Vivendi Universal in control of Spyro and Crash they have appeared numerous times on the Game Boy Advance each with their own characteristic feelings. Sypro being mainly a 3Dish game while Crash sticking to roots of 2D.

Game Boy Advance fans were in shock when Vivendi Universal announced that Spyro and Crash would team up together in a all new adventure. We were even more shocked when not only one game would come out of the deal but two, and that they would feature connectivity with each other.

Welcome Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy, the first of the Crash-Spyro connection. With the two character’s nemeses teaming up to take over the world, Spyro and Crash must work together to defeat the evil Ripto and Cortex. Sadly with Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy offering a totally different style of gameplay compared Spyro’s usual 3D action, we are left with a weak platformer, that must be blamed on Vicarious Vision’s decision to have Spyro and Crash’s types of gameplay be similar.

Having Spyro as a side-scroller is not the only problem of the game. The game simply offers too much variety of different mini-games and challenges that the gameplay is simply a let down with not enough innovative input, instead we are left with the usual vertical and horizontal shooters where players use Spyro to shoot their way through the levels. While there are more than 25 “different” min-games, we are left with only but a few that are actually different. Most of them remain are just tweaked version of the others. Some are even borrowed from Crash Purple. However, while they do repeat and get stale on design, they are fun and get fairly challenging as players move on throughout the game.

The gameplay of just getting to the mini-games was another poor execution from Vicarious Visions. Running, jumping, and using Spyro’s flame attack gets very old to just unlock the next mini-game. Perhaps some actual puzzles could have been implemented instead of the boring platforming levels? Sadly the same type of gameplay exists in Crash Purple. What’s even worst is the fact that the engine can’t even handle all the effects that Spyro does. Don’t get too upset when the game continually lags when breathing fire.
And sadly the game ends entirely too fast. With the game being just a tad more difficult than Crash Purple, it will take a little longer, but there’s not excuse for a game that takes a mere a couple of hours to beat. Paying $29.99 for a few hours is way too expensive for me.

I must congratulate Vicarious Visions for their nice job on these two titles on their multiplayer aspect, as the multiplayer just might be the only thing this game has going for it. Once the mini games have been unlocked in single player, they can then be played by up to four players at once by either using a single or multiple cartridges. The replay value is also enhanced by the ability to collect more than 100 cards throughout the game and trade them between Spyro Orange and Crash Purple.

Vicarious Visions' first attempt at a Spyro game for the Game Boy Advance has been a unique one. Gone is the typical awesome gameplay of Spyro that has been replaced by mini-games galore. If only the mini-games could have been fully realized in a better form, perhaps Wario Ware style? However with its steep price tag, I'm not too sure if I would by this game for its single player, and I hope that if Vicarious Visions does do another Spyro game that they look at what Digital Eclipse's past work on the GBA have been with Spyro.