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Last Updated
03-19-24
Staff
System:
Game Boy Advance
Publisher:
Vivendi Universal Games
Developer:
Vicarious Visions
UPC: 2062672188

Year:
2004
Players: 1-4
Country Origin: US
ESRB: E

Game Genre:
Action
Game Perspective:
Platform

Price Guide (USD):
Loose:  $4.04
Complete:  $8.96
New:  $12.44
Rarity:  5/10

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Spyro Orange - The Cortex Conspiracy (GBA) - Game Boy Advance

Spyro Orange - The Cortex Conspiracy is an Action game developed by Vicarious Visions, Inc. and published by Vivendi Universal Games, Inc. in 2004 for the Game Boy Advance.

Spyro Orange - The Cortex Conspiracy

Spyro Orange - The Cortex Conspiracy Title ScreenSpyro Orange - The Cortex Conspiracy Screenshot 1
Spyro Orange - The Cortex Conspiracy Box Art FrontSpyro Orange - The Cortex Conspiracy Screenthot 2
Rating: 8.6 (31 votes)

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Spyro Orange - The Cortex Conspiracy Featured Review

Spyro Orange - The Cortex Conspiracy Review by: Redrunelord - 5.9/10

Spyro Orange - The Cortex Conspiracy
Spyro is one of the few franchises, if not the only one, that makes a small four legged dragon its protagonist. This alone would set the series out as typically dragons are portrayed as enemies to defeat, or wise free NPCs. Humans enjoys slaughtering dragons, so it would be odd for this species to take the roll of one. It is an interesting concept and this lead to the franchise's development. While Spyro isn't exactly a mainstream staple, it is well enough known to be past the cult classic status. Perhaps this is due to bad marketing, but it is also likely due to the sporadic quality of the games.

Typically they are either classics worth every penny, or absolute unplayable pieces of rubbish. This is not usually because of convoluted game play (though this is a factor at times) but technical limitations of what the handheld or console can muster. Bad development usually starts with inaccurate expectations of what is available, and some of the hand held games are proof. Yet...Spyro Orange - The Cortex Conspiracy is on a hand held but not a true 3D hand held title as some of the weaker titles were. What does this mean for the game, and what is this game worth in the end?

Visually, the closest comparison for this game is Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo. The styles are almost identical: same type of contrasting, same generally bright images, same level variety transitioning. A player could take Donkey Kong and throw him right in this game and he wouldn't seem out of place. Ignoring the similar styles, the game is a functional, pretty game. Everything is, by large, clearly distinguishable and it is pleasant to look at. The only problem is that at times it can be difficult gauging whether or not Spyro will make a jump because of depth perception caused by some of the 2.D images. This can be a crippling flaw, but fortunately it is nothing more than an annoyance (the degree can be decided by the player). The mini-games are functional but nothing particularly special. The biggest problems comes in, again, with somewhat flawed depth perception, particularly with the arkanoid influenced game (it is very difficult to gauge where the ball is allowed to hit due to the circular paddle).

The sound...is awful. Not because it is incompetent or anything: quite the contrary, the scores are composed well enough and they aren't a mish-mash of sounds from an Atari ST. Yet, where does the fundamental flaws lie? The problem is that the songs just do not fit. Spyro is supposed to be bright and uplifting for the most part, but there is also a sense of adventure with the Spyro games. The audio fills only the first quality, and does so to the point of being something that would be seen on a very young child's TV show. The music itself is a matter of subjective tastes, but it is just too bright and bubbly for it's own good to appeal to many gamers. The sound effects may also be perceived as an auditory annoyance by many gamers, except perhaps by young children. 

The storyline is dull, but the approach is interesting. This game was actually released alongside Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage as a duality package similar to how the Pokémon games may be released. The basic idea is that these two universes collided and characters from both the Spyro games and Crash Bandicoot games perform a collaboration. The story itself is spread across the two games, and is about how the villains from both universes collaborate to take down their adversaries by using some clever technology and psychological attacks similar to what happened with Knuckles in Sonic 3/Sonic & Knuckles in turning the protagonists against each other. The problem is....this approach has potential to be epic, but it falls flat due to its execution. The developers relies heavily on the player having played or owned games from both series prior to this one to feel their characters. The story seems tacked on, with little actual thought to how it would be implemented. The best way it can be described is that it was rushed much like how a student may do a major assignment the night before. A huge, yet difficult to explain, problem is that the game almost speaks down to the gamer as though they have no intelligence, and treats them as though they are a newborn puppy. The problem with this is that there isn't much of a payoff for the way the game's characters speaks to the player. The only appropriate way to understand what is meant is to play this game or watch a movie like "A Troll in Central Park" (masochism may be required for the latter choice).That Overall, potentially awesome but the awesome was scrapped.

The game play can be divided into two main components: the side scrolling aspects, and the mini games. Purely for evaluative purposes, they must be regarded as separate entities.

The side scrolling is a mixture of Donkey Kong Country with its style, and Sonic the Hedgehog with massive level designs and multi-path courses. The level designs are rather open world, which is good...but for one flaw worth mentioning momentarily.The basic premise is to find six portals in each level: five to complete mini-games and, once the five mini games are complete, to find and open the sixth portal. Once that is done, the player fights a boss and proceeds to the next stage to do the same thing. The actual navigation between the portals got very little in the ways of true challenges combat wise, even to brand new players. The real difficulty is with trying to actually know where the player is going. That's the problem with having an open world concept here: navigating is an immense pain in the explicit. There is no mini map of any kind, and the player has to try and guess where they've been. As well, some of the jumps, while possible, are pure frustration in a vain attempt to add difficulty. This causes the game to be more frustrating than fun when the player spends half an hour trying to find their way back when they get lost when it shouldn't have been a problem to begin with. The control itself is solid for the most part, with some difficulty arising during jumps. Scattered throughout each level are gems that the player would collect, and these gems are necessary to activate the mini game portals which are then required for completion. Now is worth noting that the player can not truly die in that there is little punishment beyond losing 10 gems. If the player simply runs back, grabs 10 gems, and moves onwards, there is no penalty for dying, especially if each mini game portal is already beat.  As a result, everything comes down to how well the mini games fare...

And they are sub par. 

The mini games are, for the most part, essentially either button mashers (the player has to press the button rapidly and do so in under a time frame), vertical/horizontal shooters, and a bad arkanoid clone. There are other mini games, and every single one of them are ranging in quality from dull to absolutely painful. That is largely subjective but what isn't is bad design on account of the button mashers and the arkinoid clone. The clone is slower than the original game with little in the ways of actual puzzles, and the paddle is curved in a way that makes telling when it is safe to hit the ball difficult due to the graphics there. On the whole though....the plethora of mini games is largely dumbing the whole experience down for a large percentage of people searching for a viable means to pass their time.

The boss fights are at the end of each stage, and they are extremely well constructed. The big positives here are that each boss requires both skill and logic. For instance, one boss requires the player to skilfully knock the enemy down in the way of the bosses' line of fire and hit them enough so said enemy actually can do damage to the boss. The boss fights are possibly the most well designed aspects of the games, and are almost worth playing through the game alone just to play against them.

Also in the game, in an attempt to try and add replay value, the developers tried to use the Pokémon principle: adding a large number of items to the game for the player to try and collect. The items in question here are cards that the player would add to a large album. These are acquired through boss fights, winning portal mini games, and buying them with excess gems found throughout the levels. There is nothing wrong with this system when the core game is great but...if the main game isn't fantastic then what is the point? In Pokémon's case, it is a generally better designed series than this game but here...it doesn't work to add extra game play. As well, it follows one of the negatives from Pokémon in that the game requires the player to have access to Crash Bandicoot's counterpart title to acquire all the items. 

The final verdict? This game is the Casper of side scrollers: it isn't particularly special but it isn't particularly horrible either. It is also the trust definition of a kid's game in the eyes of many developers between the sound, visuals, difficulty, and almost condescending tone. It is not generally recommended as a purchase but...just to see it, it is worth playing briefly. Admittedly there are ups like the boss fights but on the whole...the game is almost a dumbed down adventure game meant for kids and only kids. In the end, a game can not always be determined by it's franchise, but in this case the sporadic nature of the Spyro series can be expressed adequately in the ups and downs of Spyro orange - the Cortex Conspiracy.
  Graphics 6   Sound 3   Addictive 4   Depth 1   Story 3   Difficulty 4

Spyro Orange - The Cortex Conspiracy Game Description

Ripto and Dr. Cortex have combined their forces to take over the world once and for all. Right in the middle of it all our the heroes, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon.Spyro now finds himself in both familiar and unfamiliar territory, passing through the realms into Crash's world as well as his own to defeat the evil that awaits. Spyro's usual abilities are available as always.Through-out, you'll find a collection of familiar characters from both the Crash and Spyro franchise, mini-games and multiplayer options. Collect the hidden trading cards and trade them with other players to get a complete set, or connect Spyro the Dragon Orange with a Crash Bandicoot Purple cartridge for unique connection options.

Spyro Orange - The Cortex Conspiracy Reviews

Overall 8.6    Graphics 6    Sound 3    Addictive 4    Story 3    Depth 1    Difficulty 4


5.9
Spyro Orange - The Cortex Conspiracy   Redrunelord
Spyro is one of the few franchises, if not the only one, that makes a small four legged dragon&...
  Graphics 6   Sound 3   Addictive 4   Story 3   Depth 1   Difficulty 4

      Review Rating: 3/5     Submitted: 12-08-11     Review Replies: 0

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Comments for Spyro Orange - The Cortex Conspiracy

EmeraldCat 03-21-15 - 11:27 AM
 Im not going to beat the minigames 3 times...
ILOVETIGRESS 02-17-12 - 01:40 PM
 hi
tridentdragion 01-06-12 - 05:13 PM
 birdy
Tifflfc 01-06-12 - 01:23 PM
 heya people
RÉPÁS 01-06-12 - 08:20 AM
 helló
Redrunelord 11-11-11 - 01:42 AM
 Hello?
123321 09-08-11 - 02:27 PM
 no ones hear is thar
plangey 07-25-11 - 09:58 AM
 roar
smario32 07-01-11 - 06:34 AM
 heyo!
Pokemonlove 06-06-11 - 07:16 AM
 ddue this game rocks like heavy metal
Roticoot 12-14-10 - 12:19 PM
 kwl but I think Crash purple is better, still pretty mean tho
Mariomario321 11-11-10 - 05:23 PM
 awesom!

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