Spyro Orange:

Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy, is a companion game to Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto’s Rampage. Each game is a side-scrolling platform adventure with lots of mini-games interspersed throughout, plus each features a trading card system. This is a big departure from the traditional gameplay format of Spyro, as the three previous GBA games featuring the little dragon were all isometric in design and didn’t feature the mini-game challenges.

The story is that Spyro’s longtime enemy, Ripto, has teamed up with Cortex to take over the world by sending tons of evildoers through portals into the two worlds of Spyro and Crash Bandicoot. Crash and Spyro will eventually have to join forces to rid their worlds of these pesky bad guys, and prevent Cortex and Ripto from realizing their evil scheme. Spyro will travel through many levels, using his flying and fire abilities to whip some minion tail.

While the side-scrolling format is definitely different from previous Spyro games, the fighting abilities of Spyro are much the same. Spyro can jump, run, turn summersaults, soar and use his flame to torch enemies. The platform levels are similar from area to area and are very basic in design, with Spyro essentially running and jumping across levels by using moving blocks to access higher levels. There are lots of mini-games for more variety, but many of them are the same game in different clothing, so to speak, so there isn’t as much variety here as may first appear. Most of these mini-games are variations of breakout and pong, plus forced vertical or horizontal movement racing games. In order to warp into the next world, players will have to successfully complete the mini-games. Players can also collect gems by playing the games, which can be used in Moneybag’s store for items and to unlock even more mini-games. The games are fairly easy for the most part, but become more challenging as the game progresses.

The platforming levels don’t become more challenging, though, and players may become slightly bored as they move from one level to another. There isn’t much puzzle element to the movement, as the desired actions and movement are always obvious, and usually easy. Run, jump and flame; run, jump and flame; that’s about all that’s happening for the much of the game.

Spyro still remains a really cute dragon, and the look of the game is very well-done. The animations of Spyro and the other characters are wonderful, and while the backgrounds are slightly less detailed in comparison, they are still nicely drawn. The colors are vibrant and eye-catching. The mini-games’ graphics aren’t as high in quality, and appear more pixelated.

This is a pretty average platform game that is packaged adequately and offers some amusement, mostly from the mini-games, but is nothing to jump up and down about. The platform elements become yawn-producing after a few hours play, and mostly serve as a vehicle to get from one mini-game to another. The ease of play and the frequent save checkpoints make this an accessible game for children, which is good, but the blandness of the gameplay limits the replayability factor. Adult gamers will probably not find enough challenge to hold their interest long. There is a multiplayer component for some of the mini-games, but even this doesn’t add much to the longevity. A decent game, but not one that stands out from the crowd in any meaningful way.

Gameplay: 6
The gameplay is easy and accessible, and won’t frustrate players. It also won’t challenge very much, either. There isn’t enough variety, despite the numerous mini-games, to hold anyone’s interest for long.

Graphics: 8 
Vibrant, colorful graphics make this Spyro edition a joy to look at, just like the previous Spyro GBA games.

Sound: 6
Average tunes that are not annoying.

Difficulty:  Easy
This is an easy game to play, and won’t present much challenge. There is a good play design in that there aren’t many blind jumps and the touch detection works well.

Concept: 6 
Nothing new here, and nothing presented in any meaningful different manner than previous games of this genre.

Multiplayer: 7
While there is a multi-player option, it’s only available for a certain few mini-games. The good news is that for some of them, only one cartridge is needed.

Overall: 6.5
An average game that will give a decent amount of gameplay value, but just doesn’t offer much in the way of excitement or thinking. Having lots of mini-games is a good idea, but the games themselves needed to be more varied and not just be various versions of racing games and breakout clones. The platform elements are weak and while well-designed, aren’t very interesting.